About ARTOS

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB) in Munich owns one of the world’s leading collections on Eastern Europe, with holdings that have been built up over a long and rich history. Since the early 1950s, it has served as a reference library for the countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe throughout Germany as part of a programme for the nationwide supply of literature funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The Eastern Europe Collection of the BSB comprises about 1.3 million volumes, including valuable manuscripts as well as a diverse range of electronic media, microfilmed archival material and about 4,500 current journals. Since 2000, over 1.1 million of its own books have been digitised and made available in open access format. The library and the Specialised Information Service for East, Central and Southeast European Studies have also been intensively engaged in electronic publishing for several years.

Eastern Europe Collection of the BSB

Specialised Information Service for East, Central and Southeast European Studies

The Collegium Carolinum in Munich, a research institute for the history of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, brings together internationally renowned scholars who deal with the history of and present situation in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Eastern Central Europe. The associated institute organises conferences, produces numerous publications such as the journal “Bohemia” and maintains a subject library with the largest special collection on Bohemica and Sudetica in Germany.

Collegium Carolinum

The Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe – Institute of the Leibniz Association in Marburg is one of the most important institutions for historical research on Eastern Central Europe. With its research library and scientific collections, it fulfils the function of a central research centre and academic service institution.

Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe

The Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg investigates the economy and history of this region. With the publication of specialist journals and its internationally important subject library, it offers an excellent infrastructure for the academic study of Eastern Europe.

Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS)

The Martin Opitz Library in Herne is the central library on German culture and history in Eastern Europe. It collects literature from the entire area of Eastern, Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe with a focus on the regions in today’s western Poland and Kaliningrad. With over 330,000 titles, approximately 12,000 periodicals (of which around 560 are up-to-date) and around 9,500 maps, it is the largest relevant specialised library in Germany.

As part of ARTOS, the Martin Opitz Library has been cataloguing articles from its journal holdings since 2016, including historical journals from the first half of the twentieth century deemed to be valuable as sources.

Martin Opitz Library

The Institute for German Culture and History of South Eastern Europe (IKGS) at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich researches and documents German culture and history in the context of the cultural regions of South Eastern Europe. Its library holds around 19,000 books and 1,000 journals on the region. The collection focuses on topics of culture and history, literature and language, folklore and regional studies of historically German settlement areas in East Central and South Eastern Europe, in particular in present-day Greece, Croatia, Moldavia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Hungary.

Institute for German Culture and History of South Eastern Europe

The Central Institute for Art History (ZI) in Munich is the only non-university research institute for art history in Germany. With over 630,000 volumes, over 1,170 periodicals subscribed to on a regular basis and over 75,000 auction catalogues, it boasts one of the world’s largest art libraries. The collection profile covers the entire history of art from the early Middle Ages to the present. The special focus of the collection includes art and art historical literature from Eastern and South Eastern European countries.

Since 1947, the ZI library has been cataloguing essays and reviews from its extensive collection of art historical journals. ARTOS includes all articles and reviews from about 100 journals from Eastern and South Eastern Europe and about the region that have been indexed since then.

Central Institute for Art History