Protection periods

The protection periods are regulated by the Archive Act of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia:

Law on the preservation and use of public archives in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (ArchivG NRW)

In general, there is a retention period of 30 years after the documents were created.

In the case of personal archive records, the retention period ends 10 years after the death of the person (if more than one person is named, the most recent person is decisive). If the date of death is not known, the retention period ends 100 years after birth. If the date of birth is also unknown, the retention period ends 60 years after the documents were created.

The retention period for archive records that are subject to special protection regulations is 60 years.