For nearly 20 years, Reverend Martin Weskott has been saving books printed in the former East Germany from the rubbish heap of history, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991. After seeing an image in the newspaper of thousands of books in the Leipzig garbage dump, Weskott immediately went to work. With a few friends he got hold of a truck, and they went down to the dump to save as many books as he could.
To date, he has gathered over one million discarded books. Many of them were sent to libraries around the world, as far away as Shanghai and Almaty. But about 50,000 of them still live in the barn next to his Lutheran church where after Sunday services parishioners and book hunters are allowed in to shop. Token proceeds from the sales will be given to a charity.
So whoever has the chance to fly to Germany, do visit Katlenburg-Lindau (20 km northeast of Göttingen), Lower Saxony where his church is. Though certainly it is not easy to search for a particular title with the books crammed in the barn, piled high reaching up to the rafters.
I'm kind of fascinated by the seriously warped shelves behind the old man.
Story : Saving East German books from history's rubbish heap
Video : www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjProT9jrc
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