Twentieth century Germany was dominated by two dictator-ships, and changes in the political system were always linked to the locking away and disposal of entire categories of books, first in 1933 and 1945 and then later in 1990. During the GDR period, not only National Socialist and militarist but also deviantc communist literature as well as all kinds of Western books were banished to the poison
... [Show full abstract] cabinet which became a magical code for the irresistible charm of the forbidden for the esecret readers4c in ebook lande. The essay takes a look at the National Socialist history of the Deutsche Bucherei in an effort to clarify the dubious interrelationship between the state-propagated collection mandate and the censorship function. In the Soviet Zone of Occupation, the Deutsche Böcherei was made the repository for disallowed literature and the germ cell of a poison cabinet system which soon formed emetastases in the libraries. It examines the erulese of access and the expression of the Communist rituals of silence, especially the arcane world of the Central Committee at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. During the years of German separation, the large libraries were given the dual function of locking away large numbers of books while allowing controlled escientifice use, whereby the selection criteria and access rules could differ from library to library. Finally, a glimpse is provided into the legendary epoison towere of the Deutsche Bucherei.