Special Areas of Military Documents

Private Diaries, Field Post 

The Military Archive of the Federal Archives holds several hundred bequests and collections on German military history from private sources. They supplement the partially incomplete official holdings.

The diaries, memoirs and field post with family members are highly authentic and contemporary personal testimonies that supplement the official military archives by providing the subjective perspective of German military personnel.

They are a versatile and high-quality source basis for research on a wide range of topics pertaining to event, political, social and organisational history, examining daily life, mentalities and cultural contexts, analysing moods, thoughts and actions or researching individual and group biographies.

Service Regulations, Ranking Lists

The holdings of official military printed matter include a collection of military ordinance sheets, rank and seniority lists, service regulations and information sheets for all branches of the armed forces, and documentation on troop strength and equipment.

It covers the period from the Prussian Army in the mid-19th century to the Bundeswehr as an operational army integrated into multinational structures.

The official military documents facilitate research into organisational and technical history; they document the development of operational principles in the land, air and naval forces and, elucidate, for example, the work processes in a multinational headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

The collection is constantly being expanded.

Military Maps

The holdings of the Federal Archives Military Archive contain nearly 750,000 military maps, which can be categorised into two groups:

1. Site maps to the official documentary holdings (e.g. situation maps with frontline changes or attachments to war diaries)

2. Collection with topographical and specialised maps 

The spectrum of military maps far exceeds the presentation of events and movements in space as depicted in traditional position maps. Military geodesy, topography, geography, geology and geoinformatics provide important support services – both for defence and security planning at a strategic level and for specific operations at an operational and tactical level.

In addition, there are cartographic representations of military geographical factors such as infrastructure, resources, population distribution, demographic-ethnographic composition, geographical and political borders, topography, weather and climate, water and waterways as well as flora and fauna.

On the basis of national defence – the original mission of the armed forces, the maps’ geographical frame of reference ranges from the territories of the German state to all regions of the world relevant to the deployment of German land, sea and air forces.

You will therefore find topographical maps of the Prussian land survey of the German Reich, maps of the spoils of the two world wars, nautical charts, e.g. of the German colonies in the Pacific region, aeronautical charts of the Wehrmacht and NATO, of the GDR border fortifications, depth charts of the submarine operation in the Horn of Africa as well as terrain and road accessibility maps of the Hindu Kush region.

If you have any questions, please contact the Military Archive Department (telephone: +49 0761 47817 864, e-mail: militaerarchiv@bundesarchiv.de).

Maps and Technical Drawings of Military Provenance

Around 250,000 maps and technical drawings are stored in the Federal Archives – Military Archives. These mostly large-format documents cover all eras of German military history from the past century and a half.

Because the military was always engaged in technical development and testing, the preserved technical drawings offer a clear overview of large parts of German technological history.

They not only allow individual studies of the development, functionality or performance of individual weapon systems, but also allow us to trace the technological development of entire types of weaponry. For example, the development of tank construction can be traced from the first German armoured vehicle ‘A7V’ of World War I to the heavy battle tank ‘Königstiger’ of War World II and the current combat upgrades of the Bundeswehr’s ‘Leopard II’ battle tank.

This very detailed archive material is not only important as a basis for the scientific reappraisal of technological history; the drawing sets are often essential for the museum restoration of preserved war equipment.

Documents on Awarding Medals and Decorations

In the Military Archives Department, the following collections contain documents on the awarding of decorations as well as award proposals:

RH 7 - OKH / Heerespersonalamt
RW 59 - Personalverwaltende Stellen der Wehrmacht

The award lists concern the Iron Cross (EK) and the War Merit Cross (KVK). The losses here are relatively low. However, regarding the lists of Iron Cross awards, the following lists were lost due to removal from storage: from the Polish, Norwegian, Western and Balkan campaigns and from the Eastern campaign of Infantry Divisions 1 to 132 up to the summer of 1943.

Based on the personal data contained in the award lists, they can be used in part as a replacement for the lost master rolls. Unlike the War Merit Cross, the Iron Cross had no fixed award dates and the lists were compiled monthly. Therefore, even units that were only subordinate for a short time appear in the EK award lists.

Library Holdings on the Military

The library collection supplements the military records since 1867 and comprises over 87,000 volumes.

Particularly noteworthy is the extensive collection of division histories, biographies, military and army affairs and war history. It is supplemented by reference works in the fields of history, politics, law as well as general and specialised reference works.

Use

The library holdings are available to both archive users and staff. They can be used via local lending or by employees in person. The Freiburg location is not connected to the interlibrary loan system.

The online catalogue contains more than 8,500 titles and standard records relating to the collection focus; new acquisitions since 1996 are included in full. The new acquisitions, organised by month, are listed at this link  and divided into various subject areas.

Conventional alphabetical catalogues and subject catalogues on site provide access to the large collection of literature with a predominantly military focus that is not yet included in the online catalogue.

Current new acquisitions related to the military in the online catalogue