The purchase of the library of Elise and Helene Richter by the University and City Library of Cologne in the Third Reich

In the National Socialist era, academic libraries were often depository libraries for confiscated library materials from dissolved organizations, associations, schools and other institutions. As well as the confiscated forbidden literature, the libraries were also supplied with books from expropriations and books owned by private individuals who had been forced to sell them in order to survive. However, it is rarely possible to trace and identify these mostly individual books, especially those from private libraries, because the acquisition files from the period in question are seldom available today and the books usually lack any form of ownership markings.

The holdings of the University and City Library of Cologne probably contain books of all the acquisition types mentioned above. Added to these are stocks from Nazi organizations that were disbanded after the war. It is not possible to state the exact numbers at the present time. The books acquired during that period were usually incorporated into the stock, i.e. they were integrated into the corresponding classification system and thus absorbed into the librarys holdings. How can the works concerned now be identified? The most obvious waylooking at the receipt booksis no longer possible at the University and City Library of Cologne. The accession journals and acquisition files are missing as a consequence of the war. This means there is no systematic tool of reference for identifying suspicious suppliers. The receipt books show evidence of books that were inventoried only after the war. Since antiquarian books are still being acquired to this day, this means that a search would have to be made of all journals up to the present day. This is aggravated by the fact that the University and City Library of Cologne has an extensive stock of books that was only inventoried in the 1980s. This also contained books that came into the University and City Library in the period 19421945. In the absence of clear knowledge about the acquisition circumstances of the time, these books were inventoried as donations. Another difficulty is providing evidence of provenance using the books themselves. In many cases it was necessary for the books to be rebound, which often meant that the distinguishing marks and features of the former owners were not preserved. As it is not possible to analyze the University and City Librarys post-1938 stocks by conducting an in-depth examination, the few books found are items discovered by chance. The books found to date do not come from private collections but from organizations that were banned and dissolved by the National Socialists.

It can be proven that the University and City Library of Cologne acquired the private library owned by Elise and Helene Richter of Vienna. The investigation into this library was the main focus of the Nazi provenance research project at the University and City Library Cologne from 2005 to 2008: The virtual library of Elise and Helene Richter.

The research findings from the research, reconstruction and documentation of the library of the Jewish philologists Elise and Helene Richter of Vienna were presented in January 2009 in the book Bücherspuren and in a major exhibition of the same name.

The books from the library of Elise and Helene Richter and all other discovered items which are probably Nazi-confiscated property have been registered in the Lost Art Database.

(c) Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln