The city library and museum shared a domicile in Kamenz until the summer. With the books moving out, there is now more space for your own plans in Lessing’s birthplace.
Kamenz (dpa/sn) – More space for exhibitions: After the city library in Kamenz (Bautzen district) moved, the Lessing Museum has space for its own expansion. Both institutions shared the Lessinghaus in the poet’s birthplace until July of this year. The library will open to the public in a new location this Friday – under the roof of the Gotthold-Ephraim-Lessing-Gymnasium. The school complex, which was renovated and rebuilt at a cost of more than 28 million euros, was handed over in August of this year.
Around three million euros were additionally invested in order to integrate the municipal library into the campus, said the mayor of Kamenz, Roland Dantz (independent). In the Lessinghaus, which opened in 1931, there had been space problems for the facilities housed there since 1952. “After the library rooms have become vacant, the Literature Museum is now gaining special exhibition space there,” said Dantz.
He estimated the cost of the planned conversion, which should be completed by 2025, at 2.5 million euros. “We are now in the preliminary planning,” said Dantz. The project can be implemented without money from the city budget, since it is to be funded with funds for structural change.
At the beginning of this year’s summer holidays, the Kamenz library closed at the old location in order to move to the larger domicile with its 33,000 media. According to the head of the library, Marion Kutter, the usable area has doubled to 800 square meters. A small inventory of Sorbian-language literature is new on offer. The opening of the new premises will be celebrated throughout the weekend. The festival program includes an exhibition, music, lectures, readings and a magic show.
