Archiv der Lippischen Landeskirche
Leopoldstraße 27
32756 Detmold / Germany
The Central Archive of the Lippe Regional Church located in Detmold is responsible for safeguarding, preserving, and developing the archive material of the church. It has existed since 1972 and stores sources related to the history of the Regional Church Lippe that date back to the 15th century.
Information on the TerritoryThe territory of the Regional Church Lippe comprises a part of North Rhine-Westphalia that used to form the state of Lippe and was integrated into the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia after World War II.
Thus, the Regional Church Lippe consists of reformed and Lutheran parishes and is divided into so-called classes, i.e. different districts. There are 59 reformed parishes pooled in 4 classes (class north, south, east, west). A supra-regional class of its own is the Lutheran class consisting of 11 parishes.
The church books of the Lippe Regional Church are stored at three locations: The oldest church records are kept by the state archive NRW, the remaining books both in the Regional Church Archive and in the parishes. As the Regional Church Archive was only founded in 1972 and did not have any suitable storage rooms for church books, the oldest books were transferred to the State Archive NRW. Even so, the Regional Church Archive currently comprises appr. 800 church books. More and more church books from the parishes are transferred to the archive.
The digitization of the church books stored in the Regional Church Archive is making good progress as most books have already been digitized. The digitization is made in-house. In order to digitize the church books that are still kept in the parishes, it is necessary to send a request to the parish first. As the church books legally belong to the congregations, the respective parish decides on the digitization.
A major part of the church books stored at the Regional Church Archive in Lippe can already be viewed online. The inventory is being expanded by and by.
If you need a church book for your family research that is not (yet) recorded online with Archion, it is possible to conduct research on site in the Detmold Archive. Please find information on utilizing the archive here: Lippische Landeskirche: Archiv (lippische-landeskirche.de)