Volksschullehrer-Wissen sammeln und verbreiten. Das Deutsche Schulmuseum bzw. die Deutsche Lehrerbücherei in Berlin 1876–1914

Abstract

The article examines the book collection of the German School Museum (since 1908 German Teachers’ Library) on the one hand according to its ‘content’ and on the other hand according to its social and cultural functionality for the elementary school teachers organized in the Berlin Teachers’ Association. How did the collections contribute to the socio- cultural self-assertion and professional identity of elementary school teachers in the German Empire? How and with what profile was the German Teachers’ Library able to establish itself as an actor in the field of pedagogical knowledge around 1900, i.e. in the years when the need for knowledge for the ‘Volksschule’ changed profoundly due to rapid social and economic-technological modernization?