Wolfenbüttel, 24 January 2024

These are works that were acquired in the early 1980s in the antiquarian book trade: Albert Schramm’s Deutschlands Verlagsbuchhandel (Leipzig 1925), Hundert Jahre Buchverlag (Düsseldorf 1921) and Anton Menger’s Kritische Geschichte der Nationalökonomie und des Socialismus (Berlin 1871). On the basis of evidence indicating their provenance, such as stamps and handwritten notes, these works could be identified as inventory from what was then the Sozialwissenschaftliche Studienbibliothek.

‘This is a symbolic restitution of an act of cultural eradication planned by the Nazis,’ says Ute Wödl, current director of the AK Bibliothek Wien für Sozialwissenschaften. This library was an early target of the Nazis, symbolising an attack on the cultural identity of the workers’ movement. After the end of the Nazi regime, only 35,000 of the original total of 160,000 titles were found, as a large part of the inventory was destroyed or moved to unknown destinations.

Research into works looted by the Nazis at the Herzog August Bibliothek (HAB) begins with an analysis of objects and signs of provenance. The aim is to identify people and institutions and then research what happened to them during the Nazi period. In the case of evidence of persecution, comprehensive historical detective work is then undertaken. Today, nearly eight decades after the end of the Nazi period, books with their own histories of looting and seizure are still very tangible witnesses of crime and injustice. In the case of works looted by the Nazis, the HAB aims for ‘just and fair solutions’ in accordance with the Washington principles. The project ‘Assets looted by the Nazis among the antiquarian holdings acquired by the Herzog August Bibliothek since 1969’ was supported financially by the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste (German Lost Art Foundation). The HAB is continuing work in this field of research in the follow-up project ‘Assets looted by the Nazis among the Herzog August Bibliothek’s acquisitions made between 1933 and 1969’.

Illustration: A label from the Sozialwissenschaftliche Studienbibliothek der Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien made it possible to identify this book as looted by the Nazis and thus to return it to its rightful owner, now the AK Bibliothek Wien für Sozialwissenschaften. (Photo: HAB)