Guide: German Parliamentary Papers (GIMSS)

Guide to Using the German Parliamentary Papers in the Herman B Wells Library

 

The German parliamentary papers are the official records of the sessions of the German national parliament currently known as the Deutscher Bundestag.  The papers comprise debates, proceedings, and documents related to the activities of the parliament.

 

This English language guide summarizes the holdings of many of the important collections of the German parliamentary papers in the Bloomington collections of the Indiana University Libraries. 

 

What you need to know before getting started:

 

For access to contemporary documents see the German Bundestag website:

http://www.bundestag.de/ 

This site is the primary source at IU Bloomington for documents from the German national parliament issued from 2002 until the present.

It includes an index page in English: http://www.bundestag.de//htdocs_e/index.html. 

 

Legislation may be located on that site by either following the link on the left of the page or by entering the following url: http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/legislat/01legisinf.html.

 

For historical collections IUCAT provides the most detailed and accurate information on locations and extent of holdings for particular titles.

 

This guide can speed the reader’s search in IUCAT by summarizing holdings  and locations of major titles for particular historical periods. Some not yet cataloged titles are included in the guide. Check with the Government Information, Microforms and Kent Cooper Periodicals staff ( libgpd@indiana.edu ) for further information.

 

A brief list of sources of additional information is included as an appendix to this guide.

 

Important collections in the IU Libraries (holdings and location summary by period):

 

 

1815-1866 German Confederation

 

 

Date	Document Type	Title	Call Number	Format	Location
1815-1866	Debates	Protokolle der Deutschen Bundesversammlung	Cataloging requested	Microfiche (3x5)	GIMSS 3x5 Microfiche cabinet
Note: Microfiche shelve in GIMSS.

1867-1933 represents three periods:

1867-1870 The German Wars of Unification

1871-1918 Imperial Germany (Second Reich)

1918-1933 The Weimar Republic

 

 

Date	Document Type	Title	Call Number	Format	Location
1867-1933	Debates	Verhandlungen des Reichstags, Stenographischen Bericht	Cataloging requested	Microfiche (3x5)	GIMSS 3x5 Microfiche cabinet
Note: Microfiche shelve in GIMSS.

The Verhandlungen des Reichstags, Stenographischen Bericht  (1919-1939),

 a key source for both this period and the following, is available on the web at:

http://mdz1.bib-bvb.de/cocoon/reichsblatt/Band_bsb00000141.html

 

 

1933-1945   Nazi Germany (Third Reich)

 

The institutions of this period include the Reichstag, above, and the Reichsrat (disbanded February 14, 1934). For further governmental papers in the IU Libraries relevant to this period search IUCAT for the subject:  Germany—Politics and government—1933-1945—Sources.

 

 

1945-1949 Postwar occupation and division

 

For titles on this period, use IUCAT to search the subject:

Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955). Parlamentarischer Rat (1948-1949)

 

 

Date	Document Type	Title	Call Number	Format	Location
1948-1949	Debates & Proceedings	Parlamentarischer Rat. Verhandlungen des Hauptausschusses.	JN 3971.A3 1948-1949	Paper	Research Collections
Note: The Parliamentary Council's records were published in Parlamentarischer Rat. Stenographische Berichte. 1948-1949. IUB does not own this publication.

 

Indexes

 

Date	Document Type	Title	Call Number	Format	Location
1948-1949	Index	Sach- und Sprechregister zu den Verhandlungen des Parlamentarischen Rates und seines Hauptausschusses 1948	JN 3971.A3 1948	Paper	Research Collections
Note: The subject and speaker index covers records of both the Parliamentary Council and its Central Committee.

 

 

1949-1990 the German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

 

 

Date	Document Type	Title	Call Number	Format	Location
1949-50, 1963/64	Debates and Documents	Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik: Sitzung Protokolle, Drucksachensammlung, Sonderdruck, Verzeichnis	Cataloging Requested	Paper	In process
1955, 1967-1972	Debates and Documents	Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik	JN 3971.5A7 A35	Paper	Research Collections
Note: Volumes are arranged chronologically with debates first. Debates contain references to corresponding documents which are arranged numerically in the second section. Three indexes are located at the end of each volume. A subject index indexes debates and documents. Keyword and speaker indexes index only the debates.

 

 

1949-present represents two periods: 1949-1990 the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), and 1990- present, Germany

 

Date	Document Type	Title	Call Number	Format	Location
1949-1989	Debates	Verhandlungen des Deutschen Bundestages, Stenographischen Bericht.	J 351.K2 G3	Paper	Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF).
1949-1967	Documents	Anlagen zu den Stenographischen Berichten	Cataloging requested	Microfilm	In process
1965-2005	Debates and Documents	Verhandlungen des Deutschen Bundestages und des Bundesrates: Protokolle, Drucksachen, Register	J 351.J25	Microfiche (4x6)	GIMSS 4x6 Microfiche cabinet.
1976-present	Debates and Documents		Uncatalogued	Internet (ASCII & PDF)	http://dip.bundestag.de
Note: The Web version is searchable by keyword, speaker, session and document number, date, organization, and type of proceeding.

 

Indexes

 

Date	Document Type	Title	Call Number	Format	Location
1949/57-2002	Index to paper edition.	Register zu den Verhandlungen des Deutschen Bundestages und zu den Anlagen	JN 3972.A7 R44	Paper	GIMSS Reference LC
Note: Indexes for parliamentary session 9 (1980-1983) are missing.

 

 

For the most current parliamentary documents from the German National Parliament, access the website at http://www.bundestag.de/ .  You may select an English menu. If you select databases from the left hand column you can search the PARSFORS document server for the full text of specific documents.

 

Supplementary Material

 

Introductory Sources:

 

• German Governmental Websites

 

Website for the German government http://www.bundesregierung.de/en

 

Germany (information) http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/index.html

 

Governments on the web: Germany http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/de.html

 

Bundestag (Federal Diet) http://www.bundestag.de/

 

Bundersat (Federal Council) http://www3.bundesrat.de/Site/Inhalt/DE/

 

 

• Types and formats of the German Parliamentary Papers:

 

Proceedings (Protokolle der Deutschen Bundesversammlung)

 

The Protokolle is the proceedings and deliberations of the Bundesversammlung or Diet of the Bund (German Confederation).  The Bund was a loosely constructed alliance of 38 member states and the Bundesversammlung had no real powers of enforcement over the member states.

 

Proceedings (Verhandlungen des Reichstags, Stenographischen Bericht)

 

The Verhandlungen are the proceedings of the Parliament (Reichstag) under the three German governments that succeeded the Bund (German Confederation), which ended with Bismarck’s defeat of Austria in 1866.  The papers span the period 1866-1933 and include the North German Federation, Imperial Germany, and the Weimar Republic.  They end with Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party’s accession to power in 1933.

 

 

• For further study:

 

DeTemple, Siegfried. “Federal Republic of Germany.” Official Publications of Western Europe. Volume 2. Ed. Eve Johansson.  London: Mansell, 1988: 55-106.

 

 

Hofheinz, Sylvia.  Glossar, parlamentarisch-politische Terminologie: Deutsch-Englisch.  Bonn: Deutscher Bundestag, Verwaltung Sprachendienst, 1992.

 

 

Holborn, Louise W.  German constitutional documents since 1871: selected texts and commentary.  New York:  Praeger  [1970].

 

 

Koch, H. W. A constitutional history of Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.   London; New York: Longman, 1984.

 

 

HHC (2002), DB (2005), and AS 12/13//05