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Our Libraries

Chronology of the 400-year history of the UB Giessen

Foundation

1612 Foundation of the University Library through the purchase of 1.000 volumes by landgrave Ludwig V.

UB 1904

    Expansion of holdings through significant donations:

1771 Manuscripts and incunabula of the brothers in Butzbach

1800 Collection of Renatus Carl von Senckenberg

Storage in the University building at the Brandplatz

    Development into a library for use:

1830 Introduction of the card catalogue by Johann Valentin Adrian

1837 First interlibrary loan connection in Germany between Giessen and Darmstadt

1904 Own library building in the Bismarckstrasse

1942 Stock: 522.543 volumes and 302.800 doctoral dissertations

1944 Destruction of the library after an attack by allied  bombers on 11th December; over 90% of the holdings were lost.

Valuable old stock and duplicates that had been swapped out were preserved. UB 1959

1945 -1956 Preliminary work in the ruins

1959 Dedication of the new building of the University Library in the Bismarckstrasse

1979-1983 Reconstruction of the University Library in the Philosophikum I

    Library system – coordinated network for literature supply

2002 All libraries of the university are reorganised in the library system and subordinate to the University Library („funktionale Einschichtigkeit“).

UB 1983

2011 Stock: 3,9 million volumes in the University Library, the four branch libraries and the seven subject libraries; literature supply for more than 33.000 readers.

Further information:

    Publications on the history of the University Library: