Literature about and from North Hesse

The Hassiaca collection focuses on literature about Hessian history and regional studies with a special emphasis on the area of the former territory of Hesse-Kassel. It includes, as completely as possible, all literature published about and in northern Hesse, the latter on the basis of the Hessian regulations on legal deposit. The collection's core holdings comprise literature about the Landgraviate and the later Electorate of Hesse-Kassel, the Kingdom of Westphalia, the administrative region of Kassel and the district of Marburg-Biedenkopf as well as the former exclaves of Schaumburg and Schmalkalden in today's Lower Saxony and Thuringia. In addition to this focus, the collection also includes literature on the rest of the modern state of Hesse.

Thus, today's Hassiaca collection is in the tradition of the old State Library and its unique Hassiaca collection. The efforts of librarian Friedrich Wilhelm Strieder (1739-1815) on as a collector and cataloguer for his "Grundlage zu einer hessischen Gelehrten- und Schriftstellergeschichte" (Foundation for a Hessian History of Scholars and Writers), the library possessed an almost complete collection of all publications by authors from Hesse-Kassel.

Due to a bombing raid in September 1941, the State Library lost most of its holdings, including the Hassiaca collection. The restoration of this collection on the basis of the preserved catalogue began during the war. Newly acquired copies of lost books were given the old shelfmark and replaced in the stacks according to the old order. As a result of the emphasis placed on reconstruction, a special section of the State Library was created for the Hassiaca collection. Today, the State Library's Hassiaca collection once more include most of the books that were destroyed in 1941. Remaining gaps from wartime losses are filled by purchases from rare book sellers, private collections and auctions whenever possible.

The library aims to acquire all new publications on the region of North Hesse. Thus, everything on subjects related to the region can be found here: From prints from the 16th century to current literature, from scientific literature to crime novels, from local chronicles to hiking guides, from genealogies to cookbooks...

The literature is indexed in the KARLA catalogue portal. Literature about the region, including articles from journals, can also be found in the Hessian Bibliography.