E.T.A. Hoffmann: autographs, music and drawings

The writer, composer and drawer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822) spent almost five years of his life in Bamberg from 1 September 1808 to 21 April 1813.

Today the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg owns the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) and the largest collection of material by and about E.T.A. Hoffmann. The core of the collection dates back to the 19th century, when Joseph Heller (1798-1849) and Emil Freiherr Marschalk von Ostheim (1841-1903) brought important "Hoffmanniana" to the State Library. The library of Nikolaus Schönkes (1843-1910) was added in 1910 and in 1958 and 1961 the E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft entrusted the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg with its collections acquired during the 1930s.

As a result, the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg consistently strived to build up and expand the collection and brought a large number of autographs and drawings together. The Jürgen Voerster (1926-2010) collection is particularly worthy of mention here: 2010 saw the acquisition of important pieces from Voerster's collection with the help of the Kulturstiftung der Länder or on loan from the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Oberfrankenstiftung.

The virtual collection presents all E.T.A. Hoffmann's handwritten letters, manuscripts of works, music and graphics in the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg collection.

• The objects of the collection "E.T.A. Hoffmann: autographs, music and drawings" available in bavarikon

>> This collection is part of the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg (State Library Bamberg).