European Legal Studies Institute (ELSI)
Once a place where Osnabrück residents bought sofas and armchairs, today there is the European Legal Studies Institute, or "ELSI" for short (Building 44). What was once the Sandkühler furniture store became the home of the institute in the School of Law, which was founded in 2003, and the affiliated research-oriented institute library, which belongs to the university library, which was founded in 2009. There is not much left of the former furniture store with its rather modest facade
The building was not only modernized to comply with the latest energy-saving standards, it was almost completely rebuilt except for the building’s load-bearing structure itself. However, anyone who takes a peek inside the ELSI will notice some of the structures of the old furniture store that have been incorporated into the modern architecture of the institute. The building with its striking red bays and glass entrance hall on Süsterstraße was supported by both the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony as a "research building of national significance".
