Duchess Anna Amalia Library
About This Site
The Duchess Anna Amalia Library holds about a million volumes on European literary and cultural history, with its focus on the years 1750 to 1850. Its collection goes back to 1547, the ducal library was founded in 1691, the Rococo Hall opened in 1766 and Goethe oversaw the house for thirty-five years; the fire of 2 September 2004 destroyed 50,000 volumes, and the restored hall reopened on 24 October 2007.
From Wittenberg to Weimar, 1547–1691
The collection begins with the defeated Elector Johann Friedrich, who had his important Wittenberg library brought to Weimar as early as 1547.[1] The ducal library itself was founded in 1691, when Duke Wilhelm Ernst made his 1,400 collected books open to the public.[2]
The Rococo Hall, 1766
Until 1766 the library was housed in the residence palace; then, on Duchess Anna Amalia's decision, it moved into the newly fitted Rococo Hall of the Grünes Schloss — an oval room rising through three storeys, built to hold books and to be looked at while holding them.[1][2] In 1797 Duke Carl August entrusted Goethe with the oversight of the library, and he led it as librarian for thirty-five years, until his death in 1832.[2]
A research library, and its name, 1991–1998
The library is a publicly accessible archive and research library for European literary and cultural history, with a particular focus on the period between 1750 and 1850, and holds about a million volumes.[3][2] Among them are 2,600 medieval and early-modern manuscripts, including a Carolingian gospel book of the ninth century, 8,600 maps, 29 globes and 427 incunabula.[2] On its three-hundredth anniversary in 1991 it received the name of Duchess Anna Amalia, and since 1998 it has belonged to the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble Classical Weimar.[2]
2 September 2004
On the day of the fire, 196,000 books were housed in the historic library building.[4] Fifty thousand volumes and 35 paintings of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries were lost entirely; some 62,000 books suffered damage from fire, heat and fire-fighting water, from light to irreparable.[2][4] The first complete edition of Luther's Bible translation, of 1534, was carried out of the fire.[2]
Rebuilt and restored, 2005–2018
On 5 February 2005 the open-access areas of the new Study Centre opened to readers.[2] The rebuilding of the historic building was completed in the summer of 2007, and on 24 October 2007 Federal President Horst Köhler reopened the house.[2] The books took longer: between 2004 and 2018 all 56,000 soot- and smoke-damaged volumes were cleaned, decontaminated and conserved.[4]
Visiting the Rococo Hall
The Rococo Hall is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 to 18:00; adults pay €10, reduced €7, pupils aged 16 to 20 €4, and a combination ticket costs €14.[5]
Questions visitors ask
- How old is the Duchess Anna Amalia Library?
- The ducal library was founded in 1691, when Duke Wilhelm Ernst opened his 1,400 books to the public; the collection itself goes back to 1547, when Elector Johann Friedrich had his Wittenberg library brought to Weimar.
- What is the Rococo Hall?
- The oval, three-storey hall in the Grünes Schloss into which the library moved in 1766 on Duchess Anna Amalia's decision — the room visitors come to see.
- What was Goethe's connection to the library?
- Duke Carl August entrusted him with its oversight in 1797, and he led it as librarian for thirty-five years, until his death in 1832.
- What happened in the fire of 2004?
- On 2 September 2004 fire destroyed 50,000 volumes and 35 paintings and damaged some 62,000 more books; the rebuilt house reopened on 24 October 2007, and the last of the 56,000 smoke-damaged volumes were restored by 2018.
- What are the opening hours and prices of the Rococo Hall?
- Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30–18:00; €10 for adults, €7 reduced, €4 for pupils aged 16 to 20, €14 for the combination ticket.
Connected Historical Figures
duchess • regent • patron • composer
The library carries her name because of her decision of 1766 to move the ducal book collection into the Rococo Hall; the name is hers since 1991.
novelist • dramaturg • librarian
Registrar there from 1797, library secretary from 1800, librarian from 1805.
architect • Oberbaudirektor
He turned the city tower into the library's book store between 1821 and 1825 and designed its extension of 1844–1849.
philologist • librarian • editor
Second librarian of the ducal library from 1812 and its head librarian from 1837.
painter • printmaker
The Klassik Stiftung shows works by both Cranachs in the library's Renaissance hall.
reformer • theologian • preacher
It holds nearly three quarters of all contemporary Luther prints, two of them on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
Also associated with this site:
Sources (5)
- Geschichte der Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek — Wikipedia (de), retrieved 30 August 2026
- Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 30 August 2026
- Nach dem Brand — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Rokokosaal — Besuch — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 30 August 2026
Visit Information
€10 adults; €7 reduced; €4 students aged 16–20; €14 combination ticket
Tue–Sun 09:30–18:00; closed Mon
Platz der Demokratie 1, 99423 Weimar
50.9786, 11.3322
Stay and eat nearby
Where to stay
Events held here
Events
Fridays at 18:00 and Saturdays at 16:00, about ninety minutes
The ducal library that carries the duchess's name, passed on the Platz der Demokratie.
Daily at 10:00 and 14:00, about two hours
Seen from the Platz der Demokratie on the way through.
Fridays and Saturdays from 20:30, 21 March to 1 November
A stop on the round, seen from outside and after hours.
Spring to late autumn
The library is both the venue and the subject: the exhibition is about what this institution is for, staged in its own study centre.
One Saturday night in May, 18:00 to midnight
The library opens twice over: the Rococo Hall with its Cranach exhibition, and the study centre alongside it.
Four days over Pentecost weekend, in May
A ticketed tour of the book tower runs here across the days.
In Weimar's history
Historical periods
The century's paper survives here: the Ernestines kept the Reformation's prints in the family, and the library now holds just under three quarters of all contemporary Luther printings.
For a hundred years Weimar is a Reformation town before it is anything else — and it becomes a capital by accident, because a prince who had lost everything else still had this place. The century leaves the town its market-square gables, an altarpiece the stewards rank among the main works of Reformation painting, and a court that never moved away again.
In Weimar's history
Twice in three years the World Heritage Committee put Weimar on its list: the Bauhaus buildings on 7 December 1996, and the eleven monuments of Classical Weimar on 2 December 1998.
One of the eleven monuments of Classical Weimar since 1998; Goethe's and Nietzsche's papers next door are Memory of the World.
Stages and venues
Platz der Demokratie 2 | 3, 99423 Weimar
The Fürstenhaus, the school's main building, stands on the same square as the library.