German National Library Frankfurt/ Main

The focus of the following post is the Frankfurt/ Main location of the “German National Library”. Looking for more options than the website of the German National Library which I also consulted, I decided to go to the German ‘Google’ site. I was looking with the keywords ‘Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt’ (German for ‘German national library Frankfurt) and found the following website that describes the “German National Library” including its Frankfurt/ Main location briefly. As the site is originally in German I had it translated by ‘Google’.

Frankfurt-Interaktiv

Continuing with my research I tried ‘Encyclopedia.com’. I was searching with the keywords ‘German National Library’ and found one matching article with the title ‘Culture pavilion - the German National Library's new building at Frankfurt am Main’. As the article was only available as a short summary, I kept on looking for it on ‘Google’ where I found it as a full text under the following website.

Find Articles

Even if the article focuses on the architectural aspects of the new library building in Frankfurt/ Main, it is an additional interesting reading.

Here are my findings:

As mentioned in my first post the “German National Library” as an institution has been split as Germany’s history between 1945 and 1989. The Unification Treaty in 1990 allowed the two houses in Leipzig and Frankfurt/ Main to pursue their statutory duties jointly. Each site was transferred to focus on specific functions.

The Frankfurt site of the German National Library is responsible for the development of information and communication technology, including development and management of the central database. It handles the production, marketing and distribution of national bibliographic services. In addition every book and magazine published in the German language, including those from Switzerland and Austria, can be found in Frankfurt, along with a special collection of German writings in exile (1933-1945).

In 1997 the “Deutsche Bibliothek” in Frankfurt/ Main moved into its new (current) building. The Frankfurt library is designed to hold up to 18 million publications, and meet needs up to 2040. The following photos are taken from there.

Entrance with sculpture of Georg Baselitz
Photo: Thomas Linke, Linie Fotoforum
(Courtesy of German National Library)

Magazines/ Photo: Thomas Linke, Linie Fotoforum
(Courtesy of German National Library)

Anne Frank Shoah Library Leipzig

My next post is about the “Anne Frank Shoah Library” which was opened in 1992. It is a kind of special collection at the Leipzig location of the “German National Library”. I have decided to do so because this topic is close to my heart.
For my research I was looking through the catalogue of the “Australian National Library”. My search with the keywords ‘Anne Frank Shoah’ returned one book item dealing with this subject, but unfortunately the book is written in German and not yet held at any Australian library. Therefore the foundation for this entry will be the website of the “German National Library”.

German National Library

There can also be found a brochure on the “Anne Frank Shoah Library” on the library’s website:

Brochure on Anne Frank Shoah Library

Here are my findings:

The “Anne Frank Shoah Library” is an international research library for the documentation of the Holocaust. Its objective is to collect, index and make available literature from all over the world on the persecution of the Jews under the regime of National Socialism in Germany and making it available to interested users. The collection also comprises publications on the persecution of other minorities - documents about people persecuted on the basis of ethnic, political, religious, medical and other motivations.

The “Anne Frank Shoah Library” makes a significant contribution to the dissemination of literature on the Holocaust in keeping with its self-imposed obligation to serve as a living memorial library.

It is unlikely that an exhaustive collection of all publications related to the Shoah (Hebrew for "catastrophe" or "annihilation") can be compiled in the foreseeable future. Thus the library also focuses its efforts on the evaluation of bibliographies and numerous other source materials.

The collection of the “Anne Frank Shoah Library” currently comprises about 12,000 books, periodicals, audio-visual media, maps and other materials available for use in the special reading room. The collection as well as the about 22,000 bibliographic citations are catalogued alphabetically and by subject in a database. The catalogue can be found with the following link:

Catalogue of the Anne Frank Shoah Library

The “Anne Frank Shoah Library” is in contact with numerous institutions in Germany and abroad, e.g. the Anne-Frank-House in Amsterdam.

As I couldn’t find a suitable video about any of the three locations of the “German National Library”, I focused my search on “Anne Frank” and found that short video clip about the “Anne Frank House in Amsterdam”.

German National Library Leipzig

For my second post I have used the website of the “German National Library” and also the following reference website that I found on ‘Clusty’. I was searching with the keywords ‘German National Library Leipzig’ and found a matching article with a paragraph about the building in Leipzig.

Building in Leipzig

After two years of construction the main building of the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig was opened in 1916. The impressive facade is 160m long and displays the portraits of Otto von Bismarck, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johannes Gutenberg. Statues represent Technology, Justice, Philosophy, Medicine etc.

Portal / Photo: Peter Franke, PUNCTUM
(Courtesy of German National Library)

The central reading room contains a picture by Ludwig von Hofmann (impressionist painter), depicting Arcadia (refers to a vision of harmony with nature) in Art Nouveau-style. The staircase contains a mural showing the founders of the German library.

Large reading room / Photo: Anne-Katrin Müller
(German National Library)

Each location of the “German National Library” is allocated a certain principal task. The historic Leipzig library houses the “Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum” (German Book and Writing Museum), the “Sammlung Exil-Literatur” (Exile Collections) 1933 - 1945 and the “Anne-Frank-Shoah-Bibliothek”.

The German Book and Writing Museum has been collecting, storing and cataloguing valuable testimonies of book, writing and paper culture for roughly 125 years now. It is the oldest museum in the world in its field and the most important in terms of the quality and scope of its stocks (over one million objects). The museum is a research centre for the history of books and paper. It provides the general public with information on books through the exhibitions it stages and makes its stocks, including its library of books about books, available for study purposes in the reading room.

The Exile 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. The materials of the exile collections are available in the reading rooms. Special rules apply to the use of non-printed materials and materials by or about living persons. German exile journals and newspapers of the years 1933 to 1945 are sources of great interest. The project “Exilpresse digital” provides free global access to these materials via the Internet.