University Archives

For some years now, archives have increasingly defined themselves as service providers and have sought to make their "treasures" accessible to a broader public. In line with the University’s own “Guidelines on the Retention, Separation, Archiving and Destruction of Records” of 9 December 2003, the University Archive has the mission of making the archived material available for use, as well as researching and publishing the material itself.

As well as more traditional forms of outreach such as putting on exhibitions and delivering lectures, it also undertakes other activities. These include historical and political educational work, which is carried out primarily in cooperation with the Faculty of History, and training sessions for administrative staff. It also produces series of articles inspired by the archives, most of which appear in the University’s in-house publications.

If you are interested in the history of Bielefeld University, we offer a chronological overview  and an interactive visual-timeline with the most important events since the University was founded. For more in-depth research, we have compiled a bibliography of publications on various aspects of the University's history.