Reinhard Döhl

The estate library of Reinhard Döhl (1934–2004), a Stuttgart-based Germanist, author, and artist, was transferred to the ZKM in several installments between 2005 and 2020 and comprises a large selection of titles from his professional and personal libraries. In addition to the book collection, an extensive ephemera collection was also donated. Both collections are housed in the Knowledge – Collections & Archives department, where they are stored, cataloged, and made available. The book collection can be accessed via the library’s online catalog under Literature Lists – Special Collections:

As a university professor of German studies, Döhl has been exploring the relationship between literature and (digital) media since the 1960s. This is evident in his intensive engagement with radio plays as well as experimental online literature and net art. His professional and personal library reflects both his imaginative and innovative creative work and his scholarly interests. It contains Döhl’s primary sources as well as the secondary literature he has examined in his research.
His own works in the literary and artistic realm range from radio plays, plays, short prose, and poetry—here primarily concrete and visual poetry—to experimental and computer literature, collages, Japanese calligraphy, and the mail art he developed.
His theoretical publications include essayistic works in which he critically and analytically engages with literature and the visual arts, as well as texts on the history of radio plays and media, including numerous radio essays. With the radio series »An Attempt at a History and Typology of the Radio Play in Lessons« (WDR 1970–1986), he established the historiography of the radio play as a literary genre, and with his book »History and Typology of the Radio Play«, including the sections »The New Radio Play« and »The Radio Play during the Nazi Era«, he created a standard work on the history of the radio play.
 

The secondary literature section includes radio play scripts and annual directories of broadcast radio plays, published series of radio play scripts, bibliographies, research reports, dissertations, master’s theses, yearbooks and commemorative volumes, journals, as well as inscribed copies by, among others, Max Bense, Hans Dahlem, Pierre Garnier, Ludwig Harig, Ernst Jandl, Helmut Heißenbüttel, Werner Laubsch, Hansjörg Mayer, Friederike Mayröcker, Peter Roos, and Dieter Roth.

Additional partial estates are located in the:

• Berlin Academy of Arts: Materials from all periods of his career, including manuscripts of literary, essayistic, and scholarly works, correspondence, extensive collections, working materials, and audio recordings.
• StB Wuppertal: Letter to Paul Pförtner, March 15, 1983.
• Munich State Archives: Letter from Hermann Kesten (carbon copy).

Works by Reinhard Döhl are included in the following public collections:

• Art Collection of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
• Graphic Arts Collection, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
• Sohm Archive, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
• Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund (Cremer Collection)
• Art Library, Berlin State Museums (Jasia Reichardt Collection)
• ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe