The collections of the German Historical Museum

Address:

Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Access:

Hinter dem Gießhaus

Phone:

(030)20304-321 Information desk

(030)20304-320 Dr. Matthias Miller (Head of Library Services)

Opening Hours:

Monday - Friday 9.00 - 16.30

---

Purpose and task:

The library of the German Historical Museum is a specialized scientific library on German history in an euopean context and on museology, especially oriented toward the functions of a historical museum. It serves primarily as a reference library for the employees of the museum, for scientific work and research purposes and the maintenance of the collections.

The volumes of the collection of rare books have furthermore a special meaning as historical witnesses for all permanent and temporary exhibitions in the German Historical Museum.

Collections:

  1. General Section of modern research literature:

Contains sources, accounts, and descriptions on general history (and especially Germany), including all historical fields of societal development: political, economical, social, military, judicial, constitutional, territorial, local, cultural, literary, art, scientific, technical, as well as complementary science and museology.

  2. Special Sections of historical and modern items:

Contains printed matters on the history of the social movements, popular culture, military history, and exhibition catalogs.

  3. Section of manuscripts, and rare books:

This section is one of the 12 collections of the museum containing manuscripts as well as old and rare books for the presentation in the exhibitions of the museum.
Further printed materials may be found in the collections of Documents I and Documents II.

Facilities:

Reference library, reading room with c. 4,500 free accessible volumes and 21 seats (3 of the workplaces are equipped with PCs and printers), photocopier, and microfiche machine. The library is connected to the inter-library loan system (library siglum B 496).

Catalogs:

• Alphabetical card catalogs (author/title, systematical, biographical, geographical, and chronological catalogs of rare books, newspapers and journals).
• OPAC from acquisition year 1994 on
• Some items of the rare books section are recorded in the DHM object data base

Inventory:

225,000 volumes

• 20,000 volumes of rare books
• 5,000 volumes of military history (uniforms and weapons)
• 45,000 volumes of newspapers, journals (6,000 titles and 275 serial numbers)
• 15,000 volumes of museum and exhibition catalogs

Special Collections:

The library maintains four special collections:

• rare books
• militaria
• newspapers, journals, almanacs, annuals
• museum and exhibition catalogs

Have a look at our inventory.

---

January 2010
Dr. Matthias Miller
Head of Library Services