Digitisation of historical newspapers in Hesse

• Applicants: Dr. Marion Grabka; Daniela Poth, since 7/2020; Dr. Peter Reuter; Dr. Jana Madlen Schütte, since 1/2025; Dr. Andrea Wolff-Wölk
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 443847685

The academic libraries UB JCS Frankfurt am Main, HLB Fulda, UB Gießen, UB Marburg and HLB RheinMain, Wiesbaden, intend to digitize newspapers of supra-regional importance from the period 1722 to 1945 and to provide them with OCR recognition. In total, a stock of approx. 1.9 million newspaper pages is to be digitised and approx. 2 million newspaper pages OCR-identified.The digital collection to be built up comprises an ensemble of historical newspapers from Hesse consisting of main newspapers (Langläufer) as well as "Intelligenz- und Kreisblätter" and newspapers from the Vormärz and the revolutionary years 1848/49. The digitalised and OCR-recognised newspapers from this collection provide a picture of historical developments from the beginning of the 18th century through the Napoleonic period and the subsequent restoration period of the Congress of Vienna and finally through the Vormärz, the revolutionary years, the foundation of the German Reich and the end of the Second World War. The primary sources document the formative epochs on the way to the foundation of today's Federal Republic of Germany, allow for a comprehensive view of the region of Hesse, as an important part of the evolving nation state, and at the same time take into account different economic, social and political differentiations within the region.The project partners are planning a joint presentation of the newspapers. This facilitates access for all interested scientific and non-scientific user groups, allows the creation of a common, index-based search space for all newspapers, opens up the possibility of thematic introductions to the material and thus paves the way for structured and source-critical access.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Participating Institution: HeBIS Hessisches Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem; HeBIS-Verbundzentrale; c/o Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
• Ehemalige Antragstellerinnen / Ehemalige Antragsteller: Dr. Marianne Riethmüller, until 1/2025; Dr. Heiner Schnelling, until 7/2020