COURAGE

connecting collections

Gegründet im Jahre 1696 gehört die Akademie der Künste nicht nur zu den ältesten deutschen Kultureinrichtungen. Sie beherbergt auch eines der bedeutendsten und größten Archive im deutschsprachigen Raum. Seine Bestände umfassen alle Künste und werden interdisziplinär zwischen Kunst und Kultur gesammelt. Zum Stand 2011 betreuten über 80 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter des Archivs über 1.200 Einzelbestände mit 12.000 laufenden Regalmetern Schriftgut, 80.000 großformatige Blätter, zwei Millionen Fotos, eine Bibliothek mit 550.000 Bestandseinheiten sowie eine Kunstsammlung mit 65.000 Objekten und eine Sammlung von 40.000 Plakaten. Kunst und Kultur in der DDR bildet einen bedeutenden Sammelschwerpunkt des Archivs der Akademie der Künste.

Die Akademie der Künste ist eine internationale Gemeinschaft von maximal 500 Künstlern, die zur Kunst ihrer Zeit beigetragen haben und deren Werk durch die Berufung in die Akademie der Künste auf besondere Weise gewürdigt wird. Die Akademie gliedert sich in die sechs Sektionen Bildende Kunst, Baukunst, Musik, Literatur, Darstellende Kunst, Film- und Medienkunst. Ihre Mitglieder kommen in den in der Regel zweimal jährlich stattfindenden Mitgliederversammlungen zusammen. Die Mitgliederversammlung ist nach dem Gesetz das wichtigste Organ der Akademie und für die Wahl neuer Mitglieder zuständig. Die Kandidaten werden vorher in den Sektionen in geheimer Wahl nominiert.

The A-Cyclists group was one of the first anarchists' organisations in Warsaw in the 1980s. The group was established around the year 1987-1988 by the teenagers from Warsaw's secondary schools, especially the one for the so-called "difficult youth". The A-Cyclists collective was relatively small, from a few to about dozen of members, but tens or even hundreds of participants gathered in the actions organised by the group. Members of the A-Cyclists group had different experiences, from engagement into hard-core punk music and alternative culture to participation in the demonstrations organised by the "Solidarity" union, Freedom and Peace movement, and Polish Socialist Party-Democratic Revolution fraction. Some of them for the first time committed to the political activism.

The A-Cyclists group has never been institutionalised nor has their archive collected by the group since 1988. The collective chose to be an unofficial, informal cooperation of young anarchists. They organised political demonstrations and street happenings as well as created alternative art, theatre, and poetry. Their regular meeting and discussions took place at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Warsaw. In 1989 A-Cyclists participated in the occupation of the University of Warsaw set up as an element of the strive to the legitimization of the Independent Students' Union. The anarchists several times fought in the street battles against police forces, they also combated the skinheads and neo-Nazis.

The climax of A-Cyclists' activities took place on years 1989-1991 when the dramatic and unprecedented events of transition from the state socialism toward capitalist liberal democracy gave young people the hope that there is a possibility for the revolution against both socialism and capitalism. After 1991 majority of the group got involved in the Anarchist Federation while the others resigned from the political activism at all.

The A.D. Xenopol Institute of History in Iași is a specialised research division of the Romanian Academy. The activity of this institution focuses on studying Romanian and European history. The A.D. Xenopol Institute of Romanian History, attached to the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Iași, was founded in 1940. It was headed by Ilie Minea. Thus, Iași gained its own institution of historical research, similar to the other two big university centres, Bucharest and Cluj, where national and world history institutes had been functioning for a long time. On 25 May 1943, this institute became a separate legal entity, under the name of the A.D. Xenopol Institute of National History, affiliated with the University of Iași. It functioned under the authority of the Ministry of National Culture and Religious Affairs. After the radical reform of the educational system and the Romanian Academy enacted in 1948, which created large research institutes with a strictly planned collective activity, according to the Soviet model, the A.D. Xenopol Institute of National History ceased to exist, becoming, from 1949, a section of the Institute of History and Philology of the Academy of the Romanian People’s Republic – Iași Branch. The activity of the history section was coordinated and led by Professor Valerian Popovici. The section comprised medieval and modern history sectors. From 1953, a sector specialised in the field of ancient history and archaeology was added. In 1958, a new subdivision dealing with contemporary history was created. Following another stage of reorganisation, in 1964 a separate Institute of History and Archaeology was established. From 1965, it regained its old name – A.D. Xenopol. In 1967, a separate section focusing on world history was created within the Institute. Its leadership was taken over by Professor Mircea Petrescu-Dîmbovița. After the creation, in 1970, of the Academy of Social and Political Sciences of the Socialist Republic of Romania, the A.D. Xenopol Institute of History and Archaeology was professionally subordinated to the new institution. From an administrative point of view, until 1975 the Institute was affiliated with the Iași Branch of the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania. That year, the Institute was integrated into the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Al. I. Cuza University of Iași. Until the fall of communism, the institute had a dual subordination: to the Academy of Social and Political Sciences and to the Ministry of Education. In 1981, the Institute was reorganised into separate research departments (colective), according to the main research interests of the Iași-based historians: the department of prehistory; the Dacian and Roman archaeology department; the feudal archaeology section; the modern methods in archaeology group; the medieval history department; the modern history section; the contemporary history department; the department of the history of international relations; the history of the Second World War section; and the department of the history of culture. In early 1990, the Institute was transferred under the aegis of the Romanian Academy. Shortly thereafter, the former Archaeology Section was established as a separate Institute of Archaeology, while the History Section continued as a separate A.D. Xenopol Institute of History, under the leadership of Professor Alexandru Zub. After 1990, the Institute consisted of five research departments: history of the Middle Ages; modern history; contemporary history; history of international relations, and history of culture. At present, twenty-five researchers and three members of administrative staff (including a librarian) are employed at the A.D. Xenopol Institute of History. The library is designed primarily to support the research and academic work of the historians affiliated with the Institute. Therefore, it is not a public library. However, although it employs only one librarian, it provides open access to Al. I. Cuza University staff and students, and also to other interested researchers. The library’s collection amounts to over 50,000 books and over 900 journals (totalling several thousand volumes of periodicals).