The Military History Research Institute does not have its own archives. The main part of the archival documents on German military history from the middle of the 19th Century to the present are kept in the Federal Archives, Military Division, a department of the Federal Archives under the responsibility of the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs. This department is responsible for the archival material of the Prussian Army as from 1867, the German Imperial Navy, the Protection Forces and the Volunteer Corps, the Reichswehr, the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, the National People's Army, including the border troops of the GDR, and the Bundeswehr. Most of the archival material of the Prussian Army and the documents of the central activities of the Wehrmacht and the Army Command, the army activities below division level as well as the German Air Force has been irretrievably lost as a result of the Second World War. The majority of the war journals of the command authorities of the Army (High Commands of the Army Groups, Supreme Commands of the Army and General Commands) and the division staffs until 1943 as well as the archive material of the Navy, however, could be preserved. Some of the archival sources - mainly parts of the archive material of the Waffen-SS and the Reich's court- martial - have been held in foreign safekeeping since the end of World War II, in particular in states of Eastern and Middle Eastern Europe.

The personnel documents of the Wehrmacht and its entourage are administered by the Federal Archives and the German Office for the notification of the families of soldiers of the former German Wehrmacht killed in action (WASt, Deutsche Dienststelle für die Benachrichtigung der Angehörigen von Gefallenen der ehemaligen deutschen Wehrmacht, Eichborndamm 179, 13403 Berlin). The Federal Archives, Military Division, also stores bequests or collections connected with military history, archival documents of veterans’ associations, military history associations and military tradition associations.

Older military documents are kept by the State Archives of the Bundesländer, those of the military agencies of the German Federal State by the Federal Archive in Koblenz (Bundesarchiv, Potsdamer Straße 1, 56075 Koblenz), those of the Prussian Army until the foundation of the North German Federation in the year 1867 by the Secret State's Archive of Prussian Cultural Heritage (Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Archivstraße 12-14, 14195 Berlin).

The archival material of the Bavarian Army, the Saxon Army, the XIII. and the XIV. army corps of Württemberg up to the year 1918 is kept by the Bavarian State's Main Archive/Division War Archive (Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv/Abteilung Kriegsarchiv, Leonrodstraße 57, 80636 München), the Saxon State's Main Archive (Sächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Archivstraße 14, 01097 Dresden), in the Main State's Archive Stuttgart (Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, Konrad- Adenauer-Straße 4, 70173 Stuttgart), respectively in the General Federal Archive Karlsruhe (Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe, Nördliche Hildapromenade 2, 76133 Karlsruhe). These archives hold substitution documents for parts of the destroyed archive material of the Prussian Army in their safekeeping. The archival documents can be used in accordance with section 5 of the Federal Archives Act (Bundesarchivgesetz) of 6 January 1988 (Federal Law Gazette (BGBl) I p. 62), as last amended on 13 March 1992 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 506) and the Ordinance Governing the Use of Archival Documents at the Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv- Benutzungsverordnung) of 29 October 1993 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 1857). Fees for the use of the Federal Archives will be charged in accordance with the Federal Archives' Cost Regulations of 29 September 1997 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 2380). For terms and conditions of use and a list of the archive's inventory please refer to the homepage of the Federal Archives: http://www.bundesarchiv.de.

You can reach the Federal Archives - Military Division at the following address:

Bundesarchiv - Militärarchiv
Wiesentalstraße 10
79115 Freiburg
Phone: 0761-47817-0
Fax: 0761-47817-900
Email: militaerarchiv@barch.bund.de