Siegfried Unseld Archive (SUA)

The Siegfried Unseld Archive (SUA) encompasses the archives of the Suhrkamp Verlag (founded in 1950), the Insel Verlag (founded 1901, taken over by Siegfried Unseld in 1963), the Jüdischer Verlag and the Deutsche Klassiker Verlag. Additionally, the archive contains the personal papers of Peter Suhrkamp and Siegfried Unseld. The SUA is among the most extensive and most significant collections of twentieth century literature. Above all, it contains letters and manuscripts from decisive authors and scholars, including Theodor W. Adorno, Ingeborg Bachmann, Samuel Beckett, Thomas Bernhard, Hans Blumenberg, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Bloch, Paul Celan, Norbert Elias, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Max Frisch, Hermann Hesse, Hans Henny Jahnn, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Octavio Paz, Rainer Maria Rilke, Nelly Sachs and Stefan Zweig.

The purchase of the Siegfried Unseld Archive was possible because of the following organisations and individuals:

The German Schiller Association
Baden-Württemberg Stiftung
Bundesbeauftragter für Kultur und Medien
Wüstenrot Stiftung
Kulturstiftung der Länder
Berthold Leibinger Stiftung
Stiftung Würth
Friends of the German Literature Archive Marbach

Dr. Boy-Jürgen Andresen, Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall, Eve Benseler, Robert Bosch GmbH, Hartwig Bronner, BW-Bank, Rose-Marie Gräfin von Degenfeld-Schonburg, Deutsche Bank, Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband, fischerwerke GmbH, Klaus Freytag, Klaus Frick, Reinhard Gorenflos, Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, Prof. Jörg Menno Harms, Otto Hartleitner, Dr. Gisela Hengstenberg, Hengstenberg GmbH & Co KG, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Brun-Hagen Hennerkes, Dr. Reinhard Hermes, S. D. Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Jagstberg, Klett-Stiftung, Klaus Kottmeier, Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg, Dr. Peter Kulitz, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Prof. Dr.-Ing. h.c. Berthold Leibinger and the congratulaters on his 80th birthday, Karl Magnus Graf Leutrum von Ertringen, Prof. Dr. Wulf D. von Lucius, MAHLE GmbH, Mann & Hummel, Bankhaus Metzler, Kai Uwe Peter, Dr. Rentschler Holding GmbH, Dr. Heike Rössler, Dieter Schwarz, Prof. Dr. Walter Sigle, Andreas Stihl AG & Co, Rechtsanwalt Vogel GmbH, Voith AG, Adolf Würth GmbH & Co KG, Wüstenrot & Württembergische, Zeitungsverlag Schwäbisch Hall, Prof. Dr. Walther Zügel as well as numerous individual members of the Friends of the German Literature Archive Marbach and the German Schiller Society and many individuals.

The indexing of the SUA has been running parallel to research upon it since 2010 (see the Suhrkamp Research Group, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation) and is substantially funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In the first phase of the project (presumably until 2016), we are indexing the »general correspondence« and the correspondence of the publishers with authors, parts of the documents from the editorial office as well as all materials that were created before the death of the publishing house’s founder, Peter Suhrkamp, in 1959. These documents can already be used with the help of more than 65,000 electronic references. All catalogued items can also be found in Kalliope, the national union catalogue for estates and autographs.

From 2017 to 2024, the German Research Foundation (DFG) generously funded a second extensive project in which the records of all editorial offices as well as the scientific and international programmes were catalogued.