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Part II: Research Resources in Modern German and Austrian History


Catholic University of America, John K. Mullen Memorial Library
Mullen Library
Catholic University of America
620 Michigan Ave., NE
Washington, DC 20017


Most of the pertinent holdings cover the period before 1800; and they comprise materials on ecclesiastical affairs and the Holy Roman Empire. The university library also contains the Joseph D. Keenan Papers, which includes his correspondence in 1945-47 and an oral account of the reorganization of West German trade unions after World War II.


Delegation of the Comission of the European Communities, Office of Press and Public Affairs
European Community Information Service Library
2100 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037


This agency maintains a collection of official documents and publications of the European Union. They do not collect official periodicals, laws, or other publications of the German or Austrian governments. The collection does include, however, materials on Austria's agreements with the EC and the country's accession negotiations. Most of these documents are official documents of limited value. There are also assorted but limited clippings on Germany's role as a member in the EC.


Georgetown University, Joseph Mark Lauinger Library
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057


The special collections in the Lauinger Library include a number of pertinent sources. Among them are the personal papers of people who had contacts with Germany in several capacities:


In addition, the library has a number of research resources on microform. These include:




George Washington University, Melvin Gelman Library
George Washington University Library
2130 H St., NW
Washington, DC 20052


The library has the papers of Frederick R. Kuh, a journalist who had extensive dealings in Germany in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. His papers include diaries (1938-1944), published and unpublished writings, correspondence, and notes of conversations with leading personalities, such as Hermann Göring and Otto Meissner. His papers also include important material on the early GDR.

Library of Congress
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540


The documentary holdings of the Library of Congress on Germany and Austria are as extensive as they are dispersed in their coverage. Some of this material is listed in a catalogue of the Manuscript Division's collections. The following list includes the major rubrics, but it is by no means complete.

German Areas



German Captured Documents Collection Manuscript Collection (plus Weinberg Supplement).


The following list includes the major titles. Finding aids are available.



Austrian Areas





German Historical Institute, Washington
1607 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016


The GHI has current holdings of some two hundred journals and other periodicals, including a number of staples, such as the Vierteljahrsschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte and Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen, which are not currently available in the Lauinger Library.

The institute also holds the British Foreign Office's Confidential Prints on Germany, 1920-1941 (F.O. 408), the originals of which are in the Public Records Office in London.


Marine Corps Historical Center, Department of the Navy
Navy Department Library
Washington Navy Yards, Building 220
9th and M Sts, SE
Washington, DC 20374


The Personal Papers Collection contains battle reports and correspondence from US Marines who served in northern France during World War, as well as letters from troops serving in the occupation of the Rhineland after the war. The collection also includes some material on German espionage in China during World War II.


National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution
National Air & Space Museum Archives
NASM Building
6th & Independence St. SW
Washington, DC 20560

Mailing Address:
National Air and Space Museum
Archives, MRC #322
Washington, DC 20560


The NASM Archives houses material relating to German and Austrian aviation and space activities. These comprise Aircraft Files (including German aircraft), Airship Files (including German airships), Biographical Files (including German and Austrian pilots and space personalities), technical manuals regarding German aircraft, and various German aircraft drawing.

Specific archival holdings include:




National Agricultural Library
Agriculture National Library
10301 Baltimore Blvd.
Beltsville, MD 20705


The NAL has extensive holdings in German and Austrian history, primarily in the form of periodical literature and other contemporary published materials--by no means all of it confined to questions of agriculture. The essential guide to this rich resource is the Dictionary Catalog of the National Agricultural Library, 1862-1965 (New York, 1967). The entries for Austria in the Catalogue occupy 38 pages, for Germany 154 pages. A new reference, Guide to Historical Research at the National Agricultural Library, will appear shortly. There are also several on-line data bases.

A random sample of the holdings of German serials includes the following titles:


And for Austria:



National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art Library
6th St and Constitution Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20565


The National Gallery has a wide variety of serial and monographic holdings, most of which pertain to the history of German art and architecture. Among these items are historical catalogues of art exhibits and an extensive collection of travel guides, most of them of the Baedeker variety. Examples of the catalogues are

The library also includes a collection of serials, some of which run into the nineteenth century.



Naval Historical Center, Operational Archives Branch
Operational Archives Branch
Naval Historical Center
9th and M Sts, SE
Washington, DC 20374


Most of the German Naval Archives, which once resided here, were transferred between 1967 and 1978 to the National Archives. The Naval Historical Center's collection now consists primarily of English-language translations of the Kriegstagebuch der Seekriegsleitung (1939-1945) and the war logs of flag officers of German submarines (Oberbefehlshaber der U-Boote, 1939-1945). In addition, the center's holdings comprise historical studies prepared by ex-German officers under U.S. and British auspices, miscellaneous microfilms, and English-language translations of key documents. A checklist is available.


National Archives and Records Administration
Pennsylvania Ave. at 8th St., NW
Washington, DC 20408

8601 Adelphi Rd.
College Park, MD 20740


The resources of the National Archives are so extensive that no attempt to summarize can do justice to their richness. For present purposes, the principal riches are to be found in the World War II Collection of Seized Enemy Records (RG 242). In addition, the Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs (RG 165), the Records of the Army Staff (RG 319), and the Records of the Office of Strategic Services (RG 226) all contain extensive intelligence materials on Germany during the Third Reich. The geographic area files of the Naval Records Collection of the Office of Naval Records and Library (RG 45) include collected materials pertaining to the U.S. Navy's involvement in training Prussian naval cadets in 1848-49. Information on the recruitment of German scientists at the end of World War II, the undertaking generally known as "Project Paperclip," is scattered among several record groups. A Guide to Records Documenting U.S. Military Participation in World War II is now being published in five parts by the National Archives and will provide additional information on these holdings.

Most of the German area collections are, or will be, housed in the new facility in College Park. These collections comprise the following categories of microform documents:

Documents of the German Foreign Office


These documents consist of records of the German Foreign Ministry, 1855-1945; papers of some German diplomats, 1833-1927; and some records of the Reich Chancelleries, 1919-1945. The finding aids for these files are: "A Catalog of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1867-1920." (T322. 1 roll). There is also a bound volume of this catalogue. A Catalogue of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1920-1945 (4 vols., Stanford, 1962-72) covers the later series..



Captured German Documents Filmed at Berlin


These collections include "non-biographic" records of several offices of the Nazi party, party formations, affiliated associations, and supervised organizations; private papers of some Nazi leaders; records of some Reich ministries and other Government agencies; and records of some industrial corporations and private persons.



Captured German Records Filmed at Arlington, Virginia


The records pertain to German government agencies, military affairs, and the Nazi party, as well as records and papers of some private businesses, institutions, and persons. The period covered is chiefly from 1920 to 1945. Finding aids for each microfilm publication are the "Guides to German Records Filmed at Alexandria, Virginia," Nos. 1-90 (identified as GG below) and other microfilm publications listed. Some are catalogued on microfilm in the collection T176.

Civil Records




Military Records: Army




Military Records: Air Force




Military Records: Navy




Nazi Party and SS Records




Records of Private Individuals and Enterprises




German Military Records Antedating World War II




Records of U.S. Army Commands, 1942 - :




Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs




Records of the Department of State


In general, the State Department transfers records to NARA after thirty years. These records are in three main categories: 1) Central files, 2) decentralized Office or "Lot files," and 3) records of Foreign Service diplomatic and consular posts.
Before 1906 central file records (in Record Group 59) are arranged by country or city and therunder chronologically. Everything is available on microfilm, as listed below. After 1906, records are filed by subject. Many of the most important subject files for some of the nine different time periods are also available on microfilm.
Some of the Office of "Lot files" are in Record Group 59, but others are in other record groups. The post records are in Record Group 84. Almost all of these records have been microfilmed.




National Archives Collection of World War II Crimes Records


In Europe, the US conducted war crimes trials under three jurisdictions: that of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg (RG 238), that of the US military tribunals at Nuremberg (RG 238), and that of the US Army courts (RG 153 and RG 338). The records of the trials at Nuremberg generally consist of transcripts of the proceedings, prosecution and defense exhibits, interrogation records, document books and court papers, including official court files, minute books, order and judgment books, and clemency petitions. In addition, the Nuremberg trial records include the prosecution document series from which most of the presecution exhibits and some defense exhibits were drawn. Descriptive pamphlets (DP) and Special Lists are noted for many of the listed micofilm publications.

Records of the International Military Tribunal


The nearly complete transcript of proccedings of the IMT at Nuremberg and most of the documentary evidence have been published in Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (42 vols., Nuremberg, 1947), a copy of which is in the Lauinger Library at Georgetown. A NARA Publication, PI 21, Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the United States Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality, is also available. NARA also holds motion pictures, photographs, and sound recordings of the IMT proceedings at Nuremberg. The holdings include:



Records of U.S. Military Tribunals


Excerpts from subsequent proceedings have been published as Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunal under Control Council Law No. 10 (15 vols., US Government Printing Office, 1950-53). Detailed published finding aids with computer-assisted indexes for the microfilmed records of the Ohlendorf Case (Special List 42) and the Milch Case (Special List 38) have also been published. The National Archives and Records Administration holds motion pictures and photographs (some of which were entered into evidence) of sessions of the twelve US Nuremberg proceedings.



Records of the U.S. Army War Crimes Trials in Europe


War crimes trials records for Germany were also collected or generated by the US 3d and 7th Armies initially, then by special war crimes sections of the Judge Advocate General (JAG), Europe. Because these sections sent reports and other materials to Washington, some of the same material is in RG 153, Records of the Judge Advocate General (Army), and has proven to be a useful source for filling in gaps discovered in the RG 338 records. While materials from RG 153 are frequently found in the microfilmed publications listed below, the great bulk of the records filmed come from RG 338 in each case.



RG 243. Records and materials of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey for Europe


For information on this collection, see United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Index to Records of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, June 1947. The rubrics include



Microfilm Records of the Berlin Document Center


These records are becoming available in phases. The first set comprises some 61,000 dossiers of regular SS (Allgemeine SS) and Waffen SS officers, in addition to materials on SS enlisted men and women. The schedule envisages making the entire collection, which will comprise approximately 40,000 rolls of microfilm, available without restrictions to scholars by the summer of 1996. The collection will then comprehend the following categories of files:



National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20014


The holdings of the NLM are extensive in the areas of its specialization, which is the history of American and European medicine. There are some 8,000 German-language serial titles, of which about 1,600 began publication before 1900. In monographic literature the library has over 20,000 German language titles printed before 1900. In addition, the library has an extensive holdings of books and manuscripts in Latin that were published in German-speaking countries, as well as a comprehensive collection of theses and disputations from German universities since the 18th century. The great names in the history of German medicine, such as Koch, Virchow, Freud, and Ehrlich, are well represented in their original work and subsequent commentaries. The entire collection is supported by a reference collection of secondary-source material that is housed in the History of Medicine Reading Room.


Wesley Theological Seminary Library
Wesley Theological Seminary Library
4500 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20016-9990


This library contains a significant number of religious and theological journals, most of them Protestant; it also has significant German monographic holdings in the fields of Biblical studies, systematic theology, and philosophy. The bulk of the journals are recent, but some of them extend back into the early nineteenth century. The journals include: