Archival Research: Tips from an Archivist

Helga Neumann is one of the archivists of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. The Academy was founded in 1696, making it one of the oldest cultural institutions in Europe, and counts six sections (visual arts, architecture, music, literature, performing arts, film and media arts). The Academy is not only a community of artists, but also has the largest interdisciplinary arts archive in the German-speaking world.

Helga works in the Literature Archives, which Valeria visited twice this year for her research project. Valeria’s PhD project examines the literary memory of National Socialism and the Second World War in some of the works by the contemporary German author Uwe Timm, who in 2020 handed over to the Archives of the Academy the first part of his premortem bequest, consisting of manuscripts, letters, and unpublished material.

Valeria had the opportunity of working with Helga and speaking with her about her work, her love for literature and tips for conducting archival research.

Valeria Morelli

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Hi Helga, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. To start us off, can you tell me a little bit about what you do here at the Academy of Arts?

I think what we do here is rather different from other archives, because we don’t file administrative papers, like a council or city archive. What we do have are personal archives of artists, which means that the material can be very different. Some artists are very orderly, some are not. Some keep every postcard and small pieces of paper, others don’t. Some keep every manuscript and draft, others don’t. So, the structure of every single archive can be very different. In general, they contain correspondence, manuscripts, documents that have to do with the artist’s biography, such as passports and photographs, and newspaper clippings. Some contain works written by other people, as in Uwe Timm’s case.

Our work is to give a structure to all this material, catalogue it in a database and make it accessible to the general public, to any person who wants to do some research. Not all our material is digitised because of copyright reasons, personal rights and others, but anyone is welcome to visit the archive and use the material, or we also send photocopies or scans to those who can’t come to Berlin. Then we have to deal with reproductions, providing material for exhibitions, either as originals or as reproductions, we do a lot of supporting work for research and sometimes we do some research ourselves. I gave you one of our small publications (cf. featured image), which took a lot of work, but it is an invitation to people to come to have a look and work with all that we have.

Approximately, how many artists do you have in your archive and how many do you take care of yourself?

The literature archive has nearly 400 single archives. Most of them are personal archives, but then we also have, for example, the archive of the GDR “Schriftstellerverband” (Writers’ Union of the German Democratic Republic or East Germany) or some archives of publishing houses. I take care of 53 archives, some of them are very small, while others are made up of many boxes, such as the Günter Grass’ one.

Who visits the archive?

Most of them are researchers. Journalists sometimes pay a quick visit. But it can also be people who don’t do research for work, but, say, have always wanted to have a close look at a letter by Anna Seghers or a manuscript by Günter Grass, for example.

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Can I ask you how you got here, working in this archive?

I studied literature, worked at university for some time and then did different things. Then it happened by chance, through an internship and now I’m here.

What do you like most about your job?

When you get some new material in moving boxes, it’s a little bit like getting a Christmas present, because you don’t know what’s in it. I like this. Sometimes it can be hard work to give some structure to all of that, but it’s really surprising sometimes and it’s never boring because every archive is different.

It must be exciting! You’re surrounded by literature every day, all day. What fascinates you about it?

I have always been fascinated by stories. I have loved reading since I was a child; reading was like getting into another world. Then I decided to study German literature at university, because it felt right, although I knew it would be rather difficult afterwards to earn a living out of it. Literature is a window to manifold worlds. You really get a glance into other times, other societies and other people; literature is an art which is easily accessible for many. It’s fascinating to read and to analyse: why do protagonists act like that? What does an author do? Maybe, does he know what he does? Here at the archive, we offer another perspective, because you get an idea of authors as people, with their social situation and political beliefs for example.

Thank you, Helga!

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Let’s move to a more practical part. Do you have any advice for researchers or anyone visiting an archive?

First of all, it’s very important to have a look at the online database before visiting. Our database is a catalogue, it doesn’t contain the material itself, but you can get an idea of what might be interesting for you. However, if you don’t find what you are looking for, because maybe your search is imprecise or the material is not yet in the database, try to contact the archive or email the archivist. We, for example, have a rather large database, but not everything that we have is in it, especially older or newer listings. So, it’s always good to double check with the people working there.

As happened to me. Since the Uwe Timm archive is quite new and still “under construction”, not everything was in the database when I started having a look at the material. So I emailed you to double check and you confirmed that you did have the material I was interested in.

Exactly, if you had not got in contact with me, you wouldn’t be here.

More generally, it’s been extremely helpful working with you. You have an understanding and grasp of the material that surprise me every time. So, my advice is, speak with the archivist and ask them questions, if you have the chance – they can really help you navigate your archival research. 

Another piece of advice I can give is that, if you want to work in an archive, it’s really necessary to know a lot in advance. You have to arrive rather informed. Otherwise, you won’t know what to look for and how to look for the things you’re interested in.

That’s a great piece of advice, because it can get very overwhelming when you work with so much material in front of you. If you come in prepared, it’s easier to tackle. Similarly, after you’ve browsed all the material, I think it’s important to make a plan of what you will do with it, especially if you’re working with a great amount of documents. In my case, it was clear from the beginning that, unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to examine everything from the Uwe Timm archive. I had to select and prioritise the material I thought would be more interesting for my project. It was also important for me in the first week to think about the structure of my notes and be consistent with it, to be able to understand them also after my visit and without the original documents at hand.

Any advice for working with handwritten material?

Handwritten material happens very often. The older the material, the more handwriting there is. Every person writes in a different way, so you have to learn that person’s handwriting and the only way to learn handwriting is to get used to it by reading it as much as possible, which means you need time. That’s another piece of advice. Except if you’re looking for one small specific thing, don’t think you can go to an archive for two or three hours and find what you need. Maybe you have to browse a lot of material until you find what you are looking for. Maybe you don’t even know what you are looking for before you find it. You need time to get into someone’s handwriting, even more when it’s not your native language.

I agree. This time I understand much more of Timm’s handwriting than last time I was here. I felt quite lost with it at the beginning and I’m very grateful for your help with it.

And the more you know about the text, the more you will understand.

That’s true, too. I also very much agree with your point about time. If you think one week is enough, I would say, multiply it if possible, because probably you need two or three weeks to get through everything. The database is very useful to give you an idea of what you can find in the archive, but it’s only when you start opening the boxes and browsing the folders that you really understand what’s in there.

Exactly. Sometimes you find interesting things you weren’t looking for, but that only happens if you have enough time to read with concentration and not too fast.

I would also say that it’s been very helpful for me to visit a second time. When I visited in February, I didn’t expect to find so much interesting material, so it was clear from the beginning that my research would benefit from another visit. Before my second visit, I had time to go through my notes and make an action plan. My second visit has been shorter and more focused, I wanted to double check some of my notes and have another look at some specific documents. I think that visiting after a few months gave me more clarity on what I still needed to do.

Any other suggestions, Helga?

Many people come and want to get photocopies or reproductions of photos, manuscripts or letters. Bear in mind that, if the archive material is from the 20th or 21st century and hasn’t been published, you always have to respect copyright restrictions, that is, you have to ask for and get the author’s permission in order to get copies or use it in an article or thesis. It’s rather easy if you have an author like Timm, whom you can contact by email, but sometimes you really have to do some research to get in touch with the right person and it can be a lot of work.

That’s important to consider, especially if you have some time constraints.

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Helga, I would like to finish this interview by asking, what are some of your favourite books?

One of my all-time favourites is Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. In German, I would say Anna Seghers’ Die Rettung. It’s not as famous as other works by her, but it’s really great literature and it’s my favourite. She wrote it 1937 when she was in exile. It was printed then, but then it did not fit so well in the GDR ideology, so it always stayed a little bit out of sight, but I can recommend it.

That’s my next reading, then. Thank you so much, Helga, for your time and for your help with my research. It was a pleasure speaking and working with you!

Thank you, Valeria.