German Historical Institute London

17 Bloomsbury Square
London WC1A 2NJ
United Kingdom

Phone: Tel. +44-(0)20-7309 2050

URI: www.ghil.ac.uk

 

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

Spring 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

Bauhaus

Originally founded in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus school of art moved to Dessau in 1925. It closed its doors in 1933, after another move to Berlin, under pressure from the Nazis, who considered the modernist styles “un-German”. Its staff and students dispersed, taking Bauhaus ideas and style with them. Despite the school’s short existence, its influence on the world of art, architecture and design has been considerable. Many of the styles and objects made at the Bauhaus are instantly recognizable to this day. Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair is just one example. Look it up, you will definitely know it…

You can see these books in the display case in the Common Room at the GHIL. There is an additional display on the history of modern diplomacy in the display case facing onto the stairs.

See in library catalogue
 

Winfried Nerdinger

Das Bauhaus : Werkstatt der Moderne

München : C.H. Beck, 2018

eBook ProQuest

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Detlev Schöttker (ed.)

Ästhetik der Einfachheit : Texte zur Geschichte eines Bauhaus-Programms

Berlin : DOM publishers, 2019

Gn/2285

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Karl Nierendorf (ed.)

Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar : 1919-1923

München : Kraus Reprint, 1930

Sg.11/617

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Clemens Bach

Pädagogik, Kunst und Kritischer Neuhumanismus : László Moholy-Nagy zwischen Friedrich Schiller und Einer Ästhetik der Moderne

Kultur und Bildung. 20

Boston : BRILL, 2021

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Elizabeth Otto

Haunted Bauhaus : occult spirituality, gender fluidity, queer identities, and radical politics

Cambridge, MA ; London : MIT Press, 2019

Sg.11/623/1

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Fiona MacCarthy

Gropius : the man who built the Bauhaus

Cambridge, MA : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019

Sg.11/617/2

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Oskar Schlemmer, László Moholy-Nagy, Farkas Molnár

Die Bühne im Bauhaus

bauhausbücher

Berlin : Gebrüder Mann Verlag, 2020

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Éva Forgács

The Bauhaus idea and Bauhaus politics

Budapest, London, New York, N.Y. : Central European Univ. Press, 1995

Sg.11/624 a

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Kathleen James-Chakraborty (ed.)

Bauhaus Culture : From Weimar to the Cold War

Minneapolis, MN ; London : Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2006

Sg.11/623

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Elaine S. Hochman

Architects of fortune : Mies van der Rohe and the Third Reich

New York, N.Y. : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989

Sh.11/425/3

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Andreas Schätzke

Zwischen Bauhaus und Stalinallee : Architekturdiskussion im östlichen Deutschland, 1945-1955

Bauwelt Fundamente. 95

Basel ; Berlin ; Boston : Birkhäuser, 2017

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Volker Wahl (ed.)

Das staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar : Dokumente zur Geschichte des Instituts 1919-1926

Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Thüringen / Große Reihe. Bd 15

Köln ; Weimar ; Wien : Böhlau, 2009

Sg.11/617/1

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Winfried Nerdinger (ed.)

Bauhaus-Moderne im Nationalsozialismus : Zwischen Anbiederung und Verfolgung

München : Prestel, 1993

Sh.11/425/1

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Karl-Heinz Hüter

Das Bauhaus in Weimar : Studie zur gesellschaftspolitischen Geschichte einer deutschen Kunstschule

Berlin : Akademie Verl., 1976

Sg.11/621

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Ute Brüning and Angela Dolgner

Walter Funkat : vom Bauhaus zur Burg Giebichenstein

Bauhausminiaturen. 3

Dessau : Anhaltische Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1996

So.11/329/1

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Winfried Nerdinger

Walter Gropius : Architekt der Moderne, 1883-1969

München : Verlag C.H. Beck, 2019

Sg.11/617/3

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Alexandra Panzert

Das Bauhaus Im Kontext : Kunst- und Gestaltungsschulen der Weimarer Republik im Vergleich

Berlin : KLHE, 2023

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Friedhelm Kröll

Bauhaus 1919-1933 : Künstler zwischen Isolation und kollektiver Praxis

Gesellschaft und Kommunikation : Eine Schriftenreihe. 17

Düsseldorf : Bertelsmann Universitätsverlag, 1974

Sg.11/620

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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.

 

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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.

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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.

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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

 

Opening hours:

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

Meet the Team