The Office for Everyday Culture, which is based at the Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, functions as both a university research centre and an archive. Its collections encompass materials on the history of folk traditions and ethnology from the early 20th century to the present day. These include the Archive for Alternative Culture, the Hahne-Niehoff Archive, the European HIV/AIDS Archive (EHEAA), the Archive of Flight, and the papers of renowned researchers in the fields of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology (including Richard Beitl, Wolfgang Steinitz, Frederick Rose, Ute Mohrmann, Wolfgang Kaschuba, and many others).

As part of the nationwide network of (non-)university research centres in Germany, the Berlin-Brandenburg Office for Everyday Culture sits at the intersection of academic and public life. It archives and documents collections relating to cultural anthropology, folklore, and European ethnology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and also makes them accessible for artistic and academic research.

The Office pursues a critical scientific approach, examining contemporary and historical academic and archival practices in their epistemic and ideological contexts. Practices of archiving, ordering, and categorising are themselves to be questioned and investigated, particularly with regard to the institutionalisation and instrumentalisation of knowledge under National Socialism and in the GDR.

The Office views its role as a para-institution of the Institute for European Ethnology, a place to reflect on and discuss its methods and infrastructure. Workspaces are available for visiting researchers.