The Economic Archive (WiA) was created in 1914 as the first information department of the newly founded Institute for Maritime Traffic and the World Economy. It provided information about economic activities all over the world from the daily and weekly press. The collections from 1914-1920 were lost during the Second World War; of the other holdings only those parts are left which were microfilmed or digitised.
After the First World War, the collection was reorganised and a new classification system developed. This collection started in 1920. Articles were sorted by geographic regions and countries, within these countries by subjects that were subdivided, and then sorted chronologically within the subdivisions. The focus was on economics and business, but related fields such as politics, science and culture were also taken into consideration to allow a full documentation of the countries. The collection was strongly oriented towards research and teaching at the Kiel Institute which explains some of the collection focuses.
The subject collection until 1945 is available completely on microfilm. Material about Germany is available on microfilm for the entire existence of the archive. Some industrial countries and regions are also available on microfilm. During the joint digitisation project of the HWWA and the Kiel Institute, the first 700 raw microfilms and some of the dossiers on persons held in Kiel were included and are accessible.
Birgit Gummersbach