Digitization of medieval and early modern archival sources from Eastern Westphalia

• Applicant: Dr. Knut Langewand
• Subject Area: Early Modern History ; Medieval History
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 442828000

Jointly, the Warendorf District Archives and the Regional Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia , Westphalian section (Münster), intend to digitize the medieval and early modern documents of the towns within the current Warendorf district. This includes the holdings of the town archives of Ahlen, Beckum, Warendorf, Oelde and Freckenhorst.The collections date back to the 12th century. They represent the complete local manuscript tradition within the modern-day Warendorf district, the easternmost part of Westphalia. The Warendorf district archives are characterized by their special role as a central archives for almost all municipalities of the district. Due to historical transfers, the complete Ahlen archives and a small part of the Warendorf archives are kept in the Regional Archives in Münster. Through a complete digitization and online access, the archival Collections shall be reunited virtually . The collections to be digitized are as follows:- Stadt Ahlen (Coll. Dep. B 301/B301u in the Regional Archives), - Stadt Beckum (Coll. Stadt Beckum U bzw. A in the District Archives)- Stadt Warendorf (Coll. B 307 in the Regional Archives)- Wigbold Oelde (Coll. Stadt Oelde U bzw. A in the District Archives)- Wigbold Freckenhorst (Coll. Amt Freckenhorst U bzw. A in the District Archives) The documents in the Regional Archives comprise 1,239 files (= 77 boxes) and in the District Archives 2,961 files (=224 boxes). The majority of the medieval and early modern documents from the Warendorf town archives (as part of the District Archives) have already been digitized through a Federal programme (Bundessicherungsverfilmung); the retro-conversion of all early modern collections of the District Archives has been funded by the DFG in 2016. All digitized items will be put online after a successful completion of the project.The digitization will be realized by an external service provider. The character of the medieval and early modern documents necessitates a thorough and careful handling throughout the whole process.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Participating Institution: Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen; Abteilung Westfalen; Kreisarchiv Warendorf
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Frank M. Bischoff; Dr. Mechthild Black-Veldtrup