Description

Berlin: Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, 1949–1958. Four matching binders with the title and date printed on the cover each containing roughly 500 leaves of A4 sized mimeographed text (with organizational tabs and two hole punched), for roughly 2,000 total leaves. We did not collate the binders, yet the collection appears complete and runs from 1.1949—32/33.1958, which matches the holdings of the German National Library. In German. Very good plus.

This was a massive undertaking by the German Institute for Economic Research reaching roughly 2,000 pages. They summarized and detailed every single law and regulation of the Soviet Union that affected the Soviet Occupation Zone (i.e. the part of Germany that was to become the GDR). Quite rare. Per the introduction, it was “made available to a narrow circle of people” (translated). The pages are mimeographed, which also leads one to conclude that the circulation was limited. OCLC locates only one complete copy in the United States: Michigan. The only second copy in North America is at Yale, and they only hold the 1949/52 binder (care to complete your collection?). At the time of cataloguing, no other copies on the market and no auction records in Rarebookhub.

The German Institute for Economic Research (known as DIW Berlin today) is the largest economic research institute in Germany. It describes itself as a non-profit academic institution and is financed wholly by the State of Berlin and the German Federal Government.

Invaluable for those conducting research into the Soviet Union’s molding of the Soviet Occupation Zone into the GDR. They say that history does not repeat itself but that it rhymes. Russia and parts of Ukraine?

Price: $2,950

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