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Thanks to fortunate historical circumstances, Leibniz’s manuscripts have been preserved in exceptional completeness. With regard to the vast dimensions and the many fields of learning this legacy comprises, among them philosophy, mathematics, physics, politics, law, history, linguistics, technical engineering, and medicine, the complete edition of Leibniz’ “Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe” represents a unique editorial challenge. After a short historical overview on the older editions up to the early 20th century when the Leibniz Akademie-Ausgabe was initiated in 1901, a sketch is given of the “varia fortuna” of that edition and its thematic structuring in eight different series. A list of the online material, the various tools, and databases the edition offers to its readers is followed by a description of how to use the most characteristic feature of the edition, i. e. the particular form of variant apparatus, the so called “Stufenapparat”. Finally, some comparative advantages for the reader of the historical-critical Akademie-Ausgabe over the older editions are noted.
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