A Reflection of the Museum’s Exhibitions
SDTB / C. Kirchner
The Deutsches Technikmuseum’s library is open to everyone. We welcome all those who want learn more about technology and its history, as well as researchers pursuing specialized projects. Use of the Library is free of charge. The collections boasts over 500,000 volumes. The ample Reading Room, with its reference collection of 15,000 books and a selection of 120 magazines and journals, provides users with excellent working conditions. We are not a lending library. Books and other materials can be ordered from the stacks and consulted in the Reading Room.
The Library is a reflection of the exhibitions on display in the Deutsches Technikmuseum. Users will find secondary literature related to the objects and topics of these exhibitions, as well as publications on the history of technology more generally. In addition, the collection supports the research of the Museum’s staff.
The Holdings of the Förderverein: The Core of Our Collection
When the Library opened in 1983, its core was made up of technical literature, the majority of it devoted to railroad history. Some of these volumes came from the valuable Metzeltin Collection, which had been assembled in the decades prior by the Technikmuseum’s Förderverein, or Friends’ Association, a non-profit charitable organization that supports the Museum’s activities. These holdings were supplemented by a portion of the library that had once belonged to the Institut und Museum für Meereskunde in Berlin. In 1989, the Deutsches Technikmuseum acquired the library of the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI), the association of German engineers located in Düsseldorf, thereby augmenting its own collection by ca. 130,000 volumes. Another significant expansion came in 1991 with the gift of the library of the Kammer der Technik (KDT), East Germany’s engineering association, amounting to about 120,000 volumes.
The Library regularly acquires additional collections and purchases new titles.
SDTB / C. Kirchner