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Within the scope of a 2-year project, a collection of historical children’s and adolescents’ books will be catalogued at the regional State Library of Coburg. The library had received the collection as a present in 2019. The collection comprising over 1,600 titles belonged to Dr. Ernst Hofmann, the former director of the German Toy Museum in Sonneberg, and his wife Christine Hofmann.

Two editions of the "speaking picture book" | © Landesbibliothek Coburg

Very rare pop-up picture book with texts and crafted figures | © Landesbibliothek Coburg

The emphasis of the collection is on children’s and adolescents’ books from the time of the GDR and from the first half of the 20th century, also including literature from the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and the NS era. Overall, the impressive collection includes books from the 18th century up to the year 2016. A first check has shown that many unique and very rare children’s books are included, some of which cannot be found in any other library so far.

One particularity is constituted by the so-called "speaking picture books" by Theodor Brand, which he had patented in 1879. There are several specimens from various editions in German and English. These books are particularly rare and evidence that "sound books" are not an invention of the 21st century, but already existed more than 100 years ago, functioning mechanically.

Further, in addition to the expectable literature, there are also pop-up picture books, colouring books, comics and numerous periodicals.

The project for the review and cataloguing is generously funded by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich. The librarian Nathalie Sommer forms part of the project team. "I am very happy about the start of this project", Dr. Sascha Salatowsky, Director of the regional State Library of Coburg emphasises. "Such a unique collection of children’s and adolescents’ books exemplifies that libraries with historical holdings provide connecting points for current issues and debates. This collection is probably particularly interesting for the schools." A wide variety of aspects from the fields of parenting, education and society could be discussed on this basis. In order to make the broad spectrum of the collection more widely known to the public, a number of exhibitions are planned for the coming years. After cataloguing, the collection can be searched via the online catalogue of the regional State Library of Coburg. Using the collection for education or research purposes will be possible only in the library’s reading room.

Contact person
Landesbibliothek Coburg (regional State Library Coburg)
Nathalie Sommer
nathalie.sommer@landesbibliothek-coburg.de
Phone +49 9561 85328-210

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Collection of children's books at the regional State Library of Coburg will be catalogued