A place for bookworms – Saint Blasin

. Andrea Kimmel is a huge fan of books. When the public library in St. Blasien on the top floor of the guest house, hit them hard. Also because a popular meeting place has disappeared as a result. You think a cultural city like Saint Blazin should have a library. Now she has established such a place in the cathedral city herself, albeit in miniature form: Bücherstüble on the ground floor of her house at Albtalstrasse 37. Here people should be able to meet to bring books that have been read free of charge, new ones with them or take them directly with them to exchange others.

There are still only two bookshelves here, currently holding about 160 books – popular novels and thrillers, including non-fiction. The discarded books of her sister and colleague who brought four boxes contributed to the current range. She also donated books herself.

Andrea Kimmel is a big fan of crime fiction, but she also loves biographies, biographies of interesting people, and novels by Thomas Mann. But she definitely doesn’t want to part with them. She is particularly fond of “Magic Mountain”. This novel, set in a lung sanatorium in Davos at the beginning of the twentieth century, is especially close to her, after all, she herself worked in a pulmonary clinic, says the medical assistant intern.

It is noticeable that all the books make a well-kept impression. It should stay this way, she says: “I don’t want people to bring their trash here.” In the medium term, she could imagine that things other than books would be exchanged here. Andrea Kimmel thinks of discarded plates, vases, coffee machines or a pretty lamp. “And if someone had a bookshelf, that would be welcome too,” she says. For them, these usable items are also a sign of a culture of exclusion.

Someone actually took the opportunity and put portions of a nice free donation coffee service on the small round table, where visitors could browse books on used chairs or talk to each other. The most striking piece in the room at the moment is an oversized print of Carl Spitzweg’s “The Bookworm.” She never dreamed that she would create a place herself where people who love books could meet – until the idea came to her on the way home from a visit to Heidelberg. The risk to her that she had space for that and the desire to turn it into reality.

The start was made. Bücherstüble is currently publishing it in the current newsletter and on notifications in the city.

book room Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 4 pm to 7 pm.