This year the Astronomische Gesellschaft, a professional astronomical society founded in 1863, decided to establish its own archives with the help of the Archives of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Papers related to the IAU can also be found in several archives. It is incomplete and contains some errors, but is nevertheless very usefull. However, it covers only selected archives in West Germany. Some special inventories have been published, e.g. recently a register of astronomical papers in the Gotha Research Library and a preliminary list of Gottfried Kirch's papers.
Professional archives keep card files and inventories of their holdings.
Some recommandations will be given how to find papers and letters in German archives, and some current activities for compiling inventories will be mentioned.