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As part of Germany’s cultural memory, the German National Library collects everything that has been published in Germany since 1913 along with foreign publications about Germany or in the German language. Whether printed or digital, whether published privately or by a publishing company: we collect everything! This includes printed music and musical works. We have a rapidly growing digital collection and a number of extensive, notable special collections.

In all, our holdings encompass more than 49,7 million books, newspapers, journals, musical scores and publications, maps, and archival materials in both physical and digital formats. This makes us the biggest library in Germany.

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Our collection in figures

Holdings in all in 2023 are approx. 49 Millionen Media units.  Including 17,708,053  Monographs; 9,115,122 magazines/newspapers and 14,866,122 online publications

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Books

In most cases, the first things that come to mind when people think about libraries are books. Whether volumes of poetry, dictionaries, novels, biographies, school textbooks, non-fiction books, picture books, cookbooks or art books: we collect general and specialised works on all areas and subjects, hardbacks and paperbacks in all sizes and formats.
We also collect the digital versions: audio books, e-books, books on demand and all “books” distributed through the internet – otherwise known as online publications.

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Newspapers and journals

Newspapers and journals make up a large part of our collection. At present, there are around 65,200 periodicals in our catalogue with around 550,000 individual editions (last updated: 2023). Almost 11,400 editions of daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, e-papers and e-journals are added every day.

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Music

Our music collection goes all the way back to the early days of sound recording at the end of the 19th century. Apart from printed music and musical works published or sold in Germany, it also includes historic sound recordings such as shellac records, phonograph cylinders and piano rolls. In the 1960s, we started collecting sound recordings produced in the GDR; in 1970, we expanded our collection to include music released on sound recordings in the Federal Republic. In keeping with technical developments, our collection also includes tapes, music cassettes, records, CDs, DVDs and music published digitally.

German Music Archive

Digital collections

Besides collecting physical publications such as books, newspapers, journals, printed music and maps, we also collect the digital versions where these are available. Along with digital versions of traditional media such as e-books, books on demand, online dissertations, audio books, digitally notated music, e-journals and e-papers, our collection encompasses websites and digitised works.

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Maps

Maps, nautical charts and atlases have been part of our collection ever since the Library was founded in 1913. With more than 271,000 maps, around 4,600 classroom wall maps and 5,800 atlases, it contains almost all the German-language map material published during the 20th and 21st centuries with the exception of secret military maps.

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Special collections

Our holdings are enhanced by a number of special collections. These include the Anne Frank Shoah Library, the Collection of Exile Literature, the Library of the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848/49, and the archive and library of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Book Traders’ Association). You will find these collections and other interesting items in the German Museum of Books and Writing, the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 and the German Music Archive. These unique collections are supplemented by gifts, donations and legacies, each focusing on specific areas.

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Searching the catalogue

You can search our catalogue from any location, view the full texts of more than 2.7 million open access publications or display the tables of contents of more than 2.7 million titles.

Simply enter your search term in the adjacent catalogue box or click directly on the magnifying glass.

German Museum of Books and Writing

With more than one million objects, the media history collection of the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library is one of the most extensive in the world.

Along with manuscripts, historic prints and modern book art, you will find a wide range of archival materials and legacies focusing on the history of books, writing and media, the world’s biggest watermark collection, graphics, decorated papers, early writing surfaces and implements, and book and paper-making machinery and equipment that go right up to the present day. The links integrated into the collections facilitate a complex, interdisciplinary approach to issues in cultural and media studies.

German Exile Archive 1933–1945

The collection of the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 at the German National Library is made up of documents, legacies, letters, manuscripts and other archival materials. Its central focus is the fate of those who were forced to leave their homes in Germany and flee into exile.

All holdings can be researched in the catalogue of the German National Library. Most of the exile monographs have been digitised and can be accessed in the reading rooms in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main. The Anne Frank Shoah Library in Leipzig focuses specifically on the Holocaust and Shoah, anti-Semitism and racism.

German Music Archive

In the German Music Archive, which has been a part of the German National Library since 1970, we collect not only sound recordings and sheet music but also other treasures. These include historic sound recordings and sound reproduction devices. At present, these collections encompass more than two million works. Important parts of the collection include the archive of the Music Information Centre of the Association of Composers and Musicologists in the GDR (MIZ) and the archive of the Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA). Moreover, the collection contains a number of musical estates. The “Bonner Katalog” is a catalogue of musical materials that can be hired from music publishers for performance.

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