GERM AN Ebt PISS.
The German Empire has a great number of large libraries. This is due in the main to the existence of the many separate states that form the empire, the rulers of which have encouraged the formation of libraries in their capital cities. The interest, likewise, taken by the Germans in popular education and in scholarship has had its effect also. Hence, while Germany has no individual collections that compare with the Bibliotheque Nationale or the British Museum, it has a dozen that exceed 500,000 volumes in size. Four classes of libraries may be distin guished in Germany, the Hof or Royal, the Stadt or Municipal, the university and the pop ular libraries, or Volk-bibliotheken.
In origin the German libraries, like the French, may be traced to three movements: (1) The mediaeval or ecclesiastic foundations; (2) the humanistic or university; (3) the mod ern. As in France, it has been the privilege of the last period to gather together and organize the material that has been saved from the earlier collections. For this reason many of the German libraries assign their foundations as early as the 14th and 15 centuries. The sup pression of the religious orders during and after the Reformation resulted in the liberation of many collections of books, some of great interest, and, while many valuable items were lost, a large proportion was saved as is evi denced by the splendid collections of manu scripts and early printed books in the various libraries.
Germany has produced many librarians and bibliographers of distinction, among whom may be noted Lipsius, Pertz, Panzer, Halm, Petz holdt, Heyne, Ritschl, Hain, Jahn, Forstmann and Dziatzko. The modern library movement, owing to the early efficiency and completeness of Germany's early library did not de velop in that country until the beginning of the present century. While an excellent library journal, Zentralblatt fur Bibliotekswesen, has been in existence since 1884, no national association of librarians was formed prior to 1889. During the last decade legislation has been enacted in Prussia and Bavaria providing for more careful attention to the development of libraries and for raising the standard of librarianship, it being enacted in 1904 that librarians should be university graduates and candidates for the doctorate, and in 1907 a director of library affairs, under the Minister of Education, was established.
The Konigl. Bibliothek at Berlin (1661) is not only the greatest library in Prussia, but, in a sense, fills the role of the national library of the German Empire. It is one of the 10 great est libraries in the world, containing now about 1,500,000 volumes, 5,000 incunabula and 42,000 manuscripts. Its founder was the Elector of
Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm, who formed a collection in his palace in 1650, consisting mainly of spoils from monasteries destroyed during the religious wars. In 1699 the copy privilege was assigned, but no large ad ditions were made either during the reigns of Friedrich Wilhelm I and Frederick the Great. The predilection of the lat ter for French literature, however, indi rectly benefited the Royal Library, for he immediately turned over to it every book in the German language that came into his possession. Under Friedrich Wilhelm III many large addi tions were made. The library possesses im portant special collections, among which may be noted German history and literature, philology, the sciences and a splendid collection of in cunabula. Its collections were housed for more than a century in an imposing but sombre building erected by the command of Frederick the Great during the years 1775-80. A new and more commodious building was erected in 1909.
The Konigl. Hof-u. Staatsbibliothek, the Royal Library of Bavaria at Munich, has long been recognized as a model institution. It was founded during the reign of -Gross-Herzog Al brecht V during the years 1550-79, its nucleus being the private library of the ruler. A build ing was erected for it in 1575 and the collec tions have gradually increased until it pos sessed about 20,000 volumes at the beginning of the 16th century. It suffered losses during the Thirty Years' War, but gained in the end, for a number of valuable collections, such as that of Gross-Herzog Christopher of Wurttemberg and the library of Tubingen, came to it as spoils of battle. All previous accessions, how ever, were overshadowed by the expansion un der Maximilian Joseph resulting from the sup pression of religious institutions, 150 of which were closed in 1803. Vast collections came from the Jesuits' College at Ebersberg, the Benedictine abbey of Saint Emmeran, Ratisbon and other monasteries of the same 'order; the canonries of Saint Udalrich, Saint Afra, and from libraries at Mannheim and Bamberg. Ludwig I was equally generous and during his reign many important special collections were received, such as those of von Moll and K. F. Neumann. He built the splendid palace on Ludwigstrasse, which houses the collections, the library being reorganized and reclassified when installed. The collections number about 1,200, 000 volumes, 50,000 manuscripts and are par ticularly rich in Hebrew literature and Orientalia.