Stadt- und Vestisches Archiv Recklinghausen

The Stadt- und Vestisches Archiv Recklinghausen is one of the most important municipal archives in Westphalia. It is the “memory of the past” and the “material” memory of the city and Vest Recklinghau...

The Stadt- und Vestisches Archiv Recklinghausen is one of the most important municipal archives in Westphalia. It is the “memory of the past” and the “material” memory of the city and Vest Recklinghausen, a place where history is kept in its immediate written form. At the same time, the city archive is a modern service provider and an open forum for anyone interested in history in the city and region.

The Stadt- und Vestisches Archiv Recklinghausen seeks and maintains cooperation with researchers, teachers, students, schoolchildren, associations, history workshops and all historically committed citizens. On the ground floor of the Institute for Urban History, users have access to a spacious, modern, daylight-lit reading room in which they can do extensive research and study. An additional seminar room is available for project and work groups of all kinds, in which joint and intensive research can be carried out. The open-minded employees are happy to provide expert advice. The technical equipment of the reading room guarantees contemporary user-friendliness:

  • illuminated repro table with reflex camera
  • Readers for 35mm roll films/microfiches
  • Power connections for laptops
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Stadt- und Vestisches Archiv Recklinghausen

Opening Times & Contact

Your Contact

Hohenzollernstraße 12
45659 Recklinghausen
Germany

Phone number
+49 2361-501901
E-Mail
Matthias.Kordes@recklinghausen.de
Homepage of the archive
Opening hours
Monday, Tuesday, Friday: 8:00 am - 13:00 pm

Wednesday: 8:00 am - 16:00 pm

Thursday: 8:00 am - 16:00 pm
Our holdings

Municipal stocks as well as unofficial delivery hive

The basis of the archival tectonics up to the mid-1920s was the old and core traditions of the city, on the one hand from the foundation of the city (1236) to the end of the 18th century (today: inventory of Bestand Stadtarchiv I), and on the other from the end of the Electoral Cologne period Until the age of high industrialization (inventory of Bestand Stadtarchiv II: circa 1800 to 1900).

It was only after the Second World War that the characteristic of being primarily a historical archive for Vest Recklinghausen began to recede compared to the requirements of modern file management: in 1964, for many decades in the Rathauskeller, about 25,000 files from the Recklinghausen city administration that were stored in a disorderly manner, were checked for archival quality and the work started. About 6,600 files remained (from around 1900 to around the beginning of the 1970s), which make up Bestand Stadtarchiv III, which is largely accessible today. This inventory is a self-contained unit.

Documents from the period after around the mid-1970s or levies that are still part of the Stadtarchiv III, but were later transferred to the Stadt- und Vestisches Archiv Recklinghausen incorporated into a modern inventory structure following the principle of provenance.

In addition, there are estates, collections as well as extensive newspaper and photo holdings.

Territorial holdings - (additional) designation "Vestisches Archiv"

Herzoglich Arenbergische Herrschaft (1802 to 1810, among which also a lot of written material from the Cologne period has been preserved (12th century to 1802).

In 1926 the files of the dissolved "Amt Recklinghausen" (Landgemeinde Recklinghausen, 1837 to 1926) were added, 1929 The Count's Westerholt family has also handed over an extensive depository inventory (contains documents from the end of the 13th century, files from the 15th century). Against this background, the name "City and Vestisches Archiv" has been used since the 1920s. These old and aristocratic holdings, which provide an extensive territorial tradition for the regional history between Emscher and Lippe, prompted entry in 1986 with the Federal Minister of Justice List of nationally valuable archives.