With its unique collections, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (State Library at Berlin) is a research library of international ranking, which offers excellent working conditions to scholars especially in the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences, in Law and in the History of Science.
The holdings of printed items alone comprise more than ten million volumes of historical and modern literature, with an additional substantial offer of electronic resources. Furthermore, the researchers’ interest is particularly attracted to the library’s important special collections such as rare prints, outstanding occidental and oriental manuscripts, autographs and literary estates, music autographs, maps, historical and current newspapers. The Library also possesses a substantial collection of international children’s and young people’s literature as well as regionally defined collections on Eastern Europe, the Orient, and East Asia.
The Grant Program of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz is primarily intended to enable scholars living abroad to come to Berlin in order to make use of the rich collections of the Library and the other institutions of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for their research work, and to make professional contacts in Germany.