Collections

The Aktienführer data archive of the University Library presents the entire Hoppenstedt Aktienführer from 1956 to 2016 in one database. In addition, you can access the digitized full-text of the Hoppenstedt Aktienführer and previous publications from 1870 to 1999.

The Aktienführer data archive was published yearly and contains profiles with the most important key figures of companies listed on the German stock exchange. This includes data on the company’s place of business, commercial activities, number of employees, shares, stockholder and information from the balance sheet and profit and loss statement.

Due to copyright reasons, only the institutions which have applied for access and have been accepted may access the Aktienführer data archive. Access is limited to higher education institutions and other research institutions and academic libraries which are mainly publicly financed. If your institution does not have access yet, please contact the library of your institution which can then apply for access to the data archive.

Aktienführer data archive

The Desbillons collection is the most important and the largest historical collection of the university’s library. The Desbillons collection was started by the French Jesuit priest François-Joseph Terrasse Desbillons (1711–1789).

Desbillons collection

The collection represents the knowledge of his time and hosts books on history, ethnography, theology, law and literature. The classification from the time of its origin is still present and allows you to browse the collection.

Desbillons collection

Project Digitizing the travel reports of the Desbillons collection funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Project Ancien Droit funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Mateo (from 1996 to 2008, in German)

Estate of Desbillons

The estate of Desbillons consists of the correspondence and manuscripts of the Jesuit priest François-Joseph Terrasse Desbillons, written in Latin and French.

Estate of Desbillons

The historical collection consists of law resources focusing on the history of Germanic law.

European history of law

The Jesuit college’s collection was started in 1720 when the Jesuits arrived in Mannheim and contains around 1,800 books.

Jesuit college

The collection of the Lesegesellschaft Harmonie (Harmonie reading society) of Mannheim consists of around 7,000 books from the 15th to the 19th century.

Lesegesellschaft Harmonie

The second, important historical collection of Mannheim University Library is named after the merchant Julius Mammelsdorf (1839-1902). Mammelsdorf was a financier with global operations, e.g. in Saint Petersburg, Saigon or Mexico.

Among his books are titles important for the history and culture of Mexico. Mammeldorf purchased these books from monasteries while he was in Mexico.

Mammelsdorf

Otto Selz (1881-1943) was one of the most important German psychologists of the 20th century. His interests were wide-ranging and included questions of theoretical as well as applied psychology. In 1923, he became a professor and in 1933, he became President of the Handelshochschule Mannheim. In April 1933, he was laid off due to his Jewish background and in July 1943, he was murdered in Auschwitz.

The collection holds selected personal documents from the Otto Selz estate.

Estate of Otto Selz

The library of the Mannheimer Verein für Naturkunde (Mannheim natural history society) holds items important to the history of medicine and pharmacy from the 16th to the 20th century. This includes medical journals, handbooks for labor and delivery and pharmacopoeias. Works on natural history describing the geography, flora and fauna of local and exotic regions are another important part of the collection. The texts are written mostly in German or Latin.

Natural history

Catalog of the library of the Mannheimer Verein für Naturkunde

The database on the Reichsanzeiger (German imperial gazette) is currently being established and hosts the official press organ of the German Reich and the state of Prussia from 1819 to 1945. The Reichsanzeiger published official notices and ordinances of the government, press releases and articles on important national and international events. Since the middle of the 19th century, advertisements, a central commercial register and a stock exchange supplement were included.

Reichsanzeiger

The statistical yearbooks of the German Reich, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic contain data on economy, population, social aspects and health from 1880 to 1990.

The digitalized copies of the German statistical yearbooks can be used without asking for permission. Further information can be found here: Public Domain Mark 1.0.

German statistical yearbooks