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Projects, in hand and set aside, September 2026 Laufende Vorhaben, Stand 18. September 2026

The Institute has used project numbers since the 1970s. The present form is WI, the year in which the project was entered, and a serial number running through the whole Institute and not per division. Since the reduction of the budget the list has not been added to: the conference decided on 13 January 2026 that no new project would be taken on until further notice. Eleven are still in hand, of which three are in the press or at the printer and two have been shelved without being closed. The other nineteen listed in earlier versions of this page have been closed or set aside, and the reasons are given below.

What the reduction has meant for the list. No project is abandoned; the numbering, the files and the cards remain as they were. What has happened is that projects which could be stopped without loss have been stopped, and those which could not have been stretched out. Three consequences are worth stating plainly. First, every completion date in the tables below has moved by one to two years. Second, the second batch of the review of undated charters (WI-2020-04) has been put back into the cabinet with its 210 charters listed and nothing done to them. Third, the revision of the reference numbers (WI-2022-21), which was Division V's principal undertaking, is set aside; the note in the table explains what that does and does not affect.

1. Division I, Numismatics and monetary history

Table 1 Projects in hand in Division I (5 of the former 6).
Reference	Subject	Direction	Funding	Stage, September 2026
WI-2019-02	* Minting and writing compared, second phase	M. Kaltenbrunner and A. Remke	Block grant	The comparative chronology was completed in 2025, seventy-four pages, and is being read for publication. Two of the scribes' tables remain unchecked and the work will not now be finished before 2027.
WI-2021-05	Regional coin catalogue, fascicle 6	M. Kaltenbrunner and J. Lammers	Block grant	Closed in November 2025. Published as series volume 36, a year later than planned; see the series.
WI-2021-06	The same catalogue, fascicle 7: Bremen and Stade	J. Lammers	Block grant	The material is listed and about forty per cent of it catalogued; the plate arrangement lapsed with the half-time post in February 2026. Expected 2028 at the earliest.
WI-2022-03	Fineness series of the Goslar mint, 1520–1620	J. Lammers and T. Bruns	Block grant	480 measurements made and the series curve checked in 2025; the report is written and waits for space in the Mitteilungen.
WI-2024-01	Weight distribution of the Institute's small change	O. Stein	No separate funds	Shelved in January 2026 with four of the nine cabinets done. The object cards carry the measurements already taken; nothing is lost, and the work can be taken up again cabinet by cabinet.

2. Division II, Diplomatics and archival studies

Table 2 Projects in hand in Division II (4 of the former 5).
Reference	Subject	Direction	Funding	Stage, September 2026
WI-2018-03	Formulary types of the ducal chancery, revised edition	J. Peters	Block grant	The text was settled in 2025, the checking of 1,100 charters included, but the printing has been put back for want of the money; expected 2027.
WI-2020-04	Review of the dates of undated charters, first batch of 210	B. Ahrendt and T. Bruns	Block grant, joint with Division VI	First batch closed in March 2025: 210 charters examined, thirty-one date ranges narrowed, four earlier conclusions withdrawn and the cards corrected. The second batch of 210 is listed and set aside.
WI-2022-06	Parish archives near Hildesheim, three parishes	B. Ahrendt and T. Lenz	Grant from the church archive office	The second parish was listed, 640 items, and the cleaning is going on slowly; the third parish will not be begun before the second is finished. The grant has been carried forward by agreement.
WI-2023-07	A vocabulary of old signatures, fifteenth to eighteenth century	J. Peters and A. Witte	Block grant	780 entries in twelve classes, ready for publication when the printing budget allows.
WI-2024-30	Condition survey of the seal impression archive	B. Ahrendt and L. Vogel	No separate funds	Closed in June 2025. 1,120 impressions recorded; the seventy-four that need new impressions made have been dealt with as opportunity allowed, and the record is in the archive.

3. Division III, Documentary editing

Table 3 Projects in hand in Division III (5 of the former 7).
Reference	Subject	Direction	Funding	Stage, September 2026
WI-2024-07	* Charters of the Brunswick–Lüneburg duchy	H. Schwabendiek, with Leibniz University Hannover	German Research Foundation	Extended by one year. The three-year term, January 2025 to December 2027, has become four, to December 2028, on a reallocation agreed with the funding body in April 2026. About 380 of the 1,180 charters have been transcribed and checked.
WI-2017-08	Hildesheim monastery charters, volume 2	L. Moebius	Block grant	At the printer since June 2026, nine months later than planned, and expected as series volume 37 in the first half of 2027. The text and the indexes are done; nothing remains but the printing.
WI-2019-09	Lüneburg ducal charters, volume 4	H. Schwabendiek	Block grant	About seventy-five per cent done, and now the division's own work where the DFG project leaves time; expected 2028.
WI-2021-10	Conventions for account material: a trial	H. Schwabendiek and L. Moebius	Block grant	The three account books and the thirty-two specimen pages stand as they were left in 2024. Not abandoned: the division intends to settle it after volume 4.
WI-2022-11	Headings for the subject index, aligned with the authority file	L. Moebius and S. Andersen	Block grant	Closed in 2025 without being extended into the data rules, for the reason given under WI-2022-21 below. The eighteen rules are in force by practice and are applied by hand.

4. Division IV, Writing and manuscript culture

Table 4 Projects in hand in Division IV (4 of the former 6).
Reference	Subject	Direction	Funding	Stage, September 2026
WI-2019-02	* Minting and writing compared, the division's part	A. Remke	Block grant	218 scribes entered; the two unchecked tables noted under Division I are the division's contribution and are being worked through in the order of the register.
WI-2016-14	Register of scribes, eleventh supplement, fourteenth century	A. Remke	Block grant	Seventy-four scribes added and twenty-two entries merged; written in 2025 and waiting for the printing budget. The Institute continues to correct the existing entries, because a wrong entry misleads everyone who uses it.
WI-2018-15	Examination of bindings in partner institutions, third batch	S. Brandt	Block grant, part borne by the partners	Suspended in January 2026 with 640 volumes examined and 128 fragments recorded. The partners have been told; the fragments already found are catalogued and nothing is at risk in their own stores.
WI-2021-16	Old bookmarks and ownership marks in the collections	M. Vogt	Block grant	390 marks recorded, 148 of them unattributed. Continues as a standing task without a completion date.
WI-2023-17	Types of marginal annotation, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries	M. Vogt	Block grant	210 volumes classified into twelve provisional types; the article that was to settle the classification will appear in Mitteilungen no. 63.

5. Division V, Documentation and digitisation

Table 5 Projects in Division V (1 in hand of the former 5; the division consists of its head alone).
Reference	Subject	Direction	Funding	Stage, September 2026
WI-2020-20	Checking the negatives of the card indexes	S. Andersen	Block grant	The only project still being carried on at its old pace, because it is a matter of the safety of the material: 1,240 of 1,340 reels checked, the fourteen reels with mould having been transferred first. To finish in 2027.
WI-2022-21	Revision of the reference numbers	S. Andersen	Block grant	Set aside in January 2026. The trial had reached 4,000 entries. Nothing already catalogued is affected: the existing numbers continue in use and will continue to be quoted. What is lost is the possibility of recording the source institution within the reference number, which must now go in a separate column of the card.
WI-2023-22	Mutual checking of images from partner institutions, second batch	N. Krahmer	Borne by the partners	Stopped in December 2025 when the post fell vacant, and not to be resumed before 2028. 2,400 images had been checked and eighty-six returned for recapture. The first batch was completed in 2023 and is in use.
WI-2024-23	Clearing variant spellings from the authority file: places	S. Andersen	No separate funds	Closed in 2025: 410 variant entries cleared and 260 cross-references made. The work on personal names, which was to have followed, is not being begun.
WI-2024-24	Checking the structure of this website	K. Lindemann	No separate funds	Closed in 2025. 380 internal links were checked and seven dead ones corrected. The pages are now revised twice a year; a link that dies in between will be corrected at the next revision.

6. Division VI, Laboratory and material analysis

Table 6 Projects in Division VI (3 in hand of the former 5; the division consists of its head alone).
Reference	Subject	Direction	Funding	Stage, September 2026
WI-2024-27	Ageing of conservation materials	T. Bruns and L. Vogel	No separate funds	Continues: the samples of covers made in 2012 are being watched, which costs nothing but time. The five-year observation runs to 2029.
WI-2023-25	A calibration procedure for the portable instrument	T. Bruns	No separate funds	In force since 2025 and followed with every test. The nine rules are to be printed with the next batch of internal working notes, whenever that is.
WI-2024-26	Advice on store and display conditions, collected	T. Bruns, formerly P. Schneider	No separate funds	The seventy-four answers given since 2015 have been brought together; the intended printing in 2025 did not take place and the collection is kept as a file.

7. Where the money comes from

Table 7 Funding of the projects in hand, September 2026.
Source	Projects	Remarks
Block grant of the ministry	9	Reduced for 2026 by about eighteen per cent in the parts that can be spent at the Institute's discretion — consumables, travel, printing and equipment. Posts are not affected by the reduction; the three vacant posts are frozen by a general recruitment freeze.
German Research Foundation	1	WI-2024-07, now four years, January 2025 to December 2028, after the reallocation agreed in April 2026.
Church archive office	1	WI-2022-06, carried forward by agreement at a reduced rate; the amount is not published.
No separate funds, absorbed into the day's work	3	These continue where they cost nothing but time, and are the only projects not affected by the reduction.
Printing	—	Three works are complete and unprinted — the formulary types, the vocabulary of old signatures and the register of scribes — and their printing is deferred to 2027 and 2028. This is the clearest single effect of the reduction on the Institute's work.

The totals do not match the tables one for one: WI-2019-02, WI-2020-04 and WI-2022-03 are shared between divisions and appear once in each table but once in the funding count. The Institute has held three outside grants altogether: one from 1998 to 2001, one from 2004 to 2007, and WI-2024-07. The record is in the "finance" section of the annual Mitteilungen.

8. Projects closed or set aside since 2023

Table 8 Projects closed or set aside, and what became of the result.
Reference	Subject	Closed	Result
WI-2021-05	Regional coin catalogue, fascicle 6	Nov 2025	Published as series vol. 36; the negatives are in the archive as FM-VI/2024.
WI-2024-30	Condition survey of the seal impression archive	Jun 2025	1,120 impressions recorded; seventy-four new impressions made; the record is in the archive.
WI-2024-23	Variant spellings in the authority file: places	2025	410 entries cleared, 260 cross-references made; the authority file for places is now consistent.
WI-2024-24	Checking the structure of this website	2025	380 links checked, seven corrected; the site continues to be revised twice a year.
WI-2018-28	Third supplement to the manuscript binding index	Mar 2024	8,940 cards entered and absorbed into KI-8; microfilm reels MK-3/1 to MK-3/17.
WI-2016-31	Cataloguing of images supplied by partner institutions, first batch	Jun 2023	18,400 images taken into the image archive; the descriptions went into KI-1. The second batch is stopped.
WI-2019-32	Paper and bindings of parish registers, first batch of forty	Feb 2023	Report handed to the lending institutions; the Institute kept a copy, entered in KI-10.
WI-2012-33	Second microfilming run	Jan 2023	500 reels added, bringing the total to 1,340. No third run is planned, and the darkroom has been closed since March 2026.
WI-2024-01	Weight distribution of the Institute's small change	shelved Jan 2026	Four of nine cabinets done; the measurements are on the object cards and the work can be resumed where it stopped.
WI-2018-15	Examination of bindings in partner institutions, third batch	suspended Jan 2026	640 volumes examined, 128 fragments recorded and catalogued; the partners have been told.
WI-2022-21	Revision of the reference numbers	set aside Jan 2026	4,000 entries drafted on trial; the existing numbers remain in use and nothing catalogued is affected.
WI-2023-22	Mutual checking of images, second batch	stopped Dec 2025	2,400 images checked; not to be resumed before 2028.

Papers of completed and shelved projects. Working papers, duplicate cards and test records go into the Institute's archive and are subject to the closure periods in section 4.6 of the rules of use. Shelved projects are kept in the same order as running ones, so that they can be taken up again by whoever takes them up. Where a report was not published, a list of such reports may be had from the academic office and the report itself applied for; electronic copies of unpublished reports are not supplied.

Compiled by the academic office from the divisions' reports. Progress is now reported twice a year, in March and September, and this page is corrected then. Questions about a particular project should go to the person named, or through the office.

Page WI-PRO-01 · compiled by M. Tiedemann · read by the director's office · last modified 18 September 2026

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