Indexing and cataloguing of photographical holdings in the German Literature Archive
Final Report Abstract
The German Literature Archive (DLA) is one of the most important literary institutions in the world and is considered the most important center for collecting and indexing German-language literature since the Enlightenment era. Over 1,450 estates and partial estates of writers and scholars form the heart of the collections. In addition to manuscripts and other textual documents, the estates contain extensive collections of images and photographs. These are archived, indexed, and made accessible in the “Images and Objects” department. The private photograph collections are as varied and diverse as the estates themselves. Most of them show the authors in different stages of their lives and roles, their family members, and their circles of friends and colleagues. The thematic photo collections (e.g. related to specific places or literary subjects) contained within the estates are of great interest for research on text-image constellations and the genesis of literary works. The aim of the project is to index the photograph collections from authors' estates acquired before 1999, comprising a total of roughly 225.360 photographs. These include the holdings of such important writers as H. G. Adler, Gottfried Benn, Alfred Döblin, Kasimir Edschmid, Claire and Yvan Goll, Walter Hasenclever, Hermann Hesse, Richard Huelsenbeck, Mascha Kaleko, Gertrud Kolmar, Ernst Jünger, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Harry Graf Kessler, Siegfried Kracauer, Mechtilde Lichnowsky, Arthur Schnitzler, Kurt Tucholsky, and Carl Zuckmayer, as well as influential scholars such as Karl Jaspers and Peter Szondi.
