Leipzig City Library

The building of the old Grassi Museum , since 1991 the headquarters of the Leipzig City Libraries

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The Leipzig City Library now has around a million books, sheet music, magazines, CDs, video cassettes, DVDs and games. The city library is part of the municipal company "Leipziger Städtische Bibliotheken". This has branches in several districts of Leipzig and a mobile library . The main building reopened on October 27, 2012 after a two-year renovation. In 2011 the library had a purchase budget of around 500,000 euros; 900,000 visitors borrowed 3.8 million media. In 2018, 46,000 people attended the around 1900 events in the city library.

history

Historical reading room

After Huldreich Groß donated his collection of 4,000 books to the city in 1677 and also bequeathed his entire fortune, Leipzig was ready to open a library that should be open to all students and those willing to learn. This council library, also Bibliotheca Senatus Lipsiensis , was initially located on the first floor of the warehouses and clothing store on Universitätsstrasse. The collection was constantly expanded through donations and acquisitions. For this reason, a permanent account was set up with the city treasury and a librarian was appointed. After the grand opening in 1711, the library was converted into a scientific library by the then head, councilor and university professor Johann Jacob Mascov . Because of the increased stock, a library building was built and inaugurated by Friedrich Seltendorff in 1755 . With its baroque facade, this building was considered the most beautiful library building in Germany.

In 1832 the council library was declared today's city library. Under Robert Naumann, the library's holdings grew to 100,000 items, and the first specialist journal on librarianship was published, the Serapeum - Journal of Library Science, Manuscript Studies and Older Literature . By Karl Heinrich Pölitz and Carl Ferdinand Becker , the music department of the library was launched.

After the two municipal library halls were expanded in 1925 (3rd library), 1929 (4th library) and 1930 (new building at the 2nd library), large parts of the library were destroyed during the Second World War, especially during the air raid on December 4, 1943. The director Johannes Hofmann had only inadequately ensured that the holdings were secured. After the 3rd book hall was confiscated by the Soviet Union , it was given new rooms in Barthels Hof in 1946 . In 1951 the city library was converted into a public library and in 1954 the Leipzig music library was founded from the city music library and the Peters music library. In 1958 and 1973 the public library (former city library), the music library, the book halls and the public libraries were combined to form the Leipzig city and district library. The first mobile libraries were also used in 1973 .

Since Barthels Hof was badly dilapidated in the early 1980s, the library had to be relocated to alternative quarters in Grünau in 1984 . A literary archive has existed since 1990, in which the legacies of writers from the region are collected. In 1991 the Leipzig City and District Library was renamed Leipzig City Libraries and moved to its current location at Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz , in the former Old Grassi Museum .

Due to renovation measures, part of the holdings of the city library was in an interim location in the municipal department store from the beginning of 2010 to August 2012 . Around 250,000 media were accessible there. After the return of over 430,000 media was completed, the Leipzig City Library on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz was reopened at the end of October 2012. The cost was around 15 million euros.

Automatic book return (RFID) in the renovated new building of the Leipzig City Library

RFID technology is currently being introduced in all municipal libraries , with the help of which it will be possible to borrow media independently and also to hand it in outside of opening hours.

In October 2010, an online service was opened that offers digital books ( e-books ), electronic newspapers and magazines (e-papers), as well as videos and music. The online library is operated by DiViBib GmbH from Wiesbaden under the name Onleihe .

Since 1997, the main building on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz has also housed the Leipzig Poetry Library , one of the largest collections of international contemporary poetry in Germany.

Branch offices

In addition to the central city library, the Leipzig city libraries also operate district libraries in Böhlitz-Ehrenberg , Gohlis , Grünau, Holzhausen , Lützschena-Stahmeln , Mockau , Paunsdorf , Plagwitz , Reudnitz-Thonberg , Schönefeld , Volkmarsdorf , Wiederitzsch and the Südvorstadt . The municipal company also owns a bus that is used as a mobile library and drives to other districts. In the New Town Hall , the municipal libraries also operate the administration library, in which media on the subject of law and administration are collected.

cables

• Gustav Wustmann became the first full-time director of the city library and the council archive in 1881
• Ernst Kroker (1859–1927) became director of the council archives and senior librarian of the city library in 1911 and held office until 1924
• In 1913 Walter Hofmann (1879–1952) was appointed director of the city book halls in Leipzig
• Johannes Hofmann took over the directorate of the city library and the council archive in 1924. As a Nazi party member, he was released in the summer of 1945
• Ernst Adler, an active librarian in the resistance against the Nazi regime, became the new director of the municipal library in 1945
• Edith Rothe , daughter of the former Mayor of Leipzig Carl Wilhelm August Rothe , was the head of the city library from 1946 to 1951
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• Reinhard Stridde was director of the Leipzig city library from 1983 to 2005
• Arne Ackermann headed the Leipzig municipal libraries from May 2006 to December 2012
• Susanne Metz took over the management of the Leipzig municipal libraries in August 2013

Web links

Commons : Leipzig City Library  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the Leipzig City Libraries
• Online catalog
• Leipzig online library "Onleihe"
• "QDBV Bibliothecam magnifici amplissimi que senatus Lipsiensis ex decreto eius bonae menti iam dedicandum atque aperiendam fore indicit", commemorative publication by the then councilor and librarian of the council library Gottfried Christian Goetze for the ceremonial opening of the council library to the general public - with 2 engravings (library premises Cabinet of the coin collection including the mummy belonging to the library from 1711) limited preview in the Google book search

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Matthiasuppe: Leipzig City Library will reopen on Saturday as a "highly technical unit". lvz-online.de, October 26, 2012; Retrieved October 26, 2012
2. ↑ Performance figures ( memento of November 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the library website, accessed on October 27, 2012
3. ↑ The library as a meeting point and experience space: Bilanz 2018. Retrieved on May 27, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Information on the history of the library on the city of Leipzig website, accessed on March 13, 2012
5. ↑ Resolution of the Council Assembly No. RBV-1163/12 of March 21 , 2012 , PDF file, p. 18
6. ↑ Press release of the city of Leipzig on the interim of the city library  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
7. ↑ Press release from the City of Leipzig on the refurbishment of the municipal libraries from 2011 to 2014  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
8. ↑ Press release from the city of Leipzig about the online loan  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
9. ↑ Christian Mannschatz: "... always in the potatoes, out of the potatoes ..." - The life path of the Leipzig librarian Edith Rothe (1897–1989). In: BIS - the magazine of the libraries in Saxony. Volume 2, 2009, pp. 108-111

Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 2.5 ″  N , 12 ° 22 ′ 29.1 ″  E