Archive of Liberalism | |
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51°0′18″N7°34′7″E / 51.00500°N 7.56861°E | |
Location | Theodor-Heuss-Straße 26, Gummersbach, NRW, Germany |
Type | Institutional repository |
Established | 1968 |
Affiliation | Friedrich Naumann Foundation |
Director | Ewald Grothe |
Period covered | 19th century – present |
Employees | 10 |
Building information | |
Building | Theodor-Heuss-Akademie |
Website | www.freiheit.org/buero/archiv-des-liberalismus |
The Archive of Liberalism of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Gummersbach, North Rhine-Westphalia has been in existence since 1968 and is thus the oldest of the six archives of political foundations in Germany.
The Archive of Liberalism collects documents on the history of organized liberalism. In addition to "classical" file material, it also catalogues printed matter, leaflets, posters and other advertising material, as well as photos, films, videos, audio tapes and digital media (including websites). The focus of the collections is on Germany and the period after 1945; a few individual holdings date from the Weimar Republic, very few from the late 19th century. In total, the holdings comprise some 4.9 linear kilometres of files (as of 2020) and some 25,000 units of audiovisual material (posters, films, advertising material). The archive also includes a specialist scientific library with about 42,000 volumes (books, journals, printed matter, articles). The vast majority of the holdings are indexed in a database as well as in analogue or digital finding aids and are made available to users – in compliance with the terms of protection under the Federal Archives Act. [1]
In addition, the archive holds the estates of liberal politicians, including former members of the Bundestag and federal chairmen of the FDP, such as those of the Federal Minister of the Interior and Foreign Affairs Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the Federal President and Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Walter Scheel, the Federal Minister of Justice Thomas Dehler or the Federal Minister of Economics Otto Graf Lambsdorff, the long-standing chairman of the FDP parliamentary group Wolfgang Mischnick or the Vice-President of the German Bundestag Liselotte Funcke.
Further holdings can be found in the archives by the following personalities, among others:
The Free Democratic Party is a liberal political party in Germany.
The German Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Weimar Republic, considered centrist or centre-left. Along with the right-liberal German People's Party, it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the Progressive People's Party and the liberal wing of the National Liberal Party, both of which had been active in the German Empire.
Jürgen Wilhelm Möllemann was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who served as Minister of State at the Foreign Office (1982–1987), as Minister of Education and Research (1987–1991), as Minister of Economics (1991–1993) and as the vice chancellor of Germany (1992–1993) in the government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
Klaus Kinkel was a German statesman, civil servant, diplomat and lawyer who served as the minister of Foreign affairs (1992–1998) and the vice chancellor of Germany (1993–1998) in the government of Helmut Kohl.
Karl-Hermann Flach was a German journalist of the Frankfurter Rundschau and a politician of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
Federal elections were held in West Germany on 28 September 1969 to elect the members of the 6th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU remained the largest faction and the Social Democratic Party remained the largest single party in the Bundestag, winning 237 of the 518 seats. After the election, the SPD formed a coalition with the Free Democratic Party and SPD leader Willy Brandt became Chancellor.
Thomas Dehler was a German politician. He was the Federal Republic of Germany's first Minister of Justice (1949–1953) and chairman of Free Democratic Party (1954–1957).
Hermann Otto Solms is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
Sebastian Edathy is a German former politician. He was a prominent member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and became the chairman of a key committee in January 2012 at the Parliament, which was investigating failures of police and intelligence units in the serial murders of nine immigrants by the far-right German terrorist group National Socialist Underground (NSU) from 2000 to 2007. The NSU committee questioned various officials from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office during 2012 and 2013. His alleged possession of child porn material sparked the Edathy-Affäre.
Peter Hintze was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the German Bundestag from 1990 until his death in 2016.
Michael Georg Link is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has served a member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2013 and again since 2017. In addition to his parliamentary mandate, he has been serving as the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2022.
William Borm was a German politician, of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was a member of the Bundestag from 1965 to 1972, and a member of the FDP National Executive Committee from 1960 to 1982. Several years after his death, it was revealed that since the late 1950s he had been an agent of the Stasi, the State Security Service of the German Democratic Republic.
Johannes Vogel is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2009 until 2013 and since 2017.
Kurt Jung was a German politician (FDP) and architect. He was Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of the Interior from 1972 to 1974, to the Federal Ministry of Transport and Posts and Telecommunications from 1974 to 1976 and to the Federal Minister of Defence from 1982 to 1983.
Karl Gaul was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and former member of the German Bundestag.
Paul Luchtenberg (1890–1973) was a German cultural scientist, educator and politician for the Free Democratic Party, as well as Culture Minister for North Rhine-Westphalia.
Volker Wissing is a German lawyer, former judge and politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as the party's General Secretary since 2020, and as Minister for Transport in the federal government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021. He previously was the Deputy Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate in the state government under Minister-President Malu Dreyer from 2016 to 2021 and a member of the German Parliament from 2004 to 2013.
Michael Stübgen is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as State Minister of the Interior and for Local Affairs in the cabinet of Minister-President of Brandenburg Dietmar Woidke since 2019. He previously served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Brandenburg from 1990 till 2019.
Wolfgang Mischnick was a German liberal politician (FDP). From 1961 to 1963 he was Federal Minister for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims and from 1968 to 1991 Chairman of the FDP parliamentary group and opposition leader from 1968/69.
Hermann Rudolf Schäfer was a German politician. From 1953 to 1956, he was Federal Minister for Special Tasks.
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