We are the DDB: Das landeskirchliche Archiv Hannover

Das landeskirchliche Archiv Hannover is the central archive of the Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers (Evangelical-Lutheran Regional Church of Hanover).

With approximately 2.5 million members, the hannoversche Landeskirche (Hanoverian Regional Church) is the largest regional church in Germany. In the 19th century, it grew together from the regional churches of various Lower Saxon dominions. Today it covers an area from the North Sea to the Kassel Mountains and from the Wendland to the Dutch border.

Das landeskirchliche Archiv is tasked with storing, indexing and making permanently available analogue and electronic documents that have been created and will be created in the future in church and diaconal administrative and legal activities. With this mandate, the landeskirchliche Archiv is responsible for the archival transmission of the state church office and its predecessors as well as state church institutions and works throughout the regional church. It also stores archives of church congregations and church districts, takes over the estates of pastors and other church employees, maintains collections on the history of archives and churches and has an extensive photo database with approximately 50,000 digitised photos. The discovery books of many holdings are set up in the Arcinsys archive information system and can be used there. Information on the stored estates can also be found in the Kalliope catalogue.

The tradition goes back to the 12th century. However, since the landeskirchliche Archiv could not, like other church archives, often take over files from the time before the separation of the state and the church, the focus of the holdings began only in the second third of the 19th century. This is stored in three magazines and currently comprises around 14,000 running metres.

The archive is open to the public and has a wide range of audiences. Regular users outside the church administration are not only church and profane historians, but also regional and local historians, genealogists, students, schoolchildren who deal with regional history topics and are to be introduced to working with archival sources, and last but not least church members who are interested in the history of their parish.

The decentralised church registers of the regional church are often already available via the Kirchenbuchportal Archion (Church Register Portal Archion) or are gradually set up there.

Overview of the holdings of the Landeskirchliche Archiv Hannover in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

 

Contact:

Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelisch-lutherischen Landeskirche Hannovers

Goethestr. 27, 30169 Hannover

E-Mail: archiv [at] evlka.de (archiv[at]evlka[dot]de)