Cooperation: Kassel University Library digitizes holdings from Brehm Library
With this agreement, the Brehm Library Foundation and the university are intensifying their cooperation on a library-related level. For decades, the University of Kassel has been represented on the Board of Trustees of the Waldeck State Library Foundation, whose purpose is to promote the library landscape in Bad Arolsen and thus the Brehm Library. The new constitution of the Brehm Library Foundation, which is to be regulated following the death of its founder, provides for a five-member board of trustees, which will also include the director of the Kassel University Library.
The Brehm Library, which was incorporated into a foundation set up jointly with the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg in 1990, is named after the Swiss-born collector and benefactor Adolf Brehm (1927-2022). With its exhibits (especially contemporary originals and first editions), it provides a comprehensive insight into the literature and book art of the German-speaking world from the late Middle Ages to the present day.
The collection has around 44,000 volumes, which are housed in 16 rooms in the side wing of the Residenzschloss in Bad Arolsen. The collection covers a wide range of subjects: Religion, natural sciences, history, book printing, regional studies, literary history, law and economics. There are also valuable manuscripts (e.g. medieval documents), handwritten chronicles, poetry manuscripts and numerous autographs and private documents of historical personalities. With antique furniture, works of art, maps, portrait engravings, craftsmanship, clocks and lamps, the library rooms form an impressive museum of intellectual and cultural history.
In a first batch, more than 80 objects, including numerous medieval German (but also Dutch and French) documents and several medieval and early modern manuscripts, will be digitized. Among the manuscripts, a 'Sachsenspiegel', a copy of the oldest German law book of the Middle Ages, from the beginning of the 15th century and the extensive file of a witch trial from the end of the 16th century from a small town in Thuringia should be highlighted. The oldest item to be digitized is a Dutch document from 1329, the most recent object is a family book ("Memorial") of the Hamburg merchant family Prale, kept between 1670 and 1850.
The material is presented as a separate subject group on the online repository ORKA, which also hosts the cooperative Grimmportal. "The historical treasures on ORKA will be enriched by another interesting facet," emphasized Dr. Brigitte Pfeil, Head of the State Library.
Contact:
Claudia Martin-Konle / Dr. Brigitte Pfeil
Kassel University Library, State Library and Murhard Library of the City of Kassel
Phone: +49 561 804 2117
Email: oeffentlichkeitsarbeit[at]bibliothek.uni-kassel[dot]de
Dr. Hartmut Wecker
Brehm Library Arolsen
Tel. +4956916238990
E-mail: bibliothekbrehm[at]gmx[dot]de