Special Collections
The Martin Opitz Library holds a wide range of special collections, many of which have been donated to the Library.
Our special collections include:
(Formerly known as Arbeitsgemeinschaft Menschenrechtsverletzungen in Ostdeutschland – AGMO e.V.)
The AGMO e.V. – Society for the Support of Germans in Silesia, East Brandenburg, Pomerania, East and West Prussia was active from 1980 to 2017. The organisation advocated for the interests of Germans who remained in the Republic of Poland, with a particular focus on preserving and revitalising the German mother tongue and cultural identity, in accordance with Polish national law and international standards for the protection of minorities. In 2016, after 26 years of activity, the association ceased its work. In April 2016, its records were donated to the Martin Opitz Library. The collection contains the following materials:
- Documents relating to family reunification (in particular concerning DFK activists from the organisation’s early years)
- Documentation of individual cases and personal experiences (activists)
- Correspondence with Members of the German Bundestag
- Correspondence with government ministries
- AGMO reports and situation reports
- Documentation of DFK events
- DFK Christmas campaigns (in particular reports and photographic documentation)
- DFK cultural bulletins in German (some with Polish translations)
- Documentation of visits to Warsaw by Foreign Minister Genscher and Federal Chancellor Kohl
- Submission of an AGMO petition to the CSCE Expert Meeting in Ottawa (1985–1986)
- Applications submitted to various Polish courts concerning the establishment of associations (from 1984 onwards)
- Founding document of the DFK (1985)
- Lectures and presentations (manuscripts and printed materials)
- Correspondence between AGMO members and DFK activists who operated underground
- Local branch files (arranged alphabetically)
- Project files (projects funded by AGMO e.V.)
The archive was established in 1963 and is based on the collections of Adolf Eichler, Otto Heike, Adolf Kargel and Julian Will. It also contains the records of the Heimatkreisgemeinschaft der Deutschen aus dem Lodzer Industriegebiet (Local District Association of Germans from the Łódź Industrial Region). Until the end of 2009, the archive was housed in Mönchengladbach. In 2010, its holdings, including the library and archival materials, were transferred to the Martin Opitz Library.
The archival collection consists primarily of newspaper clippings, supplemented by a small number of personal records. Of particular importance is the collection of photographs and negatives belonging to the photographer Waldemar Rode, who lived in Łódź until 1945.
A unique feature of the collection is its historical collection of postcards depicting Łódź and the surrounding area. The extensive collection of postcards of the city and its environs, in German, Polish and Russian, was assembled by the Archive of Germans from Central Poland and Volhynia in Mönchengladbach. Most of the postcards date from the 20th century, with a particular focus on the period before the First World War. The collection is organised by subject and provides an insight into everyday life in Łódź. The postcards depict, among other things, streets, squares, residential and administrative buildings, as well as the Łódź Ghetto and the destruction caused by the two World Wars.
Extent
- approximately 80 archival boxes
- 25 photographic folders
- Collection of postcards depicting Łódź and the surrounding area (approx. 2,500 individual items)
- approx. 1,200 postcards depicting towns and villages in Poland, documenting the life together of Polish-Russian-German from around 1900 onwards.
Finding Aid
- Effenberger, Edmund: Archiv der Deutschen aus Mittelpolen und Wolhynien
- Mönchengladbach: Catalogue of the archival and museum collection. Vol. 1. Inventory nos. 1–11,000, period of collection: 1950–2000
- Mönchengladbach: HKG Łódź and Surrounding Area, 2000
- Literature on the history of the archive: 40 Jahre Archiv der Deutschen aus Mittelpolen und Wolhynien 1963–2003. [Edmund Effenberger]
- Mönchengladbach: Heimatkreisgemeinschaft d. Dt. aus d. Lodzer Industriegebiet, 2003. – 9 pp.: ill.
The Martin Opitz Library has incorporated the microfilms of church registers from Warmia into the Ermland Library’s holdings. The films were transferred from the Lower Saxony State Archives – Bückeburg State Archive. More than 200 films are available and can be ordered on request.
The Galician German Homeland Archive (Archive of Galician Germans) is based on three private collections that were assembled before the Second World War. These include the private collection of Heinz Heckel, a former editor of the Ostdeutsches Volksblatt; Sepp Müller’s collection relating to the Lviv social club “Frohsinn”, which was active during the interwar period; and the regional historical collection of Walter Bolek, which was believed to have been lost for some time and focuses primarily on the settlement history of Germans in Lesser Poland.
In 1951, the City of Herne took on sponsorship of the Jauer Homeland Group. The Jauer Heimatstube was established in 1955 and, from 1989 onwards, was housed at the Herne Music School at Gräffstraße 43. Until the end of 2017, it was jointly operated by the Jauer Homeland Group in Herne and the City of Herne. The collection was dissolved in 2017. The museum objects were transferred to the Muzeum Regionalne in Jawor, while the written records were handed over to the Martin Opitz Library.
The Martin Opitz Library’s holdings include books and archival materials, including the localities index for Jauer and the surrounding area.
The Meseritz Homeland Collection consists primarily of books and other written materials relating to the town and district of Meseritz. The archive also contains, among other materials, manuscripts and newspaper clippings.
The Historical Society for Warmia e.V. was founded in 1856 in Frauenburg on the Vistula Lagoon. After becoming inactive in 1945, it was re-established in 1955 in Münster in Westphalia, the sponsoring city of Braunsberg in East Prussia. Until the end of 2008, the HVE Library was housed at the Ermlandhaus in Münster before being transferred to the Martin Opitz Library in Herne. At the Society’s request, the holdings are generally not available for loan. Exceptions are subject to approval by the HVE Executive Board.
The Historical Society for Volhynia e.V., which was dissolved in 2025, was founded in 1975 with the aim of promoting, collecting, documenting and preserving the cultural heritage of Volhynia. The Society also researched the history of German settlement in the region and how Volhynian Germans lived together with their neighbours of other nationalities. The Society’s archive was transferred to the Martin Opitz Library in 2015.
The extensive archive of the biologist, local historian and chronicler Horst Gleiß (1930–2020) contains private and scholarly correspondence, research materials relating to the ten-volume documentary chronicle Breslauer Apokalypse 1945, published between 1986 and 1997, as well as other written sources on regional history. The archive includes, among other materials, biographical documents, personal notes, letters and photographs from contemporary witnesses, newspaper clippings and other material from the international press. In order to preserve the archive in its original form as far as possible, the arrangement and classification system established by the donor of the estate has been retained by the Martin Opitz Library during the cataloguing of the materials.
The Belgard-Schivelbein Collection is available for consultation exclusively at the Martin Opitz Library in Herne.
The archive’s sources provide insights into the region’s history, while also offering a detailed view of its ecclesiastical history and administrative structures. The archival materials cover 126 rural communities and larger towns and cities in the region.
The collection’s additional holdings, including periodicals and works of fiction, complement the information on the regions of Belgard / Białogard, Schivelbein / Świdwin and Polzin / Połczyn-Zdrój with broader material on Pomerania.
The archival holdings also include the correspondence of the district association, documentation of the biennial homeland reunions held since 1954, an extensive collection of photographs, and the Bad Polzin School Friends Collection, which has been part of the Homeland District Archive since 1999.