The Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (History of the German Book Trade in the 19th and 20th Centuries) looks at the mediatory roll of the German book trade in the context of social developments. Volume 1, dealing with the empire, covers the longest period of time and is divided into three part volumes, of which two have already been published. They focus on the conditions and developments, the growth of publishing and publishing programs. The newly published third part contains chapters about the organization of the book trade, general bookshops, authors as well as libraries and foreign book trade. Volume 2 covers the book industry of the Weimar Republic. The newly published second part presents, among other subjects, publishers of fiction as well as ideological publishers, political and confessional publishers, the intermediate book trade and all forms of the spreading book trade, libraries and writer's organizations, book buyers and readers as well as the export book trade. The topic of volume 3 is the "Third Reich." Further volumes on the GDR and the German federal republic are planned.