Institut für deutsche Literatur

AIDS Archive Pilot Project

AIDS Archive Pilot Project

 

Through the AIDS Archive, a pilot project in collaboration with the Humboldt University Library in the Grimm Centre, our Research Centre was working to establish a basis for a collection on the cultural history of HIV/AIDS. To this end, the Centre was working to expand the Haeberle-Hirschfeld Archive’s collections on the politics of AIDS through documents received through a range of donations and bequests, which complement the archive’s existing holdings.

Over time, we aimed to develop a model collection that can be preserved for future research. In light of the substantial gaps around this subject in archives, libraries and collections, preserving and investigating materials on the cultural and political history of HIV/AIDS is essential.

In expanding the collections, we sought to preserve the traces that living with HIV and AIDS has left over the last few decades, and not only for homosexual men. To this end, it was important to document the full range of new forms of self-organisation, empowerment and political intervention that have developed. The project therefore centered on private as well as institutional materials which exemplify the discussions and debates around HIV/AIDS on both a personal and a societal level.

The Research Centre was working in collaboration with Corinna Gekeler and Axel Schock, both members of the working group Getting AIDS History into the Museum, to implement these plans.

The project was financially supported by the Federal Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld.

Modell-Projekt Aids-Archiv, Axel Schock und Corinna Gekeler

Axel Schock and Corinna Gekeler