Category Archives: Case Studies

Project background

In addition to the multifaceted interest in old newspaper editions in general, two other aspects play a role regarding the Volksblatt: the importance of the long-standing publisher Arthur Hofmann and the significance of this daily newspaper in researching the history of the SPD in Thuringia from its beginnings until 1933.

“Archive holdings of the Thuringian SPD, especially from the time of the Weimar Republic, have only survived to a limited extent. The history of the party for this period in particular has hardly been researched to date. For this reason, the Volksblatt is of great importance,” reads the application for funding for the digitization project. As far as the editor – and editorial writer – Arthur Hofmann (1863-1944) is concerned, he was one of the outstanding social democrats in Thuringia.  He was a co-founder of the SPD in Saalfeld and Rudolstadt, as well as a member of the state parliament for more than three decades and a member of the government in Saxony-Meiningen after 1918. He was also a member of parliament and at times deputy head of government in the state of Thuringia as well as a member of the Reichstag and National Assembly.

Outlook

All editions of the Volksblatt are expected to be digitized by the autumn of this year. The newspaper pages will then, according to the plan, be published on state and federal online portals, as well as on the Europeana platform, where digital cultural heritage from Europe can be found.

Anyone interested in the newspaper editions can simply leaf through them or browse through specific issues. Technical developments could also make it possible to search for keywords and then have the results displayed. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) would be an instrument to make this a reality.

The Klassik Stiftung Weimar

This non-profit foundation under public law has set itself the task of preserving cultural treasures that bear witness to the period from the 16th to the 20th century. The institution was created in 2003 from the merger of the Stiftung Weimarer Klassik and the Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar, but its beginnings date back to the late 19th century.

In addition to the preservation and presentation of cultural assets, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar is also concerned with education. This starts at nursery and primary school age, but offers programs for all age groups. Another important pillar is research – including in cooperation with universities and other institutions in Germany and abroad.

Capture, Analyze & Restore

The X71 multispectral system is being used to digitize hand drawings and prints from the 15th century to the present day for the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, including works by Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Lucas Cranach and Caspar David Friedrich. In total, there are around 230,000 works.

“An important part of the collection are Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s own drawings and his art collection. The poet owned over 9,000 prints and more than 2,000 hand drawings,” explains Uwe Golle from the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. He also refers to over 2,000 herbarium leaves from Goethe’s natural history collection, which are also being digitized using multispectral technology. These are dried and pressed plants or parts thereof.

All the works that the Klassik Stiftung scans, stores and publishes are about preserving them for future generations in two ways. Firstly, because the digitized works are not exposed to the environmental influences that the originals are confronted with. Secondly, each individual sheet can be precisely analyzed thanks to the state-of-the-art technology and convenient software of our X71 multispectral system. Mould stains, moisture, old restorations and more are detected – and counter-measures are taken.

Digitization is followed by restoration. For example, paper tears are closed and ageing processes are slowed down or stopped. Uwe Golle explains: “Everything we handle should then be in a condition that, if stored correctly, will not need to be restored again for 50 to 100 years.”

The Technology

The objects are digitized with our X71 multispectral system. Infrared and UV light can be used to capture every last detail. For example, the paper structure, any preliminary drawings, watermarks and pigments that would be invisible or only faintly visible to the naked eye become visible. Anyone using the multispectral system can “delve” into the depths of each individual page and gather important insights. One example: infrared light in a certain waveband optically highlights substances containing carbon, while other sites in the same waveband appear faded. With the easy-to-use software, you can display what you want to analyze with just a few clicks.

There is no need to change a filter on the lens for all this. The camera itself recognizes which areas it needs to focus on at that moment and which areas it needs to “fade out”. By dispensing with a manually installed filter, vibrations that would have a negative effect on the scanning process are avoided.

The images taken with the X71 multispectral system provide the Klassik Stiftung Weimar’s graphic arts restoration department with a contemporary documentation of the incoming works and their condition and are fundamental for restoration planning and any further examination.