Collection holdings of the Franz Nabl Institute

Literary bequests and remains are not only interesting for Germanists. The comparison of different versions of texts, accumulated research materials or the correspondence of writers facilitate and/or expand the understanding of literary texts and provide an insight into the workshop of poets. Drafts and preliminary stages of the finished book with all their aberrations, expansions and ramifications as well as the insight into private or professional correspondence (now also emails) paint a colorful picture of the author and the creation of the text. The fascination of the original can also be observed when inspecting individual manuscripts. In most cases, it is the first versions of well-known works (often still handwritten, with drawings or annotations) that are acquired by literary archives - collections that go beyond simple textualization and can be seen as a visual representation of the author's state of mind when writing.

In addition to Franz Nabl's literary remains, which were already available when it was founded, important bequests of Styrian authors have come to the department over the last thirty years (through donations or purchases by the Styrian provincial government or the Literaturhaus Graz), including collection holdings of Barbara Frischmuth, Gerhard Roth, Werner Schwab, Reinhard P. Gruber, Klaus Hoffer, Alfred Kolleritsch, Günter Eichberger, Doris Mühringer, Wilhelm Muster, Hannelore Valencak, Franz Weinzettl, Helmut Schranz, Wilhelm Hengstler and the publishing archive of the literary magazine manuskripte.

The Franz Nabl Institute for Literary Research has an extensive library of currently around 23,000 volumes with the main focus on Styrian and Austrian literature. At the same time there is an extensive collection of newspaper clippings on more than 1,100 Styrian, Austrian and international authors. There is also a collection on important authors of the "Grazer Gruppe" from a research project (1992-2002), which documents the international reception of the "Grazer Gruppe" up to 1996 and partly beyond.