Klaus Wagenbach publishers’ archive – systematization and cataloguing (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin -Preußischer Kulturbesitz)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Achim Bonte, since 1/2022
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; Communication Sciences ; Economic and Social History ; History of Science
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491906784

“Klaus Wagenbach Verlag” belongs among the most influential political and cultural publishing houses in Germany. Its social weight as a whole results from its impact as a political, literary and international player. Several Wagenbach publications and authors—whether Günter Grass, Wolf Biermann, Ingeborg Bachmann, or Ulrike Meinhof among others—not only documented but also greatly influenced political or social discourses of the 1968 movement and beyond.The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SBB-PK) acquired large segments of the Klaus Wagenbach archive from 2015 to 2017, now stored and curated by the Department of Manuscripts. Documents include private and business correspondence between employees and authors; records such as typescripts, graphical illustrations, and corrected proofs all relating to production; extensive business documents, including contracts, administrative documentations, or documentation of readings and of the legal affairs. At present, only a rough, internal systematization by the publishing house itself exists. This prevents researchers from accessing and using the Wagenbach collection with its heterogeneous and extensive catalogue of documents. In the context of the DFG-project, the archive will be systemized and catalogued in a source-sensitive manner. Metadata will be recorded in accordance with current cataloguing rules and standards using the Kalliope catalogue („Kalliope Verbundkatalog“). This combination of conservation measures provided by the SBB-PK and – to a very large extend – DFG-funded indexing of the archive will hence enable researchers to consult and work on unique historical resources. Due to legal restrictions, the digitalization and more detailed indexing of the collection’s documents will follow at a later stage.Opening of the Klaus Wagenbach archive to researchers and an interested public perfectly complements the overarching archival and accessibility goals of the SBB-PK: The library also holds collected letters of the Berlin publisher Christoph Friedrich Nicolai, historical archives of the publishing houses Schott, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Mohr-Siebeck, Aufbau, and, as deposit (long-term loan), De Gruyter. With the successful cataloguing, in part, of the Mohr-Siebeck archive in 2019, the cataloguizing of the Klaus Wagenbach holdings may now proceed. With the complete cataloguing of the Wagenbach archive, this highly topical and relevant collection of political and scientific publishing houses’s holdings will become accessible for researchers as well as for an interested public.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Barbara Schneider-Kempf, until 1/2022