Archive

When Erich Fromm died in 1980, he left his library and papers to the executor of his literary estate, Rainer Funk of Tübingen. Dr. Funk has made Fromm’s published papers and the contents of the library from Locarno, Fromm’s last place of residence, available to scholars in an Erich Fromm Archive. The archive has also been made available to the members of the International Erich Fromm Society with the aim of furthering the reception of Frommian work and thought.

Location and Contact

Still the Erich Fromm Archive is located on the ground floor of Rainer Funk’s house in Tübingen, Ursrainer Ring 24. There are plans to bring in the Erich Fromm Archive into an Erich Fromm Institute endowed by the Karl Schlecht Foundation and located downtown Tuebingen.

Please address your correspondence to:

Collections

Most of the collections listed below can be searched for in the search routine of this website:

• Fromm’s Reference Library contains approximately 3,000 volumes.
• The Collection of Reprints, brochures, Xerox copies, and manuscripts by other authors complements the collection and consists of about 1,200 volumes. – Both collections include some 19,000 items.
• A Collection of Excerpts and Quotes with about 850 entries, mostly handwritten and on index cards; all excerpts can be downloaded.
• Some 4,000 volumes and xerox copies of secondary literature (many can be downloaded).
• More or less all volumes of Fromm’s Work (in translations, etc.) are represented in the Fromm Archive.
• The collection of Audiotapes and Videotapes with lectures by and interviews with Fromm and a Collection of Audiotapes with lectures about Fromm.
• Finally, there is also a collection of Photos and Documents that belong to the Literary Estate of Fromm.
• The collection of Fromm’s correspondence from the fifties on is part of the Fromm Estate but still officially restricted.

The works collected in Tübingen do not represent Fromm’s complete literary estate.

1. In the fifties Fromm donated part of his estate to the New York Public Library: scientific papers, correspon-dences and personal papers from the thirties and forties. The archivists of the NYPL created an inventarium of this material and produced microfilms of all papers. A copy of these microfilms was given to Rainer Funk as Fromm’s sole Literary Executor since he is the proprietor of the copyright of the Frommian papers located at NYPL. At the Fromm Archive in Tübingen parts of the microfilms are also available as PDFs.

2. When Fromm in 1974 decided not to return to Mexico he gave part of his library to the Psychoanalytical Institute in Mexico City he had founded in 1963. For questions about the Mexican part of the Fromm library please contact the Library of the Instituto Mexicano de Psicoanálisis, C. de Odontologia 9, Col. Copilco Universidad, Deleg. Coyoacán, 04360-México D.F.