Berlin Staatsbibliothek to close for 11 years

The Berlin State Library (the Staatsbibliothek or Stabi) on Potsdamer Platz is set to close for an 11-year-long renovation project. Here’s what bookworms need to know:

Potsdamer Platz Stabi to close from 2030

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) has announced that Berlin’s state library building on Potsdamer Platz will close in 2030 and will be closed for 11 years following. 

The building, which opened in 1978 and is part of the broader Kulturforum in Mitte, will be renovated to the tune of 1,1 billion euros. “[The renovations] are about making a listed, architecturally iconic building fit for the future,” SPK president Marion Ackermann told rbb.

Basic renovations have already begun on the building, which covers a total of 110.000 square metres over 12 floors, two of which are below ground.

Borrowing books will still be possible

While the renovations are taking place over the 11 years - the same amount of time it took for the library’s initial construction - its 5,6 million books and other media will be moved into storage.

Members of the public will still be able to lend books from the collection in storage and the second Stabi building on Unter den Linden will remain open as normal.

The 650 librarians and other Stabi staff members who work at the Potsdamer Platz building will continue work at a replacement building on Tiergartenstraße.