State library is being renovated for 1.1 billion euros

A comprehensive renovation of the building, which opened in 1978, has been overdue for many years. Now it is finally being tackled: the project is expected to cost 1.1 billion euros until its final reopening in 2041, with an additional 350 million euros available as security to cover inflation and risks.

Users are still allowed to come until 2030

The preparatory measures will initially run behind the scenes until 2030; a total of 5.4 million books will have to be temporarily stored. The state library will then be closed for eleven years. For the many visitors, this means a form of homelessness, even if the books remain available through the circulation desk in Haus Unter den Linden. They don’t just come to read, but also use various media, work at one of the desks, meet with study groups or just want to hang out here. Libraries are now one of those important “third places” where people can meet without consumption and costs.

Scharoun’s “Book Ship” is an icon of West Berlin urban development. When presenting this next major project by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, President Marion Ackermann raved about the lighting, colors and choreography. The integrated works of art alone: ​​Camaro’s window or Erich Fritz Reuters’ 5,000 square meter natural stone floor in the entrance.

If it weren’t for the pollution caused by asbestos and the urgently needed technical upgrades. In the case of the sanitary facilities, the acute emergency is communicated olfactorily before you enter. In the reading room of the Ibero-American Institute there is a permanent bucket to catch the water dripping from the ceiling. A quarter of the elevators don’t work, and just recently a district heating valve in the basement of the book tower broke.

As a result of this accident with hot air and water escaping, the neighboring 50,000 books had to be brought to the warehouse at Westhafen, which has been available to the Stabi since the renovation of their house on Unter den Linden. The library has been massively “rocked down,” stated deputy director Reinhard Altenhöner.

In the future, visitors will be allowed on the “decks” of the “book ship”

Stephan Schütz from the architectural firm Gerkan, Marg and Partner, which won the competition for the renovation in 2019, reported even more enthusiastically about the renovation measures: Scharoun’s original concept should be regained, said Schütz. The installations from the 1980s and 1990s will be removed again and there will no longer be any barriers in the entrance; the control will then work via chips inserted into the spine of the books.

The parking lot in front of the main entrance is transformed into a green area, and the quality of stay increases. In this way, the “decks” of Scharoun’s “book ship”, those previously unused terraces around the building, will be made accessible. The rear area of ​​the foyer, where the milk bar is today, will have its own restaurant.

The highlight of the future usage concept is the new passage across the building from Potsdamer Straße and the new Berlin Modern museum building directly to Marlene-Dietrich-Platz with the musical theater and casino by Renzo Piano. The Italian architect had foresightedly left an opening there in the 1990s, as if he had suspected that the west-facing Stabi, behind which the city motorway was originally supposed to pass, would later open there. The future passage begins right next to the large staircase to the reading area, where the toilets are today.

A replacement building for 650 employees

Sebastian Pohle, head of department at the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning, was really excited about the major project, even if his numbers were awe-inspiring: 2,000 kilometers of electrical cables have to be replaced. Separate pollutant construction sites for the disposal of asbestos, for example, are being built at 273 locations, and the book move has to be organized on 11,000 square meters of storage space. In addition, 650 employees need alternative accommodation.

A new building is planned for them on Tiergartenstrasse, where the foundation still owns property on the northern fire wall of the Cultural Forum’s entrance building. The Ibero-American Institute and reading room will also move into the three-pane house.

So the users there are lucky. The many other Stabi visitors have to look for alternative places in the city’s other libraries, which are already overused. Surprisingly, no one has thought of them yet. Marion Ackermann apologized that she was new in office and promised to look for solutions. She already had an idea for alternative accommodation: perhaps the foyers of the state museums? After all, these also belong to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.