To Use

The vast majority of documents in the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen are only available in their original form – which means mainly on paper. They must therefore be used in the reading rooms of the Landesarchiv in Duisburg, Münster or Detmold.

The archive material may be used in accordance with the Archive Act of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Archive Use and Fee Regulations of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is generally available to all interested parties and is free of charge.

Archive material that is still subject to retention periods or other restrictions on use may only be viewed under certain conditions.

Nutzer im Lesesaal in Münster mit Akte, in der er liest.

Landesarchiv NRW / Foto: Jochen Tack

Preparing for your visit to the archives

Use general information, inventory overviews and finding aids online to determine whether documents relating to your question or topic are available in the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen. Make a note of the department of the Landesarchiv where these documents are held.
If you are researching your question or topic at the Landesarchiv for the first time, we recommend that you contact an archivist in advance to find out about suitable finding aids or archival records.
If you already know the reference numbers of the relevant archive materials, you can pre-order them by email from the relevant reading room (Detmold, Duisburg, Münster). Please note that it may take a few days to retrieve the materials.
Apply for special permission if the relevant archive materials are still subject to retention periods and wait for the decision of Landesarchiv before your visit.
Contact the relevant department of the Landesarchiv (East Westphalia-Lippe, Rhineland or Westphalia) for information on the practical aspects of visiting the archives: opening hours, how to get there, etc.
Consider using your (mobile phone) camera if you wish to make your own reproductions of suitable documents.

Your visit on site

The reading room supervisor is your central point of contact and will be happy to help you with any questions you may have about using the archive. The reading room supervisor will also give you your ordered archive materials and, if it is your first visit, your reading room card.

In the reading room, you have access to the V.E.R.A. archive information system, which you can use to search the archive material and order the relevant archive documents. Ordered archive documents are retrieved from the stacks several times a day and delivered to you in the reading room. You can view digitised archive documents directly on screen.

Since 1 January 2018, it has been possible to take photographs of archive material with your own camera free of charge and without restriction in the reading rooms of the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen in Duisburg, Münster and Detmold.

If you would like to photograph archive material yourself, please contact the reading room supervisor. All documents to be photographed must be submitted to the reading room supervisor for review in advance. You must confirm in writing in advance that you have read and understood the conditions governing photography in the reading room.

The reading room regulations of Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen apply in the reading rooms.

Relevant Links to The Topic

East Westphalia-Lippe Department

Rhineland Department

Westphalia Department

Digitised holdings

First, the good news: with around 150 kilometres of archive material, there is a high probability that you too will be able to conduct your historical research using the holdings of the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen. A growing number of the documents we hold can be viewed online! However, with more than 150 linear kilometres of archive material containing many millions of pages, this is a long-term project.

You can view digitised archive material online. The digitised material is linked to the respective catalogue entries, i.e. if your search leads you to a digitised catalogue entry, you will find an icon there that indicates digitised material. Clicking on it opens the viewer, where you can view the digitised material. Using the ‘Only with digitised material’ filter, you can also use the keyword search to find only those catalogue entries with digitised material.

Downloads on the Topic

Download und Weitergabe von Digitalisaten

Terms of protection

Not every document in Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen can be viewed without restriction. Restrictions on use arise from retention periods under archival law, special confidentiality regulations or problematic preservation conditions.

Archival material is generally subject to a general retention period of thirty years after the documents were created. Personal archival material may be viewed at the earliest ten years after the death or one hundred years after the birth of the person concerned.

Archival material may also be subject to special confidentiality regulations, such as social, tax or statistical secrecy. In these cases, the relevant archive material is subject to a special retention period of sixty years after the documents were created. Archive material may also be classified as confidential, in which case it can only be used after the confidentiality has been lifted. The Landesarchiv may, upon request, allow early use if a scientific purpose is specified or if legal interests are served by the use. Before submitting your application, please contact Landesarchiv (research enquiry). If the documents are still subject to retention periods, please use the ‘Application for Special Permission’ form to submit your application. The link can be found below. Please also refer to the relevant information sheet.

Reproductions

Reproductions may be made from archive material held by the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen. You may either commission the Landesarchiv's photo workshops to produce reproductions or you may produce reproductions yourself in the reading rooms using your own camera. Please refer to the appendix to the NRW Archive Use and Fee Regulations for the costs incurred. Reproduction orders usually take up to four weeks to process.

Payment information for transfers from abroad can be found in the information sheet listed below under further information.

You can make reproductions in the reading rooms yourself free of charge. The relevant conditions must be confirmed in writing in advance by the reading room supervisor. The reading room supervisor will also check whether the relevant documents may be reproduced independently or whether there are any obstacles (e.g. current protection periods, existing copyrights).

Payment in the reading rooms

Since 1 December 2022, only cashless payment via EC cash terminal has been possible in the reading rooms of the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Citing Correctly

Please refer to archive material from the three departments of the Landesarchiv Nordrhein Westfalen in the following form:

„Landesarchiv NRW Abteilung Ostwestfalen-Lippe, [order reference]" (abbreviation: ‘LAV NRW OWL'),
„Landesarchiv NRW Abteilung Rheinland, [order reference]" (abbreviation: ‘LAV NRW R’),
„Landesarchiv NRW Abteilung Westfalen, [order reference]" (abbreviation: ‘LAV NRW R’),

The decisive factor here is not the individual comma, but the clear designation of the department, as well as the inventory signature (P 3/11) and, if applicable, the inventory name and the number of the individual listing unit (No. 4). The inventory signature (or inventory name, if applicable) and the number of the listing unit together form the order signature.

Further examples:

LAV NRW OWL, D 73 Tit. 4, No. 5778 or
LAV NRW R, Courts Rep. 0011, No. 1245 or
LAV NRW W, K 204/Münster Government, Reparations, No. 4404.

Seeking non-governmental documents

In addition to government documents, the Landesarchiv can also accept non-official archive material of public interest. For historical research, authentic sources from areas of life that are not or insufficiently documented in government records are of particular interest. Do you, your family or your association/organisation have any documents that fit the Landesarchiv's collection profile?