College and Research Libraries


288 I College & Research Libraries • July, 1967 

Das Bibliothekswesen in der Sowjetischen 
Besatzungszone Deutschlands. By Mar-
tin Thilo. (Bonner Berichte aus Mittel-
und Ostdeutschland) . Bonn/ Berlin: Bun-
desministerium fur Gesamtdeutsche Fra-
gen, 1965. 243p. 

"In the future (library) holdings may be 
increased only by literature purchased in 
bookstores authorized in the German Demo-
cratic Republic. The acquisition of used 
books is not authorized regardless of wheth-
er they are lent or presented as gifts. The 
loan, sale, or any other form of disposal of 
literature removed from holdings is not 
authorized. . . . The German Democratic 
Republic is a truly democratic state ... " 
(pp. 238, 186). 

These two excerpts from official East 
German pronouncements presented in the 
book are symptomatic of promulgations and 
practice by which not only the average in-
habitant of the "zone," but also, of course, 
professional people, in this case, librarians, 
continuously are harassed and badgered. 

A revision of the edition of 1964, this 
West German official publication devotes 
more attention to certain individual zonal 
libraries, training of personnel, and com-
parative statistics. The author's intention 
was to provide a kind of "documentary" by 
quoting pertinent professional journals, 
functionaries, or official regulations of the 
Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany (as in-
dicated in the title, the author consistently 
refers to East Germany as SBZ-Soviet Oc-
cupation Zone-SOZ) and thus letting the 
facts speak for themselves. He succeeds, 
although the style, suffering at times from 
repetitiousness, poor organization, and pro-
lix sentences, may bubble into a biblio-
polical bouillabaisse. 

Some 179 pages of text are supplemented 
by 59 pages of appendices containing zonal 
edicts concerning libraries. There is also a 
list of sources. 

Through experience with the "Third 
Reich," Germans are, the author says, aware 
of the extent to which libraries may be mis-
used as a political tool. From the begin-
ning of the zonal occupation the model of 
the USSR has been unmistakable. In that 
country libraries are an important factor 
in public life and receive strong, official 

support. Lenin's statement to the effect -~ 
that libraries are an index to the condition 
of culture is frequently quoted in the SOZ. 
Accordingly the role of books, reading, and 
public libraries as moulders of attitudes is 
highly esteemed and frequently overesti-
mated. 

Continuing, the author states that al- ,~. 
though initially all libraries were directed 
by a centralized administration emphasiz-
ing general accessibility to the public and 
the "great, common task of influencing our 
people" (p. 11), by 1951 the professional 
libraries were reorganized under the state r. 
secretariat for universities, while public li- l 
braries were placed in 1954 under the min- ~ 
isby of culture. 

Among professional libraries in the SOZ >-
the Deutsche Biicherei in Leipzig and the 
Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin are 
treated in some detail. The first, with some ; 
three million books, still collects all books 
printed in Germany and German language 
publications and translations of German 
publications produced abroad. It is also a 
special repository for German music, art, and 
patent literature, as well as German literary 
phonograph records. The author points out 
that the Deutsche Biicherei can fulfill its 
function of collecting all books produced by ~ 
German publishers only if certain require-
ments are met. One prerequisite, that each 
publisher furnish copies of his books, has 
been generally complied with. However this 
relationship will be jeopardized if: ( 1) 
books from West Germany are not made 
accessible to the public in the Leipzig >4 
Deutsche Biicherei; and, ( 2) if this library 
does not discontinue the practice of sup-
plying incomplete and therefore inaccurate 
information in its "abbreviated" bibliogra-
phies, examples of which political coloration 
are offered (p. 27). 

Comparably, the Deutsche Staatsbiblio- t 
thek with holdings of two million titles also 
collects German publications and foreign 
literature. It has a special medical collection 
and publishes a number of bibliographies. 
Another specialty is Soviet and satellite 
country scientific literature. Finally, this li-
brary specializes in union cataloging. "' 

Among specialized libraries the Thfuin-
gische Landesbibliothek in Weimar is men-
tioned. With six hundred thousand volumes 



this institution has a large collection of 
older works from the period of German 
classicism. 

Other types of libraries discussed are gen-
eral, technical, specialized, peoples, district, 
rural, labor union, school, "Pioneer House," 

~ and children's. As to children's libraries the 
writer remarks that the obvious goal is to 
indoch'inate the child as early as possible 
and quotes: "We must exploit all available 
means and resources to develop our hold-
ings in such a manner that they attain maxi-
mum effectiveness, i.e., that they are active 

.. ~ helpers in the training and education of our 
children as socialist personalities" (p. 101). 
("Socialist" is of course the common euphe-
mism for "communist.") 

Commenting on labor union libraries, Dr. 
Thilo quotes statements which somehow 
have a familiar ring: "Labor unions have 

~ a particularly noble task of bringing the 
book to the masses via the factory library 
which is worthy of the great goal of serving 
as schools for socialism . . ." (p. 108). 
In a similar vein he cites further: 

To increase the knowledge of workers con-
cerning the problems ... of socialism, they 
are to be familiarized particularly with the 

~ works of marxism and leninism. By belletristic 
literature in which the establishment of so-
cialism in our republic, in the Soviet Union, 
and the other countries of the socialist camp 
is presented artistically, their ties to and love for 
their socialist home are strengthened. They are 
spurred on to new work achievements in so-
cialist competition. 

~ To educate the workers to awareness and 
hatred of the enemies of peace and socialism, 
to increase their class consciousness and their 
willingness to defend the power of the workers 
and farmers and our socialist achievements, 
literature must be presented which unmasks 
the criminal machinations and objectives of 
the imperialists and militarists. To this end 

~ that literature which tells of the revolutionary 
struggles of the working class in the past and 
present and particularly of the antifascist re-
sistance is of great significance ( p. 231). 

Considerable history of the vicissitudes of 
the zonal library system is incorporated in 

~ the exposition. Thus losses, dislocation, con-
fiscation, proscription, and denazification of 
holdings due to war and occupation are 

Book Reviews I 289 

discussed. However, unlike measures under-
taken in the West, says the author, denazi-
fication was never consistently carried out in 
the SOZ. Likewise the SOZ has never dared 
to promulgate a complete, definitive list of 
proscribed books, but rather prefers am-
biguous declarations. Particularly from the 
viewpoint of a librarian the consequences 
may be uncertainty, confusion, and frustra-
tion. In addition to his regular duties, a li-
brarian in the SOZ must belong to and par-
ticipate in various party organizations, many 
of whose evening meetings make heavy de-
mands upon his time. Training programs 
for library personnel are organized along 
practical, technical, and political lines. Thus, 
the "socialist library system" is subjected 
to continuous official pressure for "improve-
ment" of holdings in the face of restrictions 
imposed concerning party-approved books 
and personnel. 

Some people in the West may think that 
zonal party policies do not affect profes-
sional libraries. This is not true, continues 
Dr. Thilo. Let no one imagine that zonal 
authorities regard the professional libraries 
as oases of pure science immune to politics. 
In fact, there are functionaries who are pri-
marily party flunkies in every professional 
library of the SOZ. Due to their positions 
they exercise a decisive influence on the 
operations of libraries. 

One ray of light in this bleak picture ac-
cording to the author is the functioning, at 
least formally, of interlibrary loan between 
the Federal Republic and the SOZ. Without 
denying some technical improvement in 
SOZ libraries, the author stresses the fact 
that according to his sources of information 
any such changes are dictated first and fore-
most by zonal politics. 

Finally, he says, it is difficult to perceive 
how any meaningful cooperation can be 
worked out between West German and 
SOZ libraries as long as walls, barbed wire, 
and mine fields constitute a "frontier" 
through Germany and around Berlin. 

This book affords a rather penetrating 
analysis of the history and development of 
zonal libraries. It is also a perceptive indict-
ment of fetters on the minds of men.-
Wayne Wonderley, University of Kentucky. 

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