Königsberg Public Library

The library developed from the personal collection of Johannes Poliander, who donated it to the town council of Altstadt in 1541.

In 1810 it moved to the Königshaus in Neue Sorge, which also housed the royal and university libraries at the same time.

It moved to the old campus of the University of Königsberg in Kneiphof in 1875 and was administered by August Wittich from 1875 to 1897.

Two years later Seraphim and the library began publishing seven volumes of scientific publications with the title Mitteilungen.

Directors of the library included pastor Michael Lilienthal (1728 to 1748), Christian Jakob Kraus (1786 to 1804), Friedrich Adolf Meckelburg (1844 to 1875), August Wittich (1875 to 1897), Ernst Seraphim (from 1900), Christian Krollmann (from 1923), and Fritz Gause (from 1938).