Central archival library and national bibliographic centre
German National Library
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The German National Library in Leipzig
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Location
| Frankfurt
and
Leipzig
, Germany
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Type
| National library
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Established
| 1912
; 112 years ago
(
1912
)
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Reference to legal mandate
| Law regarding the German National Library
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Items collected
| Conventional printed works, those in microform, sound recording media and digital publications on physical storage devices and net publications
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Size
| 43.7 million items (2021)
[1]
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Criteria for collection
| all publications published in Germany, all German-language publications published abroad, all translations into other languages of German-language works published abroad, all foreign-language publications about Germany published abroad known as "Germanica", written or printed works published between 1933 and 1945 by German-speaking emigrants
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Legal deposit
| yes, since 1935
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Access requirements
| Users must be at least 18 years old and present a valid passport or ID card. Library use is subject to a charge. A valid residence permit for Leipzig or Frankfurt am Main is requested for the application.
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Circulation
| 350,713 (2018)
[2]
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Members
| 173,374 (2018)
[2]
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Budget
| €54.9 million (2018)
[2]
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Director
| Frank Scholze
(2020)
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Employees
| 641.5
FTE
(2018)
[2]
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Website
| dnb.de
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The
German National Library
(
DNB
; German:
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the
Federal Republic of Germany
. It is one of the
largest libraries in the world
. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehensively document and record bibliographically all German and
German-language
publications since 1913, foreign publications about Germany, translations of German works, and the works of German-speaking emigrants published abroad between 1933 and 1945, and to make them available to the public.
[3]
The DNB is also responsible for the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie
[
de
]
and several special collections like the
Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933?1945
(German Exile Archive),
Anne-Frank-Shoah-Bibliothek
[
de
]
and the
Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum
(German Museum of Books and Writing). The German National Library maintains co-operative external relations on a national and international level. For example, it is the leading partner in developing and maintaining bibliographic rules and standards in Germany and plays a significant role in the development of international library standards.
The cooperation with publishers has been regulated by law since 1935 for the
Deutsche Bucherei Leipzig
[
de
]
and since 1969 for the
Deutsche Bibliothek
Frankfurt am Main
.
Duties are shared between the facilities in
Leipzig
and
Frankfurt
, with each center focusing its work in specific specialty areas. A third facility has been the
Deutsches Musikarchiv Berlin
(founded 1970), which deals with all music-related archiving (both printed and recorded materials). Since 2010, the Deutsches Musikarchiv is also located in Leipzig as an integral part of the facility there.
History
[
edit
]
During the
German revolutions of 1848
, various booksellers and publishers offered their works to the
Frankfurt Parliament
for a parliamentary library. The library, led by Johann Heinrich Plath, was termed the
Reichsbibliothek
("
Reich
library"). After the failure of the revolution the library was abandoned and the stock of books already in existence was stored at the
Germanisches Nationalmuseum
in
Nuremberg
.
[4]
In 1912, the town of Leipzig, seat of the annual Leipzig Book Fair, the
Kingdom of Saxony
, and the
Borsenverein der Deutschen Buchhandler
[
de
]
(Association of German booksellers) agreed to found a German National Library in Leipzig. Starting 1 January 1913, all publications in German were systematically collected (including books from Austria and Switzerland). In the same year, Gustav Wahl was elected as the first director.
Under Nazi rule, from 1933 to 1945, German libraries were censored, becoming extensions of National Socialist rule.
[5]
[6]
Books that Nazis seized in occupied countries entered German collections.
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
In 1946, Georg Kurt Schauer, Heinrich Cobet, Vittorio Klostermann and Hanns Wilhelm Eppelsheimer, director of the Frankfurt University Library, initiated the re-establishment of a German archive library based in
Frankfurt
.
[12]
The Federal state representatives of the book trade in the American zone agreed to the proposal. The city of Frankfurt agreed to support the planned archive library with personnel and financial resources. The US military government gave its approval. The Library began its work in the tobacco room of the former Rothschild library, which served the bombed university library as accommodation. As a result, there were two libraries in Germany, which assumed the duties and function of a national library for the later
German Democratic Republic
(GDR/DDR) and the
Federal Republic of Germany
(FRG/BRD), respectively. Two national bibliographic catalogues almost identical in content were published annually.
With the
reunification of Germany
on 3 October 1990, the
Deutsche Bucherei Leipzig
[
de
]
and the
Deutsche Bibliothek
Frankfurt am Main
were merged into a new institution, The German Library (
Die Deutsche Bibliothek
).
[12]
The "Law regarding the German National Library" came into force on 29 June 2006. The law reconfirmed support for the national legal deposit at this library and expanded the collection brief to include online publications set the course for collecting, cataloguing and storing such publications as part of Germany's cultural heritage.
[13]
The Library's highest management body, the Administrative Council, was expanded to include two MPs from the
Bundestag
. The law also changed the name of the library and its buildings in Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main and
Berlin
to "
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
" (German National Library).
In July 2000, the DMA also assumed the role as repository for
GEMA
, Gesellschaft fur musikalische Auffuhrungs- und mechanische Vervielfaltigungsrechte, a German music copyright organization. Since then, music publishers only have to submit copies to DMA, which covers both national archiving and copyright registration. The 210,000 works of printed music previously held by GEMA were transferred to DMA.
German Exile Archive
[
edit
]
One of the special activities of the German National Library involves the collection and processing of printed and non-printed documents of German-speaking emigrants and exiles during the period from 1933 to 1945.
The German National Library maintains two exile collections: the Collection of Exile Literature 1933?1945 of the German National Library in Leipzig and the
German Exile Archive
[
de
]
1933?1945
[14]
of the German National Library in Frankfurt am Main. Both collections contain printed works written or published abroad by German-speaking emigrants as well as leaflets, brochures and other materials produced entirely or in part by German-speaking exiles.
In 1998 the German National Library and the
German Research Foundation
began a publicly funded project to digitise the "Jewish Periodicals in Nazi Germany" collection of approximately 30,000 pages, which were originally published between 1933 and 1943. Additionally included in the project were 30 German-language emigrant publications "German-language exile journals 1933?1945", consisting of around 100,000 pages. These collections were put online in 2004 and were some of the most frequently visited sites of the German National Library.
In June 2012 the German National Library discontinued access to both collections on its website for legal reasons. The digitised versions are since then available for use in the reading rooms of the German National Library in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main only, which caused partly harsh criticism.
[15]
The German National Library cited concerns over copyright as the reason, claiming that although the Library and the German Research Foundation had permission from the owners of the publication to put them online, the ownership of the "orphaned articles", that is, the individual authors, could not be ascertained as would be necessary because German legislation does not include a "fair use clause".
The Jewish German-language newspaper
haGalil
called the libraries action "overzealous". Yves Kugelmann, the head of Judische Medien AG in Zurich, which owns the rights to
Aufbau
magazine, one of the Exile Archive's offerings, called the action "completely absurd, confusing, and without merit". Anne Lipp of the German Research Foundation concluded that "all projects of the foundation", which have been paid for by public funding and with the intent of publishing online, "must be made public".
[16]
Asmus, head of Deutsches Exilarchiv, claims that the ownership of articles from over 13,000 individual authors must first be confirmed and permissions obtained before the 70- to 80-year-old articles may be put online again, despite having had permission from the rightful owners of the publications to put the articles online. Asmus admits that there was not one single complaint of copyright violation.
[17]
Meanwhile, other German and international institutions such as Compact Memory, the
Leo Baeck Institute
and
archive.org
have no such compunctions and have begun restoring many of the deleted periodicals to the internet again.
[note 1]
Working Group for the Collection of German Imprints
[
edit
]
The German National Library only collects German imprints from 1913 onward.
[18]
Because of German's history of numerous kingdoms, creating a unified collection of all printed materials produced in Germany is a challenge. Therefore, the National Library is collaborating with five other libraries who possess large collections in order to coordinate and develop a complete collection of all literature published in German-speaking countries, starting with the year 1400. This group is called the
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sammlung Deutscher Drucke
(AG SDD, Working Group for the Collection of German Imprints). The participating libraries and their collection periods are:
German Music Archive
[
edit
]
The Deutsches Musikarchiv (DMA, German Music Archive) is the central collection of
printed
and
recorded music
and the music-bibliographic information centre for Germany. It is a Federal agency founded in 1970, tasked with collecting all music published in the country. Its precursor was the
Deutsche Musik-Phonothek
(1961?1969). The DMA moved to Leipzig in 2010, to be housed in an extension of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Construction work began in 2006 and was completed in 2009.
Formerly situated in
Berlin-Lankwitz
, the DMA constitutes a department of the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek). Publishers of printed and recorded music in Germany are required by law (since 1973) to deliver two copies of every edition to the archive. One copy is kept at the DMA in Leipzig, the second is deposited in Frankfurt.
German Museum of Books and Writing
[
edit
]
The
German Museum of Books and Writing
(
Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum
) is now hosted at the building in Leipzig. Founded in 1884 as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum) it eventually made its way to the Deutsche Bucherei Leipzig in December 1925.
[19]
It is the world's oldest museum of book culture and addresses both experts and the general public. With over one million items in the collection, it is one of the most extensive in the world. They offer a wide variety of services including physical and virtual exhibitions, guided tours, seminars and workshops.
[20]
Building in Leipzig
[
edit
]
The main building of the German National Library in Leipzig was built 1914?1916 after plans of the architect Oskar Pusch. The facade is 160 m long and faces the "Deutscher Platz" (German Plaza). The building was opened on 19 October 1916. The site of the library (near to today's
Alte Messe
) had been donated by the city of Leipzig, while
Friedrich August III
,
King of Saxony
provided the funds for the building.
On the facade, the portraits of
Otto von Bismarck
,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and
Johannes Gutenberg
are displayed. Statues represent Technology, Justice, Philosophy, Medicine etc. The central reading room contains a picture by Ludwig von Hofmann, depicting Arcadia in Art Nouveau-style. The staircase displays a mural showing the founders of the German library. The Library also contains the
German Museum of Books and Writing
. The fourth expansion of the library began in 2007 and was opened to the public on 9 May 2011. Designed by Gabriele Glockler, whose concept for the building was "Cover. Shell. Content." it connects all sections of the building together for the first time.
[21]
Building in Frankfurt am Main
[
edit
]
The current building of the Frankfurt branch was officially inaugurated on 14 May 1997. Stuttgart architects Arat-Kaiser-Kaiser were commissioned to design the building after winning an architectural competition in 1984. Planning was delayed however and construction didn't begin until 1992. With an appearance dominated by four main materials: exposed concrete, steel, glass and light
Canadian Maple
, it features over 300 workstations across three floors, with a large window providing illumination to all of them. Additional storage is located in three levels of underground storage expected to contain enough space until 2045.
[21]
Inventory
[
edit
]
- Total: 43.7 million items
[1]
- books: 17.3 million
- journals: 8 million
- audio records: 2.4 million
- electronic publications: 10.7 million
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Jahresbericht 2021
(in German). Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. 2022. p. 46.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Jahresbericht 2018"
(in German). 2019
. Retrieved
2019-06-03
.
- ^
Murray, Stuart (2009).
The Library: An Illustrated History
. New York, USA:
Skyhorse Pub
.
- ^
Fabian, Bernhard, ed. (2003). "Reichsbibliothek von 1848".
Handbuch der historischen Buchbestande in Deutschland
(in German). Hildesheim, Germany: Olms Neue Medien.
- ^
Stieg, Margaret (January 1992).
"The Second World War and the Public Libraries of Nazi Germany"
.
Journal of Contemporary History
.
27
(1): 23?40.
doi
:
10.1177/002200949202700102
.
ISSN
0022-0094
.
S2CID
159922468
.
- ^
"Bibliography: 1933 Book Burnings"
.
www.ushmm.org
. Retrieved
2022-01-22
.
- ^
Flood, John L. (2018-01-02).
"Anders Rydell, translated by Henning Koch, The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance"
.
Library & Information History
.
34
(1): 74?75.
doi
:
10.1080/17583489.2017.1412664
.
ISSN
1758-3489
.
S2CID
165188074
.
- ^
Esterow, Milton (2019-01-14).
"The Hunt for the Nazi Loot Still Sitting on Library Shelves"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2022-01-22
.
- ^
Sontheimer, Michael (2008-10-24).
"Retracing the Nazi Book Theft: German Libraries Hold Thousands of Looted Volumes"
.
Der Spiegel
.
ISSN
2195-1349
. Retrieved
2022-01-22
.
- ^
"
'The Book Thieves' reveals the story of the Nazi assault on books"
.
Christian Science Monitor
. 2017-02-15.
ISSN
0882-7729
. Retrieved
2022-01-22
.
- ^
Lagnado, Lucette (2017-08-02).
"On the Trail of Books Stolen by the Nazis"
.
The Wall Street Journal
.
ISSN
0099-9660
. Retrieved
2022-01-22
.
- ^
a
b
"History"
. Retrieved
2021-03-05
.
- ^
a
b
Lux, Claudia (2018). "Germany: Libraries, Archives, and Museums".
Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences
. Boca Raton, Florida, USA:
CRC Press
. pp. 1848?1849.
ISBN
978-1-31511614-3
.
- ^
"German Exile Archive 1933?1945"
. Retrieved
2021-03-05
.
- ^
Tobias, Jim G. (2012-07-16).
"Deutsche Nationalbibliothek blendet judische Geschichte aus"
[German National Library blinds out Jewish History].
haGalil
(in German).
- ^
Tobias, Jim G. (2012-07-19).
"Absurd, irrefuhrend und unbegrundet"
[Absurd, confusing, and without merit].
haGalil
(in German).
- ^
Asmus, Sylvia (2013-11-29).
Comments
. Zugang Gestalten! (speech).
Jewish Museum, Berlin
.
- ^
"Deutsche Nationalbibliografie"
. Retrieved
2021-03-05
.
- ^
"Chronicle of the German Museum of Books and Writing"
. Deutsche National Bibliothek
. Retrieved
2021-03-03
.
- ^
"German Museum of Books and Writing"
. Deutsche National Bibliothek
. Retrieved
2021-03-03
.
- ^
a
b
"Building and Congress Center"
. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
. Retrieved
2021-03-03
.
External links
[
edit
]
- Official website
(in German and English)
- "Deutsches Musikarchiv"
.
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
(in German). 2023-01-01
. Retrieved
2023-02-11
.
- "Startseite"
.
Sammlung Deutscher Drucke
(in German)
. Retrieved
2023-02-11
.
- "DE-101"
.
Deutsche ISIL-Agentur und Sigelstelle
(in German)
. Retrieved
2023-02-11
.
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