Description

The former Royal Library on Berlin’s main historic boulevard Unter den Linden is a broadly neo-classicist building designed by the Imperial Court Architect Ernst von Ihne (1848–1917) and inaugurated in summer 1914 by Emperor Wilhelm II as the “Palace of Sciences”. After the division of the city in 1961, the library was no longer accessible to West Berliners and a second state library was built in the west of Berlin from 1967 to 1978 to plans by Hans Scharoun. Today, both buildings are used in parallel.

At 107 metres wide and 170 metres long, the first State Library was the second-largest building in the historical centre of Berlin, after the Stadtschloss. Ornamental vases crown the corners of the balustraded roof cornice, and two figurative sculptures sit either side of the portals. The central pediment with its richly decorated frontispiece is borne by four columns on tall pedestals the entire height of the plinth storey. The individual sections of the library are reached via an inviting sequence of rooms with drama and tension, organised axially through the middle of the enormous block. The sequence begins with the broad, open courtyard of honour, that leads directly on to the barrel-vaulted “Lindenhalle” behind three equal-sized portals, and from there to the entrance from Unter den Linden. In the past, large sections of the courtyard façades were covered with wild vine, which is gradually regrowing after the refurbishment, and at the centre of the courtyard is an oval water basin with fountain. Despite its vast dimensions, this enchanting image of a “green library” hidden behind the imposing exterior of the building is what many people still remember. The main front of the courtyard has a comparatively small central entrance. Above it rises a huge arched window framed by columns, affording a view of the central staircase hall behind it. To the sides are round niches with figurative depictions and round windows.

The neo-Renaissance style is even more prominent inside. The central staircase hall is decorated with interior façades that give it the impression of a stage with ample space. The two stone spheres at the beginning of the staircase balustrades alone weigh around 150 kilograms. As part of the main renovation works, undertaken by HG Merz Architekten from 2005 to 2019, a significant modification was made to the representative staircase hall: the suspended illuminated ceiling inserted after the war was removed and replaced with a barrel vault made of precast concrete elements with a varying coffered pattern. After passing through the staircase hall and an archway, one reaches the vestibule. The theme of pairs of fluted columns seen in the staircase and side galleries continues here, in combination with pilasters and open galleries on either side. The redesigned cross-vault of this hall has a flattened profile with a 4.5 metre round opening at its apex, encircled by a decorative ceramic border, the so-called “Majolikaring”. The entrance to the central reading room, visible in the axis of the staircase, is crowned by a somewhat disproportionate entablature with a balcony, supported by two smaller additional columns of its own. Behind the foyer, there was originally an octagonal domed reading room measuring 43 metres in diameter. Partially destroyed by bombs in 1943 and finally demolished in 1976, it was replaced by a block of concrete magazine towers in 1987. This section, along with that of the former adjoining university reading room to the north, likewise destroyed, has been completely rebuilt by the architects. The new main reading room, completed in 2013, extends the axial sequence of rooms and reorganises the centre of the library in a contemporary form. It does not have the huge round windows and galleries of its predecessor but is instead a simple cubic volume of illuminated glass – a twin-shelled construction inserted into the historical context. The interior of the reading room is an open hall with rows of tables surrounded by walls of shelving on all four sides, crowned by a glazed structure that allows daylight to permeate into the interior filtered through a translucent white fabric.

The second construction phase takes a hybrid approach to the redesign of the remainder of the library: the surrounding five reading rooms dedicated to specific departments of the library, which adjoin side courtyards or the exterior façade, have been refurbished and partially redesigned. They retain their historical character but are furnished with fittings and fixtures made of coloured poplar that continue the theme of those in the main reading room. They lend the rooms a sense of spaciousness, while establishing through their stringency and materiality a sense of continuity throughout the library. The refurbishment in combination with the new additions to the library results in a coherent overall ensemble in which functionality and contemporary clarity of design prevail. The design and realisation of the second phase of construction from 2011 onwards was undertaken by the firm Bauplanung und Steuerung (BAL).

Originally published in Bauwelt 3.2021, pp. 34-39, abridged and edited for Building Types Online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

 

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