page_title: Berlin State Library
section_title: Rise to preeminence
hierarchical_section_title: Berlin State Library / History / Rise to preeminence
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Library building at Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany Deutsch: Alte Bibliothek am Bebelplatz, Berlin, Deutschland
context_page_description: The Berlin State Library is a universal library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is one of the largest libraries in Europe, and one of the most important academic research libraries in the German-speaking world. It collects texts, media and cultural works from all fields in all languages, from all time periods and all countries of the world, which are of interest for academic and research purposes. Some famous items in its collection include the oldest biblical illustrations in the fifth-century Quedlinburg Itala fragment, a Gutenberg Bible, the main autograph collection of Goethe, the world's largest collection of Johann Sebastian Bach's and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's manuscripts, and the original score of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
context_section_description: With new resources and authority, construction began on a Royal Library building on the Bebelplatz in the center of Berlin. Built between 1775 and 1785 by Georg Christian Unger to plans by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach, it was nicknamed the  Kommode (Chest of drawers) after its Neo Baroque design. The collection then underwent nearly continuous improvement and expansion. By 1905 it had become the largest and most influential repository of materials in the German language, and at 1.2 million books one of the largest libraries in the world. The Bebelplatz building housed the library until 1914, when the headquarters moved into new, even larger premises on the Unter den Linden: the climax of the library's development before the First World War. Today the old Royal building houses the Faculty of Law of Humboldt University.
  At the founding of the Weimar Republic the library was renamed the "Prussian State Library" (German: Preußische Staatsbibliothek - Preussischer Staatsbibliothek). After 1919, economic effects of war and inflation on the library were mitigated through the active support of the Emergency Association of German Sciences (after 1930, the German Research Foundation).
caption: Old Royal Library on Bebelplatz
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