The special collections at the ZZF

Simone Barck (1944–2007), literary scholar and historian specialising in Soviet exile, anti-fascism and the literary history of the GDR, worked at what later became the ZZF from 1992. The collection includes her academic estate and her reference library consisting of 2019 volumes.

Peter Bender (1923-2008) was a historian and journalist. His library mainly contains books on East-West German and Eastern European contemporary history and the Cold War.

In 2016, the historian and journalist Thomas Beutelschmidt donated 78 volumes to the ZZF on the topics of coming to terms with the past and employment bans in the old Federal Republic of Germany.

The journalist Klaus Bölling (1928-2014) was, among other things, government spokesman for the social-liberal coalition. In addition to popular biographies of politicians, the collection primarily contains literature on the press and the East-West conflict.

Clemens Burrichter (1932-2012) was Director of the s Instituts für Gesellschaft und Wissenschaft (Institute for Society and Science) from 1980. In 2012, the ZZF took over Burrichter's estate library, which has been catalogued and made available in 2019.

Christian Domnitz (1975-2015), historian, Eastern European researcher and journalist. His working library reflects his research interest in examining Europe from an Eastern European perspective.

Fritz Klein (1924-2011) historian in the GDR, at the same time campaigning for professional emancipation from political paternalism. After 1989, he was involved in reappraising the GDR with the critical eye of a historian.

Friedrich Knilli (1930-2022), media scientist. The collection contains around 2,400 audio and video recordings on the topics of broadcasting history, media theory and reception research.

The historian Jochen Laufer (1956-2016) belonged to the first generation of ZZF researchers. After his sudden death, the ZZF took over 265 volumes of his working library, which focussed on German-Russian relations.

In the 1970s, Thomas Nipperdey (1927-1992) was regarded as one of the leading modern historians and critics of the student protests. His 2120-volume estate library is on permanent loan to the ZZF from Potsdam University Library.

Kurt Schilde (*1947), historian and sociologist, primarily researches National Socialism and the culture of remembrance of National Socialism. In 2018, the ZZF took over 120 volumes from his working library.

Reiner Zilkenat (1958-2020), historian, focused his research on the history of the German labour movement, the Weimar Republic and the rise of the NSDAP.

The Biographical Archive of the Institute for International Politics and Economics contains more than 4,000 folders of newspaper clippings on around 30,000 people from politics, business, culture and science in the two German states from the period from 1946 to 1992.

Radio Free Europe broadcasts radio programmes in 28 Eastern European, Middle Eastern and Central Asian languages on shortwave. The source material (1969-1989) is divided into 35 series and contains background and situation reports as well as press reviews.