The superordinate objective that the Archives of the Max Planck Society have set themselves in their function as scientific archives of international importance is to ensure that essential documents dealing with the history of science are safeguarded, preserved and made accessible. Apart from this, the Archives see themselves as a service facility for the Max Planck Society’s Administrative Headquarters and its Institutes. 

The following targets are derived thereof:

1. A meaningful tradition is constituted from the documents of all association bodies of the Max Planck Society and its other facilities and documentary additions to the archival holdings.  

2. The archival materials are permanently safeguarded and conserved.

3. The archival materials have been made accessible.

4. The archival materials are used by the public as far as permitted by the law.

5. The Archives conduct a public relations policy geared towards the history of science.

 

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_{fig.: Minerva sculpture above the entrance door to the Archives by Salvatore Carollo, 1992 (adaption of the Minerva at the former Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in Berlin-Dahlem); Nobel Diploma of Otto Warburg; Max Planck, picture by Hugo Erfurth, around 1936.}