Hamburg The institute was formed in
Hamburg, Germany, from the library of
Aby Warburg (1866–1929), a student of
Renaissance art and culture, and a scion of the wealthy Jewish
Warburg family. As an
art historian, Warburg had become dissatisfied with an aestheticising approach to art history and was interested in a more philosophical and
interdisciplinary approach. While studying the culture of Renaissance
Florence, he grew interested in the influence of
antiquity on modern culture, and the study of this second life of the
Classical World became his life work. In 1900, he decided to establish the Warburg-Bibliothek für Kulturwissenschaft (Warburg Library of the Science of Culture), but, although he had begun collecting books in 1886, he didn't actually establish his library until 1909. Warburg was joined in 1913 by the
Vienna art historian
Fritz Saxl (1890–1948). They discussed the possibility of converting the library into a research institute in 1914, but
World War I and illness interfered. After Warburg returned to Hamburg in 1924, he and Saxl initiated the process of conversion, and the Warburg-Bibliothek officially opened its doors as a research institute in 1926. The institute was later affiliated with the
University of Hamburg.
Neo-Kantian philosopher and professor at the newly founded University
Ernst Cassirer used it, and his students
Erwin Panofsky and
Edgar Wind worked there. The original Warburg Library building in Hamburg is now a research institute,
Warburg-Haus Hamburg.
London In 1933, under the shadow of
Nazism, the institute was relocated to London, where, with the aid of
Lord Lee of Fareham,
Samuel Courtauld, and the Warburg family, it was installed in
Thames House in 1934. The institute moved to the
Imperial Institute Buildings in 1937. In 1944 it became associated with the University of London. and
David Freedberg (from July 2015 to April 2017). In 2011, legal action was started by the University of London together with the institute's advisory council about their disagreement regarding the meaning of the 1944 deed of trust that granted the university the collection; the pledge "to maintain and preserve the collection 'in perpetuity' as 'an independent unit'" is problematised by the institute's annual deficit, estimated at half a million pounds. ==Building==