Die Kunstsammlung der Universität Göttingen

In the organizer's words:

The history of the University of Göttingen's art collection goes back to the founding years of the Georgia Augusta. The collection is therefore one of the oldest cultural institutions in Göttingen.

Its basic holdings originated from two important donations: in 1736, the Frankfurt patrician Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach (1687-1769) decided to leave his extensive holdings of prints and drawings to the University after his death. The second formative donation consisted of around 300 paintings and was made by Johann Wilhelm Zschorn (1714-1795). In this way, the oldest university art collection in Germany was created towards the end of the 18th century.

As the first curator of the art collection and the first art historian at the university, Johann Dominik Fiorillo (1748-1821) saw the art collection as illustrative material for art history lessons. Over the years, the collection has been enriched by further smaller donations as well as occasional permanent loans and purchases, and sculptures, works by international video artists and photographs have also been added to the repertoire. Thanks to generous support from the Universitätsbund Göttingen, the Klosterkammer Hannover and other donors and sponsors, the collection can still be expanded today. The art collection is highly regarded among experts, particularly due to its valuable holdings of original drawings, and requests for loans are received from Germany and abroad.

After changing locations, the collection has been housed in the Auditorium since 1987 - an ideal place to organize special exhibitions in addition to the permanent presentation. A key aspect is the inclusion of all areas of the collection in teaching. Students of art history have the opportunity to work directly on the objects and realize exhibitions they have designed themselves.

In order to be able to preserve and expand the collection in the future, the university continues to hope for the support of numerous art enthusiasts.