04/11/2024

On the morning of the first day of the excursion, we made our way individually to Weimar, the cultural capital of Thuringia. The city greeted us with overcast skies and a short climb to the first point of interest, the Goethe and Schiller Archive (GSA). During the guided tour of the literary archive, including the reading room upstairs and the storage department downstairs, we learnt a lot. For example, the palace-like construction of the building is modelled on Paris and the "Versailles" palace. We were also informed about facsimiles - reproduced original texts with accompanying translations - which we were allowed to try reading and understanding ourselves. Conferences are also held at the GSA, as was the case during our stay, and temporary exhibitions are organised to provide further insights into the collections. Fortunately, we were able to do this with the temporary exhibition "Sophie. Power. Literature - A regent inherits Goethe". We tested our knowledge interactively, which was entertaining and educational at the same time! Afterwards, we parted ways to explore the city individually and round off the day. Our excursion leader Mrs Driesen (former academic assistant at the Department of Information Sciences) had put together a special list of recommendations for us.

The literature archive

It should not go unmentioned that the GSA is not only one of the few literary archives in Germany, but also the oldest (Das Archiv, n.d.). This type of archive is primarily characterised by literary estates, academic source research and the handwritten legacies of important personalities (Schmid, 1996, pp. 17-134), which also applies to the Weimar location. The collection there is mainly characterised by the namesakes of the house - Goethe and Schiller - as well as Friedrich Nietzsche and Franz Liszt. The first collection build-up began with Goethe's estate immediately after his death.

05/11/2024

In keeping with the main destination of the excursion, the second day started with sunshine. We met in front of the entrance with much excitement and anticipation and began the tour with Katrin Lehmann (Head of Department and Head of Use) in the new part of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek (HAAB) building - the study centre, which is considered the heart of the research location. The modernity of the cube, the former inner courtyard with its daylight-filled interior, was unexpected and impressive for me. We were told how the library is developing into the Third Place (The Third Place, 2020) with readings, music events and a planned reading lounge. The tour continued through the underground stacks in the basement to the transition to the old part of the library, where the next highlight awaited us: entering the famous rococo hall. The historical books, ornate carvings and paintings left me in awe. As if that wasn't impressive enough, we then struck up a conversation with a member of staff. Galina W¨¹nscher shared her account of the night of the fire on 2 September 2004 with us. The story of this event will probably be forever associated with the library and shows not least how much commitment the small town has shown in working together. This was a fitting end to the excursion and also provided assistance for the rest of the first semester workshop, in which a topic was developed for the final presentation of all the workshops. The group quickly agreed that they should investigate the influence of emotions regarding the library fire on the work of the employees. With this question in mind and other impressions, the two exciting days passed far too quickly.

The research library

The HAAB is an institution steeped in history, which developed from a court library and focussed its holdings on the classical period and the German literature published in this era (Seefeldt & Syr¨¦, 2022, p. 59). In addition to the source material for researchers, the HAAB also has the speciality of a fiction section with novels of contemporary literature. The library also describes itself as a publicly accessible archive library (Die Bibliothek, n.d.), due to its proximity and co-operation with the GSA.

Acknowledgements

At this point, a big thank you to Ms Driesen for the opportunity, the organisation and the course of the two days.

Furthermore, a huge thank you to the respective employees - Dr Klunkert at the GSA and Ms Lehmann at the HAAB - for their expertise and time. The guided tours were both professionally informative and presented with conviction for the profession. Emphasising the importance of our desired activities was, in my view, a great added value.

I would also like to thank the Department of Information Sciences for sponsoring a central accommodation facility in Weimar.

Literature

• The Archive. (n.d.). Klassik Stiftung Weimar. Retrieved on 29/01/2025.
• The Library. (n.d.). Klassik Stiftung Weimar. Retrieved on 29/01/2025.
• The third place. (2020, August 5th). Library portal.
• Schmid, G. (1996). Cataloguing in the literary archive: Working principles of the Goethe and Schiller Archive in Weimar. In C. K?nig & S. Seifert (eds.), Literaturarchiv und Literaturforschung: Aspekte neuer Zusammenarbeit (vol. 7, pp. 17-134). K G Saur.
• Seefeldt, J. & Syr¨¦, L. (2022). Portals to the past and the future. Libraries in Germany (6th, revised, expanded and gendered edition). Georg Olms.

This review of the excursion to Weimar 2024 was written by Dorothea R?hner, a second-semester student on the Bachelor's degree programme in Library Science.