Rose Shafer Interns in the Militärarchiv

Rose Shafter '24 tells us about her junior year abroad and her internship in an archive in Freiburg:

I studied abroad via the third-party program "Academic Year in Freiburg." In Spring 2023, I did a Praktikum (internship) at the Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv in Freiburg. The Militärarchiv is the branch of Germany's Bundesarchiv (Federal Archive) responsible for documents from Germany's armed forces from the Prussian Army to the Bundeswehr. I worked in department MA 4, responsible for files from the Nationale Volksarmee (East German military), Grenztruppen (East German border troops), and the personal and Truppendienstgericht (military court) files of the Bundeswehr. I helped update the Militärarchiv's internal database, make files available for researchers by adding them to "Invenio" (the Bundesarchiv's online catalogue), and redacted personal data from a Nationale Volksarmee file so that a former soldier could view his own file. I got to explore the ins and outs of the archive, from the cavernous room where old maps and battle plans are stored, to the Werkstätte (workshops) where specialists digitize and restore old files. I also spruced up my German language skills with some "Archivdeutsch" -- German terms with archive-specific connotations (Aufbewahrungsfristen, Begriffsbestimmungen, Aufgabenwahrnehmung, Anbietungspflicht... and those are just the As!), as well as a plethora of German military and legal terms. I also had the opportunity to come back to the archive as a Benutzer (user) and view and photograph some files for use in a History research project at W&M. My internship was undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and rewarding experiences of my year in Freiburg.