The proposed presentation would come from a library that is by definition not a „theological library“ but one dedicated to the history and culture of East-Central Europe, i.e. today’s Poland, Czech and Slovak Republics, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Ever since its foundation in 1950, the Library of the Herder Institute has, however, with great dedication also collected publications on the religious history of this region which has both a strong Catholic (Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia) and Protestant (Baltic countries, the Czech Republic) tradition. The presentation will thus try to give an interview of the holdings in the library that are relevant to researchers from the field of theology and will include information also on those parts of the library that do not immediately come to mind in this respect (the huge collection of newspapers and newspaper clippings, the music collection and the collection of so-called „Samizdat“ [underground] publications), but might actually be of particular interest. In addition, it will also provide a very short introduction to the other holdings of the Herder Institute that could be relevant to scholars in the field of theology and church history (i.e. the Image Archives and the classical Archives of the Herder-Institute) and which also welcome users either on-site or virtually.
