Henry van de Velde-Archive (ca. 5,000 pages)

The international Henry van de Velde-Society was founded in Hagen (1959) as a result of the intiative of Salomon van Deventer (Director of the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo) and Herta Hesse-Frielinghaus (Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen) and is currently seated at the Hohenhof.  The society is concerned with- in addition to the organization of exhibitions, lectures, symposium and the production of publications- the scholarly care and treatment of the Henry van de Velde estate. His bequest, including his various residences, is distributed throughout a number of european cities.

The archive of the Henry van de Velde-Gesellschaft in Hagen includes (1) art and craftwork as well as some designs, (2) a photograph collection, (3) an extensive specialized library as well as (4) the artist's letters and personal documents.

(1) The collection of the Henry van de Velde-Society and the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum includes architectual designs and plans, prints and drawings, craftwork, furniture as well as works from van de Velde's students.

(2) The photograph archive contains slides and negatives, films, photographs of various van de Velde works as well as personal photographs of van de Velde, his family, friends and contemporaries.

(3) The library contains a nearly complete series of van de Velde's books in various editions, original and copies of his publications in periodicals and publications on van der Velde and his contemporaries.

(4) Van de Velde's correspondences contained in the archive concern his activities in Weimar (copies from the Staatsarchiv Weimar) and other important personal statements and letters from the artist. This archived body of letters is substantially supplemented with writings by van de Velde taken from the KOE-Archive.

The Henry van de Velde Collection of the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, the Henry van de Velde-Society and the photographic and written archive inventory in Hagen focus on the substanial evidence of the artist's life and work in Germany (Birgit Schulte (ed.): Henry van de Velde in Hagen, Neuer Folkwang Verlag, Hagen 1992).