The Zentralarchiv was funded in 1960 by the University of Cologne, Germany. It is financed jointly by the University and the Federal Minister for Research and Technology. The Zentralarchiv collects data from all fields of empirical research.
Emphasis is on survey data.
Regional data and textural data for computer-aided content analysis are included as well. Special collections for national election studies have existed since 1953. Also available are consumer studies, leisure and tourism studies, communication and media research, and the German General Social Surveys, as well as national and international teaching setups. The oldest archived study was carried out in 1945. All bibliographic references are available via an in-house retrieval system.