The German Foreign Ministry Archives and African Material

Abstract

The defeat of Germany in 1945 has made available to scholars archival collections of the greatest importance. Most of the captured collections were shipped to England or the United States, where they were microfilmed and indexed before the new German government could request their return. The sale of microfilm copies has assured their continued availability to scholars everywhere, and the Bonn authorities have made no efforts to withdraw the original materials from public use. Among these materials are the archives of the German Foreign Ministry (Auswärtiges Amt). A guide to this collection was prepared by the Committee for the Study of War Documents of the American Historical Association, and was published in 1959 as A Catalogue of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1867-1920. (The Hoover Institution is publishing the continuation of this catalogue for the period 1920-45. Copies may be secured through the Institution.)