The Albrecht Haupt Collection

The Haupt Collection comprises an important stock of historic architectural works and drawings from around 1500 to the mid 19th century.

The collection stems from Dr. phil. Dr.-Ing. h.c. Karl Albrecht Haupt (1852-1932), who was engaged as a building researcher, a professor at what was then TH Hannover (i.e. Hannover University of Technology), a freelance architect, restorer, explorer and collector.

As early as 1901, the majority of the items in Haupt's possession were sold to TH Hannover’s library. Additional works were purchased between 1923 and 1925. The requirement for the eventual acquisition of the entire Haupt Collection was that it should remain in the library in the form of a permanent special collection. The collection is located at the TIB Science/Technology site.

What does the Haupt Collection include?

The Haupt Collection consists of three groups of works:

Group I

Some 6,000 architectural travel sketches drawn by Haupt and study sheets he used to prepar for of his lectures and publications. These individual sheets can be accessed via an electronic catalogue.

To the catalogue of architectural travel sketches

Group II

More than 6,000 individual graphic sheets (hand drawings, prints) mainly from the 16th to 19th centuries. This graphic collection is fully digitised and can be searched via TIB SAH digital.

To the digital collection of individual graphic sheets

Group III

Some 1,500 volumes on the history of architecture, architectural theory and garden art in the broadest sense. It represents a virtually complete collection of the key works of architectural theory from Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands, spanning the start of the 16th century to the early 19th century (focusing on the 17th and 18th centuries). All of the titles from this part of the collection are incorporated in the TIB Portal. The monographs in the Haupt Collection are gradually being digitised and made available for viewing free of charge as retro-digitised copies in our viewer. You can already find over 500 scanned volumes of the collection.

To the digitised monographs

 

How can you use items from the Haupt Collection?

All materials from the Haupt Collection are for reference only. It is recommended that you first use the digitised copies available online. They enable easy access to the works, make the collections better known, secure the contents and protect the original collection.

Archive documents from Groups I and II may be viewed by personal appointment only. Individual volumes from Group III can be searched and usually ordered in the TIB Portal. However, items may only be used at the special reading desks via the Reading Room Information Desk from Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 16:30 (on Saturdays by personal appointment only). Please also note the instructions for handling old books (PDF).

In particular cases, oversized formats, volumes in a precarious or poor condition and a number of other works may not be available for viewing in the reading room, in which case accompanied viewing at their storage location is usually offered as an alternative.

A selected stock of 100 works (Garden Design, 16th to 19th century) is available in microfiche format. This variant will usually be provided when an order is placed, so as to help conserve the original volumes. These (and other) items are now accessible online throughout the campus.