History of the Archives
If one wanted to deal with the history of Switzerland during the Second World War in the 1960s, there was a lack of what historical scholarship was based on: the sources.
Foundation by Klaus Urner
Klaus Urner, then a 24-year-old history student, founded a "Working Group for Contemporary History" on November 1, 1966, to safeguard his collection of historical documents. The Archives of Contemporary History was born.
Meilensteine
- 1966 Foundation of the "Working Group for Contemporary History
- 1974 Establishment of the Institute for History of the ETH Zurich and affiliation of the Archives of Contemporary History
- 1995 Establishment of the Foundation for Jewish Contemporary History at the ETH
- 1996 Rent of the house Hirschengraben 62
- 2006 Establishment of the Foundation Archives of Contemporary History and purchase of the house Hirschengraben 62
- 2007 Gregor Spuhler succeeds Klaus Urner as head of the archive
- 2015 New occupancy of the renovated archive building
- 2016 Anniversary of 50 years of the Archives of Contemporary History (In German: DownloadReflexionen von Ulrich Weidmann, Vizepräsident für Personal und Ressourcen der ETH Zürich (PDF, 281 KB))
Contemporary history in change
The concept of contemporary history has changed in the transition to the 21st century: The original thematic focus on National Socialism has been replaced by a pure epoch designation.
Today, anyone who wants to secure documents on contemporary history must face these questions in the sea of information: What data is being collected? How are they to be structured and prepared in terms of content? To whom will they be made accessible and in what form?
In view of this challenge, convincing and technically sustainable answers are needed. These are provided by the Archives of Contemporary History on the basis of professional information management as a quality-assured institution of ETH Zurich.