The Jazz-Institut Darmstadt is Europe's largest public research archive on jazz. It holds specialized books, periodicals, sheet music, records, photographs as well as posters and other memorabilia. It aims not only at researchers - journalists, musicologists, students - but at the general public as well. In 1983 the city of Darmstadt bought the collection of well-known German critic and producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt. Later other collections were acquired, making the Darmstadt archive the largest public jazz collection in Europe. 

Until September 1990 it was housed in the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt which is known throughout the world for the "Ferienkurse for Neue Musik" a workshop and discussion forum on contemporary composed music. In September 1990 the city established the Jazz-Institut which took over the Joachim-Ernst Berendt archive as well as all of the later acquisitions. The Institut which is now housed in Darmstadt's "Bessunger Kavaliershaus" will enlarge its collection constantly in order to stay a comprehensive and competent research archive. 

The Jazz-Institut Darmstadt holds about 40.000 items of recorded music - CDs, LPs, EPs, shellacks, cylinders, tapes etc. - documenting the history of jazz from ragtime to free jazz, from musical to jazz-rock, from blues and spiritual to so-called "world music". It also includes records from all different nations. You'll find examples from the US, Western and Eastern Europe as well as from Japan or Australia. 

The archive contains one of the largest jazz photo collections in the world. The Berendt collection brought valuable historical posters to Darmstadt, many of which document the history of post-war jazz in Germany.

The sheet music collection of the Jazz-Institut collection of the Jazz-Institut is still small but will be enlarged constantly. It aims at researchers as well as musicians. It contains musical transcriptions, fakebooks, instrumental methods as well as band and orchestra scores. 

The Jazz-Institut holds about 6.000 specialized books, thus offering an excellent research library. One finds early publications as well as the latest research studies. The documentation especially focuses on jazz in America and Europe. General discographies, regional, label and name discographies provide a good survey of jazz history as documented on records. Encyclopedias, bibliographies or filmographies provide quick information about artists, styles, essays and books on special subjects. 

The periodical collection is one of the highlights of the archive. It includes important jazz periodicals like Down Beat, Metronome, Jazz Hot, Jazz Podium, but also some rare examples of German post-war publications. The collection comprises more than 800 titles, more than 40.000 single items. 

The basis of the Jazz-Institut's collection is the Joachim-Ernst Berendt archive. The well-known critic and producer provided most of the records and photos and many of the books and periodicals in the Institut's library. Berendt's manuscripts for radio shows, some of his correspondence with musicians and others can give an important insight into the development of jazz in post-war Germany. The many translations of his books document Berendt's immense importance for the international jazz scene. 

The Jazz-Institut is a reference archive. The material cannot be lent. Our computer-based Jazz Index allows quick reference to the largest part of the periodical and book collection. 

Each other year the Jazz-Institut organizes the Darmstädter Jazzforum, a discussion forum for musicologists and musicians alike. The papers of these conferences are being published in the book series "Darmstaedter Beitraege zur Jazzforschung". Current projects and activities at the Darmstadt Institut as well as important events in the field of jazz research are announced and oublished in the Jazz Newsletter which can be ordered from the Institut. For a list of recent publications from the Institut proceed to the respective page starting at our homepage.