Blick über den Opernplatz zur Königlichen Bibliothek

 Germany > Berlin

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View over the opera square to the former royal library, in the foreground the green area of the “Forum Fridericianum” planned by Friedrich II and Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff erected Georg Friedrich Boumann d.J. 1775-80 The royal library according to drawings by Georg Chrastian Unger using an older facade design Johann Emanuel Fischer von Erlach D.J. for the Michaelertract of the Vienna Hofburg. Because of the curved baroque shape, the building was already called "Book Group" by the Berliners in 1777. The Latin inscription "Nutrimentum Spiritus" (food of the mind) also appealed to the Volkswitz, which turns it "spiritus is oching food". At the opening of the "Reading Chamber" in March 1784, the inventory of the library includes 150,000 volumes, so that the base floor still is used as a backdrop magazine of the opera. In the years until 1880, the book stock grows to around 900,000. The "chest of drawers" in 1945, simplified reconstruction 1967-69.