The State Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia are the “memory” of this federal state and are open to all citizens. Their purpose is to collect, store, supplement and preserve documents on the history of our federal state and its predecessors, to develop these resources and to make them accessible to the general public. The State Archives comprise the following departments:

• Three regional departments (Rhineland, Westphalia and East Westphalia-Lippe) function as direct points of contact for each region, providing services to private users and authorities.
• The Policy Department handles the development of policies and strategies, the conservation of material (including placement on film for preservation and backup purposes as well as digitisation) and all issues concerning electronic document archiving.
• The Central Services Department is responsible for human resources, budgeting, organisation and IT.

The State Archives have offices in Duisburg, Münster and Detmold, where they are spread over several locations, with their headquarters and chairman’s offices in Duisburg.