In 1989, the "Seliger-Gemeinde", an association of Sudeten German Social Democrats, decided to entrust its historic archive to the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Bonn. This archive is complemented by a historic library that comprises an extensive collection of primary and secondary literature on the history of the German labour movement in Bohemia.
The “Seliger-Gemeinde” stands in the tradition of the German Social Democratic Workers Party in the Czechoslovakian Republik (DSAP) and its predecessors in Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian Silesia as well as the “Treuegemeinschaft sudentendeutscher Sozialdemokraten (faithful alliance of Sudeten German social democrats) founded right before they went into exile.
Against the background of two catastrophes, the German occupation 1938/39 and the expulsion at the end of World War II, it must be recognized that the Seliger-Gemeinde managed to establish an archive and a library with the aim to document the history of the German labour movement in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. In particular the fact that a huge amount of important printed sources like publications from the DSAP, its predecessors in the Habsburg Monarchy and sources from the trade union and co-operative movement have been preserved deserves closer attention.
The printed collection of the library of the Seliger Archive for the time until 1945 includes 3.700 monographic and 700 periodic publications. The ordering of this collection was partly financed by the Federal Ministry of Intra-German Relations. The result was an inventory published in 1995: Inventory of the Library of the Seliger Archive (Bestandsverzeichnis der Bibliothek des Seliger-Archivs : Veröffentlichungen bis 1945 / Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. [Red.: Horst Ziska]. - Bonn, 1995).
In addition, the library of the Seliger Archive also holds 5.000 items that have been published after the Second World War. A respective inventory has been published in 1998: Inventory of the postwar collection in the Library of the Seliger Archive (Verzeichnis des Nachkriegsbestandes der Bibliothek des Seliger-Archivs / Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. [Red.: Rüdiger Zimmermann]. - Bonn, 1998).
The complete collection of this library is searchable in the old catalogue of the Library of the Seliger Archive. All titles are certainly also indexed in our library's general catalogue.
Search for any book, periodical or other media held by our library.