To commemorate the German national holiday Tag der deutschen Einheit (Day of German Unity) on Monday, October 3rd, 2016, there will be an Open House in Special Collections from 11:00AM-1:00PM featuring some of the East German items and collections at Stanford University Libraries.
The Day of German Unity celebrates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when East and West Germany were re-united after decades of separation following WWII. In 1990, Stanford University Libraries began actively acquiring primary source collections related to culture and cultural politics in East Germany, both in response to research interests and because more GDR items became available for acquisition.
We continue to actively collect both primary and secondary research materials about the former GDR. Our holdings include East German theater programs, scripts and movie posters from East German cinema and the Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA), Frauenzeitschriften and popular culture magazines such as Für Dich and Neue Berliner Illustrierte, artists' books, and much, much more.