AI is hunting for books: German antiquarians are sounding the alarm. Bookstores in Germany that sell rare antique editions are facing an unexpected demand. Companies specializing in artificial intelligence are purchasing large batches of such books to use them for training language models and chatbots. According to German antiquarian booksellers, some orders are comparable to their annual income. There is a preference for popular science and academic books. AI developers are specifically looking for old books on regional history, linguistics, law, and economics that contain historical language variants and stylistic nuances that are not yet available on the internet. According to media reports, after AI processed most of the available digital texts, attention shifted to print editions. Millions of books are being scanned for digitization, and some copies are subsequently disassembled, effectively destroying them. German booksellers are concerned about the loss of cultural heritage and are calling attention to the situation. They believe that the mass buying and destruction of old books could affect valuable editions that are still protected by copyright.