Library & Mediatheque

The Städel Museum’s library and mediatheque provide the means of delving deeper into the world of art. The reference library offers school pupils, students, scholars, gallery owners, collectors and interested visitors audio-visual media, images and extensive literature.

Books, Images and Audiovisual Media

In the Library & Mediatheque you will find 500 regularly appearing journals on art history, painting, sculpture, drawings and prints, photography and the art of antiquity. A wide variety of inventory and exhibition catalogues as well as a collection of approximately 35,000 auction catalogues create an excellent basis for in-depth research on the artists, collections and exhibitions of important European museums and the activities of prominent auction houses.

The Aventis Foundation and the Dr. Marschner Stiftung support the expansion, media facilities and educational offers of the library and mediatheque. The “Lernen lernen” (“Learning to Learn”) programme is carried out with support from the Commerzbank-Stiftung.

The History of the Städel Library

The Städel Library has its origins in the private library of museum founder Johann Friedrich Städel (1728–1816). In his foundation letter, he laid the cornerstone for the establishment of an institutional library. In 2009, within the framework of a partnership, the Städel Library placed some 13,000 volumes from its own holdings at the disposal of the art library of Frankfurt’s Goethe-Universität.