Duchess Anna Amalia Library
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Germany houses a major collection of German literature and historical documents.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.
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.
|
Work on the Extension, June 2002 |
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.
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 m
2. 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.
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 the
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.In
June 2005, it was announced that manuscripts that were out of the building at the time of the fire, and thus saved, included a hitherto undiscovered
1713 aria by
Johann Sebastian Bach.
*
Library Goes up in Flames, Destroying Literary Legacy*
(Jerusalem Post)*
Associated Press article*
BBC article*
MSNBC article*
New York Times article
