Kempen - Classics Collection in the City Library
Burgstraße 19
47906 Kempen
Tel.: +49 2152 917-412
Fax.: +49 2152 917-413
E-Mail:
Internet: bibliothek.kempen.de
Bibliothekssigel: 436 = Y9034
The "Classics Collection," previously only accessible through the local card catalog, numbers a good 2,000 volumes of fiction, related secondary literature, and literature of related fields from antiquity to the 20th century. The majority of the holdings are from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but a few dozen volumes were published before 1800 and date back to the 16th century. The collection is characterized by multi-volume editions and big names such as Homer and Tacitus, Shakespeare and Grimmelshausen, Klopstock and Keller - and of course Goethe and Schiller. But there are also numerous volumes by local greats such as Otto Brües or formerly popular but now forgotten literary figures such as Gustav Nieritz.
The books previously belonged primarily to two private individuals: Theo Herzogenrath, a senior councillor of education in Düsseldorf, and Prof. Dr. Karl Rembert (1868-1966), a regional historian from Krefeld who was the founder of the Burg Linn Museum and the magazine "Die Heimat". They came to the library via the Kreisarchiv Viersen in Kempen, where the largest part of Rembert's library (formerly about 7,000 volumes) is still located. The holdings are not increased according to plan, but may grow through gifts or donations from other institutions. The cataloging of the library has been largely financed by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and took place in two phases in 2002/03 and 2007/08.