The Archive Vault in Wolfenbüttel

Photo: Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv

A new application allows visitors to enter the animated archive, select and open drawers of the archive installations and, eventually, take out and look at documents – from maps to visitation records or tax lists. Each document will be complemented by respective information fields.

In the former seat of government of the Dukes of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, the so-called new chancellery in Wolfenbüttel, there are still unique archive installations in the former archive vaults. In the course of the new permanent exhibition in the main building of the LM Braunschweig (Vieweghaus), a computer terminal will bring the user closer to this archive in the context of regional history, but also to the archival practice of the early modern period. The basis of the application will be 3D images taken in collaboration with the UWA project ‘Buildings, Rooms and Furniture. Material and Spatial Dimensions of Early Modern European Archives’, which employs the archive in Wolfenbüttel as a case study.

The application that is currently being developed will allow visitors to enter the animated archive, select and open drawers of the archive installations and, eventually, take out and look at documents – from maps to visitation records or tax lists. Each document will be complemented by respective information fields.

The application serves to illustrate the processes of archive use and their internal organisation. Furthermore, it illuminates material characteristics of the documents and their storage. The result is a presentation of the archive in the new permanent exhibition of the Landesmuseum Braunschweig, which offers the museum an interactive opportunity to integrate this important part of the region's history.