GHIL Library

Image showing a desk and chair in one of the first floor library rooms. The chair is pulled out invitingly, and a book is lying on the desk.

The library of the GHIL is an important and well-regarded institution for British historians of German history, students at London universities, and the general public. Its holdings on German history, British-German relations from the Middle Ages to the present day, and wider European history are comprehensive, up to date, free to use, and form a unique collection in Britain.

Visiting and joining the Library

Autumn/Winter opening hours:
The library is open Monday-Friday, 9.30am–8pm

New readers need to register for a library card and have a short introductory tour of the library before or during their first visit (Mo-Fr, 9.30am-4pm). Photo ID (passport, ID card or driving licence) must be provided.

Library staff are also available for general enquiries at library@ghil.ac.uk.

If you would like to receive regular updates on recent acquisitions, featured books, and other library news, then you can sign up to the Library Newsletter.

Library Guide

Take a look at the flipbook below for an introduction to our library.

Featured Books

Gifts and gift-giving

For many, the Christmas period is all about gifts: what to buy for whom, what to wish for, how much to spend (or save). The fine nuances of gift-giving have preoccupied people in many settings from the beginnings of human civilization. Gifts to gods or to rulers in propitiation or to show fealty, diplomatic gifts from one ruler, group, or state to another to promote cordial relations, interpersonal gifts, charitable gifts to those less fortunate than oneself. So what do gifts tell us about the giver and receiver? How are they characteristic of the society in which both live? Who thought an elephant was a suitable gift? And when is a gift not a gift at all? (When it's a bribe...) Find out more by browsing our selection of books on gifts and gift-giving through history.

You can see these books in the Common Room at the GHIL, with an additional display on feasts, festivals, and holy days in the display case facing onto the stairs.

See in library catalogue

Marcel Mauss ; translated by W. D. Halls

The gift : the form and reason for exchange in archaic societies

London : Routledge, 1993

Am/2016 a

Gadi Algazi, Valentin Groebner et al. (eds)

Negotiating the Gift : Pre-Modern Figurations of Exchange

Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte. Bd 188

Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003

Ma/3705

Sam Ottewill-Soulsby

The Emperor and the elephant : Christians and Muslims in the age of Charlemagne

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2023

ask librarian

Lars Kjaer and Gustavs Strenga (eds.)

Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600 : Gifts as Objects

London : Bloomsbury Academic, 2022

eBook ProQuest

Sebastian von Birgelen

Die Geschenkpraxis thüringischer Städte im Spätmittelalter (1377-1525) : Prestige - symbolische Kommunikation - Reziprozität

Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Thüringen. Kleine Reihe. Band 066

Köln : Böhlau, 2022

eBook V&R

Valentin Groebner ; translated by Pamela E. Selwyn

Liquid Assets, Dangerous Gifts : Presents and Politics at the End of the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages

Philadelphia, PA : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002

Ma/3710 a

Mark Häberlein and Christof Jeggle (eds.)

Materielle Grundlagen der Diplomatie : Schenken, Sammeln und Verhandeln in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit

Irseer Schriften. N.F. Studien zur schwäbischen Kulturgeschichte. Bd 9

Konstanz ; München : UVK Verlagsges., 2013

Kb/1616

Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (ed.)

Fragile Diplomacy : Meissen Porcelain for European Courts ca. 1710-63

New Haven, CT ; London : Yale Univ. Press, 2007

Se.5/7020

Zoltán Biedermann, Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello

Global gifts : the material culture of diplomacy in early modern Eurasia

Studies in Comparative World History

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017

eBook ProQuest

Jeannette Falcke

Studien zum diplomatischen Geschenkwesen am brandenburgisch-preussischen Hof im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert

Quellen und Forschungen zur Brandenburgischen und Preußischen Geschichte. Bd 31

Berlin : Duncker & Humblot, 2006

Se.5/7025

Ines Elsner

Das Huldigungssilber der Welfen des Neuen Hauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1520-1706) : Geschenkkultur und symbolische Interaktion zwischen Fürst und Untertanen

Regensburg : Schnell + Steiner, 2019

Sd.8/2011/23

Jens I. Engels, Andreas Fahrmeir and Alexander Nützenadel (eds.)

Geld, Geschenke, Politik : Korruption im neuzeitlichen Europa

Historische Zeitschrift. Beiheft, Neue Folge Bd 48

München : Oldenbourg, 2009

Zs 1/Beih. N.F. 48

Christian Härtel and Petra Kabus (eds.)

Das Westpaket : Geschenksendung, keine Handelsware

Berlin : Links, 2000

Sk.4/408

Volker Ilgen

CARE-Paket & Co. : Von der Liebesgabe zum Westpaket

Geschichte erzählt. [7]

Darmstadt : Wiss. Buchges., 2008

Sa.8/7710

Konstanze Soch

Eine große Freude? : der innerdeutsche Paketverkehr im Kalten Krieg (1949-1989)

Frankfurt ; New York, N.Y : Campus Verlag, 2018

Sk.4/408/1

Library Catalogue

All of our books, journals and electronic resources can be found via our online catalogue.

Recently published books can be made available to readers very quickly, and we invite readers to suggest new acquisitions at library@ghil.ac.uk.

Start your search

Library Collections

The GHIL Library's holdings comprise around 95,000 volumes, with a growing number of electronic resources. The collection's focus is largely on German history, with a special emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Around a third of the library's resources are English-language materials.

Access and Services

The library is open to anyone with an interest in German history, British-German relations, or comparative historiography. The collection is reference only, so books cannot be taken out on loan.

There are no membership or joining fees but a passport photo and recent proof of address should be provided on the first visit so that a library card can be issued.

Contact and opening hours

Contact

German Historical Institute Library
17 Bloomsbury Square
London WC1A 2NJ

Tel. +44-(0)20-7309 2050
Email: library@ghil.ac.uk

Autumn/Winter opening hours:

The library is open Monday-Friday, 9.30am–8pm

Meet the Team

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German Historical Institute London