The Carl-Schirren Archive preserves archival materials relating to the history of the Baltic Germans and their regions of origin in Estonia and Latvia before and after the resettlements of 1939–1941, as well as a small collection of files on the history of the Lithuanian Germans, and makes them available for research.

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The holdings of the Carl-Schirren Archive comprise over 300 linear metres of shelving. Thematic focal points are formed by almost 100 personal estates (currently comprising around 95 linear metres of shelving) and the archives of the German Baltic student fraternities (currently comprising around 30 linear metres of shelving shelving metres – making them the largest archival collection on these fraternities outside the archives of Estonia and Latvia). The records on individuals and families contain important personal and institutional materials for research, with a particular breadth and richness of life stories. They provide insights into the social differentiation of German-Baltic society at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.