Restrictions on Use Due to the Archive Relocation

Status: 20 February 2026

We are pleased to announce that, following the relocation, the use of the reading room will resume shortly.
On-site consultation of archival materials will generally be possible again from 2 March 2026.

However, due to ongoing construction measures, the following restrictions continue to apply:

• Numerous holdings – in particular the personal papers of Department III (Rep. 1–Rep. 139) – are currently unavailable. A regular ordering and retrieval service for these materials is expected to resume in summer 2026. The exact date will be announced here.

• A substantial part of the library collection has been moved off-site due to the loss of storage space and is currently not available for on-site use.

Orders may be submitted at any time by e-mail.
We will inform you promptly about the availability of the requested archival materials or library items.

IMPORTANT: The new reading room can be accessed via the entrance at Boltzmannstr. 16. Please enter the building through the rear entrance (courtyard side) and ring the bell at the door.

The Archives of the Max Planck Society in Berlin-Dahlem were established in 1975 in order to safeguard the files of the Kaiser Wilhelm / Max Planck Societies for the Advancement of Science (mainly files, photographs, audio records and film) in one central place and to make them accessible to users (currently approx. 4.000 metres of shelf space).

Our collection focuses on the personal papers of outstanding personalities who conducted research at either the Kaiser Wilhelm Society or the Max Planck Society. These include Nobel laureates Carl Bosch, Walther Bothe, Adolf Butenandt, Paul J. Crutzen, Peter Debye, Gerhard Ertl, Fritz Haber,

Otto Hahn, Werner Heisenberg, Georges Köhler, Richard Kuhn, Max von Laue, Feodor Lynen, Ernst Ruska, Bert Sakmann and Otto Warburg, supplemented by collections on Albert Einstein, Fritz Haber and Max Planck, among others.

In addition, the library of the Archives contains scholarly literature on the twentieth-century history of science (40,100 volumes, 150 subscriptions to journals, literature without clearly identifiable authors, 200,000 special editions).

Archives of the Max Planck Society
Boltzmannstraße 16
14195 Berlin-Dahlem
Germany

Postal Adress

Boltzmannstraße 14
14195 Berlin-Dahlem
Germany

mpg-archiv[at]archiv-berlin.mpg.de

Telephone: (030) 8413-3701
Telefax: (030) 8413-3700

(How to get there)

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Opening hours
Monday through Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Friday 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Closure dates due to public holidays

Use of the Archives only possible by prior registration