Federal Archive Research
Are you looking for traces of your family history? Are you researching historical people, places and events?
More than 400 km of archive material are waiting for your request in the Federal Archives.
Five simple steps to the result of the search
SUBMIT A FREE ENQUIRY VIA THE ENQUIRY FORM
CONFIRM ORDER
VIEW BRIEF REPORT
SETTLE INVOICE AMOUNT
PRESERVE AGREED ARCHIVAL MATERIALS (COPIES, DIGITAL COPIES)
Federal Archive Research: Why commission Ad Acta?
Save time, money & nerves
Travel and accommodation costs, time-consuming familiarisation with the holdings and finding aids of the Federal Archives are eliminated.
Search steps can be adapted to ongoing processes
Transcriptions of handwritten documents and digitisation of archival materials give you easy access to documents.
Get expertise
Ad Acta handles finding aids & archival records safely and quickly
- Subject areas -
German Reich - 1871-1918
Weimar Republic - 1918-1933
National Socialism - 1933-1945
SBZ - 1945-1949
DDR - 1949-1989
More on request
Create prospects
Ad Acta searches can view non-public material with the appropriate clearance from the Federal Archives
Collect your archive material, digitally process it
Accompany, check or expand your ongoing research.
Ad Acta Recherchen is a private research service that works with materials from the Federal Archives and is subject to the relevant legal provisions. As an independent federal authority, the Federal Archives is under the official and professional supervision of the Federal Government Commissioner for Media and Culture. Seit 2025 ist Wolfram Weimer der Beauftragte für Medien und Kultur der Bundesregierung. Die gesetzlichen Grundlagen allen Handelns sind im Federal Archives Act (BArchG) geregelt, das erstmalig am 6. Januar 1988 in Kraft trat und vom Deutschen Bundestag im Jahr 2017 neu beschlossen wurde. Größere Änderungen erfolgten beispielsweise im Dezember 2018 mit der Eingliederung der Deutschen Dienststelle für die Benachrichtigung der nächsten Angehörigen von Gefallenen der ehemaligen Deutschen Wehrmacht (WASt) oder im April 2021 mit der Integration der Stasi-Unterlagen in das Bundesarchiv.