Archive of Christian-Democratic Policy (ACDP)

The ACDP collects, catalogs, and preserves archival material pertaining to Christian Democracy. Its focus lies on providing a high degree of accessibility to users. The archive’s tasks further entail conducting scholarly research as well as publishing pertaining results - both in print and online. In doing so it is also significantly contributing to academic discourse. The ACDP consists of five departments: the Records Archive, the Press Archive, the Media Archive, Publications/Library, and Contemporary History which together form the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s dedicated competence center for deepening and furthering historical and political awareness. In order to meet this aim the ACDP additionally organizes numerous exhibitions and conferences.

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The Records Archive

comprises written records which total over 17,000 meters of files. They focus on

• the CDU, its committees, and its organizations on local, state, and federal levels,
• the CDU/CSU parliamentary group of the Bundestag and the respective CDU parliamentary groups of the Landtage as well as in municipal councils,
• personal papers of the CDU’s leading representatives,
• the CDUD in the former Soviet Occupation Zone / German Democratic Republic
• the European and international confederations of Christian Democratic parties,
• the records of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The Media Archive

comprises the photographic collection which contains approximately 300,000 negatives and prints focusing on

• portraits of the CDU’s representatives,
• the CDU’s conventions and congresses,
• events organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation,
• important historical events, the audiovisual collection which contains
• more than 1,400 films,
• more than 12,000 audio recordings,
• historically important television and radio programs broadcast in the past three decades, and the poster collection which contains more than 22,000 objects, making it one of Germany’s prime repositories for political campaign posters.

The Press Archive

is responsible for providing a comprehensive view on current events in Germany and worldwide as well as for tracing the respective positions different newspapers assume when covering them. Its focus lies on

• the evolution of political parties,
• elections on local, state, federal, and European levels,
• domestic, social, and economic policies, education, arts, sciences, and culture, churches and religious organizations, trade unions and pressure groups,
• foreign and European policies.

For over three decades the Press Archive has been collecting and analyzing more than 40 daily and weekly newspapers, political magazines, and press releases published by parties and organizations. Articles published after 1993 can be easily searched for in the Press Archive’s data base.

The Digital Archive

is responsible for mirroring and thus permanently preserving websites of the CDU and its representatives. To secure this distinct category of historical testimonies for the future, the newly created software tool “Offline Web Archive” is being applied.

The Internet Portals

• History of the CDU (cdu-geschichte.de),
• Konrad Adenauer 1876–1967 (konrad-adenauer.de),
• Helmut Kohl (helmut-kohl.kas.de)

offer extensive biographical data, background information, and interactive timelines and calendars outlining important Christian Democratic figures and historical events. They also contain a substantial and diverse selection of digitized primary sources (speeches, protocols, schedules, audio files, and videos).

Exhibitions

focusing on single aspects or time periods of the Christian Democratic movement make history vivid and tangible.

Scientific Publications

are being regularly released in two book series:

• The “Historisch-Politische Mitteilungen”, an academic journal published once a year, providing essays and contributions to historical aspects of Christian Democracy and the history of the CDU,
• “Forschungen und Quellen zur Zeitgeschichte”, whose more than 60 volumes contain monographic studies and scholarly editions of sources (e.g. minutes, diaries, or written records) focusing on the idea of Christian Democracy, the CDU, and biographies of its leading representatives.

The Library

ranks as the most important academic collection of books covering the history of Christian Democracy in Germany and Europe. It focuses especially on publications on the CDU from 1945 until today. More than 180,000 books and 400 current periodicals on politics, history, economy, the law, theology, and culture are available, with an online catalogue allowing for sophisticated queries based on metadata such as biographic indices, subject headings, and keywords. All resources are available in the library’s reading room.