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Files and Materials on the History of Science

The collection includes numerous materials and documentation on the creation and progress of the historical language surveys for the "Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs" [Language Atlas of the German Empire] and the "Deutschen Wortatlas" [German Word Atlas]. These range from a historical pantograph (precision instrument for transferring drawings to other scales, also called a "Storchschnabel" [stork's beak]) to Georg Wenker’s tracings for drawing the language maps to correspondence with funders and publishers.

In addition, over 140 years of the institute's history (congresses, projects, teaching, publications, visiting scholars, etc.) are documented in the form of files, correspondence and other materials.