Hamburg public library

Hamburg public library
	;
founding	October 1, 1899
Duration	1,734,862
Library type	Public library
place	Hamburg
ISIL	DE-H10 (Hamburg Public Library, Central Library) ; DE-H107 (Hamburg Public Library, Central Library, Music Department)
operator	Hamburg Public Library Foundation (HÖB)
management	Frauke Untiedt
Website	http://www.buecherhallen.de/

Central library in the former railway post office at Hühnerposten (2014)

The Hamburg Public Bookhalls (HÖB) are a foundation under private law that operates public libraries in the city-state of Hamburg .

statistics

In 2016, 1,780,906 media were provided in 36 book halls and 65 part-time managed distribution points, making the book halls one of the larger libraries in Hamburg . Between 2014 and 2016, 4.80 to 4.83 million visitors were counted.

The total expenditure in 2016 was 33.6 million euros (thereof 20.6 million euros for personnel and 11.9 million euros for material costs including 3.6 million euros for media funds).

history

Kohlhöfen 26, 1910–1914 former main building of the central library and first new building from 1910

People's reading hall on Mönckebergstrasse, built in 1914 by Fritz Schumacher and the location of the central library until 1971, since then used for catering purposes.

1899–1914: Kohlhöfen

Eduard Hallier is considered the actual initiator of a public library in Hamburg . Together with the shipowner Hermann Blohm and the founder of Schülke & Mayr Rudolf Schülke, he was able to persuade the board of the Patriotic Society to set up a public library in Hamburg. It was founded on October 1, 1899 with 6,000 volumes in Neustadt an den Kohlhöfen under the direction of Gottlieb Fritz. After 1902 the first district bookhouses were built. On January 17, 1910, the new building of the central library designed by Hugo Groothoff opened at the Kohlhöfen. The first open access lending facility was set up there for teaching literature .

1914–1971: Mönckebergstrasse

1914 originated in the Mönckebergbrunnen Mönckebergstraße the library in the of Fritz Schumacher under the name of People's Lesehalle excited construction. The separation from the Patriotic Society as an independent foundation took place in 1919.

As early as March 1933 - after a new Hamburg Senate was elected under National Socialist leadership on March 8th - books that had to be "put back" were sorted out by the library director Wilhelm Schuster , who had been in office since 1931 , even before the " black lists " existed. On May 15, 1933, there was the first book burning on Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer by the SA student storm 6/76. In 1934 Schuster moved to Berlin and Albert Krebs - previously NSDAP Gauleiter in Hamburg from 1926 to 1928 - held the post until 1938. In 1937, the eight murals from 1919 by Maximilian Jahns in the Kohlhöfen library were painted over on the instructions of the National Socialists. At the end of October 1938, signs for Jews were unwantedly placed in libraries. From 1938 to the end of 1966 Rudolf Joerden was director of the Hamburg public library.

During the bombing of Operation Gomorrah in July 1943, the city library lost around 700,000 volumes, including the vast majority of its hamburgs . In 1945, after the Second World War, the book inventory was reduced to 160,000 titles as a result of bomb damage, the destruction of six libraries and the disposal of books from National Socialist content.

In 1955 there were 23 district libraries and the music library. By 1988, the number increased to a central library, the music library, 56 district libraries, 82 libraries or book distribution centers managed part-time or on a voluntary basis (19 of them in penal institutions), as well as three car libraries that served the suburbs.

1971–2004: Gertrudenkirchhof and Große Bleichen

In 1971 the central library moved to its new domicile in the Landesbank-Galerie at Gertrudenkirchhof . In 1986 the company moved to the Kaisergalerie , built by Emil Grossner in 1907–1909 , at 36 Große Bleichen (today's Kaisergalerie shopping mall); there the central library shared the building with the neighboring Ohnsorg theater .

One of the two book buses in the Hamburg library

In January 1990, Friedrich Andrae, director of the library since 1967, was replaced by the Hamburg FDP cultural politician and former Senate representative for film Hanno Jochimsen. Jochimsen pushed structural reforms and the computerization of the entire system. In 1996 Birgit Dankert took over the management of the Hamburg library and resigned four months later due to disagreements between the Senate and the Foundation because of the drastic savings required with the aim of closing numerous library halls in the districts. Her successor was her then deputy Hella Schwemer-Martienßen in June 1996 , who retired in September 2019.

In 1988, the system comprised a central library, the music library, 56 district libraries, 82 libraries or book distribution points managed part-time or on a voluntary basis (19 of them in prisons) and three car libraries serving the outskirts. Since 1995, 23 mostly smaller locations have been closed. In 2006 there were still 39 bookhouses, of which 20 locations were relocated and equipped.

Considerable downsizing measures began at the Große Bleichen site as early as the late 1990s. Several floors were given to other tenants and the former entrance area with the rental equipment on the ground floor was merged with the entrance area of the Ohnsorg Theater; the devices were moved directly to the remaining floors.

Since 2004: chicken post

Man and woman from Stephan Balkenhol in front of the Central Library

In January 2004 the central library moved to the Hühnerposten , directly at Hamburg Central Station . The two five-meter-high bronze sculptures Man and Woman by the sculptor Stephan Balkenhol have stood in front of the main entrance since October 2004 .

In December 2005, the Hoeb4U youth library opened in the Zeisehallen in Ottensen. After the new building project for a central library on Domplatz fell through in winter 2006/2007, the location at Hühnerposten was expanded from 2008 to 2011 into a house for children, young people and adults. On October 26th, 2009 the new book hall “ Elbvororte ” was opened in a new building at the Blankenese train station , into which the recently closed locations in Iserbrook and Rissen were integrated. In 2009, the Wandsbek and Dehnhaide bookhalls moved to newly built rooms in the immediate vicinity of the old locations, thereby also significantly improving the environment and offerings.

In addition to the central library with the children's library, the youth library and the two book buses, the Hamburg library currently also operates 32 district libraries. On February 26, 2014, the Hamburg library published an app with which the media offer and corresponding services can be used via smartphones with the Apple iOS or Android operating systems . A 3D printer has been available to users in the central library since April 5, 2014.

Locations

New building of the HÖB in Hamburg-Horn (opened in 2016)

In addition to the central library at Hühnerposten, the following branches exist in the Hamburg city area:

Alstertal ( Poppenbüttel ), Altona ( Ottensen ), Barmbek ( Barmbek-Nord ), Bergedorf , Billstedt , Bramfeld , Dehnhaide ( Barmbek-Süd ), Eidelstedt , Elbe suburbs ( Blankenese ), Eimsbüttel , Farmsen , Finkenwerder , Fuhlsbüttel , Harburg , Holstenstrasse , Horn , Jenfeld , Kirchdorf , Langenhorn , Lokstedt , Mümmelmannsberg , Neuallermöhe , Neugraben , Niendorf , Osdorfer Born , Rahlstedt , Schnelsen , Steilshoop , Volksdorf , Wandsbek , Wilhelmsburg , Winterhude .

Youth library Hoeb4U

The Hoeb4U youth library is a special library of the Hamburg library that focuses on leisure media for young people, with the target group primarily aimed at 13 to 23 year olds. The youth library was opened on December 9, 2005 as the first youth library in Hamburg. Media are offered that match the young people's leisure interests, so that school-relevant media cannot be found in the inventory. The aim is to ensure that young people see the library as a place of leisure and visit it voluntarily. The Hoeb4U youth library is also a trend library, as new media or events are tested in practice. Above all, trainees in their second year of training [as a specialist for media and information services] are deployed in the youth library. In 2019 the youth library owned around 17,800 items of media, which were borrowed 151,000 times. In addition to the Hoeb4U youth library, all 32 library halls have their own youth area.