In the late autumn of 2022, the Berlin State Library (SBB-PK) launched a project in partnership with the German Lost Art Foundation: "Das Zentralantiquariat der DDR: Verkaufswege. Empfänger. Provenienzen" ("The Central Antiquarian Bookstore of the GDR): Sales Channels. Recipients. Provenance"). The German National Library is cooperating with the Berlin State Library on this project. It is providing important resources and facilitating access to its holdings for research purposes. The aim of the fundamental research project is to reconstruct the sales practices and trading channels of the GDR's Zentralantiquariat (ZA; Central Antiquarian Bookstore). This will involve the identification of publications sold by the ZA and the libraries that may have received these publications both inside and outside the borders of the former GDR. This in turn will make it possible to place the identified provenances (which may be typical of the ZA) in the context of known pathways and waves of bibliomigration through the centuries. The German National Library is playing an important role in this undertaking.

The Zentralantiquariat (ZA; Central Antiquarian Bookstore) was established in Leipzig in 1959 as a GDR trading company with the mandate to collect, process and sell antiquarian literature, especially on scientific subjects. The ways in which the publications were sold included the grant of a right of first refusal to institutions in the GDR such as the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin and the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig. Another mainstay was the export of books to the “nichtsozialistische Wirtschaftssystem” (NWS; non-socialist economic system). The ZA issued sales catalogues and offer lists for trade purposes, large numbers of which have been preserved by the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library. In its capacity as a cooperative partner, the German National Library is making these available for digitisation by the Berlin State Library. While examining the German National Library's holdings, the ZA acquisitions can be identified with the help of the accession books held by the German Museum of Books and Writing. Some of the books identified are being investigated to determine their possible provenance during the course of an autopsy process. Besides contextualising the finds, the examination is paying close attention to cases of Nazi looting, land reform expropriation and so-called "Republikflucht” (flight from the Republic).

The project "The Central Antiquarian Bookstore of the GDR: Sales Channels. Recipients. Provenance" will run for two years. The research work in Leipzig will take place in the summer of 2023. You will find more information about the project and a description of provenance research at the Berlin State Library on the SBB-PK's provenance research web page and the web page on projects at the SBB-PK.