picture info
Picture on the left: New Central Library Cologne, 1979. © Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv, rba_mfL005222_63
Picture on the right: © Joshua Esters / LVR-Zentrum für Medien und Bildung
Germania Judaica
Preserving Germany’s Jewish heritage
Josef-Haubrich-Hof 1, 50676 Köln
The Germania Judaica is an academic library of books and documents on the history, culture, and religion of German-speaking Jewry. Founded in 1959 on the initiative of committed citizens who realised that the public knew too little about Jewish history, it was housed here from 1979 until its relocation in 2024. The library was intended as a means of combating the still strong
anti-Semitism in German society. Today, with 90,000 volumes, the Germania Judaica is the largest collection of its kind in Europe and aims not only to provide information, but also to show the full diversity of Jewish life.