Search tips

Please note that the captions of the pictures in this database are (almost) only available in German! You have several options to search for images:
Using "simple search" (box at the top of the page) you can search for one or more terms. You can also limit the search to a certain period of time.
With the "advanced search" you can search in specific fields.
Using "topic search" you can navigate in a classification tree (chronologically and thematically).
There you can also access a complete list of persons whose pictures are available in the picture archive (Division FA 5) of the Federal Archives. In addition, two geographical lists are provided for specific searches for German or non-German locations.

Search operators (Boolean operators)

For the full text search we use the search engine "Solr" enabling you to use the following search operators like connectors, truncation and wildcards:

"Truncation":
To "truncate" a word, i.e. to replace the word ending by a symbol in order to get more results, you can use an asterisk *:
Example: The search entry "Bundesminist*" finds "Bundesminister", "Bundesministerium" etc.

AND operator:
All terms you enter in the search fields are automatically linked and searched with AND. You can combine two or more terms with the term AND, which both have to be found in a caption.
Example: "Kinderwagen Berlin" only searches for captions that contain both terms.

NOT operator:
Use NOT to exclude terms from your search results.
Example: “Kinderwagen NOT Berlin” only searches for Kinderwagen that are not from Berlin.

OR operator:
If you want to find at least one of the search terms in a caption, you can combine the terms with OR and search for them.
Example: “Kinderwagen OR Fundbüro"

Wildcard
In order to replace a character by a placeholder, you can use a question mark as wildcard character.
Example: "b?tter" finds "butter", "bitter", etc.

Search for phrases / string searching
To search for phrases, enter the terms by adding quotation marks at the beginning and the end of the string.
Example: "Luftschiffer mit Hund"

List of Keywords (only available for photos of the Federal Press- and Information Office)

The keyword list currently only allows you to find photos of the Federal Press and Information Office. A click on a keyword displays those photos that are indexed with this keyword.