College and Research Libraries


Frankfurt's {~{~German Library'' 
By WILHELM MOLL 

I N APRIL 1959 librarians in West Ger­many and everywhere in the free 
world celebrated the opening of a new 
library building in Frankfurt. The build­
ing is the new home of the Deutsche 
Bibliothek, or German Library, Ger­
many's new national library and major 
bibliographical center. 

It will be remembered that the former 
national library which was founded 
shortly before the outbreak of the First 
World War is located in Leipzig. Leipzig 
was for generations Germany's publish­
ing capital and the location of a national 
library in that city was a perfectly na­
tural development. Following the with­
drawal of the American troops from Sax­
ony in 1945, however, Leipzig became 
part of Soviet-controlled Germany and 
has remained so to this day. As a result 
all the activities of the Deutsche Bue­
cherei, as the now East German library 
is called, have been subjected to the con­
trol of the Communist rulers, and li­
brarianship, like other aspects of intel­
lectual endeavor, has been placed in the 
service of their ideology. Only a few 
farsighted Germans anticipated these un­
happy developments immediately follow­
ing the German defeat and occupation 
in 1945. One of them was Hanns W. 
Eppelsheimer, then the director of the 
Frankfurt city and university libraries, 
who may be called the father of the new 
West German enterprise. He and several 
other librarians, booksellers, and pub­
lishers, including some who had left 
Leipzig when the American forces were 
withdrawn, advocated the establishment 
of a new library. Their efforts were 
crowned toward the end of 1946 when 
the American Military Government au­
thorities permitted the formation of such 

Dr. Moll is Assistant Medical Librarian, 
University of Kentucky. 

a national collecting point and biblio­
graphical center. Backing up the new 
venture were representatives of the West 
German booktrade and the indigenous 
governments of Hesse and the city of 
Frankfurt which provided modest quar­
ters and funds. The final legal status of 
the new library is laid down in the by­
laws of 1952 which endow the new in­
stitution with the rights and privileges 
of an independent foundation of the 
public law. 

The main purposes of the library are 
stated in the bylaws as follows: "(1) The 
Deutsche Bibliothek shall collect ... , 
preserve, make available, and arrange in 
accordance with scientific principles, 
German and foreign literature appear­
ing within Germany and the German 
literature of foreign countries as of May 
8, 1945. It shall lay the foundations for 
a national bibliography." In accordance 
with these principles, the Deutsche Bib­
liothek has attempted to gather almost 
all German-language publications (a few 
types of publications are excepted) ap­
pearing anywhere in the world after 
May 8, 1945. Included are trade as well 
as official publications, dissertations, and 
society publications. They are furnished 
by publishers and printers on a voluntary 
basis, except for federal documents which 
must be deposited in accordance with a 
recent (1958) decree. 

Library statistics attest to a steady 
growth of the new library. While in 
1946/47, the first year of operation, there 
were a little over 10,000 titles in the 
Deutsche Bibliothek, by the end of 1959 

COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES372 



View of the new Deutsche Bibliothek building. 

this figure had risen to 227,924 titles (and 1958 to 26,300 during the first seven 
almost 300,000 volumes). Added to this months [of 1959] since moving into the 
are 17,029 periodicals and 71,496 dis- new quarters." 
sertations. Also in 1959 the library was An important role is played by the 
exchanging its major bibliographies with reference staff of nine members, who in 
91 foreign libraries. Although the library 1959, answered on an average of 6,150 
is primarily charged with the preserva- inquiries monthly. It is aided in its ef­
tion of its materials close to 26,300 pa- forts by a small, but growing reference 
trons used some 42,000 volumes in 1959, collection of 7,724 volumes. 
and it is expected that the use of the Rounding out the holdings are two 
materials will rise further in the follow- special collections, the Library of the 
ing years. Emigration, comprising works by Ger-

In this connection, Professor Kurt man writers who were forced to flee Ger­
Koester, the director of the Deutsche many because of Hitler's accession to 
Bibliothek noted in a private communi- power, and the Archives of Unpublished 
cation to the author: "[The move into Scientific Publications, Archiv unge­
the new building] provided us for the druckter wissenschaftlicher Schriften. 
first time with a reading room with a Probably the most significant contri­
capacity of 75 seats which is particularly bution to scholarship is the series of 
important to us, because as an archival national bibliographies being issued cur­
library we are not permitted to loan our rently by the library. They go under the 
materials for use outside of the building. title Deutsche Bibliographie and include 
... This improvement explains, among German-language publications published 
other things, the increase of the number within the country and in foreign coun­
of users which has risen from 7,000 in tries. Beginning in 1947 there appeared 

SEPTEMBER 1961 373 

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weekly, classified bibliographies, Woe­
chentliches Verzeichnis, which four years 
later were cumulated into semi-annual 
bibliographies, Halbjahresverzeichnis, ar­
ranged alphabetically by authors. A third 
step in this series are national biblio­
graphies which are similar in arrange­
ment to the semi-annual bibliographies 
and which include publications for peri­
ods of five years, Af. ehrjahresverzeichnis. 
The first in this series comprised publica­
tions for the years 1951-1955. The latter 
aims to include not merely publica­
tions in the actual possession of the Li­
brary, but also German trade publica­
tions of foreign countries. A separate 
periodicals bibliography for the years 
1945-1952, Zeitschriften was completed in 
1958. It will be the first in a new series of 
periodicals bibliographies. Another spe­
cial bibliography for official publications 

was prepared for publication in 1960. 
Finally, mention should be made of the 
bi-monthly Das Deutsche Buch, a selec­
tive bibliographical bulletin which is dis­
tributed primarily among scientific in­
stitutes, libraries, booksellers, publishers, 
and German diplomatic missions. 

In conclusion due credit should be 
given to the staff of the Deutsche Biblio­
thek. There were only four employees in 
1946 when the library was first organized. 
At the end of 1959 there were 137, in­
cluding ten laborers and fourteen train­
ees. Compared to the size of staffs of 
other large national libraries and biblio­
graphical centers the number of librar­
ians and clerical workers is small indeed. 
Their contribution to librarianship un­
der difficult post-war conditions has se­
cured them a prominent place in the li­
brary world. 

The Library Technology Project 
(Continued from page 368) 

cent years of new materials and methods 
for binding, it has become desirable to 
develop performance type standards. 
Similarly, it has become apparent that 
the various end-uses of many library ma­
terials may require more than one type 
of binding. 

Some of you have already been visited 
by members of the survey team for this 
project. 

None of the programs I have just de­
scribed has been completed. In fact, one 
of the first lessons we had to learn was 
how long it requires to obtain final re­
sults in such cases. The program on 

. quick laminating equipment for exam­
ple, was begun in September 1959, but 

it will be March 1961 before the report 
is published. Since this first venture, we 
have learned several things that will help 
speed such programs, but there is still 
an irreducible minimum for many test­
ing projects. 

We expect to publish reports on cer­
tain adhesives, on pressure sensitive 
tapes, on laminating equipment, and on 
the circulation control study during the 
spring. Reports of other programs will 
follow as rapidly as possible. 

If the project is continued it will be 
able to conduct many more of these 
basic studies that will free librarians 
from some of their time-consuming ad­
ministrative problems. 

COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 374