Use of archive material

To view the archives in the reading room, you must first fill out an application for use.

request for use
Order form for archive material and library material

You can download the required documents here: https://www.hamburg.de/bkm/befertigung/4299604/archivgutbestellung/

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You can prepare your visit to the reading room of the State Archives:

The Hamburg State Archives hold documents from ten centuries that can provide information about the history of Hamburg, one's own family history or legal matters. If you want to do historical research or family research, the State Archives offer you extensive holdings for analysis.

The Hamburg State Archive primarily stores documents from the Hamburg administration, but you can also find documents from religious communities, associations, companies and personal estates here.
In order to maintain the context, the documents in the State Archives are sorted according to the authority, office or court where they were created. In order to determine archival material, you should therefore always clarify who was responsible at the time you are looking for, ie where the archival material came from.

You can find the archival material that is of interest to you using our online finding aids as well as printed finding aids and card indexes in the reading room, then order them and view them in the reading room of the State Archives.

It is also possible to order reproductions of archival material for a fee.