The inheritance of the painter, stage designer and writer Paul Strecker (1898-1950) has been in the archives of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, as a deposit of the Paul Strecker Foundation since 2006. The inventory has a volume of 1.5 linear meters and was processed according to archival principles. The Paul Strecker Archive contains figurine and stage design drafts, manuscripts of articles, personal diaries and photographs, work photos and illustrations, exhibition materials and a press collection. The archive materials can be searched in the archive's database online and can be viewed in the reading room in Berlin by appointment.
At the center of the archive are Paul Strecker's eleven diaries from the years 1917 to 1950 (Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Paul Strecker Archive, nos. 1-11). They have a volume of more than 1700 pages. Only Diary 1 for the period 1917/18 is not preserved in its original form and is available as an incomplete copy. The diaries provide a unique insight into the German-French art scene from the interwar period to the postwar period. Strecker not only reflected on his own artistic development, but also described in detail exhibitions, journeys and encounters with fellow artists. Coming from a family of music publishers in Mainz, Strecker had studied painting in Munich and after two years in Berlin, he moved to Paris from 1924 to 1944. After the end of the war, he also worked in Berlin as a stage and costume designer.
With the joint intention of promoting the edition of Paul Strecker's diaries, a cooperation agreement was signed in 2019 between the Paul Strecker Foundation Mainz, the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. In the same year the diaries were digitized in the university library of the Johannes Gutenberg University. With the consent of the Paul Strecker Foundation, the digital copies are available in the database of the Archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin and as an online edition on the website of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. A first transcription of the diaries, which now forms the basis of the edition, was made in 2008 in the Akademie-Archiv. A critical commentary is currently being prepared for the online edition, supervised by Professor Dr. Gregor Wedekind from the Institute of Art History and Musicology at JGU.