Different databases enable you to find out on your own, whether the IfZ archives hold materials on your particular research topic before your visit.

The archives' database contains information on records of the following groups of holdings: eyewitness reports, personal papers, documents from associations, collections, manuscripts, court records, state and party documents, maps, posters, and materials on the subject of the IfZ itself. Further information on the individual archival categories can be found here.

The OMGUS holdings (microfiche copies) of the IfZ archives are accounted for by the OMGUS-database

Publications by administrative offices, parties and associations as well as the Contemporary History Collection (Zeitgeschichtliche Sammlung, ZG) through 1949 can be researched via the library OPAC.

Newspapers and journals can also be searched via the library OPAC or the journal database (Zeitschriftendatenbank, ZDB).