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The history of the archive

The Løgstrup Archive has been associated with Theology at Aarhus University from the beginning and has thus been housed in Nordre Ringgade, Tåsingegade and Nobelparken. 

The idea for the establishment of a Løgstrup Archive already arose shortly after Løgstrup's death in 1981, in connection with the posthumous publication of his planned books. The work with the publications included reading of a vast amount of the posthumous material. Therefore it was natural to carry out a first registration of the posthumous manuscripts, and thus the foundation of the archive was laid. 

The establishment of the actual archive happened later on the initiative of Niels Henrik Gregersen, who was then an associate professor at The Faculty of Theology, Aarhus University. Later, an inter-disciplinary steering committee with responsibility of the realisation and management of the archive was formed, consisting of Svend Andersen, Hans Fink, Niels Henrik Gregersen, Viggo Mortensen, Kim Arne Pedersen, Jens Holger Schjørring, Jørgen Stenbæk og Christian Thodberg, who were all employed at Aarhus University at that time. MA Ulli Zeitler (assisted by theology student Søren Peter Hansen) handled the adaption of Løgstrup's posthumous manuscripts to microfilm and entering them into an electronic database. The archive was officially inaugurated on the 1st of September 1995.

At the turn of the millenium, Professor Svend Andersen was rewarded a generous grant by the Velux Foundation, which apart from a number of research initiatives and publications made possible the purchase of the current shelves and bookcases, which contain the part of Løgstrup's book collection that is relevant to research, which Rosemarie Løgstrup concurrently donated to the archive. The archive was reinaugurated in its new form on the 5th of October 2001. Assistant Professor Kees van Kooten Niekerk was responsible for the daily management of the archive through many years - a job, which later was taken over by Assistant Professor Bjørn Rabjerg, who also has lead the project of digitising Løgstrup's posthumous manuscripts.  

When the K. E. Løgstrup Research Centre var established, the archive became a natural part of it. It facilitates the ongoing meetings of the steering committee and is still frequently visited of Løgstrup-researchers from home and abroad. 


Hard-working Løgstrup-researchers move the book collection from Løgstrup's home in Hyllested to the Løgstrup Archive.