The Goethe and Schiller Archive is the oldest literary archive in Germany. It contains 130 estates of writers, scholars, philosophers, composers and fine artists, archives of literary societies and publishing houses, as well as an autograph collection with items by some 3,000 writers. The Archive ist widely recognised as one of the world's central archives of German literature of the 18th and 19th century. In 2001, UNESCO added Goethe's literary estate to its Memory of the World Register.