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January 2007
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Anna Amalia Library

Anna Amalia LibraryThe Anna Amalia Library (in English) that burned in Weimar back in 2004 is an incredibly important resource for all things Goethe and Schiller.

There is an article in this week’s Economist (January 20) detailing the current status of it’s reconstruction, “The Duchess Anna Amalia library.” Unfortunately it is a subscription required article.

That said, here are a few lines:

Replete with treasures, this former East German city was virtually a backwater until 2004 when a fire—the biggest library burning in Germany since the second world war—ravaged the magnificent rococo hall and the priceless book collection housed within it, and made headlines around the world.

I suspect the locals will take issue with part of that paragraph–the part about being “virtually a backwater;” for Weimar was the European Capital of Culture in 1999!

The article continues:

Meanwhile, Fred Warren, the son of a former American GI, presented the Anna Amalia with Vinzenz Briemle’s two rare illustrated volumes of travel writing after he discovered that the library’s copies were destroyed in the fire. These follow journeys to Italy, Germany, Austria and the Holy Land and date from 1727. The books, which Mr Warren’s father brought back to America as a German war souvenir in 1945, are among only ten surviving examples. More such gifts, please.

I know that B from Eurotrippen was hoping to see the library during her upcoming visit to Weimar–unfortunately it is not yet open, but I believe that the goal is to reopen the library this coming fall.

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