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Wikipedia Receives German Pictorial History

The images were made available to the Wikimedia Commons page, a database of over three million freely usable media files, from Thursday, Dec. 4.

The donated pictures cover periods such as the Weimar Republic, the German colonial era, the Third Reich and Germany after reunification.

It was the largest donation of media to the Commons page since it was set up in September 2004.

The public had a right to access the photos, said Angelika Menne-Haritz, vice-president of the Federal Archives in Berlin, adding that the deal with Wikipedia would facilitate public access to the material.

A spokesperson for Wikipedia said the "unique historical material" would enhance many of the online lexicon's 10 million articles.

Read entire article at Deutsche Welle