Can a school class visit an archive?What do I have to consider?

School classes and student groups are welcome in archives. The visit to an archive can complement and deepen the lessons and widen the view for historical connections. At work with source examples, methodological competence and judgment are trained.

Archivist with a group of schoolchildren

The state archives offer guided tours through their homes and through special exhibitions. In addition, there is the possibility of performing or deepening individual teaching sequences in the archive. Archive visits can also be organised in (larger) municipal and church archives.

The pupils get to know the institution archive with their function areas at the house tours and have the opportunity to see originals and possibly work with sources. You will get insight into the path of documents from the registrature to the archive magazine. You go even the way from the repertorien room, where the find books stand, to the reading room and learn how to determine and order archives and where to see them.

Archivist with a group of schoolchildren. The children weigh down a document with lead weights.

An archive visit is beneficial if it is well prepared by the accompanying teaching staff. In each state archive there is at least one contact person for schools and educational institutions. This can be contacted via the respective post office (contact data see www.gda.bayern.de). It is recommended to make early contact with the appointment and content preparation of the archive visit.

Already in the third stage of the primary school, in which the own home town and region is treated in the HSU class, an archive visit with the meeting of individual pieces can make joy and attract interest. In these cases, the teaching sequence is taught by the teacher in cooperation with the archivist or prepares and illustrates or deepens the archivist. In higher classes, especially in the upper and middle levels of Gymnasium or Realschule as well as in the context of W and P seminars, students have the opportunity to answer questions from larger contexts with archived goods.

Archivist with a group of schoolchildren on a tour of the repository.

The original sources stored in the state archives range back to the early Middle Ages and are particularly suitable for teaching in the subjects of history, social science, Latin and French. In addition to the subject-thematic aspects, the work in the archive offers the opportunity to ask questions about the basics of historical work and the source criticism also in the context of media education.

In long-term projects supported by teachers, exhibitions or publications can be written or designed by the students themselves (example: ‘(M)a day in the forest. ‘ Contribution of a P-seminar of the Ottobrunn School Exhibition "WaldGeschichte. Forest and hunting in Bavaria 811–2011 of the Bavarian Main State Archive). Archivists support the definition of topics and the selection of suitable sources.

In principle, the offers for schools in the state archives are free of charge. In a limited amount copies can also be made free of charge to prepare the archive visit.