Our info material and publications are available from book retailers or from us directly (plus shipping costs). Some of our publications are freely accessible online. Please send us your postal address if you are placing orders through publikationen@dnb.de.

Our latest publications

Hell and paradise. Amsterdam, Querido and German exile literature

"Amsterdam: what a beautiful, unique city! It has become our refuge, it allows us to work," Klaus Mann enthused about one of his first stations in exile. And Amsterdam was not only a temporary place of residence, but soon also promised a very different kind of home: between 1933 and 1950, Querido Verlag published many of the authors who had to flee Germany to escape the Nazis, from Joseph Roth to Irmgard Keun and Lion Feuchtwanger. Scattered across Europe, the German writers found their intellectual center in Amsterdam. And yet: "Exile was a hell", wrote Hermann Kesten. Bettina Baltschev walks through today's Amsterdam with an open mind and traces the lives of the exiled writers and their publishers.

Publication accompanying the exhibition of the same name at the German Museum of Books and Writing.

Bettina Baltschev: Hell and paradise. Amsterdam, Querido and German exile literature.
Edited in cooperation with the German Museum of Books and Writing
Berlin: Berenberg Verlag, 2024
208 pages, 12,0 x 18,3 cm, softcover, ISBN 978-3-949203-84-8
Price: 22.00 Euro, available to purchase at the German Museum of Books and Writing and from bookshop

Link to the catalogue

JETZT & ALLES. Austrian literature. The last 50 years

Graphic: Tecton / Grafisch, Residenz-Verlag

Controversial, form-conscious and polyphonic – this is Austrian literature. To mark Austria's presence as the guest of honour at the Leipzig Book Fair 2023, the exhibition "JETZT & ALLES" ("Now and Everything", 26 April 2023 until 7 January 2024) focuses on important Austrian authors of the last 50 years.From Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek und Peter Handke bis zu Friederike Mayröcker, Christoph Ransmayr und Marlene Streeruwitz. It also includes younger writers such as Ann Cotten and Clemens J. Setz, who testify to Austria’s literary diversity. An exhibition organised by the Austrian National Library’s Literature Museum in cooperation with the German Museum of Books and Writing.

JETZT & ALLES. Austrian literature. The last 50 years
Edited by Bernhard Fetz, Stephanie Jacobs, Kerstin Putz
Wien: Residenz-Verlag, 2023
240 pages, 26,5 x 19 cm, softcover, ISBN 978-3-7017-3580-8
Price: 28.00 Euro, available to purchase at the German Museum of Books and Writing and from bookshop

Link to the catalogue

“Tiefenbohrung. Eine andere Provenienzgeschichte” (“Deep Drilling. A Different Provenance Story”)

DNB, Collection Günter-Karl Bose

Underground comics, floppy disks, early prints, posters, letters, digital estates, Hollywood photos and the silver trophy awarded to a publisher: “Tiefenbohrung” (“Deep Drilling”) uses 33 objects to discuss the provenance of cultural heritage kept in museums. The book takes a close look at the paths, detours, and dead ends that the items collected by the German National Library's German Museum of Books and Writing over a period of nearly 140 years had to navigate before finding a home in the Museum’s repository in Leipzig. Theft and destruction are just as much a part of this story as donations and other strokes of good fortune. At the same time, the book takes a critical look at the intentions, ownership claims and lasting traditions of memory institutions.

A selection of guest authors, among them Bénédicte Savoy and Wolfgang Ernst, embed their essays on the collection into the broad context of a cultural history of provenance research.
Edited by Stephanie Jacobs. Design: Torsten Köchlin and Joana Katte.
Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2022. - 416 pages, softcover, 20 x16 cm, ISBN 978-3-7757-5249-7
Price: 24.00 Euro, available to purchase at the German Museum of Books and Writing, the German National Libray in Frankfurt am Main or from bookshop.

Link to the catalogue

paper – poem - objects

Image: Grass Publishers

To mark the exhibitions “Poetry in 3D. Text Sculptures and Poem Objects since 1960” (2022)” Grass Publishers is publishing the first six editions of the new series “paper-poem-objects”, edited by Christoph Benjamin Schulz. Published in cooperation with the German Museum of Books and Writing and the Weserburg, Bremen the series is available to purchase at the museum.

First edition, edited and with texts by Christoph Benjamin Schulz, published in cooperation with the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library and the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen. Issue/edition: 150, Grass Publishers, Brauweiler 2022

Heinz Gappmayr: 5 Papierskulpturen (paper-poem-object #1, 30.00 Euro); Dom Sylvester Houédard: Frog Pond Plop (paper-poem-object #2, 18.00 Euro); John Furnival: Untitled (Unfolder) (paper-poem-object #3, 23.00 Euro), Andrea Tippel: Klausnerinnenstück (paper-poem-object #4, 18.00 Euro) Peter Downsbrough: AND UND AND (paper-poem-object #5, 18.00 Euro); Ferdinand Kriwet: Heidelberg Er-Serie (paper-poem-object #6, 18.00 Euro)

A Friendship in Correspondence. Illustrated Envelopes

“A friendship in correspondence” reveals a hitherto unseen side to the world-famous illustrator Axel Scheffler whose work includes “Der Grüffelo” (The Gruffalo). Scheffler illustrates his envelopes – sometimes based around the stamp, at other times with references to things the recipient enjoys. The book brings together more than 150 envelopes from the last 40 years, an essay by Tilman Spreckelsen on Scheffler’s letter illustrations and an interview with the artist. The publication was published in March 2022 to accompany the exhibition “A Friendship in Correspondence. Axel Scheffler’s Fantastical Letter Illustrations” at the German Museum of Books and Writing and the parallel exhibition “Of Monsters, Mice and Men. Axel Scheffler’s Fantastical Letter Illustrations” at the Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt Main.

Axel Scheffler: A Friendship in Correspondence. Illustrated Envelopes
Edited by Jakob Hoffmann and Stephanie Jacobs
Cologne: Péridot-Verlag, 2022
180 pages, 19 x 14 cm, softcover, ISBN 978-3-9822850-2-3
Price: 16.99, available to purchase at the museum or from bookshops

Link to the catalogue

Freedom – art – community. A new book about Bauhaus

The wealth of literature on the history and global impact of the legendary Bauhaus art school contains hardly any discourse on the political influence of its visions, concepts and practices. However, for a society like ours, which is labouring – at times without vision – on the problems and challenges of late modernism, a look back to this period of Bauhaus history can by all means be worthwhile. This publication originated in a conference which was held during Bauhaus centenary year 2019 at the German Museum of Books and Writing and explored the socio-political role of artistic endeavour. Looking back to yesterday to find fresh stimuli for today – the publication aims to provide active, provocative (in the positive sense) food for thought and to encourage readers to take a critical look at the social formations of present-day societies.

Freiheit – Kunst – Gemeinschaft : Bauhaus-Ideen als Fragen an die Gegenwart. Eine Tagung [Freedom – Art – Community. Bauhaus Ideas as Questions of the Present Day. A Conference]
Ed. Justus H. Ulbricht
Dresden: Sandstein-Verlag, 2022 https://verlag.sandstein.de/
Price: 28.00 Euro

Further bibliographic information

Mark Lehmstedt: Buchtüten. Werbung für das Buch [Book Bags. Advertising for the Book].

For more than two decades, the Leipzig publisher and bibliographer Mark Lehmstedt has been collecting all kinds of bags that are dedicated in some way with the printed book. No matter whether they are made of paper, plastic or linen, brand-new or used, beautiful or ugly, these bags are all testimonies of a literary culture that, at the beginning of the 21st century, has been increasingly under pressure.
In 2021, Mark Lehmstedt marked his 60th birthday by donating his collection of around 3,000 book bags to the German Museum of Books and Writing. The collection is now accompanied by a publication; this is neither a catalogue, nor is it a scientific exposition of the history of the (book) bag. Featuring a selection of more than 550 of the most beautiful, interesting and original book bags from throughout the German–speaking countries (along with a few that were a wonderful failure), this book offers an overview of an astonishing variety of motifs and designs.
The book was published by Lehmstedt Verlag in 2021. Edited in cooperation with the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library. 120 pages with 580 colour illustrations, 21 x 27 cm, softcover with flaps, thread-sewn binding, ISBN 978-3-95797-125-8, 20.00 Euro

Further bibliographic information and orders in the reading rooms

Jan Tschichold – a once-in-a-century typographer? Insights into his legacy

Although he was never a member of the Bauhaus movement himself, the Leipzig-born typographer and book designer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) is regarded as one of the most important exponents of functional typography. His drafts are graphic design classics. In their book accompanying the exhibition, Stephanie Jacobs and Patrick Rössler are the first to explore his famous works from the 1920s in depth and place them in the context of a design career that was full of contradictions. The book focuses on his life as a typographer – from his early days as a sign painter in Leipzig through the “New Typography” era and the redesign of the Penguin books to his design consultancy with LaRoche.

Ed. Stephanie Jacobs and Patrick Rössler Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2019

Price (museum): 24.00 Euro

Further bibliographic information and orders in the reading rooms

Name, Waffe, Stern. Das Emblem der Roten Armee Fraktion

Terrorist groups enforce political action by harnessing the might of the media in the same way as explosives and automatic weapons. How do graphic symbols become acts of violence? This publication accompanies the exhibition “Symbols as Weapons. The Emblem of the “Red Army Faction” at the German National Library’s German Museum of Books and Writing in Leipzig.
In June 2019, Stiftung Buchkunst acclaimed the publication as one of the “Most Beautiful Books” in the category “Reference Books, Academic Books, Non-Fiction and School Books”. The jury praised the book as a “accurate and prosaic introduction to a controversial chapter in the history of the Federal Republic”, adding: “The designers have managed to create a straightforward layout using economic means – no easy task with such a wealth of material, which rather than serving merely as a means of documentation, is presented in a manner that is both exciting and particularly thoughtful.”

Concept, design: Felix Holler; Jaroslaw Kubiak; Daniel Wittner. Idea, supervision, proofreading: Günter Karl Bose

Leipzig: Institut für Buchkunst, 2018

Further bibliographic information and orders in the reading rooms

Papier. Material, Medium und Faszination

The German Museum of Books and Writing in Leipzig is the custodian of a unique treasury of paper. Including watermarks, paper samples and decorated paper along with paper that is unprocessed, embellished or bearing signs of use: the diversity of the Museum’s testimonials to the history of paper places its collections among the most extensive in the world. A richly illustrated guide to this versatile material recently published by Prestel-Verlag features some of the holdings of the German Museum of Books and Writing. The book also includes samples of different types of paper, thus giving readers an enjoyable opportunity to experience the sensory aspects of this everyday product.

Eds. Neil Holt, Nicola von Velsen and Stephanie Jacobs

Munich; London; New York: Prestel, 2018

Price of German edition (Museum): 15.00 Euro

Further bibliographic information and orders in the reading rooms

The book is also available in English:

Paper : Material, medium and magic

Price of English edition (Museum): 15.00 Euro

Bildfabriken. Infografik 1920–1945: Fritz Kahn, Otto Neurath et al.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the newly developed mass media brought an unprecedented volume of information into circulation and triggered enormous advances in visualisation. The large amount of information disseminated brought forth new types of illustration aimed at depicting complex information as concisely as possible. The infographic as a visual medium paved the way for the modern age. This book focuses on the groundbreaking infographics created by Fritz Kahn and Otto Neurath and presents historical material and images from 1920 to 1945. It was published as a companion to the exhibition of the same name at the German National Library’s German Museum of Books and Writing in Leipzig (8 September 2017 to 7 January 2018).

Eds. Helena Doudova, Stephanie Jacobs and Patrick Rössler

Leipzig: Spector Books, 2017

Price (Museum): 24.00 Euro

Further bibliographic information about the German edition and orders in the reading rooms

The book is also available in English

Image factories: Infographics 1920–1945: Fritz Kahn, Otto Neurath et al.

Price: 26.00 Euro:

Further bibliographic information about the English edition and orders in the reading rooms

Bookish! Ein Blick zurück [A look back]

“Bookish” is a term normally used to describe an educated person or an avid reader. Günter Karl Bose has compiled a selection of photographs from the last 150 years that highlight the printed book's central role as a requisite of cultural self-perception. In this way, he links two stories, that of the book and that of photography. The 300 images selected from the years between 1845 and 1980, some of which can be purchased at the Museum, are taken from the author's collection and are in most cases being published for the first time. They coalesce into a kaleidoscope of book culture that opens up a tongue-in-cheek perspective of the “bookishness” of the last two centuries.

Ed. Günter Karl Bose. With an essay by Michael Hagner

Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2017

Price: 29.90 Euro

Further bibliographic information and orders in the reading rooms

Zeichen – Bücher – Netze: von der Keilschrift zum Binärcode [Signs – Books – Networks: from Cuneiform to Binary Code]

The permanent exhibition of the German Museum of Books and Writing presents a brief history of humanity from a media perspective. Tally sticks, deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, tattoos, the censorship lists of the Catholic church, the cable under the Atlantic, the utopia of universal language and a look at the future of media: the exhibition spans the millennia from early history to the present day. This brief, richly illustrated guide is a companion to both the permanent exhibition and the virtual media history exhibition that grew out of it (mediengeschichte.dnb.de).

Ed. Stephanie Jacobs

Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2016

Price: 9.90 Euro

Further bibliographic information and orders in the reading rooms

Further publications of the German Museum of Books and Writing

(only available in German)