This collection includes the International Youth Library’s special collection on national socialism and militarism.
The children’s book collector Barbara Murken transferred her collection of national socialistic and militaristic youth literature to the International Youth Library in 1987. This special collection was expanded in 1991 with holdings from the Bad Godesberg libraries, which the American military leadership dismantled post-1945.
The Collection contains about 415 books, including about 375 national socialist indoctrinated teen books (135 of these are from the Barbara Murken Collection), as well as about 40 militaristic and nationalistic children’s and young adult books from the time of World War I and prior. The Collection contains an additional 35 bound periodicals from the World War II period, including “Kriegsbücherei der deutschen Jugend” (War library of the German youth), “Erlebnis-Bücherei” (Adventure library), “Kolonial-Bücherei” (Colonial library) and “Spannende Geschichten” (Thrilling stories).
The Collection’s main emphases include the genres of war and soldier books, adventure books, books for girls, books for the Hitler Youth, folktales and legends, historical novels, anthologies and non-fiction books, all oriented towards indoctrinating young people into the national socialist ideology and preparing them for war.
Both parts of the collection can be accessed on the webOPAC online catalogue under the heading H/MU* or H/NS*.
The use of the National Socialist and militaristic books is only possible for the purposes of science, research and teaching. This must be confirmed in writing prior to use.