Staff, committees and associates Personalstand zum 1. September 2026
The Institute is directed by a director and a deputy director, with an academic office serving both, and six research divisions whose number and remit are settled by the conference of the Institute rather than by the statute. To these are attached a reference library, a repair workshop and the archive. Of twenty-one established posts, eighteen are occupied; three stand vacant and may not be filled while the recruitment freeze of 2026 lasts, and no student assistants have been taken on this year. This list is checked twice a year, in March and September; it was last checked on 1 September 2026.
About the three vacant posts. A technical post in Division V fell vacant at the end of 2025, a laboratory post in Division VI in July 2025, and a half-time research post in Division I early in 2026. All three are frozen under the budget of 2026. The work they carried is described, division by division, below, so that a reader can see what has stopped. No application should be sent for these posts; they have been withdrawn from advertisement, and the Institute will not ask for a dispensation.
1. Direction and academic office
| Office | Holder | Duties and research interests |
|---|---|---|
| Director Direktor |
Dr Andreas Kolb b. 1961, at the Institute since 1990 |
Directs the Institute and represents it abroad. Directs the priority project "Minting and writing compared" and is the Institute's officer for the reduction of 2026 and for the negotiations with the ministry. Room 1.01. |
| Deputy director Stellvertreterin |
Dr Helga Schwabendiek b. 1968, at the Institute since 1998 |
Also head of Division III. Acts for the director in his absence; responsible for the DFG project and for the publication timetable, both of which she has had to renegotiate with the funding body and the printer during 2026. Room 2.02. |
| Academic office Wissenschaftliches Sekretariat |
Mrs Marianne Tiedemann | Enquiries, registration of visitors, publications, personnel records, and these pages. Since the reduction the office has also taken on the despatch and checking of image requests formerly handled by Division V, which is why a written answer now takes up to twenty working days. Room 1.02, telephone +49 (0)5331 4807-0. |
2. How the Institute is arranged
| Level | Body | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | Director (1) — deputy director (1) — academic office (2) | Accountable to the Lower Saxony ministry of science and culture |
| Divisions | Divisions I to VI (14, heads included; three posts vacant) | Established as the work requires, not permanently. The conference decided on 13 January 2026 that no division is to be closed, so that the structure is intact when the grant is restored |
| Attached | Reference library (1), repair workshop (1), archive (kept by Division V) | Outside the divisional sequence |
| Committees | Advisory board (7), publications committee (5), data rules group (4) | The advisory board meets every two years; its last meeting was in October 2024 and the next is expected in 2027 |
| Outside | Corresponding associates (7), visitors (2 in 2025, 1 so far in 2026) | Not established posts; the associates have not met since June 2024 |
3. Staff in post
The list is arranged by division. Extensions may be dialled directly on +49 (0)5331 4807 followed by the four figures given. Since the reading room opens two days a week, appointments should be made well in advance and through the academic office (extension 0). Research interests are supplied by the person concerned and are not edited by the Institute.
Division I · Numismatics and monetary history
| Name and post | Room | Ext. | Research interests and current work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Matthias Kaltenbrunner Head · b. 1964, at the Institute since 1996 |
1.04 | 21 | Late medieval and early modern regional coinage; die wear and the reconstruction of striking sequences; hoards and routes of circulation. In hand: fascicle 7 of the regional coin catalogue, of which about forty per cent is catalogued. The half-time post that arranged the plates lapsed in February 2026; the division now aims at 2027, and says that this is a date rather than a promise. |
| Dr Judith Lammers Research assistant · b. 1983, since 2015 |
1.05 | 22 | Weights and fineness series; the documentary record of bullion ratios; registration of hoards and advice on their storage. In hand: the Goslar fineness series, whose report is written and awaiting publication. |
| Mr Oliver Stein Technical assistant, part time · b. 1991, since 2019 |
1.06 | 23 | Accessioning of objects, preparation of rubbings, arrangement of plates; keeps the coin cabinets and the balance room, which he now also opens for Division VI. |
| Half-time research post vacant since February 2026; frozen |
1.06 | 28 | Held until February 2026 by Mrs Y. Kraft, who arranged the plates of the catalogue, checked proofs and kept the register of work done for outside institutions. Fascicle 6 was seen through the press before she left; the plate arrangement of fascicle 7 has not been begun. The extension is retained but is not answered. |
Division II · Diplomatics and archival studies
| Name and post | Room | Ext. | Research interests and current work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Joachim Peters Head · b. 1962, since 1994 |
1.07 | 24 | Formularies and modes of authentication; sequences of place of issue and issuer; archival history and old signatures. In hand: the revised edition of the formulary types, held up by the printing budget. |
| Dr Birgit Ahrendt Research assistant · b. 1986, since 2016 |
1.08 | 25 | Seals and subscriptions; the dating of undated charters; arrangement of parish archives. In hand: the first batch of the review of undated charters was closed in March 2025; the second batch has been shelved. |
| Mr Tobias Lenz Technical assistant · b. 1994, since 2021 |
1.08 | 26 | Accessioning of charters and transcription of old signatures; issue and return of archive material; supplementary seal impressions. He also fetches and returns all reading-room material. |
| Mrs Anke Witte Records officer, part time · b. 1972, since 2003 |
0.04 | 27 | Listing and issue of the Institute's own files; the humidity record of the strongroom; filing of past correspondence. The strongroom is now read twice a week instead of twice a day. |
Division III · Documentary editing
| Name and post | Room | Ext. | Research interests and current work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Helga Schwabendiek Head, and deputy director · b. 1968, since 1998 |
2.02 | 31 | Editorial conventions and the treatment of variants; the reconstruction of transmission; commentary and the making of indexes. In hand: project WI-2024-07, the Brunswick–Lüneburg charters, extended by one year. |
| Dr Lars Moebius Research assistant · b. 1981, since 2013 |
2.03 | 32 | The fixing of chancery language and formulae; the relation of copies to originals; maintenance of the authority file. In hand: volume 2 of the Hildesheim monastery charters, at the printer since June 2026 and expected as series volume 37. |
| Mrs Katrin Lindemann Research assistant · b. 1979, since 2024 |
0.03 | 33 | Technical manager for documentation and digitisation: the Institute's server, its archive media, the integrity checks on image files, and these pages. Since Division V consists of its head alone, she has taken over the despatch of image files together with the academic office. |
Division IV · Writing and manuscript culture
| Name and post | Room | Ext. | Research interests and current work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Anja Remke Head · b. 1966, since 1997 |
2.06 | 35 | The development of scripts and the teaching of writing; identification of scribes and the comparison of hands; the use of bindings and fragments. In hand: correcting the register of scribes. The eleventh supplement, written in 2025, awaits the printing budget. |
| Dr Michael Vogt Research assistant · b. 1977, since 2008 |
2.07 | 36 | Traces of reading and provenance; the classification of marginal annotation; the use of manuscripts together with printed books. In hand: the list of old bookmarks and ownership marks, continued without a fixed end. |
| Mrs Sophie Brandt Research assistant, part time · b. 1988, since 2018 |
2.07 | 37 | Supplementing and checking the binding index; arrangement of the fragment archive; upkeep of the glossary of binding terms. The examination of bindings in partner institutions, the division's largest undertaking, is suspended for the present. |
Division V · Documentation and digitisation
| Name and post | Room | Ext. | Research interests and current work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Sven Andersen Head, and the division's only member · b. 1970, since 2011 |
0.03 | 41 | Index structure and authority files; the internal data rules; the fixing of capture parameters. Working alone since January 2026. The division now keeps the indexes, the authority files and the existing image archive, and does nothing else. The revision of the reference numbers is set aside; no images are being captured or accepted from partner archives; and the documentation room has no public counter. |
| Technical post vacant since December 2025; frozen |
0.05 | 42 | Held until December 2025 by Mrs N. Krahmer, who captured and processed images, checked and transferred microfilm, and numbered and rotated the archive media. Image capture ceased with her departure; the checking of the existing archive continues, slowly, by the head of division. |
| Technical post vacant since March 2026; frozen |
0.05 | 43 | Held by Mr F. Ostermann, who retired in March 2026 after twenty-five years. He made the microfilm and worked in the darkroom, read the temperature and humidity recorders, and kept the older reading equipment running. The humidity record is now kept by Mrs Witte; the darkroom is closed and the microfilm readers are maintained by an outside firm at an annual charge. |
Division VI · Laboratory and material analysis
| Name and post | Room | Ext. | Research interests and current work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Thomas Bruns Head, and the division's only member · b. 1965, since 1993 |
Lab. EG-1 | 51 | Metal composition and casting practice; non-destructive testing of ink and paper; the dating of charters and coins by combined evidence. Working alone; the X-ray fluorescence instrument, which may not be operated by one person, is therefore used only when Dr Andersen or Mr Stein can be present. Commissioned work is accepted only where it can be done in a single session. |
| Laboratory technician vacant since July 2025; frozen |
Lab. EG-2 | 52 | Held until July 2025 by Mr P. Schneider, who kept the balance and the microscopes, prepared samples and filed the test records. The balance room is opened by Mr Stein when it is needed, and the preparation of samples now takes about twice as long. |
Attached facilities
| Name and post | Room | Ext. | Duties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mrs Christina Bauer Librarian · b. 1976, since 2006 |
1.10 | 15 | Care of the reference library and its card catalogues; receipt and despatch of exchanges; duty in the reading room on the two days it opens. The book fund for 2026 has been reduced to subscriptions; see the library page. |
| Mrs Liselotte Vogel Conservator · b. 1980, since 2012 |
Lab. EG-4 | 53 | Repair of charters and manuscripts and the making of protective covers; photographic record before treatment; advice to partner institutions, for which no charge is made. She also conducts the ageing trial begun in 2024, which continues because it costs nothing but time. |
| Mrs Anke Witte Archive, in addition to her post in Division II |
0.04 | 27 | Issue and custody of archive material; the humidity record of the strongroom and of the attic store. |
Student assistants are not listed; none has been employed since 2025, the assistantships having lapsed with the budget of 2026. The full internal extension list, including the lecture room, the strongroom and the porter's bell, remains posted on the staircase of the main building, though the lecture room has not been used since December 2024.
4. Corresponding associates
Since the joint cataloguing agreement of 1971 the Institute has appointed Ständige Korrespondierende Mitarbeiter — corresponding associates — among scholars in partner institutions who work on the Institute's projects over many years. The appointment carries no salary and no post. It confers the right to call for duplicate cards, to attend the house colloquium, and to publish work arising from an Institute project in the series. There are seven, unchanged; they have not come to Wolfenbüttel since June 2024, the meeting of 2025 having been given up and that of 2026 never arranged.
| Name | Institution | Appointed | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr W. Buschmann | State Archive, Hannover (retired) | 1998 | Vocabulary of the joint cataloguing agreement; index of old signatures |
| Prof. Dr E. Lindqvist | University of Uppsala, library studies | 2002 | Exchange of journals and duplicate cards; Nordic charters compared |
| Prof. Dr R. Capelli | University of Bologna, diplomatics | 2005 | Formulary types across regions |
| Dr K. Novák | City Archive, Brno | 2009 | Routes of coin circulation; the form of hoard registers |
| Dr F. Aebi | Central Library, Zürich, manuscript department | 2013 | Identification of scribes; glossary of binding terms |
| Dr M. Hald | University of Copenhagen, coin collection | 2017 | Comparative standards for fineness series |
| Dr P. Verhoeven | University of Ghent, medieval history | 2022 | Mutual checking of cataloguing under the image exchange agreement, which is itself suspended |
5. Visitors and short-term researchers
Two visiting researchers came in 2025 and one so far in 2026. The fall is not the consequence of any policy about visitors; it follows from the reading room opening two days a week. Visitors register with the academic office, complete a visitor's slip, and are given a place and a consultation list by the division that receives them. Recent visits, where the visitor has agreed to being named, were these:
| Period | Visitor | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 2026, 4 days | Dr A. Ferreira, Coimbra | The Institute's authority file for places, and whether it can be used elsewhere |
| Sep 2025, 3 weeks | Dr S. Halvorsen, Oslo | Small denomination coinage within the Hanseatic trading area, continued from 2024 |
| Feb 2025, 2 weeks | M. Zheng, Peking University | Recording the laid lines of paper fragments; the second visit of a doctoral candidate who came in 2024 |
The periods and subjects are taken from the visitors' register; those who prefer not to be named are omitted. Intending visitors should first read Use of the collections, and then write, stating the subject, the material they wish to consult and the time they propose to stay. A reply is sent within twenty working days at present.
Compiled by the academic office; the list of staff is now checked twice a year, in March and September, rather than twice a year, in March and September. Questions about a post, an extension or office hours should be put to the academic office on extension 0.
Page WI-INST-02 · compiled by M. Tiedemann · read by the director's office · last modified 18 September 2026