Projects of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar are funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Free State of Thuringia, represented by the State Chancellery of Thuringia, Department of Culture and the Arts.
Strategic orientation 2024-2028
The library's new strategic direction for the next four years is based on the results of Agenda 2020plus. It focusses on the three project lines "Discovering collections", "Preserving originals" and "Testimonials".
The focal points include the further development of the library's discovery system, the cataloguing and digitisation of the Weimar military library and atlas collection, as well as the strengthening of the library as a media archive by activating the collection of friendship books and its networking, through cataloguing projects on the Bible collection and on Ernestine princely libraries as well as through the cataloguing of picture postcards and the cataloguing, annotation and networking of library media on knowledge about nature around 1800 (guidebooks, handbooks and textbooks, dictionaries and encyclopaedias).
As part of Agenda 2020, the workshop for the restoration of fire-damaged documents in Weimar-Legefeld was expanded into a service centre for paper restoration using the bulk process. In future, it is to be institutionally anchored as a core facility under the umbrella of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. As a specialised institute, it will act in an advisory capacity and as a service centre in cooperation with other specialised institutes. Another focus is on preventative and accompanying conservation measures in the course of cataloguing and digitisation work on Nietzsche's library.
On 2 September 2004, the library caught fire and the building and collections were severely damaged. The largest library fire in Germany since the Second World War was followed by the renovation of the building in record time and work on the restoration of salvaged items that continues to this day. Nothing was the same after the fire, but the public sympathy and willingness to help made it clear that the library is sustained by the people who are connected to it.
In preparation for the 20th anniversary of the fire on 2 September 2024, the library is looking for contemporary witnesses to help shape the library's collections with their memories and expectations, but also with images and found objects. They are part of the basis for future memories, for a library as a repository for the future.