News

We began researching our former Jewish members and the history of our section during the Nazi era in our own archives. Unfortunately, only a few documents have survived, especially from the war years. Our search therefore quickly shifted to other sources. In the following, we would like to draw particular attention to the publicly accessible sources on the history of the Alpine Club.

The history page of the German Alpine Association's (DAV) federal office provides a very good initial starting point for research. This site offers a comprehensive overview of the history of the DAV, as well as brief historical summaries of the individual sections.

If you want to delve deeper, we recommend the DAV archives. Written documents, photographs, posters, films and other objects relating to the history of the Alpine Club and its sections as well as alpinism from the last 200 years are collected here. A large part of the archive holdings has been digitized and can be researched and viewed in the archive database (Archivdatenbank).

We would particularly like to draw your attention to the digital full texts of the Alpine Club Yearbooks 1869-2018 and the section publications. The first volume of the yearbook was published in 1869, at that time still under the title "Zeitschrift des Deutschen Alpenvereins". The name changed four more times, but the aim of the yearbook, to document important topics and developments in the Alpine clubs and alpinism, remained the same. Great moments in alpine history have always been recorded in the yearbook (e.g. first ascents, expeditions), but current topics have also been outlined and discussed. The Alpine Club Yearbook is a mirror of its time, then as now, and offers a very special insight into the history of the club. All volumes from 1869 to 2018 can be viewed.

The sections of the German Alpine Club (DAV) document their numerous activities and offers in their own section publications. From small program booklets to glossy member magazines, then as now the sections use them to inform their members and document their history at the same time. For all those who like to reminisce about old times, who want to know what events their section offered in 1898, for example, or what worries and hardships characterized section life in 1912, the library offers all existing publications of the AV sections from 1869-1950 as full texts online. Festschrift, programs, circulars, annual reports, party invitations and much more can be found sorted by section:

Also digitized as full texts, the site of the Austrian Alpine Club also contains the very exciting minutes of the governing bodies--the main committee and the administrative committee--of the association (until 1945). The unpublished "Alpine Club History 1929-1967" by Walter Schmidt-Wellenburg, the long-standing Secretary General of the Alpine Club, which is available on this site, is also well worth reading.

We hope we have been able to provide you with some inspiration and initial clues. Perhaps you too have now been inspired to search for clues. You are welcome to get in touch with the Frankfurt section's Spurensuche (tracing) team via the contact form, either to support our further research or because you would like to share your projects with us. We look forward to hearing from you.