HAT-Htravel11

Historical Archive on Tourism faces shut-down

Recently the German government had a competition among the universities to choose the ten most “excellent” ones. Among the happy few, gaining millions of extra funds, was the Berlin Free University (Freie Universität Berlin). At this university, in the late 80s an archive was founded that was to gather materials concerning travel and tourism. Starting on a rather small scale but constantly enlarged, the Historical Archive on Tourism (HAT) has since become a unique institution in this field.  On its shelves, which take up 0.5 kilometer, you can find more than 200 periodicals and more than 10,000 books from the 18th century to the present, like Baedekers, travelogues, statistics or early studies in tourism science. In addition, and probably the most valuable part, there are lots of ephemera, above all more than 50,000 flyers organized  according to countries and travel agencies, and also posters, photo albums, maps, and unprinted archive materials. (See briefly with a link to the HAT’s homepage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_archive_on_tourism) 

Each year more than hundred researchers from all over the world come to the HAT seeking additional or critical sources and advice for their studies, and up to now virtually no one went home without having struck gold. Alas, the prophet is without honour in his own country. The Free University, excellent as it is, has decided to get rid of this excellent institution. While the staff has long since been financed by the tourist industry, namely the Willy Scharnow Foundation, the university pays for the overhead, e.g. the rooms. These costs amount to some $20,000 per year – a rather managable sum one might think. However, always in search of money and space, the administration had the brillant idea to cancel the treaty with the Scharnow Foundation and “pack” the well ordered half kilometer of archival material “in boxes” and pile them in a seminar room. In other words: the university wants to close the HAT down, and in addition risks substantial damage to the archive’s organization  and physical integrity. 

Those readers who are stunned by this narrowmindedness are encouraged to express their disagreement with the Free University’s executive board (http://www.fu-berlin.de/en/universitaet/organisation/gremien/index.html). All languages welcome.

Hasso Spode (spode@hasso-spode.de)