We would be very pleased if you would like to donate your own love letters or the love letters of your parents, grandparents, and other relatives to our archive. We are also happy to include attic and flea market finds in our archive.
We define the term love letter broadly and are interested in any kind of love communication. This, of course, includes digital correspondence such as emails and messages sent via messenger services such as WhatsApp. Short typed or handwritten notes, for example small messages on slips of paper or postcards, are also relevant for our Love Letter Archive.
How can I leave letters to the Love Letter Archive?
You can send us your letter(s) and correspondences both as originals and as copies. When copying, it is important to make sure that the entire letter is copied each time and that the copy is legible.
The same applies to digital submissions, which we accept as .tif or .pdf. Ideally, e-mails or WhatsApp messages should be sent to us via e-mail: liebesbriefarchiv@uni-koblenz.de.
If requested, original letters can be sent back to you after having been digitized.
Important information: For each letter donation it is necessary to fill out a contract on ownership and publication and enclose it in your shipment. The aforementioned contract can be customized according to your wishes and sent by mail to the following address:
Liebesbriefarchiv
Universität Koblenz
Institut für Germanistik
Prof. Dr. Eva L. Wyss
Universitätsstr. 1
56070 Koblenz
After we have received your letter donation you will, of course, receive a signed copy of the contract.
What happens to my love letters?
In each individual case, you can decide for yourself what happens to your letter donation. The usual procedure is as follows: after their arrival at our Koblenz office the donated love letters are first sifted, counted and, depending on the findings, cataloged, scanned, archived and finally digitized.
If you give us permission in the contract, your love letters (never as originals, only in digital form) can also be used for the citizen science project Gruß & Kuss. The aim of the project is for scientists to transcribe and research love letters together with interested citizens.
In addition, your letters can be anonymized for any further use if you wish, so that no conclusions can be drawn about the authors. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to check out our FAQ.