Building in Leipzig
After two years of construction the main building of the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig was opened in 1916. The impressive facade is 160m long and displays the portraits of Otto von Bismarck, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johannes Gutenberg. Statues represent Technology, Justice, Philosophy, Medicine etc.
Portal / Photo: Peter Franke, PUNCTUM
(Courtesy of German National Library)
The central reading room contains a picture by Ludwig von Hofmann (impressionist painter), depicting Arcadia (refers to a vision of harmony with nature) in Art Nouveau-style. The staircase contains a mural showing the founders of the German library.
Large reading room / Photo: Anne-Katrin Müller
(German National Library)
Each location of the “German National Library” is allocated a certain principal task. The historic Leipzig library houses the “Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum” (German Book and Writing Museum), the “Sammlung Exil-Literatur” (Exile Collections) 1933 - 1945 and the “Anne-Frank-Shoah-Bibliothek”.
The German Book and Writing Museum has been collecting, storing and cataloguing valuable testimonies of book, writing and paper culture for roughly 125 years now. It is the oldest museum in the world in its field and the most important in terms of the quality and scope of its stocks (over one million objects). The museum is a research centre for the history of books and paper. It provides the general public with information on books through the exhibitions it stages and makes its stocks, including its library of books about books, available for study purposes in the reading room.
The Exile Collections contain printed works written or published abroad by German-speaking emigrants as well as leaflets, brochures and other materials produced entirely or in part by German-speaking exiles. The materials of the exile collections are available in the reading rooms. Special rules apply to the use of non-printed materials and materials by or about living persons. German exile journals and newspapers of the years 1933 to 1945 are sources of great interest. The project “Exilpresse digital” provides free global access to these materials via the Internet.
