The Library in Flames in 2004, Associated Press

The Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany houses a major collection of German literature and historical documents. The library contains:

• 1,000,000 books
• 2,000 medieval and early modern manuscripts
• 600 ancestral registers
• 10,000 maps
• 4,000 musical scripts

The research library today has approximately 850,000 volumes with collection emphasis on the German literature. Among its special collections is an important Shakespeare collection of approximately 10,000 volumes, as well as a 16th century Bible connected to Martin Luther.

History

The Duchess Anna Amalia Library is named for the Anna Amalia, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who arranged in 1766 for the courtly (hoefische) book collection to be moved into the library.

The main building is the Green Castle (Grünes Schloss), Anna's residence, which had been built between 1562 and 1565. The dowager Duchess had the building converted into a library in 1761. The Duchess, seeking a tutor for her son Duke Carl August, hired Christoph Martin Wieland, an important poet and noted translator of William Shakespeare. Wieland's Shakespeare volumes formed the core of the collection. From an architectural standpoint, the library is world famous for its oval Rococo hall featuring a portrait of Grand Duke Carl August.

One of the library's most famous patrons was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who worked there from 1797 to 1832. The library also includes the world's largest Faust collection. The Duchess' significant 13,000-volume music collection is also available in the library.

In World War II, most of the collection was housed elsewhere to preserve them from Allied bombing.

Today, the library is a public research library for literature and art history. The main focus is German literature from the Classical and the late Romantic eras.

Modern extension

In 2001, construction began on a new multiple-floor facility to house some 1,000,000 books under the "Plaza of Democracy" (Platz der Demokratie) between the Music University and the Red and Yellow Castle. In its pre-renovation state, the building had structural flaws which endangered many valuable books and the special collections.

The new development is estimated to cost €24 million and has an area of 6,300 m². The area is divided into upper and lower floors. The new building would connect the historical library building with the user areas of the reconstructed Red and Yellow Castle. The grand opening of the new complex is slated for February 2005.

Fire of 2004

Part of the collection was burned in a fire on September 2, 2004, which destroyed 30,000 irreplaceable volumes, with another 20,000 severely damaged. However, some 6,000 historical works were saved, including a 1534 Lutheran Bible and a collection of Alexander von Humboldt's papers, by being passed hand-over-hand out of the building. Some other books are being freeze-dried in Leipzig to save them from rotting as a result of water damage. The fire came as a particular tragedy, in part because the collection was scheduled to move to another site in late October, a little more than a month from when the tragic fire struck.

External links

• Library Goes up in Flames, Destroying Literary Legacy (http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,1594,1441_A_1317151_1_A,00.html)
• (Jerusalem Post) (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1094187590872&p=1006688055060)
• Associated Press article (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=4&u=/ap/20040903/ap_on_re_eu/germany_library_fire_2)
• BBC article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3625042.stm)
• MSNBC article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5909136/)
• New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Germany-Library-Fire.html)