Microform Collection

When it comes to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Library's core collection focus, i.e. "the German and International Labour Movements", it is no exaggeration to call its microform inventory the heart of the library.

Considerable self-generated funds, donations, the support of the German Research Community, the Erich Brost Foundation, the Microfilm Archive of the German-language Press and the national and international partners of the International Association of Labour History institutions (IALHI) allowed the FES to fill the gaps left by war and faschism.

Historians have compared the development of microfilm technology in the 1960s with the opening of the royal archives after the French Revolution - sources became transparent, academic activity was democratised. This assessment certainly holds true for the sources of Social Democracy and the German Labour Movement. The foundation's broad network of international contacts helped the library build up a collection that is without equal anywhere in the world. Nowadays, these sources are universally available for local use and national inter-library lending. Without the microfilming measures, the library would not have been able to assume the position of a globally renowned research library this quickly.

Even in our digital day and age, copying sources on microfilm is considered a cost-effective and safe form of long-term storage. People still use the microfilms intensively. The library will continue its microfilming projects in the years to come.

©Friedrich Ebert Foundation | webmaster | technical support | net edition Library of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation | 25.05.2004