History

Germany's history as a federation encouraged the development of a multitude of well-stocked libraries. However, as no library was specifically charged with collecting all printed materials published in Germany or, indeed, was provided with the financial means to do so, about a third of the printed material is not held by German libraries. Not until 1913 was the Deutsche Bücherei opened in Leipzig in order to comprehensively collect all literature published in Germany. The earlier inadequate acquisition practices were more acutely felt when study and research expanded in the second half of the 20th century, and the demand for source literature has continued to increase ever since.

Concept