The ILAB Congress Returns to Germany: A Preview of Berlin Rare Book Week 2026

ILAB Congresses have a long and distinguished tradition. Their origins go back almost eighty years, beginning with a preliminary conference in Amsterdam in 1947, followed by the very first official ILAB Congress in Copenhagen in 1948, shortly after the League itself was founded. Since then, Congresses have brought together booksellers, librarians, collectors, scholars and friends of the rare book trade from around the world, creating opportunities for professional exchange, friendship and international cooperation.

Germany has played an important role in this history. The Verband Deutscher Antiquare (VDA) hosted the ILAB Congress in Munich in 1957, followed by the International Antiquarian Book Fair and Congress in Düsseldorf in 1977, and welcomed colleagues once again to the 31st ILAB Congress in Cologne in 1992, an event that many long-standing ILAB booksellers still remember with great affection.

More than three decades later, the VDA is proud to welcome the international antiquarian book trade back to Germany.

From 14 to 17 September 2026, Berlin will host the 46th ILAB Congress, the first ILAB Congress to take place in Germany since Cologne in 1992 and, remarkably, the first ever to be held in Berlin itself. The Congress is now fully booked, showing a continuing enthusiasm for one of the most important gatherings in the international antiquarian book trade.

But the Congress is only part of a much larger celebration of rare books in Berlin.

Together, the Verband Deutscher Antiquare and ILAB have also organised a two-day international symposium in close collaboration with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, followed by Rare Books Berlin, a major international rare book fair taking place from 18 to 20 September in the magnificent Kronprinzenpalais on Unter den Linden. The fair venue is located within walking distance of many of the libraries, museums and cultural institutions that form part of the wider Berlin Rare Book Week.

For the first time in ILAB's nearly eighty-year history, the Congress will take place in Berlin, a city whose history, architecture and cultural institutions provide an exceptional backdrop for exploring the world of books. Few cities have reinvented themselves as often as Berlin: once the seat of Prussian kings, later the stage of the Weimar Republic's artistic flourishing, then divided by dictatorship and the Cold War, and today a vibrant centre of creativity, scholarship, art and literature. These different layers of history remain visible throughout the city and are preserved in its extraordinary libraries, museums, archives and collections.

For all information about the full Rare Book Week, visit the website: WWW.RAREBOOKWEEK.BERLIN