The LWL Archive Office for Westphalia (until 2006 Westphalian Archive Office) houses the archive of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL) and the Westphalian Literature Archive. In addition, the Archives Office is responsible for active archival advice for public, non-governmental archives in Westphalia-Lippe. The specialist know-how is also available to Westphalian company archives via the branch office at the Westphalian Business Archive in Dortmund.

The present LWL Archives Office for Westphalia goes back to an initiative of the historian and later Nazi cultural politician Dr. Heinrich Glasmeier, who initiated the founding of the United Westphalian Nobility Archives in the early 1920s. Its cooperative form of organization in turn aroused great interest among the Westphalian-Lippe communities. Thereupon, the Prussian Provincial Association of Westphalia, the predecessor of the LWL, suggested the creation of an archive advisory centre, which would provide the Westphalian archives with advice. This office, which was initially voluntary, was established in 1927.

Zu Beginn der 1930er Jahre wurde die Archivberatungsstelle dem Staatsarchiv in Münster angegliedert.

After the Second World War, the two regional associations (Rhineland and Westphalia-Lippe) were established in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1953. In the course of this development, the independent "Archivberatungsstelle für Westfalen", now part of the LWL, was finally founded on 1 January 1958. This was now also responsible for the transmission of the work of the Landschaftsverband, which since then has been found in the LWL archives.

Since 1998, the LWL Archive Office has been housed on the premises of the LWL Clinics in the north of Münster's historic old town in a former clinic building, which was supplemented by a purpose-built magazine building.

Neben den ständig wachsenden Beständen des LWL befindet sich im Archivamt das erst 2001 gegründete Westfälische Literaturarchiv mit Vor- und Nachlässen von Literaturschaffenden in und aus Westfalen. Über das LWL-Archivamt sind außerdem die Bestände der Vereinigten Westfälischen Adelsarchive zugänglich, die nach Bestellung im hauseigenen Lesesaal eingesehen werden können.

In addition to the constantly growing holdings of the LWL, the Archives Office also houses the Westphalian Literature Archive, which was only founded in 2001 and contains legacies of literary creators in and from Westphalia. The LWL Archives Office also provides access to the holdings of the United Westphalian Nobility Archives, which can be viewed in the in-house reading room after ordering.

So far, only selected holdings of the LWL Archives are available in the Archivportal-D. Others will be successively put online and delivered via the aggregator "Archive in NRW".

Holdings of the LWL Archive Office for Westphalia in Archivportal-D

 

Contact:

LWL-Archivamt für Westfalen
Jahnstraße 26

48147 Münster

Tel.: 0049 251 591 3890

Homepage: www.lwl-archivamt.de

E-Mail: lwl-archivamt [at] lwl.org