Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon Online

This Online Reference Work makes the most well-known, comprehensive, and reliable texts on German literature available for the first time online: The Encyclopedia of German Literature and its supplemental series, The Encyclopedia of German Literature: The 20th Century and the Encyclopedia of German Literature: The Middle Ages. Spanning an extended time scale from the early Middle Ages to the recent present, this Online Reference Work is unique for its comprehensive scope, featuring articles on German-language authors from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and other European countries. In addition to profiling the lives and works of literary figures, this Online Reference Work also contains extensive information on research publications. The volumes on the Middle Ages cover German-language literature from the 8^th to the 15^th centuries, and are systematically organized by genre and topic area.

The Online Reference Work, which contains some 70,000 articles, can be searched according to various criteria. With its focus on contemporary literature, this tool is an ideal complement to De Gruyter's Database of Authors, which is primarily focused on the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

Initially, the Online Reference Work contains 77 volumes. Two volumes will be added each year until the final volume of the series is published. Additionally, there will be approx. 5 supplementary volumes (one volume to be published and uploaded each year from 2018-2022).

• Offers comprehensive and reliable information concerning authors from German-speaking countries, from the Middle Ages to the present
• Search options include keywords, names, work titles, genres, biographical data, contributors and literature references
• Evidence from external sources such as the GND, VIAF and ADB/NDB by linking. Some entries reference also the Verfasser-Datenbank
• Integration into the portal "Literary Studies" for cross-source, comparative research
• The Online Reference's non-restrictive DRM allows for an unlimited number of simultaneous users at each campus/institution

Here you will find instructions for searching in the Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon Online and explanations of the individual search functions.

Search

You have the following options for searching.

Search form

The search form allows you to search using various search criteria. To do so, select the appropriate criterion in the search field and enter your search term(s) in the search field. The following search criteria are available:

1. Full Text: Searches in all entries for the entered terms. Finds all entries that contain all searched terms and therefore returns the most results. For a more specific search, the other search criteria are more suitable.
   
   The following operators can be used in the search field:
• *: Added to a string. Searches for entries including all terms that match the searched string with any addition.
• AND: Searches for entries including all the terms connected by this operator (default search function).
• OR: Searches for entries including at least one of the terms connected by this operator.
• NOT: Searches for entries including the first, but not the second of the terms connected by this operator.

These operators can be combined with each other.

2. Title: Finds all entries whose titles contain all searched terms. This search criterion can be used to search specifically for entries for particular terms. Search with truncation does not work at the moment.
3. Person: Finds all entries that contain the searched person. Suggests up to 15 matching persons in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries in which specific persons are mentioned.
4. Author: Finds all entries with authors of the searched name. Suggests up to 15 matching author names in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries by specific authors.
5. Keyword: Finds all entries to which the searched keyword is assigned. Suggests up to 15 matching keywords in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries that deal with a specific topic.
6. Publication: Select an underlying print publication from the drop-down menu. Finds all entries of this publication.
7. Type: Select a type from the drop-down menu: Person, Sachartikel, Werk. Finds all entries of this type.
8. Publication Year: Select Exact to search for a single year, or Range to search for a range of years. Finds all entries that have been published electronically in this year or range of years.
9. Place: Finds all entries which contain the searched place. Suggests up to 15 matching places in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries in which specific locations are mentioned.
10. Date: Select Exact to search for a single date (required: year; optional: month and day), or Range to search for a range of years (required: years; optional: month[s] and day[s]). Finds all entries that have this date or range of years.
11. Place of Birth: Finds all entries for persons born at the searched place. Suggests up to 15 matching birthplaces in alphabetical order as you type.
12. Place of Death:: Finds all entries for persons who died at the searched location. Suggests up to 15 matching places of death in alphabetical order as you type.
13. Date of Birth: Select Exact to search for a single date (required: year; optional: month and day), or Range to search for a range of years (required: years; optional: month[s] and day[s]). Finds all entries for persons born on the searched date or in the searched range of years.
14. Date of Death: Select Exact to search for a single date (required: year; optional: month and day), or Range to search for a range of years (required: years; optional: month[s] and day[s]). Finds all entries for persons who died on the searched date or in the searched range of years.
15. Bibliography: Finds all entries whose bibliography contains all searched terms. This search criterion can be used to search for specific sources or their titles, authors, etc.
16. Entry language: Select a language from the drop-down menu. Finds all entries which are written in this language. Only German language is available for DLLO.

Please note: The search is not case sensitive.

You have the option to apply several search criteria at the same time. To do this, click on "Add row" in the search form. This creates a second search field in which you can set another search criterion (or else the same one). You can create as many additional search fields as you like.
If you use more than one search field, the search will find all entries that match all search criteria ("Search for all of these terms"). Instead, you can also select "Search for any of these terms" above the search fields, which will cause the search to find all entries that match at least one of the searched criteria.
By clicking on "Add NOT" you create a search field to which you can assign a search criterion. Terms entered in this search field will be excluded from the search. You can add this search field as often as you like.
By combining the above functions, you are able to perform very specific searches.

Example

You want to search the Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon Online for all entries that mention the name "Anna" and that were published in the publication “Das Mittelalter“. However, you want to exclude entrys with the type “Person” from the search. For this you use the search form as follows:

1. Create a second search field via "Add row".
2. Select the search for "all of these terms" (default option).
3. In the first search field, select the search criterion Full Text and enter the search term "Anna".
4. In the second search field, select the search criterion Publication and select “Das Mittelalter” in the dropdown menu of the search field.
5. Create a third search field via "Add NOT". This is marked with a "NOT".
6. Select the search criterion Type in this search field and select “Person” in the dropdown menu of the search field.
7. After clicking on "Search" you will see 10 out of 133 hits in the results list.

Results list

The results that match your search are listed on one or more pages. The number of search results as well as the search criteria can be found above the results list.

Each search result consists of the title of the entry, author(s) if existent, access information, entry type, online publication date (print publication date in brackets, if applicable), the cover of the database as well as a button to download the PDF ("Download PDF"), if available, and a text preview showing relevant text passages and highlighting the searched term in yellow (only for Full Text search criterion).

You can access a search result by clicking on the title or cover of the database. If you do not have access to the database, please log in first.

The search results are sorted by relevancy (frequency and weighting of the searched terms). You can also sort by date ("New to old" or "Old to new") or by title ("A to Z" or "Z to A").
Furthermore, instead of the default 10 results per page, you can also display 20, 50 or 100 results per page.

The search results can be further restricted under "Filter Results". Various filter options are available for this:

1. Access: This option filters the search results according to who can access them. By default, "All content" is found. It is possible to filter by "Licensed content", "Open Access", "Publicly available" as well as "All available content".
2. Person
3. Publication
4. Type
5. Publication year
6. Place
7. Place of birth
8. Place of death
9. Entry language

All filters can be combined with each other. Filtering by certain filter options excludes further certain filter options if there are no entries which match both options.