A Curator’s Voice in the Age of Search and Access. MPIL100 Conversation with Joachim Schwietzke

Описание: “The library serves the institute," says Joachim Schwietzke and unfolds a century spanning portrait of MPIL’s collection: from Berlin’s Royal Palace and a card catalog “central room,” through wartime loss and postwar rescues, to Heidelberg’s systematically arranged stacks stretching 43 kilometers. He argues that serious international and public law research rests on curated foundations: treaties, statute and case reporters, parliamentary records, and the publications of the UN, EU, and League of Nations—framed by a General Section that puts law in dialogue with history, philosophy, sociology, and military and colonial studies.
Against keyword search, Schwietzke defends expert selection, multilingual breadth, and on site browsing—methods that keep scholarship anchored in sources and context, and keep the institute’s mission at the heart of the library.

About MPIL100
This interview is part of MPIL100 (mpil100.de), the centenary project exploring the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law’s 100-year history. MPIL100, led by Philipp Glahé and Alexandra Kemmerer, puts a spotlight not only on the institute’s milestones and global influence, but also critically examines its complex past. Through blog posts and video interviews with former members, the project preserves and reflects upon both personal stories and institutional narratives, offering nuanced insights into how MPIL has changed, learned, and shaped international law across generations. The project is generously funded by the Max-Planck-Förderstiftung.

About Joachim Schwietzke
Joachim Schwietzke, a lawyer turned librarian, helped shape one of the world’s preeminent specialist law libraries at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. Joining the institute in 1975 and later serving as Library Director, he steered its transformation from card catalogs to digital systems while expanding a systematically arranged, closed stacks collection spanning international law, comparative public law, legal philosophy, and a striking General Section that embeds law in history, sociology, and military and colonial studies. A longtime leader in the International Association of Law Libraries, he also co authored widely used bibliographical compendia on diplomatic conferences and multilateral treaty practice (1641–1924), reference works that bridge archival rigor and scholarly utility.

Related Resources
• MPIL100 Blog Project: https://mpil100.de; https://mpil100.de/2025/08/a-curators...
• Joachim Schwietzke, Erinnerungen an die Bibliothek in den Jahren 1989 bis 2002: https://mpil100.de/2025/02/erinnerung...
• Joachim Schwietzke, Bibliothekar der ersten Stunde: Curt Blass: https://mpil100.de/2024/03/bibliothek...
• Moritz Vinken, Auf der Suche nach einer lustvollen Bibliothek – Vom Aufleuchten und Verglimmen des Raumkonzepts der Institutsbibliothek: https://mpil100.de/2024/09/auf-der-su...

Credits
Interviewer: Philipp Glahé
Editorial Lead: Philipp Glahé and Alexandra Kemmerer
Video production: Sjors Swierstra and Aldine Reinink

Chapters
0:00 The Catalog Room: Heart of the Pre Digital Library
5:27 Scope and Standing: A Leading Specialist Law Library
9:21 Discovery and Application to the Institute
12:31 Role and Strategy: Curating to Serve Research
16:02 Collection Philosophy: Sources, Treaties, IO Publications
21:13 Serials vs. Monographs: Building the Backbone
24:28 Origins and Vision: Bruns, Blass, and the Three Pillars
28:27 The General Section: Context Beyond Black Letter Law
31:02 War, Colonial Studies, and Foundations for Interpretation
34:07 Pre Digital Curation vs. Google; Berlin–Heidelberg Split
41:18 War Losses: Evacuation, Destruction, Material Traces
45:26 Recovery and Preservation: Anne Lore Schulz’s Efforts
48:23 Postwar Rebuilding: Berlin Branch and 1954 “Tower” Stacks
52:01 Closed Stacks Model: Access and (Lack of) Reading Room
56:03 Space Pressures: Off Site Storage and Logistics
1:00:03 1996 Building: Consolidation and Growth Capacity
1:01:37 Guests and Digitization: Changing Usage Patterns
1:03:12 Closing: Three Subject Areas and Ongoing Aims