2008 Michael Knoche

Born in Werdohl in 1951, Michael Knoche is considered to be one of the most outstanding librarians, and he campaigned for the public reputation of the role and importance of libraries. He studied German philology from 1971 to 1979, Catholic theology and philosophy in Tübingen and completed training for the higher library service in Karlsruhe and Cologne from 1978 to 1980. After receiving his doctorate in Tübingen in 1985, he worked as a research assistant at the Springer-Verlag in Heidelberg. From 1991 to 2016 he was director of the Central Library of German Classical (later Duchess Anna Amalia Library).
The mastering of the tragic fire of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in 2004 can be seen as a significant achievement of Knoche. He led the rescue work under special dedication, so that the inauguration of the reconstructed library building could already take place on October 24, 2007. In his impressive documentary "Die Bibliothek brennt", he succeeded in explaining the catastrophe to a broad audience and thus gaining new followers for the library as well as for the books. In 2008, he received the Gutenberg Prize of the City of Mainz and the International Gutenberg Society for his work as a librarian, who was "practically and scientifically committed to the preservation of the books."