German, Slavic, & East European Languages & Literatures

Zedlers Grosses Universallexikon Online
A freely available German language encyclopedia that appeared in 68 volumes between 1732 and 1754. One of the largest encyclopedias ever published, it includes a half million entries for names, and a quarter million bibliographic references within the articles.

Handbooks and Manuals

Allgemeine Bücherkunde zur neueren deutschen Literaturgeschichte / Robert Franz Arnold. 4. Aufl.
Berlin, De Gruyter, 1966.
ALEXANDER STACKS Z2231.A87 1910
CARR STACKS Z2231.A87 1966 or Z1035.3.A8 1966

Einführung in die Bücherkunde zur deutschen Literaturwissenschaft. Paul Raabe. 11., völlig neubearbeitete Aufl.
Stuttgart: Metzler, 1994. (Sammlung Metzler ; Bd. 1)
This is a short and concise introduction to German literary studies.
ALEXANDER STACKS Z2231.R333 1994

German literature : an annotated reference guide. Uwe K. Faulhaber, Penrith B. Goff.
New York: Garland Pub., 1979.
Information sources on German literature and related subjects, especially works in English.
ALEXANDER REF Z2231.F38
ROBESON REF PT85.F3

Biography

Allgemeine deutsche Biographie / Leipzig : Duncker & Humblot, 1875-1912.
ALEXANDER REF CT1053.A5 v.1-56
Neue deutsche Biographie / Berlin : Duncker & Humblot, 1953-2016.
ALEXANDER REF DD85.N4 v.1-26
DOUGLASS STACKS CT1054.A6 (together freely available online)

World biographical index [Rutgers Restricted]
München : K.G. Saur, c1998.

Included in the database are references to the entries in this collection of German biographical dictionaries:

Deutsches biographisches Archiv: eine Kumulation aus 254 der wichtigsten biographischen Nachschlagewerke für den deutschen Bereich bis zum Ausgang des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts / herausgegeben von Bernhard Fabian, bearbeitet unter der Leitung von Willi Gorzny.
München ; New York : K.G. Saur, [1982-1987] 1447 microfiches
ALEXANDER M-FICHE 623

Dictionary of German biography (DGB) / editors in chief, Walther Killy and Rudolf Vierhaus ; [in cooperation with Dietrich von Engelhardt ... et al. ; translators into English, Christiane Banerji ... et al.].
München : K.G. Saur, 2001-2006
ALEXANDER REF CT759.D4813 2001 v1-10

Dictionaries of German Literary Authors and History

Deutsches Literatur-Lexkon.  Biographisch-Bibliographisches Handbuch. Begründet von Wilhelm Kosch. Ed. Bruno Berger and Heinz Rupp. 3rd, rev. ed.  Bern; München: Francke, 1966-2000. Vol. 1-20, Suppl. 1-6. Vol. 15- , Suppl. 1- , published by K.G. Saur
Familiarly called "Kosch", it is the most comprehensive and complete resource for information on authors published up to that time.
ALEXANDER REF Z2231.K663 1968
DANA REF Z2230.K6 1968
Several e-volumes for the twentieth century are available via QuickSearch: v.23: Jannack-Jonigk, v.25: Kafka-Karnein, v.26: Karner-Kelter, v.27: Kelterborn-Kippenberger, v.28: Kipper-Klieneberger-Nobel, v.30: Jurij-Kokontis, v.34: Wirdig-Wolenber, v.36: , Worch-Zasius, v.37: Zass-Zobel

Eymers Pseudonymen Lexikon : Realnamen und Pseudonyme in der deutschen Literatur / Wilfrid Eymer.
Bonn : Kirschbaum, 1997. xv, 672 p.
Provides dates, region of origin, genre, and alternate names under each author's actual name, and cross-references from an index of pseudonymns.
ALEXANDER REF PT155.E95 1997

Literaturlexikon: Autoren und Werke deutscher Sprache. Walther Killy.
Gütersloh; München: Bertelsmann, 1988-1993. 15 vols.
Edited by a team of distinguished scholars, it includes very readable articles about authors as well as good bibliographies.
ALEXANDER REF PT41.L5 1988 v.1-15

The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Henry and Mary Garland. 3rd ed.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1997.
Covering the area up to the mid 1990s, it aims to "produce a companion to the historical and cultural background to German literature as well as to the writers and works themselves" (Preface to 1st ed.) Authors, titles, themes and characters can be looked up.
ALEXANDER REF PT41.G3 1997

Encyclopedia of German literature. Matthias Konzett, Editor.
Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.
ALEXANDER REF PT41.F46 2000

Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft. Hrsg. von Klaus Weimar Neubearb. des Reallexikons der deutschen Literaturgeschichte / hrsg. von Klaus Weimar.
Berlin [u.a.]: de Gruyter, 1997-.
The former title (to the 2nd ed.): Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturgeschichte.
It includes articles on genres, periods, schools, movements and styles of German literature, but no entries on individual writers. It gives extensive bibliographies of primary and secondary material.
Alex Ref PT41.R43 BD. 1-3

The Cambridge history of German literature. Ed. by Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly.
Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
This is a narrative history from 750 to 1990 in several chapters, including East Germany, containing a selective bibliography of secondary sources. All titles and quotations are translated.
ALEXANDER REF PT91.C36 1997

Bilingual Dictionaries

LEO Link Everything Online
LEO's dictionary is an example of what is possible on the Internet and the WWW: the quantity and the quality of the vocabulary are the result of countless contributions, corrections and proposals provided by the Internet community.