The following is forwarded from the Mailbase list GSLG (German
Studies Library Group). NB:
> The German Section's web pages are now accessible on the British
> Library's website. Click on "Collections", then on "German
> Collections".
http://www.bl.uk/
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From: [log in to unmask] (Graham Nattrass)
BRITISH LIBRARY GERMANIC COLLECTIONS
Recent acquisitions
1) Fürstenberg
The British Library's Early Printed Collections have acquired
between two and three hundred items, mostly ephemera, from the
Fürstenberg library in Donaueschingen, south-west Germany, which
was sold almost in its entirety in 1999. The acquisitions include:
- substantial runs of directories from the mid-18th to the early 19th
century;
- approximately thirty school drama summaries from various
religious orders, printed in a variety of places in southern Germany
and Austria, many still in their original decorated paper covers;
- funeral sermons, chiefly from southern Germany;
- several works from the collection of the Freiherr von Lassberg,
brother-in-law of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and pioneer of German
medieval studies;
- over a hundred Austrian legal ephemera of the 18th century, chiefly
relating to the reform of the public finances under Maria Theresa;
- several dozen Swiss ordinances of the mid-18th century; and
- other miscellaneous items, chiefly of the 18th century.
2) Handbuch des personalen Gelegenheitsschrifttums
The British Library has subscribed in advance to this large-scale
work, which will reproduce in microform the text of occasional
biographical publications of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries held in
libraries and archives in those parts of Eastern Europe where
German was once widely spoken. The project is being coordinated
at the University of Osnabrück, and publication is expected to
consist of 7,500 microfiches, together with 35 printed volumes
(Erschliessungsbände). The texts will complement the substantial
collections of ephemera from other parts of the German-speaking
world already held by the British Library. So far as is known, no
other library in the United Kingdom has so far subscribed to this
work, of which the first parts are expected to appear in August 2000
(somewhat later than originally planned).
3) The Kaiser in exile
The archive built up by Wilhelm II during his exile in the Netherlands
and now held by the State Archives in Utrecht has been published
on nearly 4,000 microfiches. It includes correspondence with
leading figures of the time, records of the Kaiser's household and
properties, collections of newspaper cuttings, and documents
relating to the Hohenzollern family before 1918, as well as the
Kaiser's personal map collection, relating chiefly to the First World
War; the latter, on 218 microfiches, has been acquired separately
by the BL Map Collections.
4) Lanz von Liebenfels
Thanks to the generosity of a private donor, the Library has been
presented with an almost complete set of the published works of
Josef Lanz von Liebenfels (1874-1954), whose writings on the occult
strongly influenced the early development of Nazi ideology. Lanz's
extensive published output spans the years from 1894 until after
World War 2, but is not widely known or easy to find in libraries.
The donation is accompanied by other related material, and will
usefully complement the Library's holdings of German books from
the Third Reich.
Further information on the above acquisitions will appear in a
forthcoming issue of the GSLG Newsletter.
Graham Nattrass
16 June 2000
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