It is one of the most dramatic about faces in architectural history Mention German architecture and design today and images of clean lines and functional Yet somehow people we now associate with industrious and sober attitudes also produced the world’s most flamboyant examples of one of its most flamboyant architectural styles—Rococo which flourished in Europe in the mid-18th century that you were looking at one of the world’s most opulent rooms There’s the geometric marble floor guarded by gleaming porcelain and gold statues ringed by delicate columns of blue and pink marble an undulating balustrade of blue marble marking a gallery girdling the second-floor windows and a dramatic ceiling fresco jam packed with allegory and historic references and you’ve got yourself a tour-de-force showroom One of the painted wood sculptures at Wiblingen monastery library only the ceiling fresco and the floors are as you see them Because Wiblingen is undoubtedly one of the world’s most detailed and convincing spaces done in the illusionary style known as trompe l’oeil The library is housed in a large pink abbey located a few miles south of the city of Ulm A monastery was founded there in 1093 for the Benedictines by the counts of Kirchberg the monastery became renowned for its scriptorium the room where jaw-dropping illustrated literary works were handcrafted by monks the monastery—indeed the greater German-speaking world—was immensely wealthy thanks to decades of peace that followed centuries of war With a new style (Rococo) all the rage largely as a reaction to the rigid splendor of Louis XIV As Jacques Bosser notes in his book The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World the plan for the two-story library in the abbey’s northern wing is a simple rectangular box measuring 74 ½ by 36 feet The library project began in 1740 under Abbot Meinrad Hamberger who wanted a space that he said would “awaken a new desire and a new love for spiritual and learned exercises among the monks.” This meant that not only did the space need to house literary works that could expand the minds of his monks but it also needed to be a space that visually inspired its inhabitants The abbot turned to Franz Martin Kuen, all of 25 years old, to complete spectacular frescos that as The New York Times once noted turned Wiblingen into “an amazing testimonial to iconography… Here all knowledge legend and allegory seems to have been captured in paint or plaster.” The young artist completed the ceiling fresco in just six months in 1744 using paints from natural pigments where he studied with Tiepolo and Piazzetta returning to Wiblingen in 1750 to complete the paintings underneath the balcony including the tone-on-tone (a painting style in which different shades of the same color are used) portraits of historical figures Even the doors are painted to look more ornate than they really are you’ll see opposite you on the second-floor gallery a statue within a niche which actually opens to reveal a staircase down to the main floor of the library what dominates are the marbleized stucco columns The faux-marble pillars are just one of a number of magnificent illusionary works the other notable ones being the entrance doors (Also note what is inscribed in Latin above them: “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”) The secret door that connects the upper gallery to the main floor The central floor is also ringed by eight statues that look as if they are of a shiny porcelain but are in fact painted wood Only 96 originals remain out of a magnificent collection which once numbered more than 15,000 They were organized according to the theme of the scene in the fresco above them most were stolen by the French during the Napoleonic wars and the rest taken by the king of Wurttemberg they were stripped from the church in the 1803 secularization the region underwent under Napoleon (Germany before Napoleon was made up of hundreds of little states and principalities many of which were controlled by the church it had roughly three dozen and many of the assets of the church were liquidated and awarded to those who favored Napoleon.) Today the monastery is part of the University of Ulm another monastic library was built and modeled after it it was almost as if somebody felt that the pink and blue raspberry color palette of Wiblingen was too gloomy and we needed to up the cutesy to baby blue and millennial pink The abbey of Bad Schussenried has its origins dating back to 1183 but like Wiblingen the folks running it decided it needed a makeover in 1753 actual marble columns would have been too heavy for the room Schussenried never quite achieved the fame of Wiblingen While elegant and totally somewhere I can see women in taffeta gowns reading and fainting it doesn’t possess Wiblingen’s sense of shock and awe Rarely will you see it in the giant coffee table books that round up the most beautiful libraries or the listicles that populate the web for instance the statues that ring the open floor They are statues of children from the “wrong” religions: a little Lutheran a Muslim (with a turban and scimitar--iconic apparel after the Turkish Wars) because children just don’t know any better Schussenried’s bookcases are covered with painted fabric to protect the books from sun and decay Rows of books are painted on the fabric and their spines are all white to keep with the uniformity of the space The two-story hall held twice the collection as Wiblingen (30,000 books) and so even the sides of the bookcases were built in with books your guide will also open the centuries-old shelves to show the desk and chair the clever carpenters had incorporated The ceiling painting here was done by Franz Georg Hermann and is more solemn than that at Wiblingen but unlike Wiblingen the ceiling and the gallery balustrade are decorated with dozens of wonderful white putti all of which miraculously survived the centuries and are original Schussenried was also a victim (depending on your point of view) of secularization, and it was awarded to the countess of Schussenried and Weissenau. But, notes the Times she lost the famed book collection to the king of Wurttemberg The countess sued and managed to get some of them back only to then be forced to sell them to pay for the repairs on the giant monastery she now owned the library with a statue of Lutherans as the “wrong” religion later became part of a mental hospital and was used by Lutherans there to hold services although on my visits I couldn’t decide if I’d rather read or attend a ball in them They are truly imaginative and exuberant spaces two of the finest examples of Rococo anywhere in the world but also of our remarkable ability throughout the centuries to build awe-inspiring spaces to read a book Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here William O’Connor is a former Travel Editor for The Daily Beast. He graduated from Georgetown University and also writes about books and art. Follow him on Instagram at @woconnor11 This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Some are necessary and we can’t switch them off Others help us to provide you with the best possible service We use cookies to personalise content and ads to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic We also share anonymous information about your use of our site with our social media By accepting cookies you will be helping us to continue to provide you with the best possible service A Waitzinger concrete pump (left) alongside a Liebherr concrete truck and conveyor Liebherr Group has acquired German concrete pump manufacturer WaitzingerBaumaschinen for an undisclosed price Waitzinger makes truck mounted concrete pumps trailer concrete pumps and truck mixer concrete pumps offers the “perfect complement” to Liebherr’s existing concrete division produces mobile and stationary mixing plants and truck mixers and conveyor belts for truck mixers Liebherr said in a statement; “The acquisition of Waitzinger has afforded Liebherr-Mischtechnik the status of full-range supplier in the concrete technology sector “Liebherr's goal is to expand the concrete pump product range and thus further improve its international competitive position in the concrete technology sector.” Waitzinger’s products will now be distributed via Liebherr's international sales and service network Liebherr said the acquisition would present Waitzinger's Neu-Ulm factory and its employees with “opportunities for growth and secures prospects for the future.” Liebherr-Mischtechnik employs almost 700 people at the Bad Schussenried site.