Archives of Contemporary History
Archives of Contemporary History at ETH Zurich
Archival core processes: securing, developing, preserving, and mediating historical cultural assets
Detonation cloud of an atomic test on the Marshall Islands, 1952 (AfZ, NL Werner Rings / 196)
Threaded studs at Landis & Gyr, 1963 (AfZ / IB LG-Audiovisuals / FA.13415)
"The milk of the pious way of thinking", 1969 (AfZ, NL Hans U Steger / 768)
Extent
- Total of 803 personal papers, institutional archives and collections (4,469 metres in total) (AfZ Online Archives)
- Indexed and publicly searchable archive records: 612 fonds / 3412 linear metres / 201,001 dossiers
- 30,605 books
Holdings
- Economics: e.g. archives Economiesuisse, Swiss Employers' Association, Swissmem, Swiss Textiles, Landis&Gyr
- Jewish history: e.g. archives Swiss Refugee Council, Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, Association of Swiss Jewish Refugee Aid and Welfare Organisations, Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich
- Politics: e.g. personal papers of Werner Rings, Alfred A. Häsler, Gustav Däniker, Carlo Jagmetti
Relevance of research and Public
The Archives of Contemporary History is a service provider for teaching and research. It provides access to private documents from the recent past, advises researchers in their search for archive material and offers teaching and further education events in cooperation with universities, universities of applied sciences and professional associations
The archive organises academic and secondary school courses and designs specialist archival training and further education programmes. It is networked with universities, memory institutions and professional associations in Switzerland and abroad and maintains corresponding partnerships and project co-operations.
Current activities, projects
- Digitization of the holdings in collaboration with ETH-Bibliothek's DigiCenter
- Online access to the digital copies (Jewish periodicals, Image Archive etc.) in the virtual reading room AfZ Online Archives, AfZ Online Collections
- VSJF memorial project to secure the estates of Holocaust survivors in Switzerland.
Use of the archive / online presence
- AfZ Online Archives – All information for web-based searches of the holdings in the virtual reading room.
- AfZ Online Collections - Full text search in selected series of text documents
- external page AfZ Quickaccess – Browse through selected image holdings
- external page Archives Online – Comprehensive searches in Swiss archives