Research Centre for Political Iconography

The research centre arose out of a special collection of the slide library of the Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar (Art History Seminar) at Hamburg University. In 1991, it was expanded into an independent research centre with the aid of funds from the Leibniz Prize awarded to Martin Warnke and located at the Warburg Haus. The Image Index of Political Iconography comprises about 200,000 index cards with reproductions of works of art, short texts, and other material, to which over one hundred keywords have been assigned. The index covers photographic reproductions, copies, original newspaper cuttings, and postcards, which are organized with the goal of documenting pictorial references to political terms, figures, and events. By systematically comparing different objects via a common keyword, strategies and traditions become apparent that are inherent to the individual pictures and pictorial symbols.

As the collection has grown, different areas of focus have emerged, such as reproductions of legal manuscripts from the Middle Ages, France in the 17th century, and depictions of Napoleon and the Napoleonic era. The archive also includes around 1,000 original picture postcards with political subject matter, materials from the First World War, and a collection of Notgeld (emergency money) printed during the period of hyperinflation in Germany in the 1920s with artistic motifs. Moreover, the archive offers access to the full microfiche catalogue of the Witt Library (with approx. 1.3 million images) and a microfiche collection on historical emblems. Preparations are currently underway to digitize the complete Image Index of Political Iconography. The collection is complemented by a library of about 9,000 volumes, including essays and special print editions that are also categorized according to the same keyword system as the collection of images. In this way, pictures and text, image cards and academic studies can be brought into a direct dialogue.

Uwe Fleckner, Martin Warnke, Henrik Ziegler (Hg.):
Handbuch der politischen Ikonographie
In 2 Bänden. Bd.1: Abdankung bis Huldigung. Bd. 2: Imperator bis Zwerg
2., durchgesehene Auflage 2011, Verlag C.H.Beck.

ISBN 978-3-406-57765-9