Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum

About this place

Opened in 2009, the Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum is the central library of Berlin’s Humboldt University and one of the largest open-access libraries in the German-speaking world, designed by the Swiss architect Max Dudler. From the street it is severe and unmistakably Dudler: a tautly gridded façade of pale limestone and deep-set windows, repeated with near-obsessive regularity over a full block beside the Spree and the elevated railway. The austerity outside makes the interior a surprise. At its core is a monumental reading room that steps down in wide terraces of oak and pale stone, each level a long run of desks descending toward the centre under a strict coffered ceiling and tall windows. The effect is part Egyptian temple, part Enlightenment study hall — a single, calm, daylit room that holds hundreds of readers while keeping the hush of a great library. Around it some two million volumes sit on open shelves across the upper floors. Admired and debated for its uncompromising rigour, the Grimm-Zentrum is the clearest built statement of Dudler’s belief in order, repetition and the dignity of the public room.