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Revisions and Revisionisms in H.O. Meisner’s Modern Diplomatics of Files: An Essay in the Historical Anthropology of Bureaucratic Mediocracy

Mario Wimmer
Mario Wimmer
   | Dec 31, 2019
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Article Category: Towards a History of Files
Published Online: Dec 31, 2019
Page range: 87 - 109
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/adhi-2019-0006
© 2020 Mario Wimmer, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Public License.

Figure 1

Page 6 of Meisner’s annotated »Aktenkunde« and the blank page with his notes, BBAW Nl. H.O. Meisner, no. 159.
Page 6 of Meisner’s annotated »Aktenkunde« and the blank page with his notes, BBAW Nl. H.O. Meisner, no. 159.

Figure 2

Page 85 of Meisner’s annotated copy of Adolf Brenneke’s »Archivkunde: ein Beitrag zur Theorie und Geschichte des europäischen Archivwesens«, Leipzig, Koehler u. Amelang, 1953, BBAW Nl. H.O. Meisner, no. 159.
Page 85 of Meisner’s annotated copy of Adolf Brenneke’s »Archivkunde: ein Beitrag zur Theorie und Geschichte des europäischen Archivwesens«, Leipzig, Koehler u. Amelang, 1953, BBAW Nl. H.O. Meisner, no. 159.

Figure 3

Page 3 of Meisner’s annotated »Aktenkunde« and the blank page with his notes, BBAW Nl. H.O. Meisner, no. 159. The system of color-coded highlighting was something he already used in his notes from Tangl’s lectures. It remains unclear whether its logic was consistent over the decades or was only applied to each text individually. Most likely, the system was rather random and changed from sitting to sitting. What becomes clear from the various items in the literary estate is that Meisner used different pens and pencils for his notes over the decades. Typically, he used whatever was at hand, be it writing utensils or paper. Like many scholars, he often reused pieces of paper.
Page 3 of Meisner’s annotated »Aktenkunde« and the blank page with his notes, BBAW Nl. H.O. Meisner, no. 159. The system of color-coded highlighting was something he already used in his notes from Tangl’s lectures. It remains unclear whether its logic was consistent over the decades or was only applied to each text individually. Most likely, the system was rather random and changed from sitting to sitting. What becomes clear from the various items in the literary estate is that Meisner used different pens and pencils for his notes over the decades. Typically, he used whatever was at hand, be it writing utensils or paper. Like many scholars, he often reused pieces of paper.

Figure 4

Outline of a revised table of contents, between pages 6 and 7 of Meisner’s annotated »Aktenkunde«, BBAW Nl. H.O. Meisner, no. 159.
Outline of a revised table of contents, between pages 6 and 7 of Meisner’s annotated »Aktenkunde«, BBAW Nl. H.O. Meisner, no. 159.
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