Milica Antić
antic.milica18@gmail.com

doi: 10.19090/cit.2017.30.55-70
No. 30 (May 2016), p. 55-70

German Libraries After the Second World War:
With Special Reference to the Implications of the German Reunification in 1990

Summary

This paper presents the development of librarianship in Germany after the Second World War and gives an overview and synthesis of the social and professional trends thanks to which the library system of today’s Germany is highly developed. It is based on a series of articles published (mostly in English) in the scientific literature over the last few decades, using comparative, historical and analytic-synthetic methods.
After the defeat in the Second World War, Germany was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. Libraries in these two countries have developed under different political influences. In the Federal Republic of Germany the American model of librarianship was presented. It introduced three innovations into the world of German libraries – free access to books, reference services and democracy. At the same time, libraries in the German Democratic Republic were the weapon for educating people about the benefits of socialism. After unification of the two states in 1990, accelerated integration of the libraries from the German Democratic Republic into the modern German librarianship started immediately which included purchase and replacement of equipment, reconstruction and construction of new buildings for libraries and purchase of modern literature. Today, there are three national libraries in Germany – German National Library that is physically separated and located in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main, Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin and the Bavarian State Library in Munich. The efficient and decentralized library network consists of more than 11.000 libraries.

Keywords:

librarianship, Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic, national libraries, library associations, library fund, war destruction, library equipment, library buildings

Submitted: 21st January 2017
Correction to the manuscript: 14th February 2017
Accepted for publication: 2nd March 2017

German Libraries After the Second World War: With Special Reference to the Implications of the German Reunification in 1990 by Milica Antić is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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