History of the University Library

After 1999

From 12th May 1999, the University library of Erfurt and the Research and Regional Library at Gotha, have jointly formed the University and Research Library of Erfurt/Gotha. The gates for the integration of this library with significant levels of old stocks of books were opened at the end of 1997.

The library of the Pedagogic University was integrated into the University Library on the 1st January 2000. The Erfurt University and the Pedagogic University have already been cooperating on library-related matters since 1997.

On December 2001, the historical manuscripts and stock of books in the city of Erfurt were taken over as a deposit by the University Library. The collections have been available since October 2000 in the Special reading room of the UB Erfurt (Amploniana).

In 2002, work began on integrating the stocks of the Theological Faculty of Erfurt into the University and Research library. In 2003, the Free State of Thuringia was able to purchase the Collection of Perthes in Gotha with the support of the cultural foundation of the states. It is looked after by the Research Library at Gotha.

1993 - 1999

The University library was already established as a central library of the Erfurt University in 1993, one year prior to the (re-)establishment of the University and began setting up a stock of books in temporary rooms and rented racks. The library has been co-operating since 1st March 1995 with the Common Library Network (GBV).  All work processes for purchasing, developing and lending are supported by EDP systems.

On the 1st April 1998, the University library of Erfurt took up lending operations on the campus of the University.  The foundation stone for the new construction of the University library was laid on 18th September 1998, and in April 2000 the library was relocated to the new building and was inaugurated there on 28th August 2000.

In the course of the years, several libraries and collections were taken over, among others, the library of the former ecclesiastical University of Naumburg as a permanent loan of the Protestant Church Province of Saxony (1995) and the library of the Pedagogic University, Erfurt/Mühlhausen (1997).

Library of the old Erfurt University

exlibris
exlibris

One library of the artists' faculty of the old Erfurt University has already been accepted with the inauguration of the University in 1392, and the general University library followed from this.  Apart from purchases made systematically, there were primarily gifts and donations until 1510 that contributed to the increase in the stocks. With the storming of the Collegium maius of the University in the year 1510, a part of the library set up there was damaged. The expansion of the library was apparently not resumed. The library underwent revival only in 1691 as the Rector, Georg Christoph Petri von Hartenfels (died in 1718) allowed 261 unsorted volumes that had been found, to be set up, deployed a librarian, requested members of the University to donate and gift books and gave books himself.
 
At the beginning of the 18th century, the University Library that had grown to 503 volumes, received a large addition from the foundation of the Electoral Mainz Governor in Erfurt, Philipp Wilhelm von Boineburg (died in 1717), who primarily gifted his father's collection of books. To promote the library and the University, Philipp Wilhelm von Boineburg put forward an overall foundations instrument in 1716, that provided capital of 10,000 Reichstaler apart from the foundation of the library and professorship in the juristic faculty.
 
In the 18th century, the University library was expanded by adding other collections such as those from the library of the Jesuits' college of Erfurt that was disbanded and the older part of the Ratsbibliothek at Erfurt.

In the 19th century, before the closure of the University, parts of the library at St. Peter's monastery, the charter-house of Erfurt and the Schottenkloster (Scots' monastery) were added to the library. The now so-called Royal Prussian Library received the stock of books of the secularized monastery of Augustinian hermits after the University was shut down.  Finally, the collection of books of the last Electoral Mainz Governor, Carl Theodor von Dalberg, that he had previously divided equally and handed over parts to the Protestant and Catholic secondary schools, were combined in the Royal Prussian library of Erfurt. It was housed in the building of the Packhof of the Electoral Mainz Governor on the meadow at Erfurt (the Anger museum of today).

Even the Bibliotheca Amploniana, which led a life of its own for a long period of time in the respective premises of the Collegium Porta Coeli, was now set up in the premises of the Packhof of the Electoral Mainz Governor.  The stock of books in the royal Prussian library was transferred to the ownership of the city of Erfurt in 1908. The historical manuscripts and stocks of books of the city of Erfurt, which had been kept in safe custody of the urban and regional library, were transferred in 2001 as the deposit of the city to the Erfurt University that came into being in 1994. Since then, the historical stocks of books and manuscripts of the old Erfurt University has been kept in the Special reading room of the University library.