Provenance Research at the University Library of Salzburg

In the University Library of Salzburg, there are several hints as to books looted by the National Socialists, which found their way into the library inventory through various ways. Most importantly, numerous books of the library carry the incriminating imprint "Ahnenerbe." Further traces especially lead to Catholic institutions, such as the local St.Peter`s monastery, to Jewish individuals (for instance the Viennese scientists Elise and Helene Richter), and to a valuable Russica collection of dubious origin. The central point of interest of the proposed project therefore is to investigate how looted books entered the Studienbibliothek Salzburg and how the library dealt with these problematic volumes during and after the National Socialist rule. Due to broad historical and political contextualization, the focus of this research aims at the responsible agitators, the profiting parties and especially the different individual victims or groups of victims and their treatment during and after the Nazi period. The scholarly answers to these questions will be found in close cooperation with the research team of the University Library of Salzburg. They are scanning 150.000 suspicious books for provenance entries. A central concern of the project is the critical investigation of the history of the library in a broad contemporary historical context. In full view of the concerned victims, the project takes the specific political situation of Salzburg into account, where the Catholic Church was extremely dominant (including a widely ramified net of Catholic societies and clubs) and the Jewish community was relatively small. Moreover, the Socialist movement was less meaningful than in Vienna - especially the intellectual milieu was missing. Initial research uncovered that the first local victims of National Socialism and its book looting were representatives of the authoritarian Ständestaat and political Catholicism. Thereby, the project can contribute important new aspects to the to this day neglected field of authoritarian Ständestaat. The history of the Studienbibliothek Salzburg is an additional focus of the project. Which consequences did the power shift have in 1934, 1938, and 1945? How did the director of the library act, and which relationship did he have to Nazi potentates? It is also of interest which position the Studienbibliothek Salzburg occupied in the library hierarchy of the Third Reich. Finally, the National Socialist allocation of looted books to diverse institutions in Salzburg will be explored in order to be able to trace the network of protagonists (amongst them SS and Gestapo) in the book looting process of the National Socialists. This research will provide new insights into the to this day completely unexplored history of the local Nazi apparatus.

The project scrutinized the origins (provenance) of the librarys books looted during the Nazi period as well as the history of the owners, and analyzed the specific role the Studienbibliothek played in the book looting. How did looted books end up in the Studienbibliothek und how did the library deal with them? What were the motives of the perpetrators and their supporters? And who were the victims? One important result is that most of the books that entered the library during the Nazi period had belonged to Catholic organizations, Catholic schools (Borromäum, Konradinum in Eugendorf) and monasteries that were confiscated by the Nazis. Most of these stolen books were returned after 1945, but many were destroyed as a result of improper storage. Approximately 1,171 books that originally belonged to the University library in Smolensk were sent to Salzburg by Dr. Hans Hanke, a member of the German Wehrmacht. He regarded this book transfer as an act of rescue.Some of the looted books (more than 1,100) entered the Studienbibliothek (since 1962 Universitätsbibliothek) after 1945. Some of them were part of the Offenbach Archival Depot (OAD) founded in 1949 by the US military government to collect books that were regarded as heirless. Later, these books were distributed to several libraries in Germany and Austria. Many of themmore than 1,300 booksbelonged to the Sammlung Tanzenberg, heirless books collected by British soldiers all over Europe and stored in Schloss Tanzenberg castle until they were distributed to libraries. Whereas most of the looted books given to the library during the Nazi period had belonged to Catholic institutions, many books that entered the Universitätsbibliothek after 1945 had originally been owned by persecuted Jews. It was very difficult to identify these owners and what happened to them during the Holocaust.Another focus was on the history of the Studienbibliothek and its self-image as a rescuer and administrator of books and Austrian art during the Nazi period. The director of the library, Dr. Ernst Frisch, did not display any sense of awareness of wrongdoing or scruples concerning his cooperation with the Nazi regime and his role as an administrator of books stolen from the Catholic Church. Altogether, the role played by the Studienbibliothek was a very ambiguous one. It was not responsible for the looting but eagerly accepted stolen books.