The inventory of the archive 'Green Memory'
The Archive is divided into three main sections: The historical archive, the archive library and the collections.
The historical archive builds the main source for research done at the archive Green Memory. The main part contains office files of the German green party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and their parliamentary groups - from county to EU levels - as well as personal documents of their members. Other parts of the historical archive contain records of the party's precursors and files originating from the new social movements, i.e. feminist, anti-nuclear, pacifist and environmental movements in Germany after 1968. The current volume of the historical archive is filling more than 3 miles of shelves, with over 200 individual-related file collections.
The library assembles all publications of and about Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, related organisations and protagonists of the social movements. Focal points of the library inventory are the party and its precursors, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in Germany's multi-party system, German history after 1968 and the new social movements, as well as the civil movement in the GDR. The library does not only hold commercially published books but also a vast array of grey literature (self-published and/or self-distributed material) and periodicals. The current inventory holds an estimate of 23,500 titles and back issues of 2,100 periodicals. The library is a reference library only and all titles may be used in the archive's reading room.
The collections consist of campaign posters, photographs, audio and video recordings, as well as web content. They provide a very ostensive insight into the history of the party and help its key moments come back to life in a more demonstrative way than any file could do. As of the end of 2012, parts of the collections will be made accessible for research through an online catalogue.
Chronicles of the social movements
The German Green Party was established in 1979-80 as the parliamentary presence of the peace, women’s and Third World movements. The input from those campaigns was reflected in the parliamentary initiatives of the parliamentary party in the Bundestag. Petitions to the Green party’s international solidarity fund reflect Green work in developing countries.
The Archiv Grünes Gedächtnis has also become a repository for Germany’s social movements. The most important documents related to the women’s movement are the Frauenaktion 70 archival materials and the documentation of the Autonomes Frauen-Archiv Wiesbaden. The peace movement is represented by the Netzwerk Friedenskooperative and Netzwerk Friedenssteuer networks. The anti-nuclear archive of the Bielefeld environmental center document initiatives related to Brokdorf, Gorleben and Kalkar since the 1970s, while the El Salvador and Guatemala information centers chronicle solidarity initiatives with Latin America. A major focus of the reference library is on periodicals and gray literature related to the new social movements.
The parliamentary archive
The archive of the European parliamentary group chronicles the Green Party presence in the European Parliament from 1984 to the present. It contains the documents of the European parliamentary group with the files of the general secretariat and the party executive, covering a range of activities from the parliamentary party meetings and the initiatives discussed there to the specialist sections within the parliamentary party on topics such as women’s issues, development and peace policy. Audio recordings are also available of the meetings. The documents of the German delegation are the subject of a dedicated file series.
The parliamentary party archive is supplemented by around twenty depository holdings from MPs who have kindly provided their personal documents from their parliamentary work in Brussels. Among these are holdings from MPs of other EU states whose Green parties have not yet established archives of their own. The combination of documents of the parliamentary party, the general secretariat, the specialist sections and individual MPs represent a valuable history of Green policy in the European Parliament.
