The author depicts the extraordinary history of the Fürst zu Stolberg-Wernigerode Library, one of the largest and most important private libraries in the German-speaking countries, from its beginnings around 1569 to the present day. The focus is on the eventful history of the library's holdings and ownership after it was expropriated without compensation in 1945 as the result of the land reform in the Soviet occupation zone. Numerous examples serve to illustrate the challenges of bringing together parts of the collection from German libraries on the basis of the 1994 Compensation and Equalization Act (EALG). The book presents profile, indexing, and location of a collection that has only recently (in 2019) been made accessible resarchers and the public in general. A classification of the library’s historical departments with an overview of the surviving titles (as of 2020) and a detailed appendix including documents and illustrations complete the history of this noble library. The presentation sheds light on recent German library history, indicating that its political-historical contextualization requires further elaboration.
