Licensed Databases

The Artists of the World Online (AKL) database provides full-text access to articles in all AKL (Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon) volumes published to date. This also includes short biographies (index data) based on AKL articles and the standard art history works Thieme-Becker (published in 37 volumes from 1907 to 1950) and Vollmer (6 volumes, 1953–62).
For the sections of the alphabet not yet covered by published AKL volumes, short biographies are available from The Artists of the World Bio-bibliographical Index A-Z (AKL Index).
For the AKL volumes already published, profiles of artists can also be researched in the AKL Archive who did not meet the criteria for inclusion in published volumes. The complete original articles from the AKL’s first supplementary volume (A-Azzopardi) are also available as well as additions and updates for around 27,000 artists in the volumes already published.
For the first time, the database also provides additional full access to articles in the Künstlerlexikon der Antike (Artists of Antiquity, edited by Rainer Vollkommer, two volumes 2001 / 2004) containing approx. 4,000 artists of antiquity known by name.

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Art Sales Catalogues Online offers access to complete historical art sales catalogues for the period 1600 to 1900. At present, 30,000 catalogues are accessible online. With updates and additions, this figure is set to rise to 35,000. The full digital facsimiles are based on the originals held in various libraries including the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), The Hague; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Courtauld Institute, London.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

ARTbibliographies Modern Archiv 1974 is the main specialist bibliography in Germany for modern art. Not only does it contain bibliographic data, but also full abstracts of journal articles (from approx. 2,350 journals), books, essays, exhibition catalogues, PhD theses and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art. Since 1974, around 400,000 entries have been collected, some dating back in part to the 1960s. The materials also cover more unusual works and lesser-known artists.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

Berlin Review is a new magazine for texts about books and ideas. Since 1 February 2024, 8 comprehensive, carefully curated online issues have been published each year with essays, reviews and memos.
From the editorial of issue 1: "What we need is literary knowledge, the courage to be precise, perhaps also beauty, distraction and nerdiness. Texts that open a window and - How German Is It? - give it a good airing".

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Founded in 2009, Der Literarische Expressionismus Online (German Literary Expressionism Online) provides access to 151 journals, yearbooks, collections and anthologies from the early twentieth century, providing a total of 40,000 articles and 79,000 pages in full text form.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage)

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage) if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

In two parts, Deutschsprachige Frauenliteratur des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts (German Language Women’s Literature of the 18th and 19th Centuries) contains over 220,000 pages by women writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The material, as 848 eBooks, has been created from publications originally from the classical and romantic eras, the time of the Junges Deutschland movement, the Vormärz period, and the subsequent years. The originals come from the holdings of the library of Schloß Corvey (Fürstlichen Bibliothek Corvey). The database contains digitally enhanced facsimiles of the historical book pages with links to relevant passages in the works. The genres represented include short stories, plays, travel literature, children’s books, biographies and memoirs.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Lower Saxony and University Library Göttingen

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Lower Saxony and University Library Göttingen if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

The DDR-Presse database provides access to three historical East German newspapers: Neues Deutschland [ND] (23 April 1946 – 3 October 1990), Berliner Zeitung [BZ] (21 May 1945 – 31 December 1990), Neue Zeit [NZ] (22 July 1945 – 5 July 1994).
These important historical newspapers are fully available, and can be accessed as facsimile pages or articles, with the latter automatically converted into a text format. The database offers a full-text search as well as a ‘today in history’ search function.

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Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, MGG for short, is a „General Encyclopedia of Music“. Its encyclopedic claim distinguishes it fundamentally from other reference works: MGG offers in-depth articles on every area of music, as well as on many related fields such as literature, philosophy, and the visual arts. MGG Online comprises the second print edition of MGG (MGG2, published 1994 to 2008).
The MGG online database is continuously updated and expanded.

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There are eight historical newspapers available on this database: The Guardian (1821-1900), The Observer (1791-1900), The New York Times (1851-1922), Boston Globe (1872-1922), The Wall Street Journal (1889-1922), Washington Post (1877-1922), Chicago Tribune (1849-1922) and Los Angeles Times (1881-1922). Every issue of each title includes the full newspaper, cover to cover, with full page and article images (in a PDF format) as well as the individually indexed articles, editorials, reviews, photos, cartoons, advertisements, readers’ letters and classified ads.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt am Main if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

JAP Online is the database of the Jahrbuch der Auktionspreise für Bücher, Handschriften und Autographen (Yearbook of Auction Prices for Books, Manuscripts and Autograph Manuscripts), first published in 1950. The database contains the results of auctions in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland, as well as over 800,000 books at auction from 1990 to 2014. Not only does JAP Online list just hammer prices (i.e., excluding buyer’s premium and VAT), but it also provides details of the condition of the individual pieces, and excludes unsold returns and post-auction sales. The prices of items sold in other currencies at auction before 2002 are listed in euros.

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Comprehensive, traditional reference work on the most important literary works of all times, all regions and all cultures worldwide.
The Kindler, in its third, completely revised edition of 2009 edited by Heinz Ludwig Arnold, comprises over 21,500, named contributions to the most important works that have had a lasting influence on cultural history, from the first written testimonies of mankind to the present day, including approximately 13,000 works by around 8,000 authors as well as around 500 anonymous works and 150 materials. About 8,000 biograms provide brief biographical information about the authors.
The Kindler online database is updated and expanded six times a year.

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The Komponisten der Gegenwart (KDG) is a unique German-language resource on the leading composers in Germany and abroad since the early 1900s. The KDG offers general information on over 870 composers, together with biographies and overviews of their works. Around a quarter of these composers are discussed in details with examples, catalogues of works, and selected discographies and bibliographies.

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The KLG Online is a standard reference work on contemporary German literature, extensively describing current literary developments and actively including young writers. It contains over 800 articles – equivalent to over 14,000 printed pages – on the life and work of outstanding German-language authors. The writers’ biographies, works and impact are discussed in detail, and supplemented with comprehensive lists of primary and secondary literature. KLG Online is regularly updated and expanded. KLG was initially founded by Heinz Ludwig Arnold. Today’s consulting editor is Hermann Korte.

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The KLfG (Critical Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Foreign-Language Literature) is one of the leading German reference works on the life and work of contemporary outstanding writers in world literature who have influenced their cultural and linguistic spheres. The database contains articles on over 750 writers. Founded by Heinz Ludwig Arnold, the KLfG is overseen today by consulting editors S. Domsch, A. Heitmann, I. Hijiya-Kirschnereit, W. Kissel, Th. Klinkert and B. Winckler.

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This international biographical archive presently contains entries on the life and work of around 29,000 leading figures from the world of politics, business, science and culture from 1946. It combines the International Biographical Archive, started around 85 years ago, and the MA Journal, published exclusively in a digital form since 1994. The database is regularly updated and expanded.

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Music Online Reference, published by the Alexander Street Press, brings together a range of research materials in four parts:

• Classical Scores Library: A collection of in-copyright scores and previously unpublished materials from the fifteenth to the twentieth century.
• Classical Music Reference Library: A compilation of essential reference materials of approx. 55,000 pages spanning the history of western classical music from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century.
• African American Reference Library: Comprehensive reference work and collection of rare or previously unreleased materials of Afro-American music history from its beginnings until the 1970s, with a total of over 45,000 pages.
• The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online: An extensive standard reference work with over 1,200 detailed articles on subjects or persons, and approx. 9,200 pages on traditional ethnomusic around the world; consulting editors are James Porter and Timothy Rice.

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The collection comprises over 100,000 pages of first person documents (letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies) providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to American and Canada. The research materials include approx. 35,000 pages of Ellis Island Oral History Interviews. Primarily focused on the years from 1890 to 1920, the collection documents the impressions and experiences of immigrants from various countries, from Asia to Russia, and central and southern Europe.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Lower Saxony and University Library Göttingen

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Lower Saxony and University Library Göttingen if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

The OLC-SSG databases offer researchers a list of the contents of journals in individual subjects, with the earliest periodicals going back, as a rule, to 1993. The databases are updated on a daily basis. A list of the journals in the various databases can be found on the particular subject pages. At present, the databases which can be researched (not full-text access) include film and theatre, German studies, history, information systems, book and library studies, art and cultural studies, media and communication studies, musicology, and contemporary history.

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Oxford Journals is a division of Oxford University Press, the world's largest university publishing house. The complete archive comprises over 150 individual journals in five subject-based collections: Humanities (41 journals), Science (39), Medicine (44), Law (12), and Social Sciences (29). Each completed previous year of its available titles is added annually. Under this license, the current year of the journals is not available.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt am Main if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

Periodicals Index Online is a leading multidisciplinary index for bibliographic research in around 4,800 journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences. The journals, which cover 1739 to 2000, have an international scope with over 37 subject areas in 60 languages. The bibliographic entries have direct linking to the Periodicals Archive Online (see below).

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt am Main if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

Periodicals Archive Online is the leading online resource for backfiles of periodicals in the humanities, cultural and social sciences. PAO currently contains over 500 journals from their first issue up to 1995, representing over 1.9 million articles or 12.9 million pages. The Akademie subscription includes POA collections 1-6.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg Frankfurt am Main

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt am Main if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

This online archive delivers essential primary sources on refugees and the resettlement of Displaced Persons (DPs) in Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. The archive comprises around 3,000 documents, available as image files and via full-text search. The material is largely drawn from the holdings of the Wiener Library in London and the UK National Archives, and includes documents from the Foreign Office’s General Correspondence, the Control Office for Germany and Austria, and the Control Commission for Germany.
The project’s general editor was Dan Stone, Professor of Modern History, Royal Holloway, University of London, who also wrote the introductory essay. The research materials are supplemented with essays and articles by renowned historians in the fields of Jewish and DP history from the UK, Germany, and Israel, including Michael Brenner (Munich) and Angelika Königseder (Berlin). Through the holdings of Wiener Library, the archive also particularly highlights the history of Jewish DPs.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

The Akademie der Künste publishes the bi-monthly journal SINN UND FORM, which was founded in 1949 by Johannes R. Becher and Paul Wiegler and was directed by Peter Huchel until 1962.

For seventy-five years, SINN UND FORM has been one of the most renowned and sophisticated literary magazines internationally. Its unique style is characterised by its outmoded, not superficially topical approach, the high linguistic standard of the texts and their surprising composition. Archive discoveries stand alongside literary debuts, first publications alongside classics, conversations and poems alongside editions of letters, essays, memoirs and stories.

All articles from today back to 1949 can be searched in the magazine archive.

All issues from 1949 to 1991 and from 2019 to the present are available as PDF downloads (click on "PDF download for subscribers"  for the relevant issue in Reading Room access).

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tanz.dance is a journalistic project by Arnd Wesemann, long-time editor of the magazine tanz. The project is independent of publishers. Renowned dance journalists from all over the world use digital, bilingual storytelling on tanz.dance to report on as many of the current dance scenes as possible, providing in-depth insights into the various structures and developments as well as intensive discussions of works.

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This online resource comprises handwritten documents and rare printed materials from the Wiener Library, London, the world’s oldest holocaust museum. The database includes eye-witness accounts of life under National Socialism, offering insights into the Nazi regime’s domestic policies and Jewish life in Germany from 1933 to the post-war years, as well as life in concentration camps, the underground and in exile. All sources are available for full-text research. To a large extent, the research materials are in German.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

The TLS Historical Archive provides a complete facsimile edition of the Times Literary Supplement from its very first edition in 1902 to 2011. With many of the contributors eminent in their fields, the archive offers an impressive panorama of twentieth-century writers and thinkers. In addition, the TLS includes theatre, cinema and music reviews, as well as reviews of exhibitions.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Lower Saxony and University Library Göttingen

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Lower Saxony and University Library Göttingen if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.

The database comprises around 250 journals covering a broad spectrum of subjects in the humanities and sciences. In the humanities, most journals are available with all their back numbers. The archive has a ‘moving wall’ of a one-year time lag, and the current volumes are constantly expanded on this basis. Since 2008, the platform offers access to eBooks, although these are not included under the national licence. A separate login is not necessary as the Akademie access is automatic.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Lower Saxony and University Library Göttingen

Not available for private use.

WBIS Online is a comprehensive biographical database containing millions of biographical articles compiled from reference works published from the sixteenth to the early twenty-first century. The different biographical archives reflect such aspects as regions, cultures and religious groups.

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Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
With the support of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich

Individuals permanently resident in Germany can personally register for free access through the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek if they do not have access via a university network or a library for academic purposes and scholarly research.