The Peter Sodann Library in Staucha in the district of Meißen is facing an uncertain future. The library has been organized as a non-profit registered cooperative since 2018. However, the institution lacks any funding from the federal government or the Free State of Saxony, laments Supervisory Board member Bernd Pawlowski. The library relies on donations - and these are also "rapidly" declining.
Donations are no longer enough
"Our problems are the same as everyone else's," says Sodann's widow Cornelia Brenner-Sodann. There is no money for staff to continue sifting through and cataloging the books. There is still some income from an antiquarian bookshop. But that hardly helps.
The actor Peter Sodann (1936 - 2024) had the idea for the collection. He wanted to save the GDR books from being destroyed and forgotten. But since his death last year, the library has been faced with the big question of what to do next. Sodann built up the collection during the fall of communism from 1990, and in 2012 he moved the books to the remote Staucha manor.
