The Library at the German Forum for Art History

One element important in the development of the German Forum for Art History is the constitution of a library that specializes in art and cultural history. The library fosters a continuous and intensive collaboration between French and German researchers. Moreover, it stimulates and, in many cases, gives the possibility for an engagement with subjects in the domain of German Art History. In order to integrate into the intellectual life of the host country, the library adopts an acquisition practice that focuses on the most important art historical literature dealing with German art as much as on German works on French art. 

The library also contributes to the mediating function of the DFK through a lecture series that presents innovative German projects and institutions to a French expert audience. The institutionalization of the DFK on July 1, 2006 provides the library with the legal prerequisites for stable, long-term planning. It allows for an efficient support of resident scholars and visiting readers with printed and digital media.   Since 1999, our research library collection includes the collections of the founder of the Bauhaus-Archive (1960) Hans Maria Wingler as well as those of Hermann Wiesler, Jacques Lugand, Karl and Elfriede Ruhrberg and Christian Beutler. The bequest of Hermann Wiesler contains a number of precious rarities and original prints from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The library already offers to its readers a unique collection of, for the most part, original art theoretical and aesthetic works (Winckelmann, Vischer, Justi, Burkhardt, Lichtwark, Meier-Graefe etc.).

As a scientific library with about 70000 books and documents, the collection of the DFK epitomizes the vivacity of a scope of scholarly material that ranges from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century.
 
The library is member of the Association des Bibliothéquaires Français (ABF), the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Kunst- und Museumsbibliotheken (AKMB) as well as associate member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Kunstbibliotheken (AKB).
 
For further information see: Jörg Ebeling, The library of the Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, in: Art Libraries Journal, Bd. 30, Nr. 4/2005, S. 20-25.