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New starting-points
in Postwar Germany
Several approaches towards content-oriented
selection were formulated in postwar Germany. In
1957 Wilhelm Rohr15 observed that in the 1920s
the prevailing passive and confident attitude
changed and a systematic approach was developed
as a result of practical challenges. A systematizadon
of appraisal started and raised the claim to a
conscious principle that archival institutions have
to receive archives and records of all administrative
agencies, no matter which form they have or where
they are situated in the hierarchy.' In contrast to
that situation he stated that in his time modern
agencies delivered pure mass production which had
no value after its creation.
Georg Wilhelm Santé'6 spoke in the same vein
when he said about acquisition and appraisal of
modern records: 'We see that drudgery as a sure
ruin of the academic archivist. Certain develop
ments in the profession of librarians, who run the
danger to lose their academic character by simply
serving their books should warn us, not to go in the
same direction and to be overrun by the bulk of
reco ds.' And Fritz Zimmerman stated that the
archival value is dependent on content and that the
idea of provenance had to be brought to the
background.
In 1970 Hans Booms joined this mode of thought
with a paper presented at the German annual
archives conference, an enlarged version of which
was printed in 1972 and recently translated into
English and published in Archivaria.'? It was
written at a time when acquisitions from big
administrations occurred regularly and for the first
time in archival history, at least in West-Germany,
there were no guidelines for archival acquisition
and appraisal in a situation of peace.
This article, with its statement that the principle of
provenance is not an adequate means of appraisal
and even that it should be regarded as a principle of
arrangement, expressed an attitude quite contrary
to the actual practice of the Federal Archives, of
which Hans Booms was about to take on director
ship. It can only be fully understood against the
background of the political situation in Germany at
that time. Just like Sante, Rohr and others before
him, he pleaded for a complete documentation of
society at a given time and he postulated this as a
professional duty of archivists.
On the common basis of the demand for historical
research as guidance for appraisal Booms uncons
ciously offered a suitable model, the documen
tation plan, which was in fact realized ten years
later in East Germany.'8 In view of the political
differences between West and East Germany from
1945 until 1989 it is quite astonishing that ideas
formulated in the West were put into practice in
the socialist state in the East. The archival history
of East Germany can in fact be regarded as an
experimental realization of content-oriented
appraisal, as opposed to the intention of archives to
lay bare the processes of decision making. It would
be a challenging task and an extremely useful
undertaking for German archivists to analyze in
detail policies and procedures in the East-German
archival administration. Without anticipating the
results of such investigations I will now describe
some of the decisive elements of the theory and
practice of appraisal in East Germany and I will try
to show how and why it demonstrates the
weaknesses and dangers of content-oriented
appraisal in archives. Content-oriented selection
makes archival work vulnerable to political
intrumentalization because confirmation from the
outside is needed, and archives cannot control their
premises themselves. Assuming that 'the value of
archives is determined by the social importance of
events, activities and subjects which it refers to' a
Framework Documentation Profile was developed
in the early 1980s. It entailed a list of about
500 events, which was approved of by historians
from the Humboldt University'9 and legitimated
by the Ministry of the Interior. Historical events
which ought to be documented were for example:
High-standard arrangement of national and
regional cultural events
Augmented book-reading and book-studying
habits
Impact of the situation of the capitalist world-
market and the imperialist politics of boycott on
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the production of the collective combines and
firms.
Archival appraisal of administrative files with the
aim of illustrating statements which had been
approved by state authorities beforehand, means
that the records are fitted into a certain political
image of history. What makes such documentation
plans critical is the fact that they presuppose
knowledge about history. Content-oriented
documentation plans turn archival working
methods upside down: results of research must be -
usually unconsciously - anticipated and
furthermore they must be evaluated before any
appraising and arranging is done by archives.20
Not the content of documentation plans but the
working method they imply, creates insurmoun
table contradictions. The profession is supposed to
remain under age, and a secondary qualification of
archivists - usually as historians - seems to be
unavoidable and even more important than the
professional training for the central task of
appraising records.
The Framework Documentation Profile, which
Hans Booms considered in 1990 to be the
realization of his ideas from 1970, was decisive in
the political intrumentalization of archives because
of the working methods it implied. The example of
the gdr is the only case where a documentation
plan was implemented. Great difficulties arose
when it was to be applied in daily work21, but what
it intended is obvious. This may show us where
such strategies may lead us. Important decisions are
delegated and removed from the profession.
Archival work is reduced to a mere following of
guidelines which cannot be investigated, even if
they make archivists act as instruments for political
aims which we would not support as individuals.
The unification of appraisal
and provenance
Influenced by the Prussian theory and practice,
which was transferred to the United States by the
German emigrant Ernst Posner who had worked
with Brenneke, the National Archives of
Washington developed a theory which, up until
now, presents the most consistent application of the
premises of the free principle of provenance to
appraisal. It was Theodore R. Schellenberg who
formulated this theory in his bulletin no. 8 as
internal guidelines for the archivists of the National
Archives.22 As his ideas are all too frequently
misunderstood, I will describe them in some
detail.23
Schellenberg noted that 'Public records are
preserved in an archival institution because they
have values that will exist long after they cease to be
of current use, and because their value will be for
others than the current users.'24
Following this observation he formulates the basis
of his theoretical approach, which is the distinction
between primary and secondary values. The
primary values are based on the usefulness of
records for the administrative activities for which
they were created. The secondary values are based
on the usefulness for investigation and research.
Archivists nor administrative sciences have as yet
developed a concept of primary values.25 Instead,
Schellenberg offers a concept of secondary values,
which may guide the process of appraisal for
archival retention. There he makes his well-known,
but often misunderstood distinction between
evidential and informational values. The concept of
informational value is quite clear.
Informational values Even for the
value of the mere informational content of records
Schellenberg offers a set of steps for a formal
analysis. The test on informational value is to check
the factual information about the subjects of
administrative activities, such as persons, things or
phenomena. He offers three criteria:
1 Uniqueness both of the information and of the
record.
2 Form of information in the records and form of
the records themselves. This means a degree to
which information is concentrated. A few facts
about a few persons, things, or phenomena, many
facts about a few persons, things, and phenomena,
or many facts about diverse matters - persons,
