Discovering evidence of hidden legacies in the archive

Contaminated sites can have a cause that lies far back in time. Invisible and forgotten, a danger lurks in the soil, water or buildings.

Contaminated sites are - as the word implies - "old", often invisible and forgotten. A contaminated site was caused by activity Y and substances Z in period X.

When searching for XYZ, it helps to look at "old" documents. If the period X is far in the past, the competent authority/institution may no longer have any documents, as the deadline for the retention obligation has expired. What now?

Authorities in Germany are obliged to offer files to the competent archive after the retention period has expired. Federal authorities hand over the files to the Federal Archives, Land authorities to the Land or state archives and municipal authorities to the city and municipal archives. The archival holdings of authorities from the time before the founding of the FRG are also kept according to this principle.

The documents handed in, usually closed files of an authority from a certain period or scientific collections of individual persons, are evaluated by the archivist in charge. He decides what is to be preserved for posterity on the basis of established evaluation criteria. In Germany, about 3% of the files are declared worthy of archiving, the rest are "cashed", i.e. destroyed. Also, when archives are rebuilt, holdings are moved, etc., further archival records may be removed from the holdings due to a lack of space, among other reasons.

Successful archival research begins with intensive preparation, which for a site includes the essential key points of WHEN (which period) and WHO should narrow down. Only then can a search be carried out successfully. The evaluation of the archival records found usually yields further traces to institutions or authorities.

For 30 years, Mull und Partner Ingenieurgesellschaft has been conducting archival research in national and international archives to reconstruct the history of a wide variety of sites, including former ammunition depots, barracks, industrial plants, but also motorway sections or waterways and locks. The focus is on potential #legacy sites, #armament legacy sites and #combatants. The findings from this research are recorded in the company's own database #Portal-H and can be called up at any time.

Our team of historians, geographers and engineers is also ready to answer your individual questions.

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