nine euros to leipzig
The 9-Euro-Ticket is real and it is chaos and I love it. Nine euros for a month of all local trains in Germany. Every regional train is a moving party of students, grandmothers, bikes, dogs and one guy with a cello.
Berlin to Leipzig on regional trains: three hours and change, two changes, one delay, zero seats.
Why Leipzig: the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek has a building there, and in the old days the GDR's copy of everything ended up in Leipzig. I asked at the info desk about historical records for titles that were announced but never published. A very patient librarian took me to an old card catalog, the physical one with the little wooden drawers, which they still keep for reasons.
She found the card. Typed, yellowed:
Tafeln gleichverteilter Zufallszahlen. Bd. 2. Berlin: Akademie-Fachverl., 1964.
And across it, a purple stamp: AUSGESONDERT. Withdrawn. Weeded out.
So the library got a copy, catalogued it, and then removed it. She had never seen a card like that for an unpublished book. She said "interessant" in a tone that meant she would prefer I went away now.
Train home: four hours, standing, happy.