Since 2000, the Heiner Müller Archive / Transitraum has held Heiner Müller’s (1929–1995) bequeathed library, while the author’s literary estate has been housed at the Berlin Academy of Arts since 1998. In close collaboration with the Academy, the Heiner Müller Archive / Transitraum has become a center for research into Heiner Müller’s work. The 13-volume edition of Müller’s works (edited by Frank Hörnigk), the 36-hour Müller MP3 audio edition, and the new edition of Müller’s poems (edited by Kristin Schulz) were produced here between 1998 and 2011. Exhibitions (e.g., on Müller’s contemporaries) and various projects and events, often involving students, ensure that Müller, the most important German-language playwright after Brecht in the second half of the twentieth century, continues to be recognized.
Heiner Müller’s library, which contains more than 8,100 volumes, also includes original furniture that belonged to the author, such as bookshelves, a typewriter, a secretary, a writing desk, a table, Brecht chairs, an ashtray, and a humidor.
What makes an author’s library special are the traces of use that can be found in the books it contains. Heiner Müller left behind various notes and annotations, as well as numerous slips of paper—some with writing, some blank—to mark important passages in his books. These include invoices, receipts, photos, calendar pages, newspaper articles, shopping lists, telegrams, account statements, advertising brochures, admission tickets, matchsticks, banknotes, cigar wrappers, silver paper, and chewing gum wrappers.
