A visit to Mühlbeck-Friedersdorf, the oldest book village Germany's
Mühlbeck looks like many other villages. And yet it is something special: The place in Saxony-Anhalt, together with its partner community Friedersdorf, has been entitled since 1997: Germany's first book village. Seven bookstores, mixture of second-hand bookstores and book junk, are waiting for customers around the small church of Mühlbeck. The spectrum ranges from A to Z, from archeology to zoology, noble volumes in closed glass showcases and penny books, romance novels and poetry, reference works and guides, comics, song books with sheet music, eroticism. Herbert John specializes in aviation literature. He has been chairman of the book village's friends' association for few months and sees the title as an opportunity for positive development in the twin town. Still, one has to add, because Mühlbeck-Friedersdorf has established itself as book village in the 14 years, but there are problems. “The number of bookstores is decreasing and there is certain amount of frustration,” says John.
Originally the Rhinelander Heidi Dehne, who moved to Saxony-Anhalt in the mid-90s, quickly had comrades-in-arms for their idea of a book village. The mayor also gave the green light. After the turnaround and the industrial realignment, little else developed in the village apart from the steadily rising unemployment. Becoming Buchdorf promised to be solution.
The model for this initiative was the Welsh Hay-on-Wye, the first book village in the world founded in 1961. The success of Oxford graduate Richard Booth's quirky idea of generating boom by selling old books had more imitators in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. Mühlbeck-Friedersdorf lies between two lakes, former brown coal mining areas, and on the edge of the Dübener Heide nature reserve. As traveler, you still feel little lost in the village, as there is lack of tourist services. “In order to breathe new life into the idea of the book village,” John looks ahead, “we have to strengthen the community in the village.” In recent years, developments have gone in the wrong direction. An important area such as the specialization of the offer of every bookstore has been largely abandoned.
A visit to Mühlbeck-Friedersdorf, the oldest book village Germany's
Mühlbeck looks like many other villages. And yet it is something special: The place in Saxony-Anhalt, together with its partner community Friedersdorf, has been entitled since 1997: Germany's first book village. Seven bookstores, mixture of second-hand bookstores and book junk, are waiting for customers around the small church of Mühlbeck. The spectrum ranges from A to Z, from archeology to zoology, noble volumes in closed glass showcases and penny books, romance novels and poetry, reference works and guides, comics, song books with sheet music, eroticism. Herbert John specializes in aviation literature. He has been chairman of the book village's friends' association for few months and sees the title as an opportunity for positive development in the twin town. Still, one has to add, because Mühlbeck-Friedersdorf has established itself as book village in the 14 years, but there are problems. “The number of bookstores is decreasing and there is certain amount of frustration,” says John.
Originally the Rhinelander Heidi Dehne, who moved to Saxony-Anhalt in the mid-90s, quickly had comrades-in-arms for their idea of a book village. The mayor also gave the green light. After the turnaround and the industrial realignment, little else developed in the village apart from the steadily rising unemployment. Becoming Buchdorf promised to be solution.
The model for this initiative was the Welsh Hay-on-Wye, the first book village in the world founded in 1961. The success of Oxford graduate Richard Booth's quirky idea of generating boom by selling old books had more imitators in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. Mühlbeck-Friedersdorf lies between two lakes, former brown coal mining areas, and on the edge of the Dübener Heide nature reserve. As traveler, you still feel little lost in the village, as there is lack of tourist services. “In order to breathe new life into the idea of the book village,” John looks ahead, “we have to strengthen the community in the village.” In recent years, developments have gone in the wrong direction. An important area such as the specialization of the offer of every bookstore has been largely abandoned."But lot has also been achieved," the chairman sums up. New life has moved into old businesses. "After the reunification, many of the often huge private libraries from the GDR were closed," reports John with view to the beginnings. Even today, large parts of the holdings, which amount to around 500,000 volumes, are still recruited from donations.
The founding members had received help from librarian. Today, the future seems less bright to Heike Littke than it did in the beginning. She runs her bookstore in the old forge in Mühlbeck. “I don't think it will go well for long.” Littke complains that fewer and fewer visitors are coming. “Today people buy on the Internet.” Of course, the Mühlbeck dealers are also represented on the Internet, but book village that wants to be known as destination for cultural tourists is not pleased with this development. “You have to pick up books,” John denies such worries. He does not see any competition between internet trading and visit to book village. Information: Mühlbeck-Friedersdorf, phone: 03493 950043, www.buchdorf.com. International Organization of Bookowns: www.booktown.net
Ulrich Traub
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