Equipment of the reading room

We offer 15 workstations where you can consult archival materials and books from our library during the opening hours of our reading room.
A member of staff will be happy to advise you on how to obtain information and sources on topics related to the history of the city.
 
At the user PCs you can use finding aids and card indexes for your research.
On the order slips provided, you can note down the call numbers of the archival documents you are interested in.
These documents, files, photos, maps or plans must first be retrieved from the stacks.

You are welcome to bring a laptop with you: Power sockets are available at every workstation; you can use our WLAN in the reading room free of charge ("MS-public").

You can order archival materials in advance by telephone: 02 51/4 92-47 11 or by e-mail: archiv@stadt-muenster.de.

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Relevant Links to The Topic
Digital application form (in German only)

Photographing archive material yourself

The use of one's own digital or mobile phone camera is permitted when browsing public domain archive material:

Before being issued, the archival records are checked, if necessary, to see whether the archival protection periods have expired and whether copyrighted material is contained. Public domain archival records are then given a green insert; if there are restrictions, an orange or red sheet is inserted.
The use of flash devices and flatbed scanners is not permitted in order to avoid damage to the archive material.

Fees: This is what our services cost you!

We charge administrative fees on the basis of the statutes for the Münster City Archives including the regulations on use and fees (Archive Statutes, Official Gazette of the City of Münster No. 23 of 2.7.2021), which were adopted by the City Council on 23.06.2021.

Here are the most important regulations in brief:

§ 8 Principles of charging fees

Personal use of archival records and the reference library on the premises of the City Archives is generally free of charge.

Administrative fees must be paid for other forms of use through which the City Archives incur administrative expenses (personnel or material costs), as well as for the granting of exploitation rights.

A minimum fee of € 10.00 applies to invoices.

§ 9 Fees for the use of archival materials

  1. Personnel expenses incurred in research, answering enquiries, making archival materials available or special expenses for reprography, per quarter of an hour or part thereof - € 10.00.
  2. Fee for copies made by the users themselves from printed works when using the coin copier per page - € 0.10, when using the reader-printer/microfilm scanner per page - € 0.30
  3. Production of scans or reprographies from archival materials or printed works per scan or copy - € 0.50. Sending scans as e-mail attachments or download links is free of charge. Sending scans on storage media or printouts costs a flat rate of € 2.00.
  4. Certified copies, photocopies (e.g. for school reports) - flat rate of € 10.00.
  5. Fees for certified copies of marriage, civil partnership, birth and death certificates - € 14.00 per certificate (€ 9.00 per additional copy if there are multiple copies of the same certificate).
  6. Fees for information from the registration files - € 15.00 per information (for more complex searches, the hourly rate from § 9 (1) applies).
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§ 10 Charges due to the granting of exploitation rights

  1. Public domain archival materials for which the rights of use and exploitation under copyright law have expired or for which no copyrights have arisen due to their context of origin as official written material may be subsequently used free of charge if protection periods or other rights of third parties are not affected.
  2. Granting of exploitation rights for archival material with the character of a work within the meaning of the Copyright Act, insofar as the rights are held by the City of Münster:
  3. Per illustration of a photograph or a page from other archival material in a printed work
  • Print run of less than 1,000 copies - € 10.00
  • Print run from 1,000 to 4,999 copies - € 15.00
  • Print run of 5,000 and more - € 25.00
  • For each reproduction of a photograph or a page from other archival material in a film, video, on the internet, eBook or an exhibition - flat rate of € 25.00.

     4. Additional personnel expenses for the production or provision of reprographies or digital copies suitable for publication - see above. § 9 (1).

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