Rückgabe:
Gemeinsame Rückgabe der UB der Freien Universität Berlin und der Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg an die Jüdische Gemeinde zu Dresden K.d.ö.R. voraussichtlich im März 2022.
Ausgewählte Literatur/Quellen:
Katalog der Bücherei der Israelitischen ...
Verpackung und Verschickung der Bücher an das SD-Hauptamt in Berlin: BArch R 58/6424, Bl. 183-185.
Jörn Kreuzer: NS-Raubgut aus zweiter Hand. ...
Zu (Carl/Karl) August Wünsche, Nachrufe und zur Wünsche-Bibliothek:
Ancestry.de (Geburt, Heiratsregister, Todesanzeige)
Jüdische Volksstimme 1913
Die Wahrheit 1913
Die Jüdische Presse 1913
Israelitisches Familienblatt 1927
Gemeindeblatt der IRG Dresden 1927/28
Jüdische Schulzeitung 1928
Der Orden Bne Briss 1929
MGWJ 1932
Der Israelit 1932
Jüdische Schulzeitung 1932
Jüdische Bibliothek 1932
English translation:
Israelitische Religionsgemeinde zu Dresden, Wünsche Library
(Joint restitution of 3 books by the library of the FU Berlin and the library of the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg).
Case Description:
In 1911, the Israelitische Religionsgemeinde zu Dresden (IRG) acquired the important private library of the (Protestant) Hebraist Carl August Wünsche (1838-1913). It was not integrated into the existing community library, but merely attached to it. The stamps made especially for it testify to the status given to the new collection. In 1927, the IRG published a catalogue of the existing stock of books - again separated into the Wünsche Library and the Municipal Library. All three books to be restituted are listed in this catalogue. In 1932, the municipality placed advertisements in several newspapers in order to draw attention to the Wünsche Library and to attract interested people as visitors or users. (Or did the municipality thereby express between the lines the wish to include further scholars' libraries, keyword emigration?).
The November pogroms were accompanied by the confiscation of the library of the religious community, and from July 21 to 24, 1939, SS-Untersturmführer Stein was on site "to supervise the packing of the following Jewish libraries confiscated in Dresden: 1. Jewish Community 2. Wünsche Library". This involved about 6000 volumes, which were sent in 58 boxes to the SD Main Office in Berlin on the instructions of SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Helmut Knochen.
In the case of the books identified in Heidelberg, in view of the context of the collection under investigation, it can be assumed that they were transferred to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1943?) - either to Theresienstadt and/or to the Prague Jewish Central Museum. From there, they made their way to the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s and finally to Heidelberg. However, the fact that not the entire holdings of the community library were transferred to the Protectorate is suggested by a copy identified in the ZLB (and restituted in 2013), which contains the reference to salvage point 15. It is also possible that the accession of the FU's copy can be explained via the books that remained in Berlin.
Copies:
Peter Le Page Renouf: Vorlesungen über Ursprung und Entwickelung ..., Leipzig 1882; Wünsche Library shelfmark: A 304.
Adolf Jellinek: Introduction to the Torah. Five speeches, Vienna 1866; shelfmark of the Wünsche Library: H I 14.
Franz Steinmetzer: Neue Untersuchung über die Geschichtlichkeit ..., Leipzig 1907; shelfmark of the Wünsche Library: E I 511.
Selected literature/sources:
Catalog of the Library of the Jewish ...
Packing and shipping of the books to the SD-Hauptamt in Berlin: BArch R 58/6424, Bl. 183-185.
Jörn Kreuzer: NS-Raubgut aus zweiter Hand. ...
On (Carl/Karl) August Wünsche, obituaries and the Wünsche library:
Ancestry.com (birth, marriage record, obituary).
Jewish People's Voice 1913
The Truth 1913
The Jewish Press 1913
Israelitisches Familienblatt 1927
Community Gazette of the IRG Dresden 1927/28
Jewish school newspaper 1928
The Order Bne Briss 1929
MGWJ 1932
The Israelite 1932
Jewish school newspaper 1932
Jewish Library 1932