Recent trip to BA-MA in Freiburg

[Piet Duits]

Hi there,

Hmmm, those pictures are familiar... You were allowed to take these pics, or weren't the staff members around when you took them?

A funny thing: on the entrance door to the stairs there's a note reading:
Bitte achten Sie darauf, dass diese Tür immer geschlossen ist
How the heck do you get in then!

Piet, Smartass

[Richard Hargreaves]

I don't think I ever saw anyone downstairs in all my visits. Even upstairs could be very quiet - not like the IWM and PRO where there are staff (and CCTV) watching you all the time.

[Sledgehammer]

You were allowed to take these pics, or weren't the staff members around when you took them?

on the entrance door to the stairs there's a note reading:
Bitte achten Sie darauf, dass diese Tür immer geschlossen ist

I believe the objective evidence points to me as being a rule-breaker, and actually, in this case, it seems I succeeded in breaking two rules at the same time....

Actually, the answer to your question about pictures was on my edited post that was "eaten" by the *!#%# system. Now you will have to wait with breathless anticipation until I find the time to recapitualte my priceless (in a MasterCard sort of way) observations regarding BAMA.

[John P. Moore]

Sledgehammer - Thanks for posting those pictures. It's interesting to see the differences in the layout of different archives. What exactly were you reseaching at the BA?

John

[bernhard37049]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Doesnt look like a big building and you would think that it coulnt keep all them records but they do. When in the great city of Freiburg did you visit Waldkirch? thanks Bernhard37049

[Richard Hargreaves]

I'm spending a week there at the end of August (ploughing through papers on Breslau, Fremde Heere Ost 1944-1945, and, if time, perhaps some Norway and France 1940). Can't beat a busman's holiday.

Has anything changed in the past couple of years since my last visit (and now Frau Brabant has gone are there any English speakers? My spoken German is schrecklich )

[Piet Duits]

Richard,

Frau Meier can speak english, be it with an accent.
She's really cooperative. Please say hi to her when you visit the BA-MA.

Piet

[Richard Hargreaves]

Is she one of the ones who sits in the little cubicle/office between the reading room and the computer? It only ever seems to be occupied by the scary woman when I go.

[Piet Duits]

Richard,

Frau Helga Waibl is always the last to leave, so you must be meaning her :-)

[Richard Hargreaves]

That's the one Piet! She's an even scarier version of my mum.

By the way, are there any good bookshops in Freiburg? Rombach was ok, and there was another whose name escapes me on the main shopping street near the Munster and the big department store, but not much else from memory, and the second-hand shops (Antiquariat) had rubbish history sections.

[Richard Hargreaves]

Richard,

Frau Meier can speak english, be it with an accent.
She's really cooperative. Please say hi to her when you visit the BA-MA.

Piet

Frau Meier was in today and extremely helpful (especially with my schrecklich Deutsch ). They've made a few changes to the reading room since my last visit - more plugs for laptops which is good. A computer ordering system which is even more complicated than the old one, which is bad. Still, the delivery of material was extremely fast this morning (about an hour), and photocopies are extremely good value at 15c (12p) compared with the IWM.

The bookshops in Freiburg are still filled with populist rubbish though. Bloody Guido Knopp.

[Richard Hargreaves]

For anyone looking at researching the end of the war, be prepared for very scant pickings at BA-MA, I'm afraid.

I guess I knew as much before coming out here, but the sheer wasteland that is 1945 is particularly frustrating. The only material which has really survived is the central stuff, e.g. OKH, Fremde Heere Ost, the Army Group level is pretty well served, and there are bits and bats at Army level. Below that, there's virtually nothing on the Eastern Front - certainly nothing at the divisional level that I was looking for.

The good news is that FrHO files are excellent (and on microfiche for quick copying rather than endless typing), although quite a lot of them at present seem to be under repair/unavailable which is very frustrating. And whoever did the microfiche copying originally didn't always do a brilliant job...