Werner Schochow. BÖ¼cherschicksale: Die Verlagerungsgeschichte der PreuÖŸischen Staatsbibliothek--Auslagerung, ZerstÖ¶rung, Entfremdung, RÖ¼ckfÖ¼hrung, dargestellt aus den Quellen. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2003. xv + 328 pp. EUR 48.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-11-017764-0.
Reviewed by John Rutledge (Davis Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Published on H-German (October, 2005)
Habent sua fata libelli--Books Have Their Fates
The destruction of treasures from the Anna Amalia library in Weimar by fire in 2004 reminded the world just how easily paper resources are lost. Bücherschicksale is the story of how, by careful planning and hard work, German librarians prevented a tragic loss. Schochow's study recapitulates the epic story of the attempt to save by dispersal the contents of a major European research library. It is the story of how a national treasure was removed from Berlin, distributed to approximately thirty sites around Germany, and how most of it, eventually, returned to Berlin. Contained in the story are heroism, nationalism, patriotism, and humanistic values. It was--one must agree with Schochow--an incredible achievement. One can see in this study the validation of heroic German actions during World War II.
Schochow is a former employee of the Preußische Staatsbibliothek (PStB) and an authoritative historian of this premier library, an expert who has his own archive pertaining to the institution. Before the Second World War the PStB, a bibliotheca patria, ranked as one of the largest European libraries.
Various German professions, particularly the medical and legal professions, have been studied, but only in 2003 did a full-length study appear of the profession of librarians under the Fascist dictatorship.[1] However, Schochow's study deals only tangentially with librarians, although of 400 employees of the PStB, 49 died as a result of the war. Schochow writes an account lovingly reconstructed from primary documentation of the removal and storage (Verlagerung) of the collections of the PStB. It is amazing how much could be learned about this project: the date of each shipment and even the size of the boxes used.
Safety measures at the PStB were increased as early as a week before the outbreak of the war in 1939. With the first Allied aerial attack on Berlin in 1941, the dispersal project moved into high gear; librarians at the PStB began to formulate extensive plans to place the collections in safer locations. The director had the stature and status to approach the owners of large private buildings and ask for the use of the buildings for the safe-keeping of the library's collections. Schochow's study is the history of that plan and its execution. In three successive waves the contents of one of Europe's important libraries--books, unique manuscripts, sheet music, and Zimelien ("treasures")--were shipped to various locations, mostly castles of the minor aristocracy, monasteries, and cloisters. Schochow often spends a great deal of space rehearsing the history of each building, beginning with its medieval origins, its Renaissance and Baroque additions (with illustrations included in an appendix). These minutiae contribute very little to the remarkable story of the successful salvation of much of the holdings of the PStB. At the same time a prosopographical study of the owners of the dispersal sites--or the persons who did the physical work--would have been in itself an interesting study. At times there is simply too much technical detail for the average reader, but, delivered as Kempowski-esque flashbacks, the details occasionally enliven the text. So, for example, the telegram address of the Berlin shipping company responsible for most of the heavy lifting: Frachthenze.
A crucial part of a disaggregation of a collection is its reassembly after the war: to what extent were the books regathered? What were the loss rates? Ownership of the PStB holdings was multiply disputed. After the war the collections were reassembled in two locations. With the division of Germany into two countries, Marburg/Lahn in the west became the gathering site in Allied-occupied West Germany. In the east books from Soviet-occupied Germany flowed to their former home at Unter den Linden in East Berlin. Alas, not all of the holdings of the PStB could be reconstituted after the war. Approximately one quarter of the pre-war holdings have never rejoined the collection. The Marburg hoard, sometimes difficult to access, remained there until 1964, when it began to be returned to West Berlin as the holdings of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
A lasting effect of the postwar political reorganization of Germany was that a significant number of books belonging to the PStB remained in Poland. There are several reasons for this. The materials were perceived by some as recompense for losses suffered in the war; some items had been incorporated into Polish collections and there was neither time nor staff to separate those books belonging to the PStB out and return them. Significant portions of the collections remain in Polish or Russian libraries, despite anguished negotiations. Schochow is particularly interested in the fate of PStB books that remained in Polish custody (chapter 4). Evidently he made personal trips to various Polish libraries to inquire about them. About 90,000 volumes were returned in 1965, but a large number remain completely unaccounted for. Schochow estimates that about 100,000 volumes remain in Poland today, scattered through eight institutions. If the Poles are tempted to regard this as justified recompense for losses suffered in the war, one can hardly blame them: it is estimated that Polish libraries lost about two-thirds of their own library holdings in the war. Schochow sketches the various attitudes the Poles have taken towards these materials and the options available to them (were the Poles morally obliged to give them to the GDR, a socialist sister country?).
The narration of this study is straightforward and economical; the logical organization of the material contributes greatly to this strategy. The recounting of the story follows the historic fact of three successive waves of Auslagerung and is formulaic. Within each wave, the organization is by region. So, for the sake of clarity, the author presents an overview of Pomerania, followed by the several depots within the region. The historical details of each deposit site come next, followed by a list of which materials were to be sent to the location. Then the section treats preparation for sending the books: contacts with the owner, inspection of the site for its suitability, how the materials were packed, what sort of railroad car they went in; sometimes even how the books got from the railroad station to the storage site. Finally, Schochow speaks to the fate of the books in the postwar period.
Saving the collections of the Preußische Staatsbibliothek was an incredible achievement, and it needed to be memorialized. And that Schochow has done and done so admirably. However, the level of detail is stultifying--more than anyone could hope or want to remember. Soon the reader becomes a skimmer. Lost in the details are summarizing comments or interpretation that would give the details a greater significance, or help the reader understand the social costs and implications and the larger significance of the project.
Production values of this Walter de Gruyter title are, of course, high. This book offers a color map of the deposit sites and numerous tables, charts, and lists. At EUR 48.95 for 328 pages it is moderately priced, slightly less expensive than the average university press title. A subvention from the Stiftung Preußischer Seehandlung, which takes an interest in Brandenburg-Prussian history, probably helped keep the price relatively low.
Note
[1]. Christine Koch, Das Bibliothekswesen im Nationalsozialismus: eine Forschungsstandanalyse (Marburg: Tectum, 2003).
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Citation:
John Rutledge. Review of Schochow, Werner, BÖ¼cherschicksale: Die Verlagerungsgeschichte der PreuÖŸischen Staatsbibliothek--Auslagerung, ZerstÖ¶rung, Entfremdung, RÖ¼ckfÖ¼hrung, dargestellt aus den Quellen.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
October, 2005.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11175
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