Not Taken Out of Context … Digitization of the ‘Goethe/Incoming Correspondence’ Collection in the Goethe and Schiller Archive: Preparation for Conservation and Restoration

Abstract

ABSTRACT Preparation of the ‘Goethe/Incoming Correspondence’ collection for digitization presented unique challenges to the Goethe and Schiller Archive’s conservation workshop: in addition to coping with previously unexamined holdings under a tight deadline, a conservation concept also had to be developed quickly. This concept had to be tailored to the complex damage that the collection had sustained, but above all, it had to factor in its special historical significance and how it had been handed down. A concept was developed and implemented in close cooperation between the conservators and the Regestausgabe der Briefe an Goethe staff. (The Regestausgabe makes the entirety of the letters addressed to Goethe accessible in chronological order, provides information on their content, and places them in the context of Goethe's personal correspondence relations.) For letters hand-sewn into file folders, the current condition of the sewing was preserved for posterity, and loose letters were secured through conservation, whereby a colour code indicates the condition in which these letters were found.