The Monacensia, or Monacensia in Hildebrandhaus, is the literary archive and a research library of the city of Munich, the capital of Bavaria, Germany, which is devoted to preserving and providing public access to the city's cultural history. The name Monacensia is derived from the Latin name for Munich.
The collection was begun in the 1920s. Since 1977 it has been housed in a mansion, known as the Hildebrandhaus, which was originally designed by the German sulptor Adolf von Hildebrand (1847–1921) for his large artistic family. The Monacensia is one of the special libraries administered by the Munich City Library and its collections are accessible via the library website.
Location
The Monacensia in Hildebrandhaus is located in the Munich borough of Bogenhausen along the river Isar, not far from the Angel of Peace monument. The mansion, which was built in 1898 by Gabriel von Seidl, based on Hildebrand's plans, is an example of architecture in the culturally productive period in Bavaria known as the Prinzregentenzeit, It became a gathering point for cultural elite of Munich in the early years of the 20th century. In the years between Hildebrand's death in 1921 and 1977 the mansion changed hands numerous times and served a number of very different purposes.
History
In 1921 Hans Ludwig Held, the newly appointed first library director in Munich, issued a requisition for all city agencies to extract from their respective collections all books dealing with Munich and its cultural affairs. As a result, 5000 volumes were submitted by various administrative departments, such as the housing agency and the city museum, and housed in a separate room in the centrally located city hall. Despite considerable bombing during the second world war, nearly all the library and archival holdings survived without notable damage. As the collection grew it was relocated several times, before moving into its current location in 1977. Between 2013 and 2016 the Hildebrandhaus was closed for general renovations and modernisation. The holdings of the Monacensia were housed temporarily at an external location.
The collections
Literature archive
The collection comprises documentation and literary estates from approx. 300 writers who had or have a close connection with the city of Munich. Among others, the most renown writers include Oskar Maria Graf, Annette Kolb, Liesl Karlstadt, Frank Wedekind, Fanny Gräfin zu Reventlow, Gustav Meyrink, Ludwig Thoma, Ludwig Ganghofer and Jörg Hube. Further focal points of the collection are the life and works of writers in exile; the Schwaginger Bohème in the years around 1900; works by contemporary writers; and all forms of folk culture in Munich.
In the 1920s Hans Ludwig Held also laid the groundwork for collecting handwritten drafts and other original manuscripts from the leading writers of Munich and the region of Upper Bavaria. In the past hundert years this has grown into a highly diverse and valuable collection. For individual authors the archival holdings may include manuscripts, correspondence, biographical documents, photos, audio-visual documentation and personal belongings. Details of specific correspondence and manuscripts can be found at the online catalog of the Munich City Library and through Germany's national database Kalliope Union Catalogue, a union catalog for collections of personal papers, manuscripts, and publishers' archives.
With funding provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG) the Monacensia was able to acquire the diaries of Klaus Mann, the complete archival collection of Monika Mann, as well as the entire correspondence, manuscripts and biographical documents of Erika and Klaus Mann, in order to make these publicly available in digital form.
Monacensia Library
The research library encompasses around 150,000 books and other media dealing with various aspects of Munich. The primary focus is on Munich as a literar and cultural metropolis. The holdings range from works printed in Munich from the 16th century until today. Some of the holdings are immediately available to the public on open shelving and works published after 1960 can be borrowed.