Historical Research

The basis of the explosive ordnance investigation are archival records. For a well-founded and thus reliable reconstruction, all relevant archival records are to be obtained. The research is to be carried out domestic and foreign archives (BFR KMR, Chapter 4.1.1).

In addition to historical aerial photographs, we also use historical documents to determine the possible presence of explosive ordnance.

For each project, historical information is researched, evaluated and reviewed. This ultimately results in a well-founded overall picture.

For this purpose, the "Historical Research" department relies on the four basic building blocks of literature, archive material, Internet and contact.

The municipal chronicle, the publications of the local history society, the exhibition catalog of the municipal archives - examples of the literature we use for our work.

For each of our projects, we conduct such a literature search and sift through the results in terms of their relevance to the task at hand. The company library comprises over 5,000 titles, which are fully referenced and digitally searchable.

Historical textual sources are diverse. Among the most important holdings and groups of documents relevant to explosive ordnance investigation, we count the war diaries of the U.S. Army, British Army, and Red Army, as well as the associated air forces. Only here can you find the important information on the type and number of ordnance or bomb detonators used.

In addition to these military records of the former Allies, we evaluate records of the German air-raid police or damage reports from industry and transport. This evaluation requires a great deal of experience and expertise, which we pass on, among other things, through our trainee program. Thanks to our database system, we are able to quickly and specifically find the relevant documents for evaluation in our inventory of several million pages.

A research without contacting the responsible municipality, city archives, local history society or historical societies, etc. is not complete.

This is because it offers the opportunity to access important information with direct local relevance that has not been published or is not accessible elsewhere.

For our explosive ordnance investigation, we specifically search the Internet for historical information on the project-relevant sites and press publications, e.g., on clearance measures that have been carried out to date.