Our library is a scholarly reference library holding about 70,000 items. Alongside primary sources and research literature on Jewish history, culture, art, religion, and philosophy, the library also includes historical magazines, current periodicals, and audiovisual media.
You can search our holdings online in our library catalog (OPAC) and view the items in the reading room. (More information and opening hours on our website.)
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy, Library
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
Postal address: Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin
From the First Acquisitions to the Public Museum Library
The library's beginnings date back to 1975, when the Society for a Jewish Museum in Berlin was founded as a non-profit organization. The Society exhibited its First Acquisitions and Donations for the Future Jewish Museum in Berlin in 1978. These included first editions of the translation of the Psalms (1783) and of Morning Hours (1785) by Moses Mendelssohn.
One of the first major gifts to the Jewish section of the Berlin Museum came from John F. and Hertha Oppenheimer, who donated publications by the Central Association for German Citizens of Jewish Faith.
Workstations in the reading room of the archive and library; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März
Workstations in the reading room of the archive and library; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März
The books from the Berlin Museum's Jewish section were transferred to the Jewish Museum Berlin Library in 1999. When the permanent exhibition was opened in 2001, we were able to set up a reading room for visitors and publicize our holdings in an online catalog. Since the Library moved to the Academy building in July 2013, visitors have direct access to extensive public stacks.
Our library holdings are growing constantly. For example, within the framework of a grant from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), between December 2013 and February 2018, we were able to expand our collections related to Jewish art by 3,550 publications. More about the DFG project
Contact
Ulrike Sonnemann
Head Librarian
T +49 (0)30 259 93 564
u.sonnemann@jmberlin.de
Address
Jewish Museum Berlin
Lindenstraße 9–14
10969 Berlin
How can I conduct research using the museum’s archive, collections, and library?
Our Reading Room is open to the public. You can also research using our library’s holdings and some of our collection’s holdings online. To view additional holdings, please contact the responsible curators.
Can I borrow books from the library?
We do not lend books. Our holdings can only be viewed in the Reading Room.
I would like to depict or borrow an object from your collections. Who should I contact?
Your contact for photo permissions is Valeska Wolfgram (T +49 (0)30 259 93 433, email: fotodoku@jmberlin.de). Loan requests must be made at least six months in advance. For questions regarding administrative processes, please contact Katrin Strube (T +49 (0)30 259 93 417, email: k.strube@jmberlin.de).
How can I donate objects, photographs, and documents to the museum?
If you would like to support the Jewish Museum Berlin and believe you possess materials that may be of interest to us, contact us!
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Online Library Catalogue
(in German)
OPAC
Reading Room
Opening hours, catalogs, databases, and further information
Information
Digitizing Book Holdings
Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book (1924–1937)
Project
2016
Our Library's DFG Project
Enlarging and indexing our holdings in Jewish art
Project
2013–2018
“Hörmahl”: A Feast for the Ears
Dinner with Lina Morgenstern, Julie Elias and Rahel Varnhagen (in German)
Podcasts
2021
The Artur Brauner Collection
21 films that you can watch in our Reading Room
All About ...
Terms of Use
For the Archive and Library of the Jewish Museum Berlin
Information
Our Library’s Shelving System
Information
Digitized Books: Read Our Books Online (4)
Read Our Books Online
We've digitized rare and valuable books and made them available online for you to read and enjoy. A complete list of our digitized books can be found in the online catalog (in German).
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A Guide Through the Jewish Museum
from the collection of the Jewish Community of Berlin
Digitized Book
Berlin 1933 -
Moses
by Uriel Birnbaum
Digitized Book
Thyrsos-Verlag, Berlin/Vienna 1924 -
Die Wunschkiste
The best stories, games, and riddles from the Children's Pages of the C.V.-Zeitung
Digitized Book
Philo Verlag und Buchhandlung G.m.b.H., Berlin 1936 -
Synagoga. Cult objects and works of art
Catalog of the exhibition
Digitized Book
Recklinghausen (1961)
Special Collections: On Jewish Art and Culture (6)
On Jewish Art and Culture
Some of our Library’s most important collections include the volumes printed by the Soncino Society of Friends of Jewish Books (founded in 1924), the publications of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, and special collections on Jewish art and visual culture.
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The John F. and Hertha Oppenheimer Collection
Publications of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, other writings from the interwar period, and books published in the US after 1945
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The Kurt Löb Collection
The collection includes signed and unsigned works by the book illustrator, exhibition catalogs, essays by and about him, and his dissertation.
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The Soncino Society Collection
With eighty Society publications from 1924 to 1937, our collection – a bequest from Hermann Meyer – is complete.
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The Ulrich von Kritter Collection
The collection comprises around sixty illustrated works of German-Jewish and Yiddish Literature (1920–1990).
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The William L. Gross Collection
The 400-book collection includes Judaica, documents, and literature on Jewish art and culture.
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Collection Hebrew Printing in Berlin
The collection contains about 400 Hebrew and Yiddish titles from the eighteenth century to 1933
Selected Objects: Library (5)
Library
Discover two treasures from our Library’s collection: the medieval manuscript Sefer Sinai and the rare first edition of the essay collection Aus drei Jahrtausenden (From three millennia) by Leo Baeck.
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Leo Baeck's Essay Collection From Three Millennia
There are very few copies of this book's first edition in existence because shortly after being published in 1938, it was banned.
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Sefer Sinai by Abraham ben Baruch
Medieval manuscript by Abraham ben Baruch is the most valuable object in our library’s holdings. It is one of the few books from the time period that have survived.
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The Complete Horse Connoisseur
This book from 1764, purchased for our permanent exhibition in 2007, is a testament to trade relationships between Jews and Non-Jews in the eighteenth century
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Tom Seidmann-Freud, Eser sihot li-yeladim
Kleine Märchen (Little Fairy Tales) with artworks for kids, Jerusalem 1923, with link to the digital copy of the book
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Bertha Gumprichs Complete Practical Cookbook for the Jewish Kitchen
Our library holds the Forth Edition of this best seller of its time, about 1900
Our Library as a Meeting Place
Article by Ulrike Sonnemann in the JMB Journal Nr. 13, S. 36/37
JMB Journal
2015
Our Collections
Areas of interest and subject matter
All About ...
Bambi and the Theory of Relativity
Books on the Nazi Pyre: The George Warburg collection at our library
Exhibition
7 May to 15 Sep 2013
In a Foreign Country
Publications from Displaced Persons Camps
Exhibition
3 Sep to 15 Dec 2015
Moves to Establish a Research Library for Jewish Art
Our staff member Lea Weik writes about her experiences with a German Research Foundation
Blog
For Love of the Catalogs
Interview with art historian, rabbi, and literature collector Edward van Voolen
Blog
“Was Goethe a Jew too?”
Question of the Month
The History of Our Collections
Initial inspiration and transition to the Jewish Museum Berlin
Information
Illustrators from Israel at the Museum
Young visitors had the chance to create their own pictures to pair with poems and stories.
Family Sunday
14 October 2018, 2–7 pm
Searching for the New Germans
Bernhard Jensen leads through the reading room of the Jewish Museum's Academy
Gloss
2014