Mourning the loss of a friend of the State Library
News from 08/07/2026
Klaus G. Saur (1941–2026) passed away recently. An obituary for an outstanding figure in the publishing world and a devoted friend of the Berlin State Library, written by Achim Bonte, Director-General of the Berlin State Library.
Just over a week after his 85th birthday, the publisher Klaus G. Saur passed away in Munich. His outstanding contribution to the publishing world, his active involvement in professional associations and his profound expertise in the history of books are already being honoured by the professional community in detailed and appreciative obituaries. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to pay tribute, with the utmost respect and gratitude, to Mr Saur’s highly commendable work as Chairman of the Friends and Supporters’ Association of our institution. From 2006 to 2014, the ‘Association of Friends of the Berlin State Library’ bore his distinct stamp and character. […]
With great passion, Mr Saur established a sophisticated and varied programme of events for the members of ‘his’ association. He turned the association’s annual receptions into dazzling events and initiated a highly regarded series of discussions, in which he conversed with distinguished contemporaries such as the science manager Wolfgang Frühwald, the astrophysicist Reimar Lüst, the historian Gerhard A. Ritter, as well as Jutta Limbach, Michael W. Blumenthal, Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, Joachim Gauck and the Protestant regional bishop Wolfgang Huber. And on the rare occasions when he was not among the panellists himself, he invited prominent figures to engage in dialogue. […]
When Saur brought the Munich exhibition ‘The White Rose – Student Resistance against Hitler, Munich 1942/1943’ to Berlin, he supplemented the exhibition itself with a two-day colloquium and once again secured first-class speakers for the lectures at the State Library.
Klaus G. Saur also devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Max Herrmann Prize, which is still awarded today by the Friends of the Library to individuals who have rendered outstanding service to our institution or to the library sector. A number of prominent figures were honoured during the Saur era: Bernhard Fabian and Karin von Welck, Günter de Bruyn, Inge Jens, Georg Siebeck and Micha Ullman, Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel and the Breslauer Foundation in New York. […]
Mr Saur used a bequest running into a substantial six-figure sum, which came to the Friends’ Association during those years, to generously support costly acquisitions for the State Library using the association’s funds. He gladly and wholeheartedly subsidised numerous purchases that the library would otherwise have been unable to afford. If the purchase price for new treasures still could not be covered by the library’s own funds and the support of the Friends’ Association, he did not content himself with the usual practice of drafting written applications to request third-party funding from supporting foundations – he travelled in person directly to the foundations and, with empathy, eloquence and finesse, convinced those in charge that they absolutely had to contribute the missing portion of the purchase price.
A matter close to his heart: the Bonhoeffer estate
Another project close to Klaus G. Saur’s heart was the task of physically safeguarding part of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s estate and restoring nearly 200 sheets of paper. He wrote letters and made phone calls; he rallied support and campaigned for the cause until the necessary funds had been raised here too.
The donations he facilitated to the State Library are of inestimable historical value. His excellent contacts within the German and international publishing world enabled the Manuscripts Department to acquire the remaining documents from the Oxford-based publisher Bruno Cassirer, the extensive company archive of the Tübingen-based academic publisher Mohr Siebeck, and also the archive of the long-established Göttingen-based academic publisher Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Klaus G. Saurs’s multifaceted and tireless work will thus live on within the institution, not least in the 19 boxes and 21 folders of his personal estate, which he has bequeathed to the State Library. He was a close and loyal friend of the State Library, possessing admirable creativity and drive. We owe him an immense debt of gratitude and bid him farewell with a sense of wistfulness and sorrow.