Indexing of the archives of the Research Institute of Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines Stuttgart (FKFS)

• Applicant: Dr. Norbert Becker
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 279480252

The extant files of the Research Institute of Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines Stuttgart (FKFS), one of the great military research institutes in Germany during the Second World War, will be opened up for historical research. The collection includes records and documents from the period 1918 up to about 2010 with emphasis on the years 1930 to 1945th. FKFS was established 1930 as a foundation under (german) civil law and affiliated institute of Stuttgart Technical University in the course of efforts for the promotion of industrial development of the state of Württemberg. The research, which were from the beginning executed as contract research for all major vehicle and engine manufacturers (BMW, Daimler-Benz, Hirth, Horch, Ford, Zündapp and others), was at first focussed on modern vehicle concepts for motorcars but since the beginning of the Nazi period, increasingly military research. In 1937, already about 250 engineers and skilled workers were employed at FKFS. Until the end of the war, the number of employees rose to about 650 people. Among these were a great number of forced labourers who were often used also for professionally qualified work. After the war, the FKFS resumed its research again with focus on research on wind tunnel technology, safety engineering, economic efficiency and vehicle engine technology (www.fkfs.de). The documents, which have been frequently used or asked for even before the transfer to the University Archive Stuttgart in 2014, not only contain information relevant for the history of technology about research projects and research areas in the field of vehicle and engine technology, but also provide important information about careers of chief engineers of the post-war period (personnal files), on organization and management of a large research institution in the Nazi state as well as the integration of a workforce in the Nazi ¿Volksgemeinschaft¿ (National Socialist Model Plant). With the aid of the large image collection that, inter alia, documents testing facilities and experimental setups, the development of the methodology and the subjects of the fledgling discipline of automotive and (vehicle) engine Technology can be understood in conjunction with the relevant research reports. The metadata of the archive (average depth of cataloging with detailed indexing) will be published 1) in an online finding aid (MidosaXML) on the www-pages of the University Archives Stuttgart and 2) in Archivportal-D.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)