For the past several centuries, a real landmark of Berlin is considered to be a Boulevard called Unter den Linden. This is the place where the monuments, impressive for its size and majestic appearance. One of them is the Old library, which houses more than seven million books.

The building, constructed in the Baroque style, was built in the period from 1775 through 1780. The project was designed by architect Josef Emanuel Fischer von Erlach from Austria and Georg Christian Unger from Prussia. The old library was the order of Frederick the Great, who sought to make available to the bourgeoisie literature, long considered a privilege of the nobility, government officials and Ministers. On the portal of the building to this day you can see the Latin inscription meaning "food for the soul".

In 1784 the Old library was kept around 150 thousand volumes and manuscripts of many prominent figures of the Enlightenment, including Kant, Voltaire, Diderot, Leibniz, and Rousseau.

The appearance of the library building is very similar to Michael's corps of the Imperial Palace, which houses the winter residence of the monarchs of Austria of the Habsburg dynasty. This is due to the fact that Friedrich ordered to copy when creating the project, the Old library. But, given the fact that the construction of the residence time, then a copy was presented to the public for almost 110 years earlier than the original itself.

In 1914 it hosted the faculty of law known in Germany the Humboldt University. During the war this building was greatly damaged, but were able to fully restore, so now everyone can enjoy the magnificent view of the library and the exhibition which takes place within it, which tells of the king Frederick and his life and also submitted various documents of the past.