The following is a guest post by Robert Newlen, the Assistant Law Librarian for Collections, Outreach and Services in the Law Library of Congress. Robert has previously blogged about the Kellogg Biennial Lecture and Souvenirs from Moscow.
I was recently in Berlin and explored Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), the oldest university in Berlin. The impressive building on the Bebelplatz in the photo below, formerly the Royal Library, houses the law school faculty.
A plaque (below) in the square in front of the building bears this inscription: “On May 10, 1933 in the middle of the square National Socialist students burned the works of hundreds of free writers, journalists, philosophers, and scholars.”
This event attracted 40,000 persons to hear a speech by Joseph Goebbels in which he declared, “No to decadence and moral corruption.”