The DMG Library

Already in the statutes of 1845, the collection of oriental manuscripts and printed books as well as natural objects and works of art was expounded as one of the means by which the society sought to “promote knowledge about Asia and countries closely related to it in every aspect and to spread participation in it in wider circles”.

Immediately after its founding, the DMG agreed to an exchange of publications with the Academies of Science in Berlin, Munich, and St. Petersburg, the Royal Society of Sciences (Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften) in Göttingen, the Royal Asiatic Society, and the Société Asiatique. Members donated their publications to the society, and the bequests of scholars enriched the Library, which is always been located in Halle (Saale).

An agreement made in 1891 between the University Library (Universitätsbibliothek) in Halle and the DMG obliges the society “never to relocate its Library, which is housed in the building of the Royal University Library (Königliche Universitäts-Bibliothek) but retains its own independent administration, away from Halle.” This agreement was replaced in 1925 by a contract that guaranteed the Library's continued presence in Halle for at least thirty years. After World War Two, the Library was continued as a branch office by the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt.

The exchange agreements with numerous partners in Germany and abroad, resumed after the re-founding of the DMG in 1948, yielded substantial holdings. A new library of the DMG, administered since 1976 by the Seminar für Sprachen und Kulturen Nordafrikas of the University of Gießen, was integrated into the collections in Halle in September 1995. The transition coincided with the DMG's 150th anniversary and followed a contract made in 1993 with the federal state of Sachsen-Anhalt. Since then, the DMG Library and stocks have been maintained by the Halle University and State Library (Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt) as a legally independent special collection within the branch library “Vorderer Orient / Ethnologie”.

Following the merger and as of 2016, the DMG library comprises of about 68,000 titles.

Holdings of the DMG Library acquired from 1991 onwards are accessible through the OPAC of the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt. For older titles, please consult the card catalogues in the Zweigbibliothek Vorderer Orient/Nordafrika, Mühlweg 15. These are for the most part also available online as Imagekataloge of the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt.

Further information on the site of Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt