Jürgen Klein
German-born Aurovilian Jürgen Klein left his body on August 14th, 2023, in his room at Mahalakshmi Home at the age of 78. He had suffered a stroke a week earlier.
Saviour of Books
Jürgen first came to Auroville in 1968, following The Mother’s invitation to all men of goodwill to join the building of Auroville. Even though he had to spend many successive years in Germany, so that his daughter could complete her education there, Auroville was his true home and he finally settled here for good in 1993.
Jürgen is remembered for his undaunted work of building up and managing the Auroville Library in the early years, which he started in 1998. At that time, the library was located in the rather dingy basement of one of the unfinished pavilions of Bharat Nivas. Jürgen improved the setup of the library with more books, more shelves, a study section, better lights and cushions that invited one to plop down on the floor for relaxed reading. But the space was prone to flooding as the floor level was below the surrounding ground level. A pump was installed but often couldn’t work as during flooding, electricity was switched off. On at least three occasions, he had to carry wet books to another building, many of which were unsalvageable.
Jürgen’s major achievements were cataloguing all the books according to the Dewey Decimal System and being the driving force behind the building of the new library. But notwithstanding all of his pushing and the obvious unsuitability of the Bharat Nivas basement, it was years before the community accepted the idea that a new library was necessary. When this finally materialised in November 2011, Jürgen resigned, leaving Auroville, as his successor said, “an incredible gift."
Jürgen’s remains were buried at the Auroville Cremation and Burial Grounds on August 17th.
