Phone booth-turned-library a smashing success in rural Germany

By Hans-Christian Woeste Apr 1, 2010, 7:16 GMT

Suedbrookmerland, Germany - Joerg Rogall, a German photographer-activist who lives in the small East Frisian municipality of Suedbrookmerland, has had smashing success - in more ways than one - with an old telephone booth that he converted into a free library and set up in front of his house.

Sporting yellow and red stripes and a green roof like a bobble hat, the mini-library strongly resembles a quaint little lighthouse. The eye-catcher has attracted lots of curious people, who step in to browse for a while. It has also attracted vandals, who wrecked it in mid-March for the second time.

'I have no idea who does such things or, most importantly, why,' said Rogall, who is 47 and a native Rhinelander.

Rogall set up the booth of books last autumn. One day in late December he found it tipped over and demolished in his driveway. So he laboriously repaired it and reopened the library in January. And now vandals have struck again.

Nevertheless, Rogall said he intended to carry on his cultural work in deepest East Frisia, whose inhabitants have a reputation as country bumpkins among their fellow Germans.

'Between 150 and 200 books are taken out each month. That shows there's a large demand for reading in the countryside,' he noted.

The choice of books in Rogall's library is diverse. There are current novels and detective stories as well as classical literature and children's books. Games, CDs and videos can also be taken out, exchanged or donated. The supply is constantly replenished with new donations.

'I'm still looking for children's books because kids are the most frequent visitors,' Rogall remarked. Sometimes, he said, as many as three little bookworms have crowded into the booth, which has an area of one square metre, discussed the books on hand and left with a large stack of them.

'Adults are more reserved and self-conscious,' he said.

Rogall cannot understand why some people throw books away. From this practice came his idea to open a free library.

He already has imitators, for example in the nearby city of Aurich. 'In the pedestrian zone there, a bakery now has a bookcase with free books. And a pensioner in Friedeburg (a municipality in East Frisia) has converted his sun room into a free library,' Rogall said.

He also has another idea that he said could help promote interest in books. 'If book boxes were set up in front of schools and kindergartens,' Rogall mused, 'then children would quickly develop an appetite for reading.'