Services and Holdings

The corporate archive is open to the public and gives doctoral students, other students, and academics the opportunity to research the company’s history. We disclose documents in compliance with the Federal Archives Act.
Of course we are also happy to help with enquiries that don’t require viewing documents. Whether you need information about Bertelsmann’s history, revenue figures from past years, historical photos or the like, please feel free to send us an e-Mail! 

The following provides an initial overview of our holdings:

IHC Collection: 
The IHC Collection spans ten meters (32 ft) of shelf space, and focuses on the years between 1921 and 1947. It contains business papers, as well as documents from the establishment of the publishing company, and papers relating to the Bertelsmann/Mohn families. 

The objective pursued by the Independent Historical Commission (IHC) was to investigate the history of C. Bertelsmann Verlag during the period from 1921 to 1951. The Commission compiled materials from more than 50 Archives to complement the scanty archive holdings from the time. It also held two dozen talks with contemporary witnesses. After three years of research, the Commission now presents its 800-page report, which was published by C. Bertelsmann as "Bertelsmann in the Third Reich" (Report: ISBN 3-570-00711-1; Full Bibliography 3-570-00712-X).

Files: 
Our archive of files is growing constantly. It includes minutes, contracts, records of business transactions, manual deliveries, balance sheets, statistics, strategy papers, office liquidations and much more from the time after 1947 to the present day. Interviews with contemporary witnesses form a complementary library of documentation that is undergoing steady expansion. 

Internal publications, posters and promotional material: 
Employee newsletters, image brochures, product catalogs and promotional materials provide interesting insights into internal processes as well as into media products from the past five decades. The development of the Lesering in the 1950s and 1960s, in particular, is vividly documented. The Corporate Archive has poster collections from the 1920s – 1950s as well as more recent press and public relations documentation. 

Pictures and audiovisual media: 
Our holdings include approx. 200,000 photos in digital form, as prints or as negatives. The earliest photos date back to the early 20th century, while the bulk of the collection spans the years between 1950 and today. The audiovisual stacks, in particular, which already contain several thousand data carriers, are growing very rapidly. 

Record collection: 
The Corporate Archive owns a one-of-a-kind library of German and international music history after World War II, with nearly 40,000 records (LPs) from five decades.