The University Library of Humboldt University was established in 1832 and is the oldest university library in Berlin. Its holdings are distributed across 13 locations. The largest part of the historical collections is currently housed in the Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum. As in many other German libraries, books that had been confiscated due to persecution or looted in occupied territories entered the University Library (UB) from 1933 onwards. Even after 1945, materials of problematic provenance continued to be added to the library’s holdings, now through the antiquarian book trade, interlibrary exchanges, and the Central Office for Scientific Heritage Collections. Due to the large volume of historical holdings—approaching one million items—and the complex history of the collection, the University Library still has a considerable way to go in fully reconstructing its acquisition history during the Nazi era.

Projects on the Acquisition History of the University Library during National Socialism

Currently, the acquisitions of the former Central University Library from 1933 to 1945 are being systematically investigated. The research is led by Dr. Cornelia Briel. The basis for this work is the library’s accession journals (acquisition records). The entries are cross-checked using the catalog, preserved archival documents, and the surviving original holdings. Looted and suspicious items are documented, and restitution procedures are being prepared. The project is funded by the German Lost Art Foundation (Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste).

Provenance research into wrongful acquisitions during the Nazi era at the University Library dates back to the year 2000. However, the first investigations yielded incomplete results, not least because they were each limited to a few months. Anke Quast focused on suspicious suppliers during the acquisition years 1933 to 1945. In 2002, Inge Emskötter and Karen Schmohl built upon this initial review, with research concentrating on books of Jewish provenance and acquisition records from 1941 and 1942. In 2008, Sonja Kobold and Matthias Harbeck thoroughly examined the provenance of Agathe Lasch, the first female professor of German studies in Germany. The identified items were offered for restitution to Lasch’s descendants, who subsequently donated most of them back to the University Library.

Branch Libraries and Provenance History

The institute and departmental libraries of Humboldt University were only placed under the administrative authority of the Central University Library during the third higher education reform in the GDR in 1969. Consequently, each of them has its own collection history and heterogeneous archival sources. Over the past decades, library locations have been increasingly consolidated and historical holdings integrated. The situation of the former Central University Library is the most comprehensively documented, especially through the carefully maintained and almost completely preserved accession books. The overarching goal is to reconstruct the provenance history of the library’s entire collection.

Provenance Research

At the University Library, the Department of Historical Collections is responsible for uncovering the library’s provenance history. This work is not limited to the investigation of looted materials but is dedicated to the provenance research and documentation of the entire historical collection.

 

Universitätsbibliothek der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Abteilung Historische Sammlungen

Dr. Yong-Mi Rauch
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin

Email: rara@ub.hu-berlin.de

Tel. +49(30) 2093 99280