
The Universitätsbibliothek Kassel (or Kassel University Library) is a library located in the city of
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2 ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
. Composed of the collections of the former ''Landesbibliothek'' (state library) and ''Murhardsche Bibliothek der Stadt Kassel'' (Murhard Library of the City of Kassel) as well as that of the
Kassel University library, amongst the library's holdings is the manuscript of the 9th-century German poem, the
Hildebrandslied
The ''Hildebrandslied'' (; ''Lay'' or ''Song of Hildebrand'') is a heroic lay written in Old High German alliterative verse. It is the earliest poetic text in German, and it tells of the tragic encounter in battle between a father (Hildebrand) ...
.
The first component of the library, the ''Landesbibliothek'', evolved from the collection of the
Kassel Court Library of the
Landgraves of Hesse
The Landgraviate of Hesse (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen) was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed as a single entity from 1264 to 1567, when it was divided among the sons of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse.
History
In the early Mi ...
, and was officially made a "state library" with the Hesse Constitution of 1831. Its collection was housed at the
Fridericianum
The Fridericianum is a museum in Kassel, Germany. Built in 1779, it is one of the oldest public museums in Europe. , continental Europe's first public museum, and specialized in the fields of history, philology, archaeology, art, geography, theology, and law.
The second component library, the ''Murhardsche Bibliothek der Stadt Kassel'' long served as the city's second research library. Founded in 1845 by the brothers Friedrich and Karl Murhard, sons of an old Hessian merchant dynasty, it specialized in political science, economics, and pedagogy.
The third component library comprised the holdings of Kassel University, founded in it modern incarnation in 1970.
The three libraries were merged into a single system in 1976.
References
*Popa, Opritsa D. (2003) ''Bibliophiles and Bibliothieves: the search for the Hildebrandslied and the Willehalm Codex.'' Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
Further reading

*
* Hans-Jürgen Kahlfuß (ed.): ''125 Jahre Murhardsche Stiftung der Stadt Kassel und ihrer Bibliothek 1863-1988''. Kassel: Verein für Hess. Geschichte u. Landeskunde c/o GhK-Bibliothek 1988.
* Søren Drews: ''100 Jahre Murhardsche Bibliothek.'' Vortrag anlässlich der Kasseler Museumsnacht am 3. September 2005 im Eulensaal der Murhardschen Bibliothek Kassel. Kassel 2005
* Axel Halle (ed.): ''Die Brüder Murhard: Leben für Menschenrechte und Bürgerfreiheit''; Katalog zur Ausstellung im Stadtmuseum Kassel in Zusammenarbeit mit der Universitätsbibliothek Kassel, 30. November 2003 bis 18. April 2004. Kassel: University Press 2003.
External links
Universitätsbibliothek Kassel homepage (In German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Universitatsbibliothek Kassel
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2 ...
Buildings and structures in Kassel
University of Kassel