thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives

Ahead of the company's 75th anniversary in 1965 and the planned commemorative publication ("The fires never go out") August Thyssen-Hütte AG expands its economics department to include a scientifically managed "Works archive", as the department was then designated.

From January 1, 1961 Dr. Gertrud Milkereit and her colleagues establish the archive by collecting material found in attics and cellars. Despite two world wars, the occupation of the Ruhr area and dismantling, she collects a large volume of documents from the time before World War One. In accordance with her librarian's background, she catalogues the files with a subject index as well as an index of people and places. She publishes a large number of articles on history and archival management in specialist publications and also articles on the company history and industrial heritage in the employees' magazine.

With accessions from Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG und Bergbau- und Industriewerte GmbH, Dr. Milkereit also collects the first records not relating exclusively to Thyssen. Her successor Dr. Carl-Friedrich Baumann (1927 - 1996) manages the archive from 1979 - 1992. He lays the foundations for expanding the works and group archives of the former Thyssen group, among other things by organizing the accession of the works archives of Friedrich Wilhelms-Hütte and Rheinische Stahlwerke as well as the records bequeathed by Heinrich Dinkelbach, Walter Rohland and Wilhelm Steinberg. His extensive knowledge of the iron and steel history in the Rhine and Westphalian regions is used in many publications of his own and those of various other authors.

From 1992 Prof. Dr. Manfred Rasch is in charge of the archive which he expands to form a corporate archive, among other things by adding records from non-steel companies (Henschel, Carl Still, Dr. C. Otto & Comp.). Alongside the accession of extensive new records, his work focuses on the introduction of computerized archiving systems, planning the building of and move to larger office and storage rooms, and the publication of computer resources (see reference works in literature index) as well as the digitization of glass plate negatives. The film catalogue begun by his predecessor is successfully continued. Selected industrial films are shown to the general public at two year intervals in cooperation with other archives in the region and in association with the Ruhr municipal corporation.

Since March 17, 1999 the archive of the former Thyssen AG has functioned as the corporate archive of thyssenkrupp AG. As of 2020 it is named thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives.

In October 2018 Andreas Zilt succeeded Professor Rasch. Astrid Dörnemann remains responsible for the media holdings of the Corporate Archives.