Manuscripts

The manuscripts acquire, collect and make accessible unique pieces of writing related to German-language literature and intellectual history from the eighteenth century to the present.

The collection of manuscripts contains the estates of more than 1,600 individuals. Swabian poets such as Wilhelm Hauff, Eduard Mörike, Friedrich Schiller and Ludwig Uhland mark the historical beginning of the collection. The turn of the century around 1900 is represented by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Rainer Maria Rilke and Arthur Schnitzler, among others. The holdings in Expressionism and literature of the 1920s through the 1940s include Gottfried Benn, Alfred Döblin, Hermann Hesse, Ricarda Huch, Ernst Jünger, Erich Kästner, Franz Kafka, Siegfried Kracauer, Elisabeth Langgässer and Carl Zuckmayer. Among the authors of post-war and contemporary literature are Paul Celan, Günter Eich, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Peter Handke, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Sarah Kirsch, Peter Rühmkorf,  W. G. Sebald and Martin Walser.

Holdings of exile literature are collected in the Helen and Kurt Wolff Archive.

Alongside the archives of individuals and publicists, there are the following significant collections:

• Philosophical holdings, philological holdings and holdings of related scholars
• Editorial and publishing archives, including the Cotta Archive and the Siegfried Unseld Archive

All holdings of the Manuscripts Department in the DLA catalogue.