Weimar/Munich, October 24, 2007. The Duchess Anna Amalia Library Bibliothek has been reopened! Three years after the devastating fire in the library, and following extensive restoration and renovation work, the historic library building was reopened on October 24, 2007 on the occasion of the birthday of the duchess after whom the library is named. Before 800 invited guests, Germany's president, Prof. Horst Köhler, held the inauguration speech. The guests were also addressed by prime minister Dieter Althaus, state minister Bernd Neumann, Hellmut Seemann, president of the Foundation of Weimar Classics, Dr. Michael Knoche, director of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, as well as by Friedrich Joussen, president of Vodafone.

The federal and state presidencies extended their thanks to generous donators for their exceptional commitment. Preceding a live broadcast of the festive ceremony, the television networks ARD and MDR aired a three-minute interview in the Rococo Room with Dr. Schulte-Noelle, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Allianz Kulturstiftung, focused on the sponsoring partnership for the library's reconstruction. Alongside the reopening, the Foundation of Weimar Classics launches a festival week from October 23 to 28, 2007. With its Rococo Room, the Duchess Anna Amalia Library has been on UNESCO's World Heritage List as a registered landmark of "classical Weimar" since 1998. Its inclusion on this list internationally confirms the exceptional importance of its complete ensemble, comprising archives, library, and a museum devoted to the history of the arts in Europe. Following the disastrous fire in the library on the night of September 2, 2004, some 50,000 books, paintings, and music collections were destroyed, as well as an additional 62,000 volumes badly damaged in part.

In the framework of a public-private partnership, the Allianz Kulturstiftung is the most important, private sponsor for the renovation and restoration work done on the Rococo Room in the historic main building of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library. On October 24, 2004, Dr. Henning Schulte-Noelle, chairman of the foundation's Board of Trustees, and Hellmut Seemann, president of the Foundation of Weimar Classics, signed the cooperation contract at a benefit concert staged in Berlin's Concert Hall at Gendarmenmarkt. Federal president Horst Köhler, the patron for this act of charity, paid tribute to the commitment of the participating sponsors.

As early as 1998, the Allianz SE agreed to the renovation of the Rococo Room of the Anna Amalia Library. But only five weeks before the plan was carried out, the disastrous fire struck, destroying part of the Rococo Room's structure, ceiling frescos, and numerous works of art. "Therefore, this fire also stands for a terrible tragedy from the standpoint of our planned cooperation," explained Dr. Schulte-Noelle, chairman of the foundation's Board of Trustees. Since 2004, with circa 1,5 million Euro, the Allianz Kulturstiftung has supported the repairs as well as restoration and reconstruction work for the Rococo Room - the heart and showpiece of the library. Beginning on December 1, the Duchess Anna Amalia Library will be open to the public again as both a research-oriented institution and lively monument for sharing experiences.

The reopening of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library hardly means the end of Allianz's longtime commitment to Weimar. For that reason, since 2007, the Allianz Kulturstiftung supports the Society of the Anna Amalia Library and Weimar-Jena-Akademie e. V. with a new project: for two summer weeks, students from German schools abroad are invited to Weimar, where they can deepen their knowledge of Germany's cultural heritage and diversified relationship to its European neighbors. In conjunction with the reopening festivities, the Allianz Kulturstiftung also supports Candida Höfer's exhibition "Weimar Spaces," which opened October 18, 2007 and can be viewed in the Neues Museum Weimar until February 17, 2008. Starting from the already completed 2004 interior shots of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, severely damaged by fire shortly afterwards, in the summer of 2006 it was possible to win the participation of the Cologne-based artist for the creation of an additional series of interior shots on classical Weimar, including images of the Goethe National Museum, Weimar City Castle, Wittumspalais, and Belvedere Palace among other important buildings. Hofer's striking site-specific studies produced 50 large-format images, and the sponsorship of the Allianz Kulturstiftung makes it possible for one of these artworks to be taken into the collection of the Foundation of Weimar Classics at the conclusion of the exhibition.