Nazi cultural policy has only recently begun to attract a level of scholarly attention commensurate with its importance. Having relied for decades on memoirs, fragmentary documentary publications, and impressionistic accounts, historians are now devoting their energies to systematic, in-depth studies of the experiences of artists, performers, and writers under National Socialism. Margaret F. Stieg\u27s book augments this expanding literature by focusing on an institution that was central to the dissemination of culture and knowledge: the public library. The central theme of Stieg\u27s study is, perhaps not surprisingly, the politicization of libraries and librarianship:  In its fully developed form the Nazi public library defines the political public library  (p. 2). ... The book is impressively documented and presents a wealth of new material on the apparatus of censorship, the role of public libraries in the cultural politics of border regions, and the impact of national library policy on German Catholicism

Steinweis, Alan E.

English

UNL | Libraries

University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
Faculty Publications, Department of History History, Department of 
Spring 1992 
Review of Public Libraries in Nazi Germany, by Margaret F. Stieg. 
Alan E. Steinweis 
University of Nebraska - Lincoln, asteinweis1@unl.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub 
 Part of the History Commons 
Steinweis, Alan E., "Review of Public Libraries in Nazi Germany, by Margaret F. Stieg." (1992). Faculty 
Publications, Department of History. 80. 
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub/80 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History, Department of at DigitalCommons@University 
of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, Department of History by an 
authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 
BOOK REVlEWS 
Public Libraries in Naz i  Germany. By Margaret F. Stieg. 
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 1992. Pp. 347. 
$52.95. ISBN 0-8173-0556-4. 
Nazi cultural policy has only recently begun to attract a level of scholarly 
attention commensurate with its importance. Having relied for decades 
on memoirs, fragmentary documentary publications, and impression- 
istic accounts, historians are now devoting their energies to systematic, 
in-depth studies of the experiences of artists, performers, and writers 
under National Socialism. Margaret F. Stieg's book augments this ex- 
panding literature by focusing on an institution that was central to the 
dissemination of culture and knowledge: the public library. The central 
theme of Stieg's study is, perhaps not surprisingly, the politicization of 
libraries and librarianship: "In its fully developed form the Nazi public 
library defines the political public library" (p. 2). 
German public libraries ranged in size from the huge depositories of 
major cities like Berlin to the tiny collections in rural villages. To  her 
credit, Stieg does not give short shrift to the smaller, provincial collec- 
tions. One of the book's most interesting chapters describes the National 
Socialist "Library Development Program," which attempted to bring 
the peculiar Nazi mix of Bildung and ideological indoctrination even to 
the most remote corners of the German countryside. As Stieg notes, in 
1934 Germany had 9,494 public libraries, a number that had grown to 
13,236 in 1940. The vast majority of the new libraries opened in rural 
communities. 
T o  oversee the operations of this library system, the Nazi regime 
erected a complex network of provincial authorities, all ultimately super- 
vised by Bernard Rust's Reich Education Ministry. Stieg has done an 
impressive job in reconstructing the structure of this administrative 
system (although the details do, perhaps inevitably, make for tedious 
reading). As was so often the case in the Third Reich, this system was 
improvised, non-uniform in organizational structure, and inconsistent in 
nomenclature, yet it accomplished its main task. 
Published in Central European History, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1992), pp. 117-119
Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Conference Group for Central
European History of the American Historical Association. Used by permission.
118 BOOK REVIEWS 
Here that task was to transform library collections through a dual 
process of purging and collection development. The major purge took 
place in 1935. In the case of several big-city libraries, where collection 
develo~ment had in the Dast catered to the ~olitical sensibilities of the 
working class, the extent of the purge was massive. In Essen, for exam- 
ple, Stieg estimates that 69 percent of the contents of the collection 
present in 1934 had been removed by 1938 (p. 99). Moreover, the purges 
did not merely eat away at the margins of library collections. Many of 
the purged books had been among the most frequently circulated items 
in collections during the Weimar Republic. Not surprisingly, new addi- 
tions to library collections conformed to Nazi ideological principles, 
although Stieg notes that "they also included an impressive array of the 
best of Western culture," including works by Jack London, Oscar Wilde, 
Sir Walter Scott, Emile Zola, Leo Tolstoy, and Feodor Dostoevsky 
(PP. 104-5). 
\A 1 
Stieg, who teaches in the School of Library and Information Studies at 
the University of Alabama, characterizes the participation of German 
librarians in the purge of collections as "spiritual suicide" (p. 107). Only 
in some cases did some librarians "circulate the banned books from the 
storage rooms in which the books had been placed to people they could 
trust" (p. 106). For the most part, however, librarians followed official 
blacklists "slavishly" (p. 96), and removed the banned books "with their 
own hands" (p. 107). Although Stieg thoroughly documents her indict- 
ment of German librarians for their role in censorship, she has, unfortu- 
nately, much less to offer about the purge of library personnel. Even if it 
was true, as Stieg claims, that "librarianship simply was not a profession 
that had attracted many" Jews (p. 46), the two sentences she devotes to 
the dismissal of lewish librarians are not sufficient. Neither are the three 
sentences she ievotes to the 1938 prohibition on the use of public 
libraries by Jews (p. 150). For professional librarians, was not submitting 
to (if not facilitating) such discriminatory policies at least as great an 
ethical failure as was participation in censorship? 
Stieg's explanation of the readiness of German professional librarians 
to capitulate to Nazi coordination and censorship is also somewhat 
unconvincing. Stieg attributes the rapid embrace of National Socialism 
by many professional librarians to conservative cultural impulses, as well 
as to a desire to break free from a methodological Richtungsstreit that had 
plagued the library world for decades. Yet Stieg provides little detail 
about the effect of the Depression on librarians' salaries, job security, and 
political attitudes. In this respect, Stieg would have profited from con- 
sulting the extensive recent literature on the German professions during 
the interwar period. The professionalization paradigm established by 
scholars such as Konrad Jarausch and Michael Kater might have led Stieg 
to pay closer attention to the impact of the pre-1933 economic catas- 
trophe on the attitude of librarians to the Weimar Republic and to 
possible authoritarian alternatives. A brief comparison of librarians to 
BOOK REVlEWS 119 
physicians, lawyers, or teachers would also yield remarkably parallel 
conclusions about how organized German professions responded to Nazi 
carrot-stick strategies. 
Public Libraries in Naz i  Germany nevertheless remains a valuable and 
highly original contribution to our understanding of the relationship be- 
tween politics and culture in the Third Reich. The book is impressively 
documented and presents a wealth of new material on the apparatus of 
censorship, the role of public libraries in the cultural politics of border re- 
gions, and the impact of national library policy on German Catholicism. 


Review of \u3ci\u3ePublic Libraries in Nazi Germany\u3c/i\u3e, by Margaret F. Stieg.

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications, Department of History History, Department of Spring 1992 Review of Public Libraries in Nazi Germany, by Margaret F. Stieg. Alan E. Steinweis University of Nebraska - Lincoln, asteinweis1@unl.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub  Part of the History Commons Steinweis, Alan E., "Review of Public Libraries in Nazi Germany, by Margaret F. Stieg." (1992). Faculty Publications, Department of History. 80. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub/80 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, Department of History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. BOOK REVlEWS Public Libraries in Naz i  Germany. By Margaret F. Stieg. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 1992. Pp. 347. $52.95. ISBN 0-8173-0556-4. Nazi cultural policy has only recently begun to attract a level of scholarly attention commensurate with its importance. Having relied for decades on memoirs, fragmentary documentary publications, and impression- istic accounts, historians are now devoting their energies to systematic, in-depth studies of the experiences of artists, performers, and writers under National Socialism. Margaret F. Stieg's book augments this ex- panding literature by focusing on an institution that was central to the dissemination of culture and knowledge: the public library. The central theme of Stieg's study is, perhaps not surprisingly, the politicization of libraries and librarianship: "In its fully developed form the Nazi public library defines the political public library" (p. 2). German public libraries ranged in size from the huge depositories of major cities like Berlin to the tiny collections in rural villages. To  her credit, Stieg does not give short shrift to the smaller, provincial collec- tions. One of the book's most interesting chapters describes the National Socialist "Library Development Program," which attempted to bring the peculiar Nazi mix of Bildung and ideological indoctrination even to the most remote corners of the German countryside. As Stieg notes, in 1934 Germany had 9,494 public libraries, a number that had grown to 13,236 in 1940. The vast majority of the new libraries opened in rural communities. T o  oversee the operations of this library system, the Nazi regime erected a complex network of provincial authorities, all ultimately super- vised by Bernard Rust's Reich Education Ministry. Stieg has done an impressive job in reconstructing the structure of this administrative system (although the details do, perhaps inevitably, make for tedious reading). As was so often the case in the Third Reich, this system was improvised, non-uniform in organizational structure, and inconsistent in nomenclature, yet it accomplished its main task. Published in Central European History, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1992), pp. 117-119Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Conference Group for CentralEuropean History of the American Historical Association. Used by permission.118 BOOK REVIEWS Here that task was to transform library collections through a dual process of purging and collection development. The major purge took place in 1935. In the case of several big-city libraries, where collection develo~ment had in the Dast catered to the ~olitical sensibilities of the working class, the extent of the purge was massive. In Essen, for exam- ple, Stieg estimates that 69 percent of the contents of the collection present in 1934 had been removed by 1938 (p. 99). Moreover, the purges did not merely eat away at the margins of library collections. Many of the purged books had been among the most frequently circulated items in collections during the Weimar Republic. Not surprisingly, new addi- tions to library collections conformed to Nazi ideological principles, although Stieg notes that "they also included an impressive array of the best of Western culture," including works by Jack London, Oscar Wilde, Sir Walter Scott, Emile Zola, Leo Tolstoy, and Feodor Dostoevsky (PP. 104-5). \A 1 Stieg, who teaches in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama, characterizes the participation of German librarians in the purge of collections as "spiritual suicide" (p. 107). Only in some cases did some librarians "circulate the banned books from the storage rooms in which the books had been placed to people they could trust" (p. 106). For the most part, however, librarians followed official blacklists "slavishly" (p. 96), and removed the banned books "with their own hands" (p. 107). Although Stieg thoroughly documents her indict- ment of German librarians for their role in censorship, she has, unfortu- nately, much less to offer about the purge of library personnel. Even if it was true, as Stieg claims, that "librarianship simply was not a profession that had attracted many" Jews (p. 46), the two sentences she devotes to the dismissal of lewish librarians are not sufficient. Neither are the three sentences she ievotes to the 1938 prohibition on the use of public libraries by Jews (p. 150). For professional librarians, was not submitting to (if not facilitating) such discriminatory policies at least as great an ethical failure as was participation in censorship? Stieg's explanation of the readiness of German professional librarians to capitulate to Nazi coordination and censorship is also somewhat unconvincing. Stieg attributes the rapid embrace of National Socialism by many professional librarians to conservative cultural impulses, as well as to a desire to break free from a methodological Richtungsstreit that had plagued the library world for decades. Yet Stieg provides little detail about the effect of the Depression on librarians' salaries, job security, and political attitudes. In this respect, Stieg would have profited from con- sulting the extensive recent literature on the German professions during the interwar period. The professionalization paradigm established by scholars such as Konrad Jarausch and Michael Kater might have led Stieg to pay closer attention to the impact of the pre-1933 economic catas- trophe on the attitude of librarians to the Weimar Republic and to possible authoritarian alternatives. A brief comparison of librarians to BOOK REVlEWS 119 physicians, lawyers, or teachers would also yield remarkably parallel conclusions about how organized German professions responded to Nazi carrot-stick strategies. Public Libraries in Naz i  Germany nevertheless remains a valuable and highly original contribution to our understanding of the relationship be- tween politics and culture in the Third Reich. The book is impressively documented and presents a wealth of new material on the apparatus of censorship, the role of public libraries in the cultural politics of border re- gions, and the impact of national library policy on German Catholicism. 

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Review of \u3ci\u3ePublic Libraries in Nazi Germany\u3c/i\u3e, by Margaret F. Stieg.

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