Academy of Arts, Heinrich Mann Archive, Berlin
The archive of the Akademie der Künste is considered the most important interdisciplinary archive on modern art and culture in the German-speaking world. The Academy, founded in 1696, reconstituted itself in the post-War years after Germany’s division into two countries: 1950 in East Berlin, the academy was called: "Deutsche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin" (later renamed: "Akademie der Künste der DDR") and in 1954, the academy in West Berlin was called: "Akademie der Künste." Four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the two institutions merged to form the "Academy of Arts, Berlin" in 1993. Heinrich Mann was then elected as the first president of the German Academy of Arts, but died two weeks prior to the opening on March 11, 1950. A large part of his estate was transferred to the Academy in the 1950s, and formed the foundation for the Literary Archive, which is now the largest department within the Academy Archive. Apart from indexing the holdings, the academy created a collection of manuscripts, letters, biographical and family history documents, which were mostly of foreign provenance. Today, the archive is actively pursuing its collection activities.
The literary archive is currently working on the completion of two Heinrich Mann projects: the Complete Critical Edition Heinrich Mann: Essays und Publizistik (Heinrich Mann: Essays and Journalism), which is a joint project with the Heinrich Mann Edition Center at the University of Osnabrück, and Heinrich Mann DIGITAL, that, in addition to securing the holdings in digital form, is working on the virtual consolidation of the estate which is scattered throughout the world.
Contact
Dr. Gabriele Radecke, Leiterin des Literaturarchiv
Radecke@adk.de
+49(0) 30 200 57 3200
Akademie der Künste
Robert-Koch-Platz 10
10115 Berlin
Germany