A STUDY OF THE THEORY OF APPRAISAL FOR SELECTION By ...

intuitive ability to appraise records for historical value.8 A
year later, Waldemar Lippert supported Meinecke's position by
arguing that the "historical expertise" acquired in the course of
the practical experience of records disposal qualified archivists
to appraise archives.9 In L ippert's intuitive approach to
appraising value, "theory is worthless or inferior—only actual
practice is decisive."10
The intuitive approach to appraisal was soon challenged by
the widespread acceptance of the principle of provenance,
notwithstanding the fact that many continued to support the
primacy of content analysis throughout the twentieth century. By
1957, structural analysis dominated appraisal methodology in
Germany. In this year, at the 35th German Archival Conference in
Koblenz, Fritz Zimmerman rejected this prevalent trend, and
supported the older tradition of content analysis. He understood
the problem of subjectivity inherent in this approach, and
attempted to address the problem by providing an objective
standard to control the concept of value.
Without clearly explaining why, Zimmerman argues that an
understanding of administrative functions and activities did not
provide an impartial criterion for identifying value. Instead,
he claims that objectivity could be established by comparing the
8 Booms, "Society," 84.
9 Booms, "Society," 84.
10 Woldemar Lippert, "Das Varfahren bei Aktenkassationen in
Sachsen," Deutsche Geschichtsblatter 2 (1901): 257; quoted in
Booms, "Society," 85.
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