Documenting, collecting, archiving

The core tasks of the FFJI include the documentation, collection and archiving of primary and secondary sources on Franz and Franziska Jägerstätter, church resistance and the FFIJ. This overall task can be divided into the following sub-areas.

Documentation

The research documentation serves not only for basic research, but also for illustrating developments in the field of Jägerstätter research and the Institute's own history.

a) Bibliography

A first step of documentation was the compilation of a comprehensive Jägerstätter bibliography, divided into three main categories (primary, secondary literature on Jägerstätter and the reception of Jägerstätter), to which subcategories, such as university theses, commemorative publications, films or educational material, were added. The results of our literature research in national and international library catalogues were fed into a literature administration program and are accessible online via the FFJI homepage. (Bibliography)

b) Research on "Resistance and Church" in the Upper Austria region 

A second sub-project focuses on biographies of the church resistance in Upper Austria and the diocese of Linz, respectively, in accordance with another research focus of the FFJI.  For this purpose, we are creating a source and literature documentation using a literature management software. This has already provided an overview of the research work done in 
Upper Austria and the broad spectrum of regional studies in which reference is made to ideological dissent. In addition, the first results of the research project were presented at conferences: on the one hand about the person Heinrich Kreutzberg, who looked after Franz Jägerstätter as a pastor in the Wehrmacht remand prison Berlin Tegel (blog entry) and on the other hand a search for traces of resistance within the diocese of Linz regarding NS euthanasia (blog entry).

c) Press documentation from 2018

In addition to research documentation, press reports on Franz Jägerstätter on specific topics, such as the film premiere of A Hidden Life by Terence Malick in Cannes in April, have been collected and digitally archived since the institute was established in May 2018.

d) Photo documentation of events with participation of the FFJI

Parallel to the press documentation, photos of FFJI events and those in which FFJI is involved are collected and digitally archived. 

Collecting and Archiving

The FFJI creates new collections, but also makes existing holdings accessible. 

a) Archiving

In summer 2018, the conventional archiving of the Jägerstätter writings took place in cooperation with the Diocesan Archive Linz (DAL). This ensures a proper, permanent storage of the letters and writings. The structuring and ordering of the material were carried out in accordance with the guidelines for resource development with standard data in archives and libraries (RNAB). In the process, the "Sammlung Haus Jägerstätter" was reorganized and a new inventory was made. (blog entry) Central to this was the creation of a signature transparency between the old and new order to ensure citability and further Jägerstätter research. The collection is now being deepened within the project "Jägerstätter digital". 

b) Collecting

One task of the FFJI is also to generate new collections. For this we use archival standards and follow the guidelines of resource indexing with standard data in archives and libraries (RNAB) for personal, family and corporate archives and collections. Thus, we treat new collections as singular units according to the principle of provenance and file them under the names of the creators of the holdings. That is, those persons who either created the sources themselves or gathered them. In that way, the archive holdings of the FFIJ are constantly growing. So far, the following collections have been compiled and made accessible at the level of holdings: Oral History Collections with contemporary witnesses, which are continuously expanded through interviews; Franziska Jägerstätter's estate including a collection of photographs; Volgger Collection on the reburial of Franz Jägerstätter’s urn and the liturgical redesign of the church of St. Radegund/Linz Mariendom; magazine collection Pax Christi.