Institut für pfälzische Geschichte und Volkskunde
Kaiserslautern

The institute located in Kaiserslautern deals with Palatinate regional history and folklife studies. It is a major nexus for both scientists and interested members of the public and provides advice to individuals, associations, clubs, local and federal authorities and to museums of local history. Emigration history of the Palatines, whose descendants now live in more than fifty countries all over the world, is the main scientific focus of the institute's historians. Studies concerning medieval castles within the Alsatian-Palatinate cultural area enjoy great popularity. From 1999 on, they have been published in a "Burgenlexikon" divided into several volumes. This is the first attempt ever to document each and every castle with both pictures and texts. An additional avenue of research concerns the refurbishing of Palatinate history during WW2.

The "Institut für pfälzische Geschichte und Volkskunde" (Institute for Palatinate History and Folklife Studies) is composed of a comprehensive reference library made up of 18,000 books on regional history, a wide range of newspapers, a 300,000 sheet emigration file with an estimated 600,000 registered migration movements, the "pfälzisches Flurnamenarchiv" - the largest database of field names in Germany -, and a large collection of photographs. The institute releases the results of its own research activities in numerous publications. In addition, it edits other authors' works regarding Palatinate history and folklife studies. Videos on Palatinate landscape and history and on ancient professions in the "Pfälzerwald" (Palatinate Forest) are also available at the institute. With lectures, conferences and exhibitions the institute consistently engages the public with Palatinate history.