The Erich Kästner Research Centre is located in the Blutenburg gate tower since February 2024. It houses the library and archive of Erich Kästner biographer Johan Zonneveld.

The library contains the Erich Kästner's printed works, including selected translations. Secondary literature on Erich Kästner is included up to 2011, as well as primary and secondary literature on children's and youth literature from the Weimar Republic.

Johan Zonneveld's Kästner archive mainly comprises original documents by and about Erich Kästner such as manuscripts, correspondence, photos, copies of life documents and a large collection of cuttings with reprints of Kästner's poems, stories, reviews, essays, etc. in newspapers and magazines. The issues of ‘Klaus und Kläre’ from the children's newspaper ‘Beyers für Alle’ are available in their entirety, as is the magazine ‘Pinguin’ (in the original version).  

The room of the Erich Kästner Research Centre is designed as a workroom and can be used as such. There are two workstations with computers available.

Circulation and borrowing

The approximately 1,150 volumes of the Erich Kästner Library can be ordered via the OPAC and viewed and used in the Erich Kästner Research Centre room.

The archive materials can be researched in the E. Kästner Research Archive database and ordered and viewed in the reading room of the IYL using the shelfmarks from the database.

Photographs of the archive materials and of unpublished university theses and other incorporated texts may only be taken for personal use. 

For all forms of publication, including online, the rights are held by the copyright holder of Erich Kästner, who must be asked for authorisation. The IYL can grant publication authorisation on presentation of the rights holder's written permission to the IYL.

Registration

For a visit to the Erich Kästner Research Centre and the reading room, please register in good time via e-mail with the completed document E-mail registration for use in the reading room at lesesaal@ijb.de and have a user account created.
We recommend that you register your visit and the subject you wish to work on well in advance. We will notify you as soon as the requested materials are available.

Most materials are available shortly after ordering. For larger quantities (10 books or more) and orders for books from our external storage magazines, same-day dispatch is not possible. It is therefore important to order the desired books 2 weeks before the planned visit, or 3 weeks in advance, if there are public holidays in between.

 

Please note:

Please order archive materials and books at least 2 weeks before your visit to the Erich Kästner Research Centre or the reading room.

If you have any questions, please contact Nadine Zimmermann: lesesaal@ijb.de.