ABSTRACT
A large number of library collections were examined and these form the basis of the bibliography. Of particular importance are the directory holdings of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, which probably held the most significant collection of directories in pre-war Germany. German town directories feature in the Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB, Periodicals Database) which was founded in 1973 as a co-operative enterprise for the documentation of periodicals. Special attention was paid in the compilation of this bibliography to the directories available in the newly accessible libraries of the former DDR. The main focus of each library’s collection is directories for towns in south-west Germany. Although based on directories published for the former province of Hannover, the collection of the Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek holds directories from adjacent territories, making it a good source of directories not just for Niedersachsen but northern Germany in general.
