German Language & Literature 

Online encyclopedia/monolingual dictionaries

Xipolis offers the full text for many well-known German reference works. Titles included are the Brockhaus Encyclopedia in 15 volumes and the Duden Großes Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, among many others.

Dictionaries

Oxford Language Dictionaries Online, including German-English/English-German. Let's you listen to the pronunciation, gives examples for contextual usage and phrases. Other languages: Chinese, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish with more to come.

Lexibase Online Collins Bilingual Dictionaries. Less functionality than Oxford Languages Dictionaries Online, but more languages available, including a French-German/German-French dictionary. Other languages: Chinese, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish.

LEO English/German Dictionary. Free and collaborative online dictionary, which everyone can edit. Like Wikipedia, the translations are not always reliable, but very useful for quick reference. Other languages: Chinese=German, French=German, Italian=German, Spanish=German.

Historical Dictionaries

Grimmsches Woerterbuch or Deutsches Woerterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, started by the Brothers Grimm, and published between 1852 and 1961 in 16 volumes, comparable to the Oxford English Dictionary for English.

Lexer or Mittelhochdeutsches Handwoerterbuch, the principal dictionary of Middle High German, named after it's first editor, Mathias Lexer and made available for free online. Print copies are available in the library, of course.

Search the Yale database list for German dictionaries

Search Orbis by LC Subject Heading, for example:

• German language --Dictionaries --English.
• Dictionaries --German-English.
• Literature --Dictionaries --Polyglot.

German-English Dictionary - a fast and simple dictionary.

Yourdictionary.com - an index of numerous language dictionaries.

Yourdictionary.com: Grammars - collection of resources for numerous languages.

Projekt Deutscher Wortschatz - a comprehensive dictionary of the German language, indicating frequency of use, grammatical notes, usage.

Fachwörterbuch Wirtschaft, Handel und Finanzen - offered by Süddeutsche Zeitung/Langenscheidt. English to German only.

Encyclopedias

Search the Yale database list for German encyclopedias

Search Orbis by LC Subject Heading, for example

• German literature --Encyclopedias.
• Germany --Intellectual life --20th century --Encyclopedias.
• Germany --Politics and government --1933-1945 --Encyclopedias.

Britannica Online (Yale only)

Wissen.de - A free reference tool that includes Wahrig dictionaries, grammars and translation devices as well as a searchable elementary encyclopedia.

Zedler Universallexicon - A major 18th-Century encyclopedia with a searchable index, made available by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Adelung Wörterbuch - Four volumes of an 1811 dictionary, available full-text.

Österreich-Lexikon - The free online version of a two-volume encyclopedia about all things Austrian, available in English and German.

Collections of reference materials

Bibliographischer Werkzeugkasten

German Studies Web Reference Shelf (WESSWeb)