The jour fixe of the Topothek group in the town of Mank was particularly festive this time, because they were happy about the 5,000th entry. Of course there are Topotheques with much higher numbers of entries, but the size of a local collection should never be used as a benchmark. Because the size of a community, the existing sources, the opportunity to incorporate it and last but not least the interest and thus the participation of the population are individual conditions in each community that influence the scope of a Topotheque. Above all, as here in Mank, the continuity of growth and the quality of the images and their keywords are the essential factors that characterize a Topotheque. Finally, it is the encouragement of interested parties and the initiation of discussions that determine the success of a Topotheque.
The Topotheque of the city of Mank also shows a practical approach to the numerous publications on the history of the city that are still commercially available. The electronic provision of printed works by the Topotheque is not intended to prevent authorized sales of the publications, but on the contrary to refer to the respective works and their sources of supply with the restriction to the title and content. This creates a good interaction between the electronic and printed publications, which together paint a detailed historical picture of the city.
As a sample, one of those pictures is given here whose occasion was a special one, but whose background shows real everyday life, which is often neglected in the documentation: here we see apartment, furnishings, kitchen and/or bathroom, fittings, wall and curtain pattern, wall lamp, etagère, wall clock. Pure contemporary history. We owe the picture to a home visit by the Minister in 1974.