The Corporate Archive and Our Portfolio

Bertelsmann’s traditions and history date back to the year 1835. Since its establishment in October 2002, the Corporate History department has devoted itself to documenting the company’s history. The archive grew out of the work done by the Independent Historical Commission (IHC), which was commissioned to research Bertelsmann’s role in the Third Reich. As the central point of contact for all matters of company history, the Corporate Archive seeks out, stores and documents all meaningful sources of company history: files, correspondence, photos, presentations, posters and much more.

Downloads Contact

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.

Book Cover of "Bertelsmann im Dritten Reich"

The 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.

Record Collection

Five decades worth of vinyl records, the corporate archive contains about 40,000 pieces and is a unique documentation of German and international music history after the Second World War.

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.

Bus advertising the "Bertelsmann Lexikon" in 1955

Images and Videos

Approximately 200,000 photos are available in digital form, as prints, or as negatives. The first images date back to the early 20th century, the main body covers the years from the 1950s to today. Comprising several thousand data carriers, the audivisual archive is constantly growing.

Publisher's Archive

The publisher's archive unites all new releases of almost every Bertelsmann publishing house in the period from 1835 to 2000. This archive gives testament to the extensive publishing activity of Bertelsmann.

Downloads

PDF, 42 KB

Contact