On Thursday, 25th June 2020, the world’s most eminent trend forecaster Li Edelkoort held an exclusive online talk on “The Future of Luxury” which was organized as part of the new initiative of Burda #FutureForFashion.
High shelves stretch as far as the eye can see – rows of files, thick brown book covers and white folders with handwritten labels. As you step into the basement, the distinct smell of old paper fills the air: earthy, slightly sour, as if you've opened a huge book and buried your nose in its pages. The room is cool, quiet and windowless – somehow soothing. A perfect environment for safeguarding paper witnesses to contemporary history.
This unassuming basement room is where Burda's memory is kept: a vast collection of historic magazines published by Burda over the decades. Among them are gems such as the first issue of Bunte from 1948, an old Focus from 1993 and an early Elle with a particularly striking cover.
Sabrina Maier and Martin Amling are in charge of preserving these milestones. They collect, sort and archive the magazines and make sure they are safely stored on the shelves here in the basement in the Arabellastreet. This year their role has become even more important. To ensure long-term preservation, the two have begun the process of digitising these archives, securing them for future generations.
The decision to digitise was not made over night. Scanning such a large stock of magazines page by page is not only time-consuming, but also expensive. For this reason, careful consideration was given to how costs could be reduced. The solution: in-house scanning, where Burda takes care of scanning the magazines itself instead of commissioning another company. Going digital also meant freeing up valuable space in their physical archive. And there is another advantage: ‘It is a risk to store the magazines in the archive because they are not protected from water damage, for example. And the natural decay of paper due to ageing is also progressing,’ Sabrina adds to the list of reasons in favour of digitising the magazines.
‘We thought long and hard about which Burda title to start with,’ says Sabrina. ‘We ultimately decided on Bunte.’ Bunte is one of the few magazines in the archive with around 10,000 issues, including special editions. In some cases, there are even two or three copies of each issue, which explains the impressive number. But how do you keep track of so many magazines and pages?
‘It was a bit chaotic at first. We were overwhelmed by all the boxes in the basement, which turned out not to contain just Bunte magazines,’ says Martin. With a system of meticulously kept lists and a lot of time, the two were able to bring light into the darkness; carefully examining box after box. After completing an inventory, they reduced the magazine collection from 10,000 to 2,500. ‘We checked the condition of the magazines and identified which ones were suitable for digitisation,’ says Martin. They also made detailed notes about which magazines had already been scanned and flagged special features, such as handwritten notes in the margins or stains on the pages. The small team has now successfully digitised 1,400 magazines. To put that into perspective: if you were to scan every page from Bunte end to end, the journey would span 39 kilometres – roughly the distance from Arabellastrasse 23 to Freising. And in theory, once the entire archive has been scanned, the entire area of Lake Starnberg would theoretically be digitised!
The team began this ambitious project in April this year, and since then a growing number of pages have been digitised and added to the vast sea of data. Martin and Sabrina are supported in this time-consuming task by dedicated scan operators – specialists employed specifically to support the digitisation process. To ensure the highest quality, they use state-of-the-art, high-performance scanners that offer significantly better colour accuracy than standard domestic devices. Here's how it works: the scan operators carefully open each magazine, lay it flat on the scanner bed, press a glass plate over it to ensure the pages are completely flat, and press a button to start the scanning process. This process is repeated methodically, page by page, magazine by magazine. So far, the team has digitised about half of the 2,500 Bunte magazines. The remaining issues are expected to be completed by early 2025.
What happens after the scanning? The pages are processed using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology. This advanced system enables specific search terms to be identified within the scanned documents, greatly reducing the time and effort required for each search. The ultimate goal is to make all Bunte magazines available to Burda employees through the Digital Asset Management (DAM) system – creating an efficient and searchable archive for the future.
Want to be inspired by a classic Burda fashion trend? Curious about how the financial crisis was covered in Focus back in 2008? Soon, all Burda employees will have the opportunity to browse the archives and uncover the stories, trends, and insights of the past. Rummaging through historical content offers more than just nostalgia. It allows employees to rediscover recurring trends, find inspiration for innovative ideas, and gain a deeper understanding of Burda’s brand DNA. The archive serves as a bridge connecting the past with the trends and visions of tomorrow. However, there is still much work ahead for the Group's documentation team to ensure the seamless digitisation and organisation of this treasure trove of history.
