Romanian Library (Freiburg im Breisgau)

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View of the entrance

The Romanian library in the Freiburg district of Wiehre is the largest Romanian library abroad. The inventory comprises around 83,000 volumes and 2,500 periodicals, including valuable manuscripts, offprints and the entire Romanian exile literature since the Second World War. In addition to the bibliophile collections, there is also a numismatic collection of Romanian coins and medals from the Dacians to the present day and other Romanian cultural assets.

history

The library was founded on May 1, 1949 by Romanian exiles . These consisted of those who had to flee from the Ion Antonescu regime and those who had left the country after the communist seizure of power. The aim of this group was to make the works of Nae Ionescu , Emil Cioran , Mircea Eliade and other Romanians in exile available to the general public. After it was founded, during the Cold War phase , the library grew continuously.

Initially, the holdings, 178 anthologies, several books, 16 magazines and 12 doctoral theses, were stored in the apartment of the first director Virgil Mihailescu on Maienstraße, then they were exhibited in a rented house - which belonged to a Romanian prince-exile - on Mercystraße until it In 1970 the association managed to buy the house on Uhlandstrasse and set up the library there.

Thanks to its good reputation as a research institute and at the instigation of professors in Romance languages ​​from several universities, including the University of Freiburg , University of Hamburg and University of Munich , it was publicly funded. Most of the holdings were built up through donations and bequests, and significant donations are exhibited together as funds.

One problem was the fear of the Romanian secret service, which led to the association being isolated. After the director Mihailescu was deposed at a general meeting in 1986 - because his vigilance towards the secret service is said to have decreased - the connections to Freiburg and other universities were lost. As a result, there was no state funding and the library was almost forgotten, which is also reflected in the quality of the building fabric and the poor condition of the holdings.

Since this is an association under German law and the association also has reservations about the Romanian government, the Romanian government has no opportunity to intervene positively on its own. However, a cautious approach to the Romanian authorities has been initiated and funding for the maintenance of the library has been applied for. The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs pledged 10,000 euros for the repair of the windows in 2015.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Thomas-Stein: Freiburg: Largest library outside the country: Michael Neagu heads the Romanian library in Uhlandstrasse. Badische Zeitung, August 27, 2015, accessed on December 13, 2015 .

Web links

Coordinates: 47 ° 59 '21 "  N , 7 ° 51' 5.3"  E