This is the accessibility standards compliant alternative version of the virtual campus tour. If you are not affected by a disability, we recommend you visit the original tour instead. The 360-degree tour is more immersive and includes the full high resolution images. Visit the University of Passau 360-degree campus tour.
Inside the central library, students like to revise in the huge, bright reading room. The Northern wall is a two-floor book shelf, with a walkway suspended from steel frames in the ceiling. Stairs lead up to an area reserved for research students.
Between the enormous panoramic windows and the book shelves, study desks are lined up in orderly rows. Just outside the door, a small reception desk ensures that someone is around at busy times to answer questions, respond to any disturbances, and manage the reading room's light levels. The reading room is a silent space.
Elsewhere in the library, social study spaces like the Library Lounge offer relaxed opportunities for studying and having conversations.
The reading room is roughly horseshoe-shaped, with huge windows all along the inside of the horseshoe. Along the legs of the horseshoe, raised carrel desk / mini offices hover above the general reading area: these are bookable work spaces for research students.
At the far end of the room, two large banners decorate the walls, showing an ancient philosophical song text in Latin and its poetic translation into German by Konrad Weiss:
Wenn hinter Wolken
finster sie hausen,
schicken ihr Licht die
Sterne vergebens.
Rollt er das Meer und
wühlt er im Gischt, der
ruhlose Südwind,
bald, die zuweilen
gläsern und gleich ist
heiteren Tagen,
heut sich dem Anblick,
schwimmt erst der Schlamm auf,
trüb nur die Woge.
Hoch von den Bergen
freien Gefälles
stürzt sich der Wildbach,
oft wird gelöst vom
Felsen ein Block ihm
heftig zum Riegel.
Du also, willst du
schauen mit klarem
Lichte, was wirklich,
willst auf dem rechten
Pfad deines Wegs gehn,
freue dich nicht mehr,
nichts mehr auch fürchte,
Hoffnung laß hinten,
Schmerzs laß nicht bei dir,
trüb ist der Sinn und
liegt noch in Fesseln,
wo all dies Macht hat.
Nubibus atris
Condita nullum
Fundere possunt
Sidera lumen.
Si mare volvens
Turbidus Auster
Misceat aestum,
Vitrea dudum
Parque serenis
Unda diebus
Mox resoluto
Sordida caeno
Visibus obstat.
Quique vagatur
Montibus altis
Defluus amnis,
Saepe resistit
Rupe soluti
Obice saxi.
Tu quoque, si vis
Lumine claro
Cernere verum,
Tramite recto
Carpere callem;
Gaudia pelle,
Pelle timorem
Spemque fugato,
Nec dolor adsit.
Nubila mens est
Vinctaque frenis,
Haec ubi regnant.
When the stars are hidden
by black clouds,
no light
can they afford.
When the boisterous south wind
rolls along the sea
and stirs the surge,
the water,
but now as clear as glass,
right as the fair sun's light,
is dark,
impenetrable to sight,
with stirred and scattered sand.
The stream,
that wanders
down the mountain's side,
must often find a stumbling-block,
a stone within its path torn
from the hill's own rock.
So too shalt thou: if thou wouldst see
the truth
in undimmed light,
choose the straight road,
the beaten path;
away with passing joys!
away with fear!
put vain hopes to flight!
and grant no place to grief!
Where these distractions reign,
the mind is clouded o'er,
the soul is bound in chains.
The University Library is a hub of books, quiet learning spaces and social study areas like the Library Lounge. There’s more: each faculty has a separate library (also filled with books and learning spaces!)
Aside from local hardcopies, library users can access digital resources and inter-library loans.
Visit the library website for more information.
The University focuses its research on the guiding themes of ‘Digitalisation, Networked Society and (Internet) Cultures’, ‘Europe and Global Transformation’ and ‘Migration, Sustainable Development and Just Order’.
By 2028, the University of Passau intends to become one of the leading centres in Europe for basic interdisciplinary research on the effects of digitalisation on society.
Visit the Digital Research Magazine to read some of the latest updates.
One of the University’s strengths is our interdisciplinary approach. The most obvious showcases are the International Cultural and Business Studies degree programmes, but the approach is evident in programmes ranging from Governance and Public Policy to Internet Computing.
Degree programmes >
