One of Europe's largest contemporary history libraries, in Stuttgart
The Library of Contemporary History (German: "Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte") is one of Europe's largest special libraries for contemporary history, in Stuttgart, Germany.
History.
The library was founded in 1915 in Berlin by coffee substitute entrepreneur Richard Frank as a private collection. Its purpose was to document the First World War by collecting unconventional media like leaflets, posters and brochures. After the war, the collection moved to Schloss Rosenstein in Stuttgart and was opened as "Weltkriegsbücherei" to the public in 1921. In September 1944, the library (in Rosenstein Castle) was almost completely destroyed in an Allied air raid on Stuttgart.
In 1948 the "Weltkriegsbücherei" was renamed "Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte", short BfZ. The library moved into the new building of the "Württembergische Landesbibliothek" in 1951. After being an independent institution for several decades it finally became a department of the Württemberg State Library in 2000.
The library's collection focuses on military history, as well as civil wars, the history of genocide and state terrorism, foreign affairs, security policy, and peace and conflict studies. The collection currently consists of more than 400,000 books and 480 subscribed journals.
It published numerous publications and organizes regular public lectures. The library organizes a series of lectures on topics of contemporary history. Since January 2020, the lectures have been recorded in cooperation with the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and made available on the online portal L.I.S.A..
Special collections.
The collection of books and periodicals is complemented by three special collections:
References.
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