The East Asia Department (East and Central Asia) and the Oriental Department (Southeast Asia) of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin are in charge of the special collection East and Southeast Asia within the federal system of German libraries supervised and partly financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council).

The collection of the East Asia Department of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - PK has a history dating back to the East Asia collection of the former Prussian State Library with acquisitions from China dating from the second half of the 17th century. Since 1951 it has been possible to build up one of the largest East Asian collections in Europe thanks to the generous support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Unfortunately, a large part of the original collection, more than 50.000 volumes and booklets, was moved during World War II, and was not returned. A substantial part is considered to be lost, but about 20.000 volumes and booklets may now be found in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Krakow, Poland.

The collection covers publications from all countries of East and Southeast Asia. This includes in Central and East Asia: People's Republic of China (including Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao), Republic of China (Taiwan), Mongolia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea and in Southeast Asia: Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, East-Timor, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.

The collection is considered to be especially strong in the humanities and social sciences. In the fields of technology, medicine, economic and agriculture science, for which the German National Libraries of Science and Technology, Economics and Medicine (Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover, Medizinische Zentralbibliothek Köln, Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften in Kiel) are responsible, and also for the natural sciences only bibliographies and publications referring to their local history are collected. However, for specific cultural and scientific developments (e.g. acupuncture) the relevant literature is collected also. Additionally, monographs in East Asian languages are acquired for the economics and agriculture sciences, as long as there is a relation to the social sciences.

Although the present day holdings consist mainly of modern material, it contains a large stock of rare books from China and Japan (manuscripts and woodblock printings). The Staatsbibliothek currently holds more than 650.000 volumes in East Asian languages (annual increase about 20.000 volumes) and a large number of relevant books about East Asia in western languages. About 4000 current periodicals are received on subscription.