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In 1989, the "Seliger Community", i.e. the "Community of Like-Minded Sudeten German Social Democrats", decided to entrust its historic archive, the "Seliger Archive", located in Stuttgart, to the care of the Bonn-based Friedrich Ebert Foundation for further management. This archive also comprises a historic library which contains a comprehensive collection of primary and secondary sources on the history of the German labour movement in the Bohemian regions.
The Seliger Community, a community of like-minded Sudeten German social democrats, follows the tradition of the German Social Democratic Workers' Party in the Czechoslovak Republic (DSAP) and its precursor organisations in Bohemia, Moravia, and Austro-Silesia as well as the "Treuegemeinschaft Sudetendeutscher Sozialdemokraten" [Loyalty Community of Sudeten German Social Democrats], a group that was founded before the Sudeten Germans went into exile.
Taking into consideration the two catastrophes with which the Sudeten Germans were faced, namely the German occupation in 1938/39 and the expulsion at the end of World War II, it is no mean achievement that the Seliger Community managed to collect on a large scale the printed publications of the DSAP, its precursor organisations within the Habsburg Monarchy and the trade union and cooperative movements when building up an archive and a library on the history of the German labour movement in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia.
A directory of the printed publications available in the Seliger Archive library which date back to the time before the end of World War II was published in 1995. This inventory amounts to some 3,700 monographical and some 700 periodical publications. The classification of the inventories was partially financed by the Federal Ministry for Intra-German Affairs.
The directory was published under the following title:
Bestandsverzeichnis der Bibliothek des Seliger-Archivs : Veröffentlichungen bis 1945 / Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. [ed.: Horst Ziska]. - Bonn, 1995. - XXVI, 417 pages : Ill. (library reference numbers: C 95-1899; C 95-1900; ARB 105 SEL)
In addition, the Seliger Archive Library contains an inventory of some 5,000 volumes from the time after the end of World War II.
In 1998, a corresponding directory was published under the following title:
Verzeichnis des Nachkriegsbestands der Bibliothek des Seliger-Archivs / Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. [Red.: Rüdiger Zimmermann]. - Bonn, 1998. - VIII,260 S.
The inventory of the Seliger Community Library is also available in a data base This Inventory will be included in the creation of the East Europe Virtual Specialised Library (ViFaOst). The Bavarian State Library is responsible for building up the East Europe Virtual Specialized Library. It will integrate these specialised collections of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Library in its product offer.
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