The Acquisitions of Serials in East German Academic Libraries Before and After the "Wende"

Abstract

When, after World War II, German academic libraries undertook the recovery from the low point in their acquisitions which had been precipitated by fascism and the war, they encountered the same problem in all four zones of occupation: the old Reichsmark had become a devalued internal currency not usable for purchasing abroad. The currency reform of 1948 solved this problem for the three Western zones of Allied occupation. but only intensified the problem for libraries in the Soviet Zone, for then the purchasing power of their currency ended at the border crossing. Soon thereafter, currency reform was also undertaken in the Soviet Zone, but it did not effect any positive change for the libraries there, since this new currency was also not freely convertible. There were no problems m purchasing items either of domestic production after the founding of the GDR on October 10, 1949 or from the Soviet Union and countries of the People's Democracies, but they could not buy anything from the Federal Republic of Germany or the West. This limit which the currency reform imposed on the importation of literature from the Western world had, from the Communist perspective, a positive and negative side to it. On the one hand, it was easier to fend off politically and ideologically unwanted publications. On the other hand, however, it made the acquisition of politically neutral literature in the fields of natural science, technology and medicine more difficult.