The Walter A. Berendsohn research institute in the old building of the National and University Library of Hamburg.Walter A. Berendsohn Forschungsstelle für deutsche Exilliteratur der Universität Hamburg Since its founding in 1970, the Walter A. Berendsohn Research Center for German Exile Literature at the Institute for German Studies has been the only university institution in Germany specializing in the investigation and impartation of literature that, due to the circumstances in which it emerged, testifies to and reflects the large-scale exile of writers, artists and intellectuals from Nazi Germany from 1933. Alongside the tasks of preserving, systematically inspecting and, in part, collecting sources of literary and theatre history from that time, the aim of the research center is to create international networks for and to facilitate exile research in the fields of literary and cultural studies. It strives to act as a forum for the renegotiation of academic discussions of the exile period of 1933-1945 against the backdrop of comprehensive exile studies that incorporate both literary texts of other epochs, languages and cultures as well as more general literary-aesthetic and cultural-theoretical reflections upon exile. Its research interests therefore focus in particular upon contemporary literary texts that deal with historic or current exile.

Furthermore, the tasks of the research center include the public dissemination of exile topics. Together with related facilities and educational institutions, it also stimulates and accompanies discussions about the history and topicality of exile.

The P. Walter Jacob Archive

The research center is home to this archive, which preserves the estate of its namesake, P. Walter Jacob (1905-1977). Jacob ran a German-speaking exile theatre in Argentina for nearly ten years and corresponded extensively with a range of his famous contemporaries. Accordingly the focus of this collection is on music and theatre.

Moreover, it houses a collection of newspaper clippings, started by Jacob and continued after his death, as well as further items from his estate and collections from the fields of literature, theatre, film and politics, concerning, e.g., Jo Mihaly, Hanuš Burger, Joachim Lackner, Reinhold K. Olszewski and Jacob Walcher. Additionally, the archive contains the partial estates of Walter A. Berendsohn and Werner Mittenzwei, which include documents pertaining to the history of exile research itself.

The Exile Library in the Carl von Ossietzky Reading Room

Since 1983, the exile literature research library – with more than 18,000 volumes, pertinent periodicals, films and other electronic media – has been located in the landmarked Carl von Ossietzky Reading Room of Hamburg’s State and University Library. For the most part, the reading room’s collections comprise literary texts that reflect the exile period of 1933–1945 and the corresponding research literature. Approximately 4,000 volumes in the collections are from the estate library of P. Walter Jacob.

Recent collection fields reflect the current focus of the research center and encompass, in particular, comparative aspects of exile research, the relation between exile and migration, exile in the Jewish tradition and exile in contemporary literature.