Too Conservative? Marginalizing the “Library of Conservatism” in Berlin
by Lorenz Jäger
This article was originally published in Die Welt on November 28, 2025, and is translated here with permission of the author.
Librarian Regine Stein’s motto is: “The future of libraries is open.” This can be interpreted optimistically: ever-expanding horizons are opening up for information and education. Or fatalistically: no one knows what lies around the next corner.
Just over a year ago, Regine Stein became director of the central office of the Common Library Network (GBV) of the German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia, and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The network, which includes around twenty libraries in Berlin, is funded in part by the German Research Foundation.
One of the participating institutions is now slated to be excluded on December 31, 2025: the Library of Conservatism (BdK), located in Fasanenstraße in Berlin, near the Literature House and numerous galleries. The reasons for the decision, which was made in the summer, have not yet been disclosed and were not communicated to the library; our inquiry to Regine Stein went unanswered.
The rationale for the action was unlikely to have been unpaid membership dues. The library’s core collection consists of the extensive holdings of the publicist Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing (1927–2009) and the philosopher Günter Rohrmoser (1927–2008). The total number of books is in the mid-five-figure range. Schrenck-Notzing was primarily interested in American conservatism, while Rohrmoser, in his later years, focused more on Russian conservatism. Both attempted, after 1968, to broaden the political options available to the CDU and CSU parties toward the right.
The library has a spacious reading room. In addition, a series of events aimed at fostering intellectual exchange takes place at the Fasanenstraße location. Speakers who have presented their work for discussion in recent years have included the communication scientist Norbert Bolz, the art philosopher Bazon Brock, and the journalists Patrick Bahners (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Jens Jessen (Die Zeit), Harald Martenstein (Welt and Die Zeit), and Gunnar Schupelius (B.Z.). (In the interest of transparency: I too once had the pleasure of presenting a book there.)
That is not exactly a lineup that could threaten the constitution! But that is precisely what is eliciting resentment. The argument is that the presence of non-extremists—like the invited guests—“normalizes” radicals. Library scientist Isabel Elsner goes even further, ignoring the evidence in the event calendar, by claiming that the “principle of neutrality for libraries” is “by no means taken into account at the Library of Conservatism events, since no protagonists from other political camps . . . have been invited so far.”
Back in 2018, Member of Bundestag Anne Helm (from the Left Party) submitted a list of questions to the Berlin Senate regarding the library to underscore its potential for danger: “What knowledge does the Senate have about investigations that have or had a connection to number 4 Fasanenstraße?” The officials may have smiled when they presented the answer: between 2013 and 2018, so they reported, there were three incidents of property damage and one theft from a car at the location; all crimes were solved
It is quite possible that the discussion within the library network is based on Isabel Elsner’s bachelor’s thesis (“The Library of Conservatism: A Conservative to Extreme Right-Wing ‘Salon’ as a Special Academic Library and Member of the German Library Association,” Cologne, 2022). That thesis complained that the collected books represented “the entire canon of the German extreme right, from right-wing conservative to neo-Nazi.”
A spot check, however, does not confirm this claim: For the search term “National Socialism,” the first title displayed is a publication by the American conservative Paul Gottfried, followed by a publication from Wallstein Verlag, Armin Mohler and the Intellectual Right in the Bonn Republic. The third book, Right-Wing Historical Revisionism in Germany: Forms, Fields, Ideology, is also from Wallstein. However, Wallstein is not a right-wing publisher, but rather a left-liberal one, widely praised for its publications on the history of National Socialism, the culture of remembrance, and the extreme right in Germany.
Isabel Elsner views the collection critically with regard to the complex of gender and family issues. The holdings pose “questions of library ethics: Should a book that equates abortion with rape have a place in a library collection?” A comparison is worthwhile here. Another member of the library network is the Berlin-based “Institute for Critical Inquiry,” which is dedicated to queer issues, in fact at a high theoretical level. It sees itself as a catalyst for “radical reflection” and as a link between research and activism. The institute’s latest book publication addresses the topic of Becoming Trans*: Queer Temporalities and Transitions in Video Blogs. No one (thankfully) would likely consider excluding this research institution from the library network simply because its collection on the traditional family model is limited.
In any case, it was in Ms. Elsner’s work that the membership of the Library of Conservatism (BdK) in a professional organization was first questioned. “As an association that sees itself, among other things, as a promoter of democracy,” she wrote at the time, “the German Library Association (DBV) should address the activities of the BdK in parallel with the development of its institutional ethics.” Experts should be consulted to initiate a “review of the BdK’s membership in the DBV.” There are likely few bachelor’s theses that have had such a resounding impact.
One encounters in it the term “democracy promotion,” which until recently was hardly known. For a long time, it was only a topic in development cooperation projects (Democracy Promotion in Tunisia is a typical book title of this era), but now it seems to primarily denote a domestic and internal political task; there are even professorships for democracy promotion. It is best to understand the term as referring to the activities of state-funded NGOs.
According to Regine Stein, the expulsion of the library from the Library Association will take effect on December 31, 2025. Since the Library of Conservatism is suing—its value and accessibility are threatened by the prospect of removal from the search system—even if it ultimately loses in court, the matter is likely to take longer.
However, a process that will predictably drag on agonizingly and embarrassingly can hardly be in the interest of the library network. If you’ve stepped into a mess by misjudging a situation, you don’t need to summon onlookers with a megaphone. Or do you? Perhaps some things should be clarified; perhaps one day there will be a landmark ruling that puts a stop to these excessive controls. “The future of libraries is open,” to quote the new head of the library network once more—the future of libraries remains open!
Lorenz Jäger is a German journalist and author who served as editor of the cultural section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His Adorno: A Political Biography is available in English. Translation of this article by Russell A. Berman, with comments here.