The German History collection (6,638 volumes) covers the emergence of the German Empire from the rise of Prussia after 1648 to the Congress of Vienna in 1815, to the unification of Germany in 1871, to its rapid industrialization and World War I, the Weimar Republic, the rise of Hitler, World War II, the two Germany’s following the war, and from reunification in 1989 to the present. The collection is at a study level.
The Library’s collection in German history serves a varied population of users, including undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and visiting researchers at the John Carter Brown and at the Watson Center. It primarily supports academic programs in the Department of History and German Studies, but contributes to scholarship in Renaissance and early Modern Studies, Medieval Studies, Political Science, Economics, History of Art and Architecture, Modern Culture and Media, and Comparative Literature.
Because of the important role which Germany played in Central Europe and throughout the world in the past two centuries, the collection is important for the study of Western and Eastern Europe History as well as the United States History. The Library’s collections are particularly strong in the history of World War I and World II due to the Anne S.K. Brown Military collection. There are many monographs not only on Germany but on Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As an economic power in the current European Union, the history of Germany is also of special interest to the Economics Department.
Circulating monographs form the core of the collection, however other materials such as serials, non-circulating monographs, and audiovisual and electronic resources are also collected. In addition to these resources, the Library has significant holdings in its special collections that document important aspects of Germany history and literature: these complement the holdings of the John Carter Brown Library. Among them are: there is Hitler material, in the vault. Within the Early Printed Books, Starred Books, Lownes, History of Science, Smith, and the Annmary Brown Incunables there will be significant holdings of early German imprints. For example: one book is: Valentin Schindler's Lexicon Pentaglotton Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Talmudico-Rabbinicum & Arabicum. This volume, printed in Hanover in 1612, might also be considered Brown's first antiquarian book since it was over 150 years old when given to the library. There are also early German Scientific monographs: See John Stanley's exhibition From Euclid to Newton, which includes information about numerous German and Swiss mathematics imprints. Again, for the historical record, in the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, there are numerous volumes from Germany, Austria and Switzerland covering the Napoleonic wars, the War of 1870, World War I and World War II.
Language:Primary and secondary materials in the English and German language form the vast core of the collection. Primary materials in other languages are acquired selectively.
Chronological Span:The periods and themes of Germany History that are the focus of the collection are named above. General histories of Germany and German speaking countries (Austria and Switzerland) are also acquired. Medieval German History is covered by the Medieval History subject specialist.
Imprint Date:The collection consists of circulating materials and full-text electronic databases, as well as rare books, manuscripts, and microform sets which are available for use in the library.
Geographical Range: From 1871-forward Germany changed its boundaries many times. Since Germany is in the so-called cockpit of Europe its history touches on its neighbors France, the low countries, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Russia, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkans. The holdings for Austria and Switzerland are at a basic level except in the ASK Brown Military collection.
Types of Material Included:
Microform holdings: The collection includes not only journals and monographs, but holdings of documents about Germany on microform:
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Western Europe; Berlin, Microfiche supplement; Records of the United States Relating to the Internal Affairs of East Germany, 1955-1959, Scholarly Resources, n.d.; Records of the United States, Relating to the Internal Affairs of the
Russian Zone (East Germany) 1950-1954; and many publications offered through the Center for Research Libraries.
Electronic resources: Significant databases for locating materials on Germany History include Academic Search Premier; Historical Abstracts; JSTOR; New York Times 1851-2002; PAIS Archive; PAIS International; Project Gutenberg; Project Muse; Science Direct; and Times Digital Archive (London)1979-1985. Other sources are: WESSWEB German Studies Web; History World; and Germany History in Documents and Images.
Audio-visual materials: The library acquires materials in all formats, with the exception of 8mm in the case of audiovisual items. Audiovisual materials are purchased on video, or, preferably, DVD format. All English language films purchased for this collection are housed at Media Services in the Sciences Library. Materials in languages other than English may be found at the Language Resource Center. Music CD’s are purchased by the Music Librarian and are housed at the Orwig Music Library.
Types of Materials Excluded: Introductory general purpose textbooks whose primary function is instruction are outside the scope of this collection.
