Black Diamond or Death Star

©Taxiarchos228/Wikipedia

Schwarzer Diamant oder Todesstern was the title of a lecture by Dr. Markus Schröter, Head of the Historical Collections, Digitization, and Preservation Department at Freiburg's university library.

On April 20, 1455, on the day of his accession to the throne, Pope Calixtus III gave Archduke Albrecht IV permission to establish a studium generale in his city of Freiburg, in quo aeris viget temperies, victualium ubertas ceterarumque rerum ad usum vitae humanae pertinentium copia reperitur.*

*where the air is mild, food is plentiful, and there are large supplies of other things that are useful to man. 

 Initially, seven professors taught 214 students in the four faculties customary at the time: Artes (the seven liberal arts), Theology, Jurisprudence, and Medicine. Theology, which deals with the salvation of the soul, took first place, while medicine, which deals with the health of the mortal body, took last place among the faculties. 

At that time, professors lectured* on the subject matter in Latin using the few available books and put forward theses, which the students then had to write down and debate.

*They read aloud. In German, a university lecture is still called Vorlesung

The motto of the Collegium Sapientiae was 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.'
The building was destroyed in the air raid of November 27, 1944.
Spolia of the burse were integrated into the new construction (©Andreas Schwarzkopf†/Wikipedia).

The students lived in burses (boarding houses) under strict rules. A well-known burse was the Sapientia that, in 1400, issued the rules in a book: Statuta collegii sapientiae Friburgensis (The Statutes of the College of Wisdom of Freiburg). These rules are illustrated with many colorful engravings.

 One of them informs about De Claue liberarye et eius custode (the key to the library and its guardian).  The Bursa Sapaetia had its own library, and since books were expensive, these treasures were kept under lock and key. Above the entrance door to the library is written "alpha io" (I am the beginning [of all knowledge]).

 
Red Baron was annoyed by the speaker, who kept moving his head back and forth in front of the colored engraving. To illustrate my blog with a perfect photo, I asked ChatGPT to produce an image without the head.

Here is the remarkable result. Now, five bookworm colleagues of the custodes sit in the library. The latter enters the library with a book in his hand to join his peers. Above the entrance door is written: Admonitio (admonition).

Amazing, since the inscription has also been changed to De Claritate litterrarum et eius custode (On the clarity of scriptures and its guardian). It's all my fault. You must ask ChatGPT the right question.

Latin school on Herrenstraße next to the Bursa Sapentiae
©Andreas Schwarzkopf†/Wikipedia

Latin was the language of instruction, and students were required to communicate in Cicero's language even in private. Local Latin schools tried to provide the necessary language skills, which were frequently inadequate.

Gymnasium Academicum on Bertoldstraße

In 1572, Freiburg sought to raise the educational level of its first-year students by establishing a Gymnasium Academicum, as a precursor to university studies.

In the following years, the Jesuits frequently tried to take over Freiburg's university. On the eve of the Thirty Years' War, their demand became more urgent, especially since the neighboring universities of Basel, Tübingen, and Strasbourg had become Protestant.

On February 6, 1618, Archduke Maximilian III sent a government delegation to the University of Freiburg and wrote from Innsbruck about the Jesuits that it should not only believe these gentlemen, but also promote their values, both as a whole and each of its individual members, as their zeal for the propagation of the true, only saving religion would naturally inspire them. As usual, the university senate refused to accept the takeover, arguing that Freiburg was sufficiently Catholic and that there was no need for further religious planting.

When Maximilian suddenly died in November 1618, all resistance was futile in view of the insistence of his fanatical successor, Archduke Leopold V.

The Jesuits' certificate of introduction dated November 16, 1620 reads: With the current school year, the fathers of the “Society” will begin in the late autumn to fill all the lower schools and the Faculty of Philosophy at the university, as well as three of the five positions in theology with their teachers, in order to teach the true faith in Freiburg.

The Jesuit University. Left the Jesuit Church, which is now the Catholic University Church.
In the cartouche, a picture of the Gymnasium Academicum

After Louis XIV's troops conquered Freiburg in 1677, the city became part of France. The French crown provided financial support to the Jesuits for the establishment of a Studium Gallicum. In 1682, les Frères began construction of a college along Bertoldstraße opposite the Gymnasium Academicum. On the upper floor, they set up a Jesuit library with 6000 books in two rooms.

In 1773, Emperor Joseph II abolished the Jesuit Order in his territories. In the period following, all books were concentrated in the Old University building on Rathausplatz. The building is now part of Freiburg's town hall.

©Wikipedia

The premises soon became too small. So in 1783, the Gymnasium Academicum was converted into the university library. In 1825, historian Heinrich Schreiber described the interior as follows: "On the lower floor, there are two spacious, high, and bright halls on the right and left, whose ceilings are supported by columns. A wide staircase leads to the main hall above them and the front hall, which extends over two floors and is decorated with a row of columns running along all the walls and a gallery above. Adjacent to these are two smaller halls, furnished in the same manner, which are connected to the main hall by high, vaulted passageways."

With the number of books increasing, the University planned a new building.

The library was built on Rempartstraße and opened in 1902. Following the construction of Kollegiengebäude I in 1911, the Rempartstraße formed a small campus between the library and the faculty building. Indeed, the president of Harvard University, Charles William Eliot, once described a university library as the heart of the university. Admire the rare female student at that time.

In 1972, the students had to leave the building in a hurry because the library was in danger of collapsing due to being overloaded with books. 

©Stadtarchiv Freiburg

Fortunately, construction of a new library had already started. The building on Werthmannplatz was erected in the Brutalist style and became operational in 1978.

Major defects, such as refurbishment costs and asbestos contamination, led in 2006 to the decision to build a new library. The intention was to preserve parts of the old, which meant that only the three underground cellars, i.e., the book storage areas and the elevator shafts of the old building, were retained from the superstructure.

The new UB opened on July 23, 2025. Extra 3, the satirical program on Norddeutscher Rundfunk, gave the building the title "The craziest university library in Germany." One deficiency was the blinding effect due to reflected sunlight.

The other reason for the "crazy" title was that, with 10,000 students per day, the reading rooms proved too cramped. Students stood in line before the library opened at 7 AM, then rushed to the reading rooms and blocked a seat for the whole day.

Would you like to take a break?
Please use the break timers. Reserved workspaces without break timers may be occupied by others.
After use, please return them here (©NDR).

But where there's a problem, there's also a solution: German inventiveness created the break timer.

Red Baron likes the building

Dr. Schröter spoke pro domo when he cited Andrew McDonald, "The library is the central academic focus of the university and plays a strong social role in the learning, teaching, and research processes in the institution."

**