From one who went forth to learn what ‘cinema’ was. What the Prussian Staatsbibliothek knows about film

A rainy afternoon. Headlights flicker across Unter den Linden’s grey asphalt surface. To shelter from the rain, you escape into the Staatsbibliothek. Its towering atrium displays the patina of pastness considered obligatory in this country for official establishments. The clear implication is that there is no fun to be had in scholarship. On this raw, sham-spring day, your visit proceeds up the unheated, draughty staircase; for knowledge must be hard-won. Cerberus stands at the entrance; you flash your admission ticket, and proceed to the catalogue room. In heavy rows stand hefty tomes, zealous readers skimming their pages, diligently filling slips of paper and notebooks. Here, it seems, all the world’s knowledge is recorded. Or rather, thank goodness, merely listed by title, with the authors of all available works tidily ordered in the card catalogue. The classifications catch your eye in passing: ‘Joi to Jonas’ or ‘Clac to Claq’, and other curious combinations. No sign of film, however, either here, or even under ‘Anonymous’.