About the historical library at the Thuringian Higher Regional Court
The historical collection of the library of the Thuringian Higher Regional Court in Jena comprises more than 32,000 works. The collection was established as a working library when the Higher Regional Court was founded in 1877.
Nearly 9,000 works from the library of the Saxonian Higher Court of Appeal formed the basis of the collection. This Court was founded in 1816 by several Saxon duchies and the principalities of Reuss from the area of today's Thuringia. The tradition of the highest court jurisdiction in Jena even goes back to the year 1566. In this year the Court for the Duchies of Saxony-Weimar and Saxony-Coburg was established in the city of Jena.
In the first half of the 20th century, the library of the Thuringian Higher Regional Court in Jena was one of the largest specialist legal libraries outside the universities in Germany. By 1945, the collection had grown to over 70,000 works. The collection's history ends with the fall of the German Reich at the end of the 2nd world war . Thereafter, the Higher Regional Court was moved from Jena to Gera and then completely dissolved in 1952. The court's library became part of the Institute for Political Science and Law in Potsdam-Babelsberg from 1952, a university of the Ministry for Homeland Security, the notorious secret police of the GDR.
After the end of the GDR, as a result of long negotiations, the most part of the collection were brought back to Jena. On October 22, 1998, the relocation of more than 32.000 works was completed. Since then, the historical collection has again been connected with the library of the Thuringian Higher Regional Court and, with its works dating back to the 16th century, bears witness to the long tradition of jurisprudence in the famous Thuringian city on the river Saale.