Books & Publications:

Title

Bibliotheken in der NS-Zeit. Provenienzforschung und Bibliotheksgeschichte (Libraries in the Nazi period. Provenance Research and Library History)

Author

Stefan Alker, Christina Köstner, Markus Stumpf (eds)

Date

2008

Description

Published by Vienna University Press in January 2008, ISBN 978-3-89971-450-0, this book comprises the papers of the conference on libraries during the Nazi period, which took place in Vienna 25-27 March 2008. Details of the conference are available here.   

The book is divided into four sections:

Section 1 “Provenance Research” includes papers by Thomas Jahn and Stephan Kellner on provenance research in the Bavarian State Library, Munich; Bernd Reifenberg on the provenance research project at the University Library Marburg; Heike Pudler on research and restitution at the State Library Berlin; Matthias Harbeck and Sonja Kobold on provenance research at the Humboldt University Library Berlin, focusing on books from the private library of the German-Jewish professor of German Studies Agathe Lasch; and Christiane Hoffrath on provenance research at the University and Municipal Library of Cologne, focusing on books from the library of German-Jewish university professor Elise Richter and her sister, the theatre historian Helene Richter.

Section 2 “Libraries during the Nazi period” includes contributions by Katharina Bergmann on the history of Graz University Library 1938-45; Cordula Reuss on Leipzig University Library 1933-45; Helmut Hilz on the Library of the German Museum (Munich) 1933-45; Susanne Wanninger on Rudolf Buttmann, General Director of the Bavarian State Library in the Nazi period; and Hans-Joachim Lang on acquisitions of the Law Faculty of Tübingen University, focusing on the looted library of Max Fleischmann of Halle.

Section 3 “Vienna” focuses on Viennese libraries during the Nazi period and includes, inter alia, contributions by Evelyn Adunka on Salomon Frankfurter, the Austrian-Jewish director of the University Library of Vienna; by Christian Mertens on the Viennese municipal library; and by Peter Malina and Monika Löscher on provenance research at the University Library of Vienna.

Section 4 “Book looting in the occupied territories” includes an article by Andrzej Mezynski on Polish libraries 1939-1945; Werner Schroeder on the “Research Brigade East” and the looting of books in the Soviet Union 1941-43; Sem C. Sutter on H.A. Krüss and Gustav Abb, library administrators in occupied territories; and Dov Schidorsky on the post-war book-salvaging missions of Shlomo Shunami in Europe and on aspects of centralisation, provenance research, restitution and distribution of several hundred thousand books transferred from Europe to Israel.