Our holdings also include special collections such as the Anne Frank Shoah Library, the Library of the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848/49 and the Library of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels [German Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association]. They also encompass gifts, donations and legacies. The special collections often contain material from the time preceding the foundation of the German National Library in 1913.

A few of them are presented here. You will find other collections of this kind at the German Museum of Books and Writing, the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 and the German Music Archive.

Anne Frank Shoah Library

The Anne Frank Shoah Library makes literature on the Holocaust and Shoah, anti-Semitism and racism available in its own reading room. One focal area of the collection is literature by and about the Library’s namesake Anne Frank, including numerous foreign-language publications.
The reference library provides access to printed media such as books and journals, audiovisual media, microforms and lesson materials.
The holdings facilitate in-depth study of the persecution and murder of European Jews during the Nazi era. They also include books that address racist and anti-Semitic trends in present-day society.

More information about this collection is available at the German Exile Archive 1933–1945

Archive and library of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V. [German Publishers and Booksellers Association]

The Börsenverein’s library and historical archive consists of a highly comprehensive collection of printed and non-printed material on German publishing and the German book trade, both past and present. Besides books and periodicals, the collection also contains other items such as autographs, portraits and posters.

The extensive holdings in the Börsenverein's library and archive make this one of Germany’s most important special collections in this area. The library alone contains around 25,000 volumes, nearly 100 journals and other periodicals. The Börsenverein presented us with these collections in 2012 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of our foundation. In return, we pledged to preserve the collections and continue providing the associated services.

More information about this collection is available at the German Museum of Books and Writing

Library of the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848/49 [Reichsbibliothek]

Representatives of the German Book Trade donated a reference library consisting of 4,600 volumes to the Reich Parliament of 1848/49, which met in the Paulskirche church in Frankfurt am Main and passed a Reich constitution making it a National Assembly. The representatives also advised the parliament to establish a Reich library. In 1855, after the National Assembly fell apart, the parliamentary library was relocated to the Germanic National Museum in Nürnberg. The Deutsche Bücherei was given this collection in 1938 to mark its 25th anniversary.

The Reichsbibliothek collection encompasses German-language books on statesmanship and economics, philosophical works, and descriptions of countries and cities with a bibliophilic character. The Reichsbibliothek catalogue has been preserved in the original.

Library of the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848/49 in the catalogue

Documents from international organisations

We were already the depositary library for numerous international institutions (including the UN, UNESCO, EU, WTO) back in the days when Germany was divided. From 1990, we restricted the collection of these documents to our Leipzig site only and added documents issued by the ICAO, the IAEA, the OECD, the FAO and the WHO. The collection is now complete and consists of around 430,000 documents.
Since 2005, in compliance with our legal mandate, we have restricted our collecting activities to the documents issued by these organisations in Germany and in the German language abroad.

They are catalogued through the search systems of the issuing organisations, most of which are accessible through the internet. Access is available free of charge in our reading rooms.

Initial information on using the collection of documents from international organisations is available at the information desk.

Collection of standards

Our holdings also include technical standards issued by the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), the Association of German Engineers (VDI) and the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE).
The collection encompasses both currently valid and superseded standards from Germany and Austria. Examples of these include the Technical Standards, Quality Specifications and Delivery Conditions (TGL) used in the GDR. The collection consists of almost 600,000 standards.

Initial information on using the collection of technical standards is available at the information desk.

Patents

In 1955, the holdings of the former Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig were expanded to include patents. From then on, it began collecting all patents and design specifications registered in the GDR and FRG. In 1961, 670,000 Reich patents dating from 1877 to 1945 were added to the collection. We ceased collecting patents in 1990, when the German Patent and Trade Mark Office reorganised its patent and information offices.

The complete collection of patents consists of around two million Reich, GDR and federal German patents dating from 1877 to 1990; these are available on paper and microform.

Initial information on using the collection of patents is available at the information desk.

Poster collection

Our Leipzig site houses a treasury of posters. Our poster collection consists of more than 14,000 posters and official announcements dating from World War I (1914–1918), around 5,000 posters, flyers and proclamations from the November Revolution of 1918, and around 5,000 from World War II (1939–1945). This special collection also includes around 9,000 popular prints dating from 1945 to 1949 and from what was to become the GDR (until 1961).

More information about this collection is available at the German Museum of Books and Writing

Socialist documentation

The core of this special collection is a gift from the Social Democrat publisher Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Dietz from Stuttgart, who bequeathed valuable publications from his private library to the German National Library. The collection contains a selection of publications on the history of the German labour movement from 1830 to 1912. Further antiquarian items were added until 2007, and the collection now encompasses around 2,700 monographs and 660 periodicals.
Socialist collection in the catalogue

The collection can be used in the museum reading room.