The Left Party parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament has criticized the halt to the planned extension of the German National Library (DNB) in Leipzig by Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer (non-party). "Anyone who wants to safeguard cultural memory must also provide the infrastructure to do so," said Luise Neuhaus-Wartenberg, the parliamentary group's spokesperson for culture and commemorative culture. According to the Left Party politician, the justification that the focus should be on digitization rather than physical media falls short: "Digitization is important - but it does not replace the permanent preservation of printed media, especially books."
Weimer's decision to stop the planned expansion became known on Thursday and led to criticism from the DNB. The library explained that the storage capacity in Leipzig was almost exhausted. In addition, around seven million euros had already been spent on planning the construction. "Wasting this money would be incomprehensible in terms of cultural policy and budget policy," criticized Left Party politician Neuhaus-Wartenberg. The decision comes at an inopportune time for Leipzig as a book and library location shortly before the start of the book fair.
