Keys handed over for the Berlin State Library in the Unter den Linden building
Press release from 11/04/2019
Basic refurbishment of the historic building complex in keeping with its listed status is complete
Berlin. The keys to the Berlin State Library in the Unter den Linden building were handed over today at a ceremony attended by 300 invited guests. This marks the completion of the basic refurbishment and extension of the over 100-year-old listed building complex, one of the largest cultural construction sites in the federal government's remit.
Monika Grütters, Minister of State for Culture and the Media: "The 11 million books in the Berlin State Library, like all other written records in German archives and libraries, are the memory of our country. We want to preserve this immeasurable treasure, make it accessible to as many people as possible and look after the facilities in which it is stored. Today, the State Library stands before us freshly renovated and invites us to rediscover it as a whole and take possession of it. In place of the old domed hall, which was destroyed in the war, architect Hans-Günter Merz has designed an impressive, bright glass cube, which, like an intellectual centre in the middle of the building, invites you to study, but is also a lively place of exchange, communication and debate."
Anne Katrin Bohle, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior: "Building in existing buildings and during ongoing operations is a challenge, especially in times of a good construction boom. Nevertheless, the expert, committed building administration and planners have succeeded in an exemplary manner."
Since 2005, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin in the Unter den Linden building has been extensively refurbished and an extension added under the direction of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) on behalf of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK).
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation: "With the now completed refurbishment of this temple of education and science from the late imperial era, a building that turns the boulevard Unter den Linden into a boulevard of splendour is back in the spotlight. The building is part of the historic educational landscape in the centre of Berlin. The refurbishment and extension of the war-damaged building was carried out without interrupting operations, in keeping with its listed status, responsibly, with the utmost care and to a high standard of quality. The result is a historic and at the same time ultra-modern library with a central reading room and various specialist reading rooms, optimally air-conditioned and protected against fire, equipped with book transport systems, group work rooms and a digitisation centre: a worthy treasure house for the historical holdings and a highly functional contemporary library."
BBR President Petra Wesseler emphasised: "The scale and complexity of this building project are unparalleled: It was necessary to reconcile the refurbishment of a listed building with the requirements of contemporary library operations, building within the historic building stock while at the same time fitting in a new building for the reading room. The dome and barrel vault had to be redesigned in line with the historical room cubature. In this project, both the monument preservation and the complex structural challenges were mastered brilliantly."
The Director General of the Berlin State Library, Barbara Schneider-Kempf, explained that "over the many years of extensive construction work, we have succeeded in organising the library operations in such a way that academic work was possible throughout. Keeping access to the often unique collections open all these years was the right decision for the researchers of this generation."
The northern part of the building was renovated in several stages up to 2012 and equipped with modern building technology, including air-conditioning the stacks for the first time and installing a box conveyor system. The contemporary extension, designed as a glass cube, houses the multi-storey general reading room and vault stacks for the library's particularly valuable special collections. Parts of the Academy of Sciences building have been in operation since 2014. In spring 2017, the event area, the General Directorate's rooms, special reading rooms and additional office space followed.
The central task of the recently completed construction phase was to revitalise the building's characteristic access axis from the open entrance hall Unter den Linden via the listed Brunnenhof courtyard and the central staircase hall into the vestibule. From here, visitors will in future enter the new part of the building with the General Reading Room, which, like its predecessor, will be the architectural highlight at the end of the central access axis. At the same time, other reading rooms for special materials have been refurbished and furnished with modern furniture according to a standardised design concept; wherever possible, the furnishings from 1914 have been restored and supplemented with modern furniture.
In the coming weeks, the temporary facilities will be dismantled and the extensive relocations will follow, with the State Library planning to reopen in 2020. Once the main entrance on Unter den Linden has been opened, the Library Museum will be created on the ground floor in the area of the current temporary entrance foyer as a follow-up construction project. For the first time, the State Library will be able to permanently exhibit a small part of its holdings here. The extension work will begin immediately after the temporary facilities have been dismantled and the basic refurbishment work has been completed.
The total costs are expected to be around 470 million euros. When it reopens in 2020, the State Library in the Unter den Linden building will have just under 650 user workstations and over 50,000 square metres of usable space, around five times as much as the Bode Museum. The entire complex comprises 107,000 square metres of gross floor space. This makes the State Library one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world.