A global network

From the very beginning, the Cologne library was networked both regionally and internationally. It was, for example, very close to the Cologne Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation (founded in 1958), in which personalities such as Heinrich Böll, Paul Schallück, and Wilhelm Unger were also involved.

To this day, the Germania Judaica maintains close cooperation with international partner organisations. Shortly after its foundation, the first books arrived from the Wiener Library in London and the Leo Baeck Institutes in London and New York to expand the initially small collection of just 180 volumes. The library also maintains a professional exchange with the International Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem and the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem. The Germania Judaica is recognised not only by scholars, but also by politicians. For example, Federal President Gustav Heinemann paid the library a visit in 1971 and Klaus von Dohnanyi was a long-time member of the library’s Association of Friends and Benefactors.