Contents of collection

The Carl von Ossietzky Archive contains the Nachlass of the Berlin journalist, pacifist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, whose journalistic work as publisher of the German weekly magazine Die Weltbühne was extremely influential in the Weimar Republic. Persecuted by the Nazis for his deep commitment to democracy and peace, and interned among other places at the Emsland concentration camp, Carl von Ossietzky died in 1938 from the effects of his imprisonment.

After the University of Oldenburg was renamed in the mid-1970s it became a focal point for academic research into Carl von Ossietzky's life and work.

Documents and sources collected at the University Library served as the basis for the work on and publication of Ossietzky's collected works – "Carl von Ossietzky: Sämtliche Schriften" which was published by Rowohlt Verlag in 1994.

Carl von Ossietzkys daughter Rosalinde von Ossietzky-Palm actively supported this work. She handed over the majority of her father's Nachlass to Oldenburg University in 1981, and the rest followed after her death in 2000.

•  History of the naming of the University of Oldenburg

Today the Carl von Ossietzky Archive contains around 700 personal documents, including manuscripts, documents on his concentration camp internment and the Nobel Peace Prize campaign, numerous letters and photos, as well as an album in which Ossietzsky kept two short stories and letters to his wife Maud. It also includes the remains of Ossietzky's library, comprising around 100 volumes, which were saved during the war, the Nobel Peace Prize certificate and gold medal, as well as a bronze sculpture based on Ossietzky's death mask.