The postgraduate archival education in Marburg was divided into two parts. For
the first six months the students worked in one of the German state archives.
There they were taught all aspects of archival daily work, for example: visiting and
advising administrations, appraisal, description, shelving, different aspects of
preservation and public relations work and much more. Additionally, they visited
many different kinds of archives and heard many lectures about palaeography,
medieval and modern diplomatics, as well as French and Latin.
After that half year, they moved from all over Germany to Marburg to obtain
their theoretical education within the next 18 months. Their educational
background was an examination in history and also a PhD in history. In the
late 80s, early 90s the lessons were given mainly by the staff of the Archivschule.
The remainder (about 972 hours) was given by colleagues who were working in
different branches of archives and who only came to Marburg to give lectures
for a few hours or a maximum of one day per week. At the end of their studies,
students took 4 written and 6 oral examinations: The four written exams (the
transcription and diplomatic analysis of a medieval Latin charter, a medieval
German charter, a French modern text and a German modern text) took five
hours each. The six oral examinations lasted 20 minutes each and the topics
were mostly history and auxiliary sciences (archival science, medieval auxiliary
science, modern diplomatics, social and economic history, legal history, history
of the single German states, constitutional and administrative history).5
In the 80s, the students as well as many colleagues in different German archives
criticized this kind of education, especially focusing on the issue that the
education of all German archivists depended on the knowledge and didactical
talents of colleagues from one single state archives. In 1988, the position of a
programme director was created. Angelika Menne-Haritz was appointed and
given the task of reforming the educational programme.
The situation in the Netherlands at that time
Many things were similar in The Netherlands, since in 1980 the Archie/school
was located at the National Archives (Algemene Rijksarchief)6 The staff of the
Archiefschool included only a director, a vice director and a part-time secretary,
and most of the lectures were given by archivists and academic staff from all over
the Netherlands. The Archiefschool was independent of the archives in the sector
of the Ministry of Public Welfare, Health and Culture and also had a council,
although it was a bit smaller than the Marburg council.
There were the same two levels of courses as in Marburg: graduate and post
graduate. In addition to this, the Archiefschool offered training courses on special
topics and also for staff without any formal education. The sites for the practical
PROFESSIONALITEIT
5 About the first 40 years of Archives School Marburg see: Walter Heinemeyer: 40 Jahre Archivschule
Marburg 1949-1989 in: Archiv für Diplomatik, Bd. 35 (1989), S. 631-671; Fritz Wolf: Die wissenschaftli-
che Archivarsausbildung an der Archivschule Marburg als postuniversitarer Ausbildungsgang in: Wilhelm A.
Eckhardt (Ed.): Wissenschaftliche Archivarsausbildung in Europa. (Veröffentlichungen der Archivschule
Marburg, Vol. 14) Marburg 1989, p. 107-113.
6 To gain an overview of the history of archival education in the Netherlands see: Peter Horsman: 'Kennis,
thee en een koekje - Het archiefonder wijs in Nederland' in: Archievenblad 112, 2008, p.10-15.
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