Provenance Research
Between 2014 and 2018, more than 6,000 books in the Judaica collections at the University Library in Potsdam underwent an assessment process to determine whether they are loot or trophies from the National Socialist period. Numerous volumes were identified so far. The mostly Hebrew or Yiddish provenance markers are documented in the Looted Cultural Assets database.
Detailed Project Description
The interdisciplinary degree program in Jewish Studies was established at the University of Potsdam in 1994. This included the assembly of a subject-specific book inventory, because the University Library at Potsdam hardly had any literature on Judaism, Israel or religious studies. Book holdings were acquired by means of purchases from the antiquarian book trade and gifts.
The library acquired valuable holdings in the private libraries of the Jerusalem librarian Dr. Israel Mehlmann, of the literary director of the Jewish State Theater in Bucharest, Israil Bercovici, and the Amsterdam rabbi Prof. Yehuda Aschkenasy. The majority of the collections were assembled after 1945 and contain numerous books with provenance markers.
Hebrew book titles constitute by far the largest proportion of the holdings under evaluation. Many provenance markers and credits are composed in Hebrew or Yiddish. This is why the University Library has assigned a research associate to carry out the provenance research project.
Suspicious books are identified and their provenance – which could take the form of stamps, ex libris, labels, autographs or other handwritten entries – is photographed. These features are then entered, along with the bibliographical data, into the Looted Cultural Assets. Because over 70 percent of the suspicious books are in Hebrew or Yiddish, this data entry is very time-consuming; only the bibliographical data can be transliterated.
Research on entities, meaning people or organizations, also takes a great deal of time, which is why it is only done in specific cases. When this research is completed, the results are entered into the database. Thanks to a cooperative agreement with the Berlin Central and Regional Library (Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin), the Free University of Berlin, and the Centrum Judaicum, we are able to access previously saved information, which makes this work much more feasible.
In 1998/1999, the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and Germany’s federal, state and municipal Declaration on the Tracing and Return of Nazi-Confiscated Cultural Assets, especially from Jewish holdings, provided the foundation for provenance research. These declarations called upon public libraries, museums and archives to identify any of their holdings that might be Nazi loot, to identify any possible heirs, and to return the affected volumes.
The Judaica collections at the University Library of Potsdam have been undergoing a process since 2014 to assess whether any holdings are Nazi loot.
Project Members
Project Lead:
Dr. Andreas Kennecke
Contact: kenneckeuuni-potsdampde
Former Project Members:
Sebastian Drost
Anke Geißler-Grünberg
This project was funded by the German Lost Art Foundation.
Press Comments
- Rüdiger Braun, <link http: www.maz-online.de brandenburg potsdam-erforscht-herkunft-juedischer-buecher>Potsdam erforscht Herkunft jüdischer Bücher, in: Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, 18.11.2014, S. 1 und 15
- Peter Degener, Ein Buch kehrt zurück, in: Märkische Allgemeine, Potsdamer Tageszeitung, 03.02.2018, Seite 16
- Milton Esterow: <link https: www.nytimes.com arts _blank up-internal-link>There’s Nazi Loot On the Shelves, Too, in: New York Times, 15.1.2019
- Lidar Gravé-Lazi, <link http: www.jpost.com diaspora rare-1546-book-looted-by-nazis-returned-to-family-in-israel-539629 _blank link im neuen fenster>Rare 1546 book looted by nazis returned to family in Israel, in: Jerusalem Post, 24.01.2018, online
- Merle Janssen, <link http: www.pnn.de campus>Forschung zum NS-Raubgut. Verpflichtung gegenüber der Vergangenheit, in: Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, 16.03.2016, S. 21
- Jan Kixmüller, <link http: www.pnn.de campus>Wenn Bücher nach Raubgut riechen, in: Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, 08.10.2014, S. 12
- Jan Kixmüller, <link http: www.pnn.de campus _blank link im neuen fenster>Späte Heimkehr, in: Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, 07.02.2018, Seite 22
- Sophia Rost, Geraubt oder nicht?, in: <link http: www.uni-potsdam.de fileadmin01 projects up-entdecken docs portal archiv portal_01_2015_januar_web.pdf up-external-link link im neuen fenster>Portal. Das Universitätsmagazin, 01/2015, S. 34
- RBB, Beitrag in Brandenburg aktuell, 28.10.2014
- Alina Schittenhelm, Erben gefunden. Wie ein Nachfahre von Opfern der Shoah ein Buch zurückerhielt, das einst seinen Eltern gehörte, in: <link https: www.uni-potsdam.de fileadmin01 projects up-entdecken docs portal aktuell portal_02_2018_web_neu.pdf _blank up-external-link link im neuen fenster>Portal. Das Universitätsmagazin, 02/2018, S. 41
- Dietrich Schröder, <link https: idw-online.de de news688606 _blank link im neuen fenster>Von Nazis geraubtes Buch zurückgegeben, in: Märkische Oderzeitung, Frankfurt Nr.29/29, 03.02.2018, Seite 10
- Katrin Starke, <link http: www.morgenpost.de berlin article207368621 uni-potsdam-stoebert-von-nazis-geraubte-buecher-auf.html>Uni Potsdam stöbert von Nazis geraubte Bücher auf , in: Berliner Morgenpost, 03.04.2016
Further Reading
- Jürgen Babendreier: Review: Anke Geißler-Grünberg, Lisa Trzaska, NS-Raubgut - Forschungsbericht zur Provenienzforschung an der Universitätsbibliothek Potsdam 2014–2018, Potsdam 2018, in: Informationsmittel für Bibliotheken 27 (2019) 1, 13.03.2019, <http://informationsmittel-fuer-bibliotheken.de/showfile.php?id=9611>.
- Vera Bendt, Willem Burgers, Ein Amsterdamer Antiquar im Geiste von Spinoza, in: IMPRIMATUR - Jahrbuch für Bücherfreunde, Neue Folge, Band XXIV, 2015, S. 11-54.
- Anke Geißler-Grünberg, Lisa Trzaska, NS-Raubgut - Forschungsbericht zur Provenienzforschung an der Universitätsbibliothek Potsdam 2014–2018, Potsdam 2018.
- Elvira Grözinger, Die jiddische Kultur im Schatten der Diktaturen : Israil Bercovici - Leben und Werk, Berlin 2002.
- Karl E. Grözinger (Hrsg.), Die Stiftungen der preußisch-jüdischen Hofjuweliersfamilie Ephraim und ihre Spuren in der Gegenwart, mit Beiträgen von Harry van der Linden und Karl E. Grözinger, Wiesbaden 2009.
- Nathanael Riemer, Die Judaica- und Hebraica-Bestände der Universitätsbibliothek Potsdam, in: Postprints der Universität Potsdam. Philosophische Reihe; 22 (2009).