Online Resources from the City Archives

Address Books

The City Archives maintain an extensive collection of historical address books, which serve as an important source for research into personal, urban, and economic history. They cover—with some gaps—the period from 1751 to 1990.

The City Archives’ address books have been fully digitized in collaboration with the Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. and are available online: Address Book for Erlangen – GenWiki (genealogy.net)

Archival Structure

An “organization” refers to the hierarchical structure of the collections within an archive. Together with the general descriptions of the individual collections, it serves as an initial point of entry and orientation for thematic research.

The organizational structure of the Erlangen City Archives, as well as brief descriptions of all existing collections, are published on “Archivportal-D,” the central cataloging system for German archives: Organizational Structure of the Erlangen City Archives (archivportal-d.de)

Library

The Erlangen City Archives maintains a specialized research library with approximately 50,000 media items focusing on “Erlangensia,” Franconian and Bavarian regional history, general history and urban planning, as well as historical auxiliary sciences.

The library’s collection is being progressively cataloged according to the Regensburg Union Classification (RVK) and published in a publicly accessible online catalog (OPAC): OPAC Erlangen City Archives (bib-bvb.de)

Conversations with Contemporary Witnesses

As part of the “Contemporary Witnesses” event series, former Mayor Dr. Siegfried Balleis conducted extensive interviews with distinguished figures from the city of Erlangen between 2013 and 2017. The results of this “oral history” project can be viewed on the City Archives’ YouTube channel: Erlangen City Archives on YouTube

Autograph Books

So-called “student autograph books”—records of student relationships containing handwritten entries by friends or acquaintances—can be consulted for research on family histories, (academic) social networks, or modern-day mobility patterns. The City Archives holds a collection of approximately 40 student autograph books, most of which were created between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries.

The City Archives’ autograph book collection has been fully digitized and is available in the “Repertorium Alborum Amicorum” (RAA), the world’s largest database of autograph books and entries: Erlangen Autograph Books ()raa.gf-franken.de