The search for Nazi looted assets at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.