Library staff will see the biggest changes in terms of their day-to-day work. They, along with 17 different library inventories, have moved into the new and largest branch library of the University and Regional Library of Saxony-Anhalt (ULB). They now work in a building which has been called the campus’s showpiece by nearly everyone who has set foot in it. The building offers impressive architecture, modern furnishings, sophisticated technology, longer opening hours and a new catalogue system. Now you don’t have to painstakingly search for your literature in the branch libraries scattered throughout the city. The books are now located centrally on campus in a library that is open seven days a week.

During his 47 years as a professor and director of the institute, Julius Kühn created an agricultural education facility at the site of the present-day Steintor Campus that was globally without rival. He bought adjacent land, had stables built and planted a crop garden and a garden for domesticated animals that were used in teaching and research. Several trees planted at the time are now natural monuments that provide shade between Ludwig Wucherer Strasse 2 and the library. Up to 1,000 animals lived for a time on site. Several of these are now specimens at the Julius Kühn Domesticated Animal Museum. The flat, unmodernised building and the last post of the agricultural scientists on the site has been preserved. The valuable collection of domesticated animal skeletons is still being used for teaching and research.

After his death, the facilities and institutes which Kühn created were extended starting in 1910 and condensed into the Faculty of Agriculture. Four of the buildings built back then to accommodate the expanding institutes have been modernised and restored and are now part of the new campus.

On 30 October 2006 the state government passed the following resolution: The new Centre for the Humanities and Social Sciences, quickly known only as GSZ, was to be established at the site once chosen by Kühn. The project was to receive 52 million euros, three-quarters of which was to come from the European Regional Development Fund. Building work was in the hands of Saxony-Anhalt Construction and Property Management (BLSA) until the building was handed over in 2015.

In 2009 the agricultural-, nutritional and geosciences moved to the Weinberg Campus, enabling planning to get underway. The university’s Department 4 – “Construction, Property and Building Management”, urban planners, architects, experts in historical monument preservation, future users and many other people in charge worked alongside BLSA on this major project. All of the construction, modernisation and restoration work was carried out simultaneously at the university’s largest building site – a show of strength by the Building Department.

“Such a complex project needs the support and expertise of all of the units in the department. Other facilities, like the IT Service Centre, also worked closely on the project,” explains GSZ project leader, Alexander Keck, who had coordinated the project since 2012. Extensive changes were made multiple times: the old buildings in Emil Abderhalden Strasse were originally going to be modernised, however it turned out that this would cost several times more than constructing a new building. Therefore demolition work began on site in 2011. Spring 2012 saw the start of renovation work on the buildings in Adam-Kuckhoff Strasse and Ludwig Wucherer Strasse and the construction of the new institutional buildings and library. An expenditure cap meant, however, that the library had to be reduced in size.

From the time of the site selection nine years ago until the final touches were put on just recently, project managers have been sitting together every week in planning talks with experts and future users or have been visiting the building site. The requirements made by the fire brigade, the historical monument preservation board and disability representatives were continually met and finances were kept in check. “You learned more about communicating than about the thing itself,” recounts Matthias Buck, praising the university’s Building Department. “They really listened to us when it came to designing our rooms.”

Acoustic specialists listened very carefully in the newly modernised building at Adam Kuckhoff Strasse 35. Thanks to their help, the so-called presentation hall, a high, bright room, received a soundproof design. Now it not only offers ideal teaching conditions, it can also be used as a performance room by speech scientists. The new campus is also family friendly. A total of nine nappy changing stations were installed, at least one in every building. Adam Kuckhoff Strasse 34b also offers parents and children their own play and relaxation room.

The interiors of the old buildings appear unconventionally colourful. “Restoration investigations enabled us to recreate the original colours and patterns wherever possible,” explains Alexander Keck. Apparently the agricultural scientists back then preferred colour. The walls are painted lilac, green, wine red and orange. And the original mechanically operated windows, wrought iron door handles and newly restored seating in the historic lecture halls lend the buildings their own unique character and charm.

The first members of the humanities and social sciences departments moved into the old buildings in February 2015 and into the new buildings in July. The move was finally over when the last books were placed on the shelves of the new library in September. “That was our last big move,” says Horst-Dieter Foerster, head of the Building Department, who accompanied the project throughout. It was a lot less time-consuming than the move to the Weinberg Campus. “It was primarily a move between offices. We didn’t have to transfer any ongoing trials and we only had to set up two labs.” Nevertheless the move required around 10,000 moving boxes. State-of-the-art technology now sits alongside university history.

The new institutional buildings in Emil Abderhalden Strasse, which are long and more functional-looking, house two labs for the archaeologists, a recording studio for the speech scientists, and a seminar room equipped with video conferencing for the Japanologists. Interactive whiteboards were installed in some of the classrooms and the entire campus is equipped with uni-wifi. Soon the site will also be better connected spatially as well: the Steintor Passage, which is currently being built at the southwest end of the site, will provide a direct link to Grosse Steinstrasse and the Steintor traffic junction. The new campus will leave its mark not only on the humanities and social sciences departments, but on the cityscape as well.