Ermittlung und Restitution von NS-Raub- und Beutegut an der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen

Identification and Restitution of Nazi-Looted Cultural Goods at the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen)

During the Third Reich, in addition to artworks, books were also looted on a large scale through confiscations from banned and dissolved organizations, as well as through the expropriation of emigrants and deported Jewish citizens by Nazi Party and state authorities (looted literature). Furthermore, books were looted in occupied territories during World War II. While a significant portion of these looted books were intentionally destroyed or lost during the war, some still remain in the collections of academic libraries today.

Research Project

In recent years, research has increasingly focused on this important topic. The SUB Göttingen took the exhibition "Und euch zum Trotz" (And Despite You) on book burning in 1933, shown at the Old Town Hall in May 2008, as an opportunity to investigate the acquisition of looted and plundered goods in its collections during the National Socialist era. With financial support from the University of Göttingen's presidency, the library developed a concept for a comprehensive and systematic research project on the identification and restitution of unlawfully acquired literature during the National Socialist era within the framework of a nine-month preliminary project (September 1, 2008 - May 31, 2009).
The research project, in which scholars and librarians from the SUB Göttingen participated, was conducted from June 1, 2009, to August 31, 2011. The Working Group for Provenance Research at the Institute for Museum Research of the Berlin State Museums - Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation supported the project with approximately €60,000 from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. The SUB Göttingen contributed an equivalent amount in kind.

Project Tasks and Work Steps, as well as Documentation of Results

Within the framework of the preliminary project, all surviving accession books of the library from 1933 to 1950 were examined, along with the information they contained about acquired titles, their place and year of publication, accession numbers, date of arrival, and the nature and source of their acquisition. This provided an initial overview of the scope of suspicious acquisitions. In total, approximately 100,000 entries were reviewed, and 8,221 of them were classified as suspicious and recorded in a database.
Within the framework of the research project, all suspicious cases were thoroughly investigated. In addition to identifying potential indications of previous owners in the books themselves (ownership stamps, gift ex libris, names, dedications, etc.), comprehensive research was conducted in various archives to obtain more precise information about the nature and circumstances of the acquisition. All books ultimately identified as looted or plundered goods were marked as such in the Göttingen University Catalog (GUK). Furthermore, suspicious cases whose acquisition circumstances could not be precisely determined were also noted in the catalog. The catalog entries are accompanied by explanations and information on the acquisition history of the respective titles, based on archival research. All proven and suspected cases of looted goods were also reported to the Lost Art Internet database of the Coordination Office for Lost Cultural Assets. At the same time, research was conducted to identify possible previous owners or their heirs, so that the return of unlawfully acquired books could be offered to them.
The historical background, methodology, and results of the research project were presented to a broad public in the exhibition "Bücher unter Verdacht - NS-Raub- und Beutegut an der SUB Göttingen" (Books Under Suspicion - Nazi-Looted and Plundered Goods at the SUB Göttingen) from May 13, 2011, to July 10, 2011, in the foyer of the Central Library of the SUB Göttingen, with support from the University of Göttingen Association. The exhibition is documented in a catalog of the same name.

Examples

During the Third Reich, academic libraries (not public libraries) were the only libraries permitted to collect and store forbidden literature under strict conditions of use. Since 1933, the Göttingen University Library has acquired works of "forbidden literature" from dissolved organizations, sometimes also from politically or religiously persecuted individuals. From 1938 onwards, it also received numerous book shipments from the Prussian State Library in Berlin, which had assumed a distribution function in the German library system since 1934: The authorities compiled lists of confiscated books and sent them to the Prussian State Library in Berlin, which selected some for its own collections and ensured that the remaining titles were distributed to other academic libraries.
In particular, since the beginning of World War II, deliveries from occupied territories have also been received through the Emergency Association, the "Reich Exchange Office," and the Procurement Office of German Libraries. For example, the Procurement Office, which supplied German academic libraries with foreign scientific literature, sent around 140 books to Göttingen in June 1943, which were stamped with marks from prisoner-of-war camps or contained information on the reasons for censorship or removal.
Of the 8,221 suspicious cases in the SUB Göttingen's collections, which were all examined visually, it was possible to determine that 1,080 books were clear or suspected cases of looted goods. Among them are approximately 180 books that were forbidden during the National Socialist era, originating from the Harburg-Wilhelmsburg city library, which had attempted in vain to recover its collection after 1945. Furthermore, in many cases, it was possible to provide evidence that confiscated works from SPD and trade union libraries were sent to Göttingen via local mayors. Additionally, 32 books with stamps from various trade union and workers' associations were found, which had been acquired by the library through the Nazi unified trade union, the "Deutsche Arbeitsfront" (German Labor Front). Finally, in 1934, the SPD politician Dr. Heinrich Troeger donated 72 books of Marxist content to the Göttingen University Library to avoid political persecution.

Restitutions

In accordance with the wishes of the Troeger family, who had been informed of the discovery by the SUB Göttingen, the library returned the books from Troeger's collection to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, where Troeger's estate is preserved, in April 2011.
In February 2013, the SUB Göttingen restituted 38 books with ownership stamps from Poznań to the University Library in Poznań. These books had been sent to the Göttingen University Library by the "Reich Exchange Office" and the Emergency Association of German Science between 1941 and 1943.

In May 2013, the SUB Göttingen returned three volumes and an extensive collection of maps to the Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg. The works, which bear the ownership stamp of the Strasbourg library, had been relocated to Göttingen in 1944 and were still incorporated into the Göttingen library's collection in 1961.

In July 2013, the SUB Göttingen returned 167 books with ownership stamps from the Workers' Central Library in Verden to the SPD local association in Verden. The books had been sent to the Göttingen library as a "gift" by the Verden town hall in 1935.

In June 2017, 18 historical prints from the Mainz Freemasons' lodge "Die Freunde zur Eintracht" (The Friends of Harmony) were returned, which had been unlawfully removed from the lodge during the National Socialist era. The books, which date back to the 18th and 19th centuries, were proven to have belonged to the Mainz Freemasons' library. At the request of the lodge, some of the volumes were digitized before restitution and are now freely accessible on the website of the Göttingen Digitization Center.

Only two cases of books with Jewish previous ownership could be identified. In these cases, so-called "non-Aryans" had offered books for sale to the Göttingen University Library. According to the wishes of their relatives, these books are to remain in the SUB Göttingen's collection.

Further Research on Nazi-Looted Cultural Goods

While the acquisitions from 1933 to 1950 could be thoroughly examined based on the accession books, it must be assumed that Nazi-looted cultural goods were also acquired in later years as antiquarian purchases or as gifts or institutional donations. Identifying these cases is extremely challenging, as it would require reviewing over two million entries in the accession books from after 1950 for antiquarian purchases, gifts, and institutional donations, which is not feasible with reasonable effort. Nevertheless, the SUB Göttingen continues to search for Nazi-looted cultural goods: If suspicious provenance entries are noticed during use, the corresponding books are examined. The SUB Göttingen is therefore grateful for any hints from its users.