By Bavarian State Library
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Why is the research of
Nazi loot necessary?
Between 1933 and 1945 Nazi organisations looted numerous goods cultural goods from persons and institutions in Germany and Europe that were persecuted for political and racist reasons. Authorities distributed these stolen goods to public institutions or sold them. After 1945, some of these goods were returned to their rightful owners. However, many pieces remained in museums, libraries and archives. In the Washington Principles of 1998 a great number of states therefore committed to investigating their holdings for cultural assets acquired through Nazi persecution, to identifying the original owners and to finding a “just and fair solution” for the restitution. The Federal Government of Germany has endorsed this commitment in a common “Declaration of the Federal Government, the Laender (Federal States) and the National Associations of Local Authorities” in 1999 and developed a guideline for practice.
How are looted items
identified?
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek incorporated over 65,000 volumes into its holdings in the period between 1933 and 1945. The majority of these books were regular acquisitions through purchases from the book trade or the mandatory deposits of the publishing houses. Looted printed works were purchased via antiquarian book traders or came to the library through donations or swaps of holdings. The collections of personal papers or of manuscripts can likewise include looted items. The registers of acquisitions were destroyed by fire in a bombing raid in 1943. With respect to acquisitions made before 1945, therefore in most cases the books themselves need to be searched for indications of possible previous owners and their theft. Such indications of a book’s provenance are, for example, handwritten owners’ entries, dedications, book plates or stamps.
Bookplate of the Hamburg citizen Henry Presch: “From the library of Henry Presch” and “Library Henry Presch, 4096”
Stamp of the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies and of the Jewish Teacher Training College, both in Berlin
Handwritten dedication note “For our dear Nephew Alfred for his 8th birthday, from Aunt Klara and Uncle Adolf”, stamp of the library of the Reich Institute for the History of the New Germany
Concerning the time before 1945, only the donation registers remained. They permit identifying donors.
Donor number of the Secret State Police Munich (G.n. 14428)
Donor number of the Secret State Police Munich (G.n. 14428) in the book
Which suspicious books
were acquired after 1945?
In March 1946, the US military government handed over 40,000 volumes from libraries of former Nazi organisations to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. In these collections, especially in such of the former National Socialist boarding school Sonthofen, there also exist looted cultural assets.
Acquisition books of the holdings from the former National Socialist boarding school Sonthofen. It took until the 1960s for the books to be catalogued and incorporated.
On the basis of the so-called “Gso number” in the book, the provenance from Sonthofen can be evidenced by the acquisition register.
How are the heirs
identified?
Once a previous owner has been identified, this person’s biography needs to be researched carefully, for which purpose encyclopaedias, databases and old city address books form part of the most important tools. With respect to ascertaining heirs, archives are important sources of information, but also organisations such as the Holocaust Claims Processing Office in New York. In the case of institutions, it has to be determined whether there is a successor institution.
Images (from top to bottom): Ellis Island, New York, passenger lists; Munich city address book, 1939; Yad Vashem, Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
What happens once
heirs could be ascertained?
When the provenance has been clarified unequivocally and it has been established that the book was expropriated, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek returns Nazi loot to the heirs or the successor organisations with as little red tape as possible. Since 2006, 575 volumes could be restituted to 21 institutions and private persons (count of November 2018). The majority of these books were from Jewish previous ownership or from Free Masons’ lodges.
Stamp of Wilhelm Olschewski senior (1871-1943). Together with his son Wilhelm Olschewski junior (1902-1944), he was active in the communist resistance; both were murdered by the National Socialists. Restitution in July 2017.
Stamp of the Rabbi Moritz Güdemann (1835–1918). Restituted to the Israelite Community of Vienna in September 2015.
Handwritten signature of the historian Golo Mann (1909-1994) and acquisition number of the Secret State Police in a work of René Descartes. Transferred to the Swiss Literature Archive in Bern in February 2017 with the approval of the heirs. The archive preserves the personal papers of Golo Mann.
In the year 1943, the Bavarian State Archives and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek acquired 43 manuscripts from the collection of the Jewish orientalist Karl Süßheim (1878-1947). In June 2017 both institutions restituted these works to his heirs.
Bookplate of the Munich Free Masons’ lodge “Zum aufgehenden Licht an der Isar”. In November 2013, 121 volumes were returned to the Bavarian district division of the Großloge der Alten Freien und Angenommenen Maurer von Deutschland (Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Adopted Masons of Germany). The district division subsequently transferred the lodge’s library to the Deutsches Freimaurermuseum (German Masonic Museum) in Bayreuth.
How is the restitution
documented?
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek adds an indication of provenance of each book in the online catalogue (OPAC). In addition, every restitution is documented in detail on the library’s website. For the books to remain accessible to the public, they are being digitized prior to returning them, which is subject to the heirs’ approval. All other provenances found in the course of the research are likewise documented in the OPAC.
What happens if no
owner can be found?
In some books it is documented that they were looted, but there are no indications of their previous owner(s) or no heirs can be ascertained. In these cases, the item is not only marked as Nazi loot in the catalogue of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, but is also entered in the database “Lost Art”. Established in 2001, the online database of the German Lost Art Foundation is a research platform for claimants and researchers. Thus, on the one hand, objects can be entered for world-wide search that were stolen from private persons or institutions during the time of the Nazi regime. On the other hand, also such objects can be entered whose provenance indicates that they were confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution, but where the search for heirs could not be successfully concluded so far.
In case you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us:
Contact persons
Head: Dr. Stephan Kellner
Project team members: Franziska Eschenbach M. A., Elena Velichko M. A.
Phone: +49 89 28638-2756
E-Mail: ns-raubgutforschung@bsb-muenchen.de
Further information on our project is available on our website: https://www.bsb-muenchen.de/ns-raubgutforschung/
The search for NS loot at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is supported by:
German Lost Art Foundation
https://www.kulturgutverluste.de
