The library of the Institute of Social Movements (ISB)

(Formerly: Institute for the Study of Europ. Labour)

The Library of the Institute for Social Movements goes back to the purchase of duplicates of the International Institute for Social History Amsterdam in 1972. First known as a "Research center materials on the history of the labor movement", the library was the starting point for the study of social movements in Europe.

The traditional core of the library build the extensive collection on the history of European workers and trade union movements since the 19th century. In addition to the scientific literature, which is purchased in sequence even many rare contemporary journals and pamphlets on the history of socialism and anarchism are among these. Furthermore the library establishes systematic collections of general social history, the history of social movements and social policy in Europe since the industrialization for a number of years. It also has significant collections of images and source for general and political history of Germany in the 19th and 20th Century. Moreover social sciences journals in the areas of modern and contemporary history in Germany and Europe, social movements and social science were kept by the library. The collections of the library are no longer only relevant for the history of the worker movement, but for most topics in the social and political history of Germany and Europe from 1800 to the present day.