It has been planned for a long time, but has not yet gotten through to the Berliners: Scharoun’s State Library building needs to be completely renovated.
Scharoun’s Stabi in the blue hourAndreas Gora/Imago
After the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation told Berliners last week that the Pergamon Museum would have to close unexpectedly for four years in October due to urgently needed renovation work, it has now emerged that the State Library building on Potsdamer Strasse will also be closed in the near future for an unknown number of people have to close for years. Built between 1967 and 1978 according to plans by Hans Scharoun, the striking house is in need of renovation after more than 40 years of continuous operation. This is not new and has been in the planning for a long time, but this bad news has not really arrived in Berlin yet. One thing is clear: a whole generation of students will not be able to use this house of the Stabi.
But there is also good news: the book collections will be accessible throughout. The library intends to achieve this by refurbishing the stacks in sections, using its building at the Westhafen and collaborating with other libraries. “But there will come a time when the reading rooms will have to be closed,” says the spokeswoman for the house, Barbara Heindl. She doesn’t expect it before 2027, the closure will take several years.
An interim building will be erected in the parking lot in front of the Stabi
The originally planned start of construction is in 2025, says Heindl. The measures are to begin with the construction of an interim building in the parking lot in front of the library. The main aim is to create jobs here, but there will also be an area open to the public.
If a house closes now, it stays closed for a long time and usually longer than planned. Just remember the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. One wonders anxiously when the Komische Oper, which closes at the end of this season, will reopen and what the need for renovation of other Berlin buildings is. What about the New Philharmonic opposite the Stabi, also designed by Hans Scharoun and built before the Stabi?