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Anyone who studied in Berlin may know it.

Sometimes while researching the State Library's online catalog, one found a book that was not clear whether it still existed.

"War loss possible - inquire about inventory" then stood next to it.

Loss of war, that was a word out of date that reminded one of the fragile physical existence of books and manuscripts.

The fountain courtyard of the State Library Unter den Linden

Source: picture alliance / dpa

More than a million volumes in today's Berlin State Library have not returned from the Second World War.

For years they were stored in mines and castles, in churches and schools.

After 1945 the holdings were then split in half, with one part ending up in West Berlin.

The new building erected for this purpose at the Kulturforum, designed by Hans Scharoun, is known from the Wim Wenders film “Der Himmel über Berlin”. Its spacious and yet intimate reading room has been an informal marriage market for academics for decades.

Perhaps this will also be the case in the Unter den Linden parent company, which has now opened digitally.

The celebratory speech was given by Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble, Monika Grütters as Minister of State for Culture and the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Hermann Parzinger gave speeches.

The celebration of the handover of this world-famous library to the public was canceled, instead the act was broadcast on YouTube as a “digital chamber play”, as Schäuble put it.

The restored old reading room clock

Source: picture alliance / dpa

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After the subway line 5 and the Humboldt Forum, another mega-project is now being completed in the heart of Berlin.

And what one.

The building designed by Ernst von Ihne dates from 1915 and takes up an entire block of streets.

In the GDR it gradually fell into disrepair; after the fall of the Wall, the foundations were first renovated.

The fact that a building that is so necessary in practice can only now be used again sounds like an inadmissible delay and BER.

In fact, the State Library could continue to be used for a long time, the renovation and construction of new buildings were carried out without interrupting operations.

From 2013 you had to go in through the back entrance.

Not anymore.

Taking the representative route from Unter den Linden, which the architect of the renovation and extension, HG Merz, calls "the protocol route", this route from the street to the reading rooms is reminiscent of a visit to the temple.

Man climbs up to the book, not the other way around.

In the building, which was completed in 1915, knowledge was also a show of power - the State Library was the last highly representative building that Kaiser Wilhelm II inaugurated.

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Parzinger reminded us that the nucleus of this largest historical building in the center of Berlin was in the nearby Berlin Palace.

In 1661, the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg set up the Electoral Library in the so-called pharmacist wing of his residence, which was not reconstructed for the Humboldt Forum.

The State Library as well as the Museum Island and the Humboldt Forum are major projects of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

The translucent glass cube

Source: picture alliance / dpa

This part of Berlin is now one big treasure trove, completely renovated legacy, with which the state can properly show off.

But the weight of history, monarchical splendor and the built-up sum of 470 million euros for this one house of the state library alone (that of Scharoun in the west will soon also be renovated), none of this should hide the fact that this library is a public space that everyone can use.

The reading room for children's and youth literature

Source: picture alliance / dpa

There was a time when one doubted the necessity of the whole building type, but today, in the age of co-working and high rents, users are running down the doors of libraries worldwide.

This is good because libraries don't have to be elitist, even if they sometimes seem like that.

The “Stabi” user card costs 30 euros a year, it can be borrowed for free and whatever you need is on the shelf for a few hours or the next day at the latest.

All the worse that the State Library has been closed for so long in the pandemic: since winter 2019.

The reopening in spring 2020 coincided with the Corona period.

Angry to desperate users complain about the loss of their work equipment on the homepage.

Rightly so: It is incomprehensible why one cannot at least issue ordered volumes, as other libraries do during the pandemic.

But there is hope for them too.

From February 8th, if not reading, then at least borrowing should continue.