Music Collections, Music Libraries and Music-related Archive Records as a Phenomenon of German Musical Culture and their Interactions in Eastern Europe

As locations of cultural remembrance, particular significance is to be accorded to collections, libraries and archives in cultural studies research; in their history, in the different forms of organisation, depictions and objectives as well as in the specific nature of their stocks, these institutions reflect the particular musical-cultural situations and thus grant the possibility of carrying out investigations in a differentiated way according to the historical, regional, political and social conditions of the context.

The research project accordingly asked about the functions which such music collections have taken over within German musical life in Eastern Europe . Moreover, it intended to investigate the history and development of institutionalised and private collections and finally to elucidate the conditions and effects of corresponding activities in the intercultural surroundings.

Within the scope of this sub-project, an international congress entitled "Music Collections – Repositories of Intercultural Processes" was held in Bonn from 28 September to 1 October 2005 (congress programme). – The presentations that took place there, all additional archive descriptions and analyses as well as the statements from and results of the podium discussions have been published in the second volume of reports from the intercultural research project.