Welcome to the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences Archive

The university archive is the public archive of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (h_da). Its holdings provide a comprehensible record of the actions and activities of the university and its bodies, departments and institutions as well as its predecessor institutions. The archive thus acts as a central point for safeguarding and documenting the cultural and academic heritage of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and as its historical memory.

In accordance with the Hessian Archive Act (HArchivG), the University Archive permanently preserves documents of the organs, organizational units, institutions and other bodies of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and its legal and functional predecessors that are worthy of archiving, indexes them and makes them accessible to the public. The acquisition of non-official and private documents from the university's environment, for example in the form of bequests and estates of persons and bodies associated with the university, is intended to complement this collection.

Furthermore, the University Archive advises the governing bodies and organizational units on questions of analogue and digital records management and is available to answer questions on the continuity, transparency and verifiability of public administration. The core objective is to enable the administrators of Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences to manage documents efficiently and sustainably, to sort them out in a targeted manner and to offer quick and unbureaucratic access to the documents even after the processes have been completed.

The university archive can be used by anyone. As a public archive, it is open to members of the public, students and teaching staff as well as all other interested parties. The archive provides information from the archived documents, supports academic and historical research work and acts as a contact point for all questions relating to university history. Please note that protection periods and third-party property rights as well as other legal provisions (e.g. copyright) may restrict the use of archive material and the provision of information.

Please note: As the university archive is currently under construction, its services can only be used to a limited extent. In future, archival records will be searchable online in the archive information system Arcinsys Hessen. Older documents from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and its predecessor institutions are held in the Hessian State Archives in Darmstadt as fonds H 55 A, from which access must be requested.

The following links offer interested users assistance for researching and working in the archive.

• Help for using the online archive information system Arcinsys (Hessisches Landesarchiv)
• Terminology of archival science (Archivschule Marburg)
• Glossary of selected archival terms (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
• Southwest German archival science (Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg) - explains, among other things, archival genres
• Martin Burkhardt, tutorial on archival work (historicum-estudies, University of Cologne)