About us

Although most of our contents on this website and most of our materials collected are in German, we would like to introduce our project to a wider audience. We try this by translating at least the project description (“About us”). If you have any questions on the project, please contact us via e-mail (see contact details below).

The animal liberation archive is a project by and for the animal rights/ animal liberation movement. The project has set itself the task of collecting and archiving a wide variety of contemporary testimonies of the animal movements (or at least the German-speaking part). On the one hand, this is done to preserve the movements’ history for the future as well as for research and journalism and make it available to interested people. On the other hand, this is to serve for self-reflection and discussions on theories, debates, forms of action etc. within the movements.

The project is divided into two main work areas – the archive and the library. The archive is – as the project name suggests – the core of the project. Magazines, brochures, leaflets, estates, documents, and museum objects are archived here. In addition, the library collects several hundred books about the animal rights/ animal liberation movement, human-animal studies, “animal industry” and agriculture. In the so-called laboratory area, the project tries to create its own offers for the animal movements, to initiate projects, to organize events and to publish content.

The project is supported on a voluntary basis by a small group of activists from the animal rights/ animal liberation movement. New people and support are always welcome. The people who launched the animal liberation archive project have been active in animal and environmental movements for several years. At some point, they discovered that there is often a lack of awareness of the history of the movement and its meaning – and that the testimonials are also widely scattered and therefore difficult to find for those interested. Over time, this knowledge gave rise to the idea of ​​building up a free archive.

The active members of the animal liberation archive assume that speciesism is linked to other forms of oppression, exploitation, and dominion/ power. They see animal liberation as part of a struggle for a socially and ecologically just life in a society critical of dominion, which also includes non-human animals. The group therefore organizes itself with as little hierarchy as possible. At the same time, this also means a clear rejection of racism, sexism, and other inhuman attitudes. Neo-Nazis and other right-wing or inhuman people and groups are not welcome in the project and its events.