Since 2000, the Heiner Müller Archiv / Transitraum has housed Heiner Müller’s (1929–1995) bequeathed library, while the author’s literary estate has been housed at the Akademie der Künste since 1998. In close collaboration with the Academy, the Heiner Müller Archiv / Transitraum has become a centre for research into Heiner Müller’s work. Between 1998 and 2011, the 13-volume edition of Müller’s works (edited by Frank Hörnigk), the 36-hour Müller MP3 audio edition in 2011, and the new edition of Müller’s poems (edited by Kristin Schulz) were produced here. 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 20th century, continues to be recognised.
Heiner Müller’s estate library, which contains more than 8,100 volumes, also includes original furniture belonging 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 in the collected books. Heiner Müller has left behind various notes and annotations, as well as numerous slips of paper, both written and blank, to mark important places in the books. These include invoices, receipts, photos, calendar pages, newspaper articles, shopping lists, telegrams, account receipts, advertising brochures, admission tickets, matchsticks, banknotes, cigar wrappers, silver paper and chewing gum wrappers.
