Exhibition area of the Saxon State Library with a treasury where the Dresden Maya Codex is on permanent display – free admission.
August 28, 2026 – January 16, 2027
Building plans, maps, prints, photographs, music, and contemporary art tell the story of the SLUB's buildings and those of its predecessors, and of how spaces are planned and perceived.
September 16, 2026 – March 31, 2027
In the Galerie am Lesesaal, children's and young adult books from more than 150 years show how reading material for young people and its illustrations have changed.
June 30, 2026 – January 24, 2027
Photographs from the Deutsche Fotothek show Leipzig in the final years of the GDR; on view in the Bib-Lounge cafeteria (Mon–Fri 10:00–18:00).
The Buchmuseum (Book Museum) grew out of a room for particularly precious books that the librarian Konstantin Karl Falkenstein set up in the Japanisches Palais in 1835: frequently shown items were kept there, protected under glass. Exactly one hundred years later, Erhart Kästner, under director Martin Bollert, expanded this room into a book museum in its own right.
The bombing of Dresden in 1945 destroyed the Japanisches Palais; many holdings were damaged or lost. After the war the library found temporary quarters in a former barracks on Marienallee in the Albertstadt district, where the Buchmuseum reopened in 1952 and remained for around five decades.
With the move into the new SLUB building on Zellescher Weg on the TU Dresden campus, the Buchmuseum received new rooms in 2003. The treasury on the third floor permanently displays the Dresden Maya Codex, one of the very few surviving pictorial manuscripts of the pre-Hispanic Maya. Changing exhibitions show manuscripts, early printed books, maps, music, photographs from the Deutsche Fotothek, and film documents from the library's collections; the Galerie am Lesesaal (gallery by the reading room) provides a second exhibition space.
Admission is free.
Free admission to all exhibitions and events.
Step-free access with automatic door to the right of the main entrance; three accessible parking spaces in front of the barrier. Elevators with floor announcements, accessible restrooms on all floors, induction loops, tactile floor plans at the security desk, and the blindFind orientation app. Guided tours in sign language and telephone tours ("Bei Anruf Kultur") of the Maya Codex.
The central library has a parent-and-child room.
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek
Streetcar line 11 to Zellescher Weg; bus line 61 to Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, bus line 66 to Technische Universität/Fritz-Foerster-Platz.
Paid parking
Parking lot next to the central library (30 minutes free, then €0.50 for the first hour and €1 per additional hour, max. €5 per day; payment at the machine in the foyer) and the underground parking of the DrePunct library/makerspace. Accessible parking spaces to the left in front of the barrier to the SLUB parking lot.
nextbike station 4441 in front of the main entrance on Zellescher Weg.
Get directionsBib-Lounge cafeteria on the second floor (Mon–Fri 10:00–18:00) with changing photo exhibitions from the Deutsche Fotothek; Wi-Fi in the library.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
| Guided tours | yes |
|---|---|
| Photography | Filming and video recording only with a filming permit from the SLUB |
| Good to know | Public guided tours of the treasury and Buchmuseum usually on Saturdays at 14:00 (registration required), plus curator-led tours of the special exhibitions; group tours by arrangement. Telephone tour of the Maya Codex in the "Bei Anruf Kultur" program. |
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