Thuringian Archive Prize 2021 awarded in Jena

The "Arbeitsgemeinschaft thüringischer Kommunalarchive" receives the Thuringian Archive Prize 2021. Thuringia's archivists and the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen (Hesse-Thuringia Savings Banks Cultural Foundation) are thus honoring their committed advocacy for the interests of the city, municipal and district archives in the state.

This year, the Thuringian Archive Prize of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen in conjunction with the Thuringian regional association of the VdA goes to the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft thüringischer Kommunalarchive". The working group supports the archives by providing expert advice and guidance as well as organizing training courses. Among other things, it organizes "regional conferences" to provide Thuringia's archivists with information and further training. The small and smallest municipal archives, which make up the majority of Thuringia's archive landscape, benefit most from this "help for self-help".

From the very beginning, the working group played a key role in shaping the reorganization of the Thuringian archive system from 1991 onwards. It was involved in the process of archive legislation, the establishment of the Thuringian archive portal and the development of digital archive services.

The Managing Director of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen, Matthias Haupt, and Dr. Jens Riederer, Chairman of the Thuringia State Association of the VdA, presented the €5,000 prize to Constanze Mann, Head of the Jena City Archive and Head of the Municipal Archives Working Group, at a ceremony in Jena on 13 October 2021 in the presence of State Secretary Tina Beer.

It is thanks to Constanze Mann's special commitment that more than 30 Thuringian towns and cities have so far presented their address books online in the journals@UrMEL portal of the Thuringian University and State Library Jena, easily accessible sources that are used thousands of times. At the same time, Ms. Mann is responsible for the project of a cartographically supported complete index of civil status registers for the years 1874 to 1950 and thus the digital presentation of another central source of municipal records.

Ms. Mann has rendered great services to the Thuringian archive system with her commitment, which extends to her private life, and enjoys a high reputation among her colleagues.

With the Thuringian Archive Prize 2021, the jury honors the many years of successful work of the AG thüringischer Kommunalarchive under the leadership of Ms. Mann.

The Thuringian Archive Prize has been awarded for the tenth time since 2011. With the prize money of €5,000, the previous winners have been able to realize long-planned projects. The only condition is that the prize money must be spent on archival purposes, otherwise each prize winner is free to use the funds for whatever they wish.