German Diaries
Roger Moorhouse visits a unique archive of diaries from German history
The Diary Archive was founded in 1998 by local business-woman Frauke von Troschke. Motivated in part by the example of the town of Pieve Santo Stefano in Tuscany, home to the Italian national diary archive, she decided to establish an analogous archive for the German-speaking world.
But it was also clear to her that an archive to record the lives of ordinary Germans was a vital undertaking. Although the diaries and papers of prominent personalities might be stored in public archives, those of ordinary Germans were held to be of little public interest and would moulder in attics or simply be discarded. The new archive – Mrs von Troschke determined – would preserve them and make them available for research.
The Archive has grown steadily, accepting diaries and memoirs from house-clearances or those donated by the authors themselves or by family members. Press campaigns served to spread the word, and soon the Archive’s catchment area encompassed the entire German-speaking world.
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