A look back at the autumn of 1942: Some 100,000 volumes from the former Bremen State Library were relocated to Bernburg an der Saale in order to protect them from possible war damage. After the war, these stocks were transported to the Soviet Union by the Red Army. The whereabouts of the so-called "looted books" and what happened to them within the Soviet Union were unknown for a long time. The dissolution of the Soviet Union gave rise to an unexpected turn of events: Back in 1993, Georgia and the Federal Republic of Germany concluded an agreement providing for the return of "looted books". At the end of the 1990s, the Bremen State and University Library received more than 15,000 volumes from removed collections, mainly from Georgia but also from Armenia. And in the following years, it was not uncommon for single titles to re-appear.
Books were handed over by a well-known Georgian poet
It was no different with the latest batch of returned books. According to the German Embassy, the recently returned collection was in the possession of the well-known Georgian poet Giwi Markwelashvilli. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, he presented 57 volumes to the Georgian National Science Library in Tbilisi. From the ownership stamps in the books, it was not difficult to identify the libraries they originally came from. Seven books printed in the 18th and 19th centuries belong to the Bremen State and University Library. They include textbooks and a novel:
- “Observationum selectarum ad rem literariam spectantium”, Vol. 9. Halle, Magdeburg, 1704
- C. F. D. Schubart: “Kurzgefasstes Lehrbuch der schoenen Wissenschaften”, 1781
- “Frankfurter Archiv für ältere deutsche Literatur und Geschichte”, published by J.T.v. Fichard, Frankfurt a.M. 1811
- Gustav Seyffarth: “Rudimenta Hieroglyphics”, 1826
- Johannes Janssen: “Geschichte des deutschen Volkes“, Freiburg 1878
- Bernhardine Schulze-Smidt: “Inge von Kantum”, Frankfurt a.M. 1881
- Stockholm: “sveriges hufvudstad; skildrad med anl. af Allmänna Konst- och Industriutställningen”. Published by E. W. Dahlgren, Stockholm 1897
Members of the press: This link will take you to a selection of image material: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/0ba63c814f6a450dab8c/
More information under:
www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/
If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:
Maria Elisabeth Müller, Director
Bremen State and University Library
Phone: +49 421 218-59400
Email: direktionprotect me ?!suub.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
