The Karl Barth-Archiv, which is supported by the Karl Barth Foundation and the Legacy Commission, is the research and editorial center for the administration and publication of the Collected Works of Karl Barth.
The Archive is located in the former residence of Karl Barth at Bruderholzallee 26 in Basel, Switzerland, where he lived from 1955 until his death in 1968. The Archive accommodates not only Barth’s literary estate but also his extensive library, which has recently been cataloged thanks to funds specifically contributed for this initiative. Visitors from all over the world, especially from the United States and East Asia, find the working rooms of Karl Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum, which have been maintained in their original condition, a particular source of interest.
The main task of the Archive, is the editorial work of preparing scholarly editions of Karl Barth’s works for publication both in the Karl Barth Collected Edition and elsewhere. Apart from the ongoing process of ordering and cataloguing the archives themselves (numbering approximately 100,000 documents), the Archive also frequently assists with the publication of newspaper articles and other publications by supplying photographs.
The Director of the Karl Barth-Archiv is Dr. Peter Zocher. He serves as the editor of the Collected Edition of Karl Barth under the auspices of the Karl Barth Foundation. The director also supports national and international researchers with their scholarly projects by assembling documents relevant to their research and, if necessary, by transcribing manuscripts and providing other forms of assistance. He is constantly called upon to research questions about Barth’s life and work—for example, to clarify his relations to contemporaries in the academic, literary, or political world. Predecessors of Dr. Zocher were Dr. Hans-Anton Drewes (from 1998 until 2012) and Dr. Hinrich Stoevesandt (1971-1997).
Visit the Website of the Karl Barth Archiv. (in German)
[All photos below are copyright of the Karl Barth-Archiv. Do not display, use, copy, or redistribute without permission.]
