Library profile

The Dr. Friedrich Teßmann Library was founded by the provincial law No. 5 of 16 February 1982 and bears the name of the South Tyrolean jurist and politician Friedrich Teßmann (* 15 February 1884 on Castle “Schloss Korb” in Eppan; † 23 June 1958).
1In 1957, Dr. Friedrich Teßmann donated his private collection consisting above all of Tyrolean literature (about 12.000 volumes and over 1000 images), to the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The condition was that the collection must be made accessible to the public in Bozen and expanded constantly with relevant new publications.
The Austrian Academy of Sciences assigned the administration and the maintenance of the Teßmann collection to the South Tyrolean cultural institute “Südtiroler Kulturinstitut” that already held a small study library.

When the Dr. Friedrich Teßmann Library was built in 1982, the Südtiroler Kulturinstitut released its study library to the Teßmann Library. The Academy gave the constantly growing Teßmann collection to the Teßmann Library as a permanent loan.

Today, the Dr. Friedrich Teßmann Library is South Tyrol’s biggest scientific general library. Both library collections are presented to the user as one unity.

Flyer of the Teßmann Library (german) 

50 years Teßmann (1958-2008)


Collection emphasis

The Dr. Friedrich Teßmann Library mainly collects German-language literature concerning different domains (except juvenile literature).

Tyrolean literature
The Dr. Friedrich Teßmann Library aims at exhaustively collecting literature that has been written by South Tyrolean authors, literature concerning South Tyrol and literature that has been published in South Tyrol. We also give a special importance to publications from the historic area of Tyrol.