Systematic search for Nazi-looted books in the 1945-1949 newly formed holdings of today's Darmstadt University and State Library

For the first time, part of the holdings of the Darmstadt University and State Library (ULB) will be systematically searched for Nazi-looted books: The holdings that were newly formed between 1945 and 1949 will be examined. They contain small remnants of the state library, about 60% of which was destroyed in a bombing raid in September 1944, including mainly the secreted literature banned during the Nazi period, as well as books acquired from various sources after the war for the rapid reconstruction.

The project aims to systematically examine around 40,000 titles from shelfmark groups 45/ to 47/ and 49/ on the basis of an autopsy. This includes a collection of works banned during the Nazi era and a large number of books from the Offenbach Archival Depot of the US armed forces. Random samples have already revealed cases of looted books in this part of the library collection. These include both previous institutional owners of books and books belonging to persecuted private individuals. At the same time, the signatures of suspicious cases or proven cases of looted books are compared with the entries in the relevant accession books. In this way, acquisition structures can be researched and reconstructed as far as possible.

With the cataloguing of the findings in the ULB's online catalogue and in the Hebis catalogue, the systematic documentation of Nazi-looted books at the ULB Darmstadt is being carried out for the first time. The research results will be disseminated and made generally accessible in other databases such as Lost Art, in publications and in an exhibition in April 2024.

The findings enable the search for previous owners, heirs or legal successors, so that fair and just solutions can be found according to the Washington Principles.

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