8 January 2025 press release

In January 2025, the architecture firm CODE UNIQUE Architekten GmbH won the contract for the realisation of the German National Library’s fifth extension in Leipzig.

The negotiations procedure for the award of the building design contract took place in the autumn of 2024. The participants included representatives of the Saxon State Ministry of Finance, the state-owned real estate and construction management company Staatsbetrieb Sächsische Immobilien- und Baumanagement, and the German National Library. The contract was awarded following an international architecture competition with entries from 20 approved participants, from which CODE UNIQUE emerged as the winner.

The design submitted by the Dresden office won the jury over with its simple tripartite structure and its highly efficient use of space. The edifice stands alone but still blends in convincingly with the German National Library’s original building, which was erected between 1914 and 1916. It is already the fifth extension to the institution initially founded in Leipzig as the Deutsche Bücherei.

Johannes Neuer, Director of the German National Library in Leipzig, says: “I am delighted that the newest extension will fit in so well with the ensemble of buildings that has grown up over more than one hundred years. The fact that it will be realised by an architecture firm in Saxony, thus creating a close regional connection, is an additional bonus.”

The highly functional, climate-stable repository building will comprise up to seven storeys above ground and three below. It will offer approximately 17,200 square metres of usable space for the long-term archiving of 35.5 million media works over a period of roughly 30 years. The construction work is expected to start at the end of 2026. The repository building is scheduled for completion in 2030.

Background

The German National Library collects, documents and archives all written publications and sound recordings issued in Germany since 1913 together with works in German and about Germany published worldwide. Every year, the number of physical media works added to the collection covers about 3.3 kilometres of shelving at each of the locations in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main.

It also includes all editions of notes and resources of music. The German National Library also holds extensive special collections of inestimable value in the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 and the German Museum of Books and Writing.

The German National Library’s unique mandate is to catalogue this ever-growing repository of knowledge and preserve it for posterity. The German National Library offers a comprehensive range of services at its sites in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main along with digital services that can be accessed all over the world. It regularly organises readings, exhibitions, presentations and concerts to draw attention to its holdings and promotes a culture of books, reading and music with a diverse programme of events.

More information

Fifth extension building

https://www.dnb.de/extension

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