Digital Collections
Our Digital Collections provide access to digitised archival holdings from the Martin Opitz Library, including digitised manuscripts, address books, photographic materials, historical postcards, maps and city plans, printed works, personal accounts and eyewitness reports, school programmes, newspapers and journals.
Main Collections
Address Books
The Martin Opitz Library holds an extensive collection of address books. The majority of these holdings are available digitally in this collection.
Archival Materials
The archive of the Martin Opitz Library contains unpublished sources relating to the history and culture of Germans in Eastern Europe. The holdings include personal papers and estates, collections and archives of private individuals, associations and organisations, generally with a regional focus on individual historical areas such as Silesia, East Prussia, Galicia and Volhynia, or on individual places such as Breslau, Königsberg and Łódź. The archive also collects documents relating to war, flight, expulsion and forced migration as a consequence of the First as well as the Second World War.
Historical Documents
The archival holdings of the Martin Opitz Library also contain numerous historical documents which, together with church registers and civil-status records, belong to the category of genealogical sources.
These documents can be consulted at the Martin Opitz Library upon request.
Church Registers & Civil-Status Records
The archival holdings of the Martin Opitz Library include numerous church registers and civil-status records. A substantial proportion of these materials has already been digitised and is available in our Digital Collections. The materials can be consulted both online and in the Library's premises.
Martin Opitz Library Holdings Catalogues
This collection provides access to all catalogues of the holdings of the predecessor institution of the Martin Opitz Library, the Library of the German East (Bücherei des deutschen Ostens).
Visual Materials
This collection contains numerous digitised images that are freely accessible, including photographs, engravings and lithographs. It also provides access to the extensive Belgard-Schivelbein Collection, which contains photographs of the Belgard district and, in particular, the towns of Belgard, Bad Polzin and Schivelbein.
Books up to 1850
The first part of this collection contains monographs from our digital holdings that were published up to 1850.
Books from 1851 onwards
The second part of this collection contains monographs from our digital holdings that were published from 1851 onwards.
Personal Accounts and Eyewitness Reports
The Martin Opitz Library holds numerous personal accounts and eyewitness reports that provide insights into the lives and experiences of Germans in Eastern Europe.
Discoveries
New discoveries are continually being made in our collections. Selected items are highlighted here because of their particular subject matter, curiosity, rarity or historical significance.
Genealogical Materials
The Martin Opitz Library holds numerous genealogical materials that can be used for genealogical research.
Historical Postcards
The extensive collection of historical postcards relating to Łódź and its surrounding area is unique in its form. It includes postcards depicting the city of Łódź and its surroundings in German, Polish and Russian. The collection was assembled by the Archive of Germans from Central Poland and Volhynia in Mönchengladbach and dates predominantly from the 20th century, with a particular focus on the period before the First World War. The collection is organised according to subject matter and provides insights into the lives of the inhabitants of Łódź. The postcards depict, among other things, streets, squares, residential and administrative buildings, as well as the Litzmannstadt Ghetto and destruction caused during the World Wars.
Historical Newspapers
The collection contains a large number of historical newspapers with local and subject-specific focuses.
Judaica
The Martin Opitz Library holds numerous Judaica dealing with Judaism and topics relating to Jewish culture and religion. The materials available for consultation include yearbooks, calendars, almanacs, as well as local community newspapers and newspapers with a wider circulation.
Maps and City Plans
The collection contains maps and city plans in German, French, English and Polish, as well as atlases such as F. W. Putzger's Historischer Schul-Atlas zur alten, mittleren und neuen Geschichte (Historical School Atlas of Ancient, Medieval and Modern History, 1879). In addition to maps and city plans, the collection also includes city views in the form of engravings and lithographs.
Manuscripts
The Martin Opitz Library also preserves handwritten and typewritten manuscripts, including memoirs, autograph books, correspondence and diaries, as well as chronicles, land registers, guest books and apprenticeship books. The manuscripts are primarily in German and Latin.
Personal Estates
The personal estates of numerous authors held by the Martin Opitz Library include diaries, essays and poems, as well as illustrated lectures dealing with Eastern Europe.
Periodicals / Journals
The collection contains numerous periodicals, including calendars, annual reports and a wide variety of regularly published printed materials.
School Programmes
The school programme collection of the Martin Opitz Library comprises approximately 15,000 booklets, several hundred of which are available digitally. The collection focuses particularly on the former eastern provinces of Prussia.
Projects with External Institutions
Address Books of Herne and Wanne-Eickel
As part of a cooperation between the Herne City Archives and the Martin Opitz Library, selected address books of the cities of Herne and Wanne-Eickel have been digitised and made available online. The editions available cover the period up to 1950. The original copies of all address books are held by the Herne City Archives. Some editions can also be consulted in the reading room of the Martin Opitz Library.
AGoFF – Association of East German Family Researchers
The collections of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft ostdeutscher Familienforscher e.V. (AGoFF) are held at the Martin Opitz Library. Publications issued by AGoFF and digitised materials commissioned by the organisation can be accessed by registered members of the association.
BKGE
In cooperation with the Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE), the Martin Opitz Library provides interested users with access to a large number of digitised research works examining the culture, religion and politics of Germans and their influence in Central and Southeastern Europe.
Wrocław University Library
This collection contains rare and unique materials relating to the German culture and history of Silesia. The materials were digitised as part of a project carried out in cooperation with the Wrocław University Library. The collection comprises approximately 100,000 pages, of which around 75,000 pages originate from the holdings of the Wrocław University Library and around 25,000 from the holdings of the Martin Opitz Library. The materials include, among other things: address books, historical newspapers and journals, selected individual works.
DiFMOE
The Digital Forum Central and Eastern Europe (DiFMOE) has been a long-standing cooperation partner of the Martin Opitz Library. In cooperation with DiFMOE, digitised materials are being progressively made available and preserved through the Martin Opitz Library. The collection focuses primarily on newspapers and journals.
IKGN – Nordost-Institut at the University of Hamburg
The Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in North-Eastern Europe (IKGN) is a cooperation partner of the Martin Opitz Library. The collection held by the Martin Opitz Library contains a selection of postcards featuring the theme “Riga (Latvia)”.
IKGS
In cooperation with the Institute for German Culture and History of Southeastern Europe (IKGS), the Martin Opitz Library provides access to numerous digitised journals published in German, Slovak and Hungarian.
Map Project RUB / Martin Opitz Library
As part of a pilot project between the University Library Bochum and the Martin Opitz Library, a selection of approximately 50 maps from both institutions is being made available digitally. The maps are being integrated into a portal currently under development and enhanced with additional information and functions. The aim of the pilot project is to create a user-friendly digital map portal.
Wiarus Polski
The Martin Opitz Library also holds digitised editions of Wiarus Polski, a Polish-language newspaper from the Ruhr region that played an important role in shaping Polish national life in the Ruhr area around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Library holds individual issues in Polish, as well as some German translations.
ZIP – Centre for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies
As part of a digitisation project carried out in cooperation with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies (ZIP) at the European University Viadrina, approximately 850 archival documents relating to German and Polish actors in village soviets in the Soviet Ukrainian province were digitised and catalogued.