Mission Statement

Who we are and what we want - mission statement of the city archive

We are a knowledge repository for Aachen's history

The city archive professionally stores Aachen's unique historical heritage in all its forms - in the original and for eternity. It is a portal to the rich and growing history of our city: a place that bridges and shortens temporal distances with its authentic historical sources.

This tradition is an essential basis for Öch's identity and culture of remembrance. It enables all interested parties to inform themselves and actively research, be it about their own family and place of life, be it for science, schools and the media. The sources make connections visible, create images and can convey emotions. They make it possible to relate one's own history and individual interests directly to the historical tradition.

The historical record is a storehouse of knowledge that is constantly growing: the oldest archive item is more than a thousand years old, the most recent is today's newspaper. At its core, however, are the files and records of the city administration dating back several centuries. In addition, we actively approach private actors in order to depict political, cultural, social and economic events in the city. This gives rise to our contemporary and local history collections, our company, family and association holdings and personal estates. It is important to us to include all those people and groups who have not been adequately represented in our records to date. In addition, there are extensive historical library holdings, which represent another important facet of the intellectual life of the city. This makes the city archive Aachen's central memory institution.

The aim of our work is not to hand over as many documents as possible, but to gain as dense and complete a picture as possible by selecting them sensibly. In order to form this concentrate, we evaluate all municipal files and also private documents offered to us - both analog and digital. This means that we select the most meaningful part according to archival criteria before we archive it for eternity.

We advise and bring together

Curiosity is a driving force for human progress. Open exchange, targeted communication and the sharing of knowledge help to make curiosity productive. This is exactly what is in the DNA of the city archive.

This applies to our employees, but also to all those who approach us with their questions, whether as municipal colleagues, with private concerns or scientific research. We, the employees of the city archive, act as guides through the rich and complex heritage and share our knowledge with all interested parties. In addition to our archive materials, we also draw on our extensive regional and specialist library.

We are a reliable partner in networks and collaborations with our social mission and our expertise. In addition, we actively participate in the urban, social and democratic discourse with our own research and projects and invite exchange.

We preserve and make directly tangible

A central goal of the city archive is to permanently secure the historical records and make them accessible. We ensure this by applying current and proven conservation and restoration standards. In addition to analog records, which we preserve in our own restoration workshop and via external service providers, this also applies to the digital world, for which we use electronic long-term archiving methods.

We provide access to our records by indexing the content of the archive material, which can be used via our digital services on site and online.

We consistently and transparently apply the legal rules for the protection of personal data when cataloging. This means that some of our records may only be used freely after the statutory protection periods have expired.

The principle of integrity is always central to us: we are committed to ensuring that the tradition is not subsequently falsified under any circumstances.

In this way, we create legal certainty for the City of Aachen as the body responsible for the archive. At the same time, we make it possible for everyone to critically review the actions and decisions of the city administration in retrospect. This is an important pillar of democracy.

We provide a reliable source base for all interested parties. We help to find historical sources and classify them critically, whether in the publicly accessible reading room, in personal consultation or with digital services.

We make it possible for pupils to experience the sources in the form of educational archive modules. Based on the curricula, they can explore the history of their home town in many different ways. We coordinate our offers as an extracurricular place of learning with the other pedagogically active municipal departments.

It is important to us to provide all interested parties with independent, democratic and inclusive access to the historical record. Our public relations work, our events and our publications invite urban society and interested target groups to enter into dialog with us and take a look behind the scenes of our work. We see this as the prerequisite for the city archive to be an open place where history can be experienced up close and reliably verified: This is as close as we can get to the past in the present.

We are agile

As a public institution, we operate in a resource-efficient manner and keep our broader societal mission in mind. Flexibility and the use of appropriate technical tools are just as essential to fulfilling our responsibilities as participation in archival discourse, scholarly expertise, and a critical examination of internal workflows.
We therefore maintain and expand our expertise through ongoing professional development and regular engagement with professional communities. Networking with various stakeholders within and outside the city administration, as well as with research institutions, creates synergies and enriches our work by introducing new perspectives and subject areas.

Modern methods and tools are a natural part of our working environment. We are curious and open to technical and organizational changes and use them where they contribute to the optimization of our tasks and enable modern forms of use.

We have our eye on the future

The historical heritage of the city of Aachen naturally consists of evidence from the past. But we are working for the future. We are increasing and developing evidence of the past with the aim of creating an open-ended and meaningful source basis in order to better understand the origins and development of our present and to shape the future. On the one hand, we are guided by ever-present requirements, such as the preservation of such important data as the civil registers. At the same time, however, we focus on current social developments and new impulses from research. Last but not least, as the Institute of City History, we ourselves also contribute to the academic study of Aachen's history.

Passing on historical sources is therefore not an end in itself, but a critical examination of our city's past and the opportunity to develop a reflective historical awareness. Because this is a key to a better understanding of the present.

Just as the work of our predecessors in handing down the past enables us to engage with the past and present, it is now our task to keep an eye on future developments and issues so that people can find answers to their questions in the decades and centuries to come.