Spurensuche in der Stadtbibliothek Hannover. Forschungen zu NS-Raubgut in Erwerbungen nach 1945

Abstract

As part of a provenance research project, the Hannover City Library (StB) is currently searching its holdings for items looted by the National Socialist regime. Whereas most research into Nazi-era looted art in libraries traditionally has focused on acquisitions between 1933 and 1945, the StB takes a different approach, investing post-war acquisitions as well. The StB Hannover conducts this research against the background of the specific history of its holdings: More than 50 percent of the library’s collection was destroyed by fire during an air raid in October 1943. After the war, the library quickly purchased large quantities of literature of unclear or questionable provenance, in order to fill massive gaps in its holdings. It was thus clear to provenance researchers at the StB Hannover that the post-war years, from 1945 to 1955, could be of particular interest for their work. Accordingly, the current project investigates the background of acquisitions that are particularly suspected of having been looted. Some can be traced back to the takeover of holdings from local National Socialist state and party institutions: so-called gifts from the Gestapo as well as acquisitions from the archive and museum of the National Socialist Party district of Südhannover-Braunschweig. The paper presents the benefits and challenges of this approach – focusing on StB Hannover acquisitions during the first ten post-war years – as a report on work in progress.