Current activities, events

On the occasion of next year’s exhibition "MUNICH. Now LOOK at that! – The Image Archive of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek" (06/03 – 21/06/2020) we offer, for the first time, an opulent wall calendar at the special price of EUR 9.00, which is available at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and by purchase order. The calendar features partly unpublished rare photographs from our photographic archives.

In the presence of Bernd Sibler, the Bavarian State Minister of Sciences, Research and the Arts, the analogue photographic archive of the magazine STERN is presented for the first time today at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB), with a number of former STERN photographers taking part as well. Moreover, a small selection of photographs is shown. The Hamburg publishing house Gruner + Jahr donated the analogue photographic archive of the magazine STERN, which comprises 15 million photographs, to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at the start of 2019, in order to ensure the long-term existence of the archive and to make it accessible to the public and research.

Artists' books are primarily works of art. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds one of the most important collections of international artists' books and, with the foundation of a common blog, creates an international communication tool for collecting institutions, researchers, students and private collectors.

The publishing house Gruner + Jahr commits the analogue photographic archive of the journal STERN to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB) in Munich, in order to secure the long-term existence of the archive and to make it accessible to the public and to research. The donation comprises over 15 million photographs from the years 1948 to 1997 in the form of prints, negatives and slides. The archive constitutes one of the largest collections of photographs in the German language area. It is considered the visual memory of the Federal Republic of Germany and one of the most important documents of photo journalism on a worldwide scale.

1 October – 16 November 2018
Cabinet presentation of the Image Archive
The building of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in the Ludwigstrasse was completed 175 years ago and thus inaugurated in 1843 – after a construction period of eleven years. King Ludwig I had commissioned the architect Friedrich von Gärtner with this project already shortly after his accession to power.