13th City Walk on Urban and Religious Spaces of Knowledge

– Mirjam Wien

On 16th October 2024 we delved into hidden treasures and fascinating Spaces of Knowledge in a city walk excellently prepared by Aileen Becker and Constanze Schaller. As always, the event presented a joyful opportunity to learn more about Erfurt’s history and topography and get to know other members of the KFG better. During the tour, the question of accessibility to Spaces of Knowledge emerged as a common thread.

First, we visited the special collections housed at the Erfurt University Library. The most important subcollection is the Amploniana as the library of the Collegium Porta Coeli which belonged to the medieval university of Erfurt. It consists of more than 600 books donated by Amplonius in 1412 as well as further acquisitions. The library is of invaluable importance as largest collection of a single scholar of the time and the most complete surviving university library of the late Middle Ages. Librarian Katrin Ott gave us informative insights into the complex history of ownership and recent projects to catalogue and digitize the books, thereby making them accessible to scholars around the world, and answered all of our many questions.

Our tour then led us to the Benary-Speicher, a depot, display collection and small printing museum which is not widely known in Erfurt as it is open only with a guided tour. The building belonged to Ernst Samuel Benary, a Jewish entrepreneur who established a seed cultivation business in Erfurt. The former seed storage house of the company has now been transformed into a museum with different collections. It displays print machines which have been in use mainly in GDR times, houses printing workshops for children and serves as the display depot of the municipal museum. Under the guidance of Stephan Oettel we visited the spectacular Pacific Collection as well as collections of furniture, porcelain and guild chests. It became apparent how knowledge is collected and preserved here but treated as an orphan and only made acessible to insiders.

Constanze Schaller then gave us a (fascinating) insight into the former Augustine Convent, presenting the reading practices of the friars as well as the library of the Protestant Ministry as Spaces of collecting and working with Knowledge. The reading practices of the friars were highly regulated, allowing access to specific books only for a limited period of time in line with the regulations on individual property. Restrictions are also reflected architecturally in the dormitory with adjacent study cells which enabled constant supervision. After the death of the last friar, the convent was appropriated by the then predominantly protestant city council and was used as the seat of the Protestant Ministry representing the protestant pastors of Erfurt and its surroundings. Its library was established for pastors, receiving donations from the city population and beyond. Whereas the library building was destroyed in the 2nd World War, the books were preserved by storing them in mines. The collection today is still growing and open to the public but mainly frequented by scholars with specific research interests.

Finally, a joined lunch rounded off our enterprise.

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