The last Scharoun’s legacy; Berlin State Library

During the II World War, the Berlin State Library was divided in two sections to be able to survive to the ally air raid. After the war, one of the sections was inside the western area, governed by the soviets, which placed in the original building in Unter den Linden Avenue again and the other (formed by almost the half of the books), fell into the hands of the allies. For this reason, the library is separated in 2 fractions: the Seat of the library 1, which is the old building and the Seat 2, which is the one proposed by Scharoun and Wisniewski. Nowadays, the two seats are united to establish again the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) which belongs to the Prussian National Heritage. The two libraries are known as “one library of two houses” too.

In 1961 the Berlin State Library celebrated the 300 years of its foundation in the two parts of the city. At the same time, Werner Düttmann submitted the first propose to Guild the new library in Kemper Platz, but the plan was rejected by the Trade Union Council. In May of 1963, the Council celebrated an architecture public competition to make the new Berlin state Library building, which was decided to be in the Kulturforum. Hans Scharoun took part of the public competition few weeks after the Berlin Philarmonie was opened and the 9th of July of 1964 he won the first prize.

The project was characterized by quarrels, conflicts and irregularities. The initial price of the work was 90 million marks and duration of about 5 years, nevertheless the plan cost 226.5 million marks in the end with duration of 11 years. The first stone was placed the 10th of October of 1967, with the plans not yet finished in its entirety. The north administrative wing was the first part of the construction to be finished in 1971, notwithstanding, Hans Scharoun, who was 79 years old, died the 25th of November of 1972 without seeing his work completed. Then, Edgar Wisniewski was the responsible of the continuation of his project until its finalization the 30th of June of 1977.

It was opened the 15th of December of 1978.

The adaptations, renovations, refurbishments, adaptations and extensions of the building have been usual across the time. The first one in 1991, just 13 years after its opening, with a cost of 32 million marks, was to enlarge its capacity of 1.8 million volumes (an extension that was already planned). After 2001, there was a huge adaptation, which cost 6 million Euros; nevertheless in 2006 a new refurbishment started. The new renovations of the building began in 2010 and ended 5 years later, in 2015.

The building

The Berlin State Library worked as the enclave that separated the Kulturforum, the No Man’s Land and the Berlin Wall. The Library is back to back with the Theater am Potsdamer Platz and the Spielbank Berlin, designed by Renzo Piano and placed in a triangular block that points at the North.

The building has a little more than 230 meters long, however, its apparently massiveness is due to mainly to the few holes of its golden façade with 42 meters high, that at the same time was of use to turn its back to the West Germany controlled by the soviets. This façade is a tribute to Scharoun’s buildings: more than 14000 square meters covered by anodized aluminium sheets, based on the colour and the texture used already in Berlin Philarmonie and its little brother the Kammermusiksaal (the Chamber Music Hall). There are more similarities with these buildings as, for example, the banisters, the floor of the hall and the walls of colour glass blocks.

Scharoun, in the interior, believed in the importance of the human instead of the organization. In spite of having big surfaces of façade without holes, it has a large glass façade where the light comes through to the big lecture hall that is complemented by many skylights, placed the length and breadth of the hall. The terraces rule this place interconnected by stairs that are Scharoun’s small masterpieces, creating a beautiful lecture landscape.