17 Oktober 2023 press release

Founded with US support shortly after the Second World War and in the run-up to the separation of Germany, the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt am Main, was hardly likely to be politics-free zone. Helke Rausch, a historian from Freiburg, has written a political chronicle of the Deutsche Bibliothek. The publication "Wissensspeicher in der Bundesrepublik. Die Deutsche Bibliothek 1945–1990" has now been launched by Wallstein Verlag and is available from booksellers.

Considering the story of its foundation, the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt am Main was never going to be an apolitical place. Particularly not when she made it her mission to collect all the literature in Germany. The dispute with the library in Leipzig, which was established in 1912 and made the same claim from the East, became second nature in Frankfurt. During the 1950s, the Deutsche Bibliothek learnt how to use Cold War rhetoric to gain recognition from sceptics and the politicians in Bonn. The 1960s saw the Deutsche Bibliothek made its own political and social mark by establishing the Emigrantenbibliothek (Emigrant Library; today German Exile Archive 1933-1945); over the years that followed, it developed into a German cultural institution that also gained international recognition.

The reunification of Germany in 1990 resulted in the amalgamation of the two libraries in Leipzig and Frankfurt, initially under the name "Die Deutsche Bibliothek" and retaining the previous place names "Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig und "Deutsche Bibliothek Frankfurt am Main". The amendment to the "Law Regarding the German National Library" in 2006 brought both of the library's locations together under one name, the "German National Library".

"Wissensspeicher in der Bundesrepublik. Die Deutsche Bibliothek 1934-1909", written by Freiburg-based historian Helke Rausch, completes the works on the history of the German National Library already published by Wallstein Verlag, which address the history of the Deutsche Bücherei from its foundation to its role during the National Socialist era ("Zeughaus für die Schwerter des Geistes" by Sören Flachowsky) and the time from World War II to the reunification of Germany ("Nationalbibliothek im geteilten Land" by Christian Rau).

Accompanying events

• On Saturday 21 October 2023 at 15:00, Helke Rausch will be talking to the Director of the German National Library at the German National Library's activities area in hall 3.1 J 49 at the trade fair in Frankfurt am Main
• On Thursday 1 February 2024 at 19:00, Helke Rausch will be talking to historian and research journalist Dr. Wolfgang Niess at the German National Library in Frankfurt am Main

Background

Helke Rausch, historian and lecturer at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg's Department of History. She is also a John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University's Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and the recipient of a SHAFR Global Scholars and Diversity Grant awarded by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

On 3 October 1912, the Kingdom of Saxony, the City of Leipzig and the Börsenverein der Deutschen Buchhändler zu Leipzig (German Book Traders' Association of Leipzig) signed a contract for the foundation of the "Deutsche Bücherei". In the West, the establishment of a German archival library in Frankfurt am Main was initiated in 1946. With the reunification of Germany, these institutions were merged into one federal institution, which in 2006 received an extended legal mandate and a new name: German National Library. The German National Library's mandate is to collect all German and German-language publications and musical works published since 1913 along with Germanica and translations of German-language works published abroad. These include works published by Germans in exile between 1933 and 1945. The collection is archived, extensively documented and catalogued bibliographically. Besides facilitating use of the collections at its locations in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main, the German National Library offers services for libraries, booksellers, research institutions and a multitude of individuals, including many services available online.

The German National Library's Leipzig location is home to the German Museum of Books and Writing, the German Music Archive, the Sammlung Exilliteratur 1933-1045 and the Anne Frank Shoah Library; the Frankfurt location houses the German Exile Archive 1933–1945.

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