Provenance Research

At the SLUB, too, we have been systematically researching the provenance of our holdings since 2009, because it is important that unlawfully acquired holdings are identified, documented and restituted. Provenance research also serves us as a tool for coming to terms with our own history.

Our particular focus is on identifying cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution (Nazi-looted property): According to the Washington Declaration of 1998, works of art confiscated during the Nazi era must be returned or restituted to their rightful owners and heirs. This was also the impetus for us to deal intensively with this part of our own collection history and to identify, document and restitute unlawful acquisitions.

During the National Socialist era, countless people and associations lost their property through confiscation, forced sales and other means. Recent research has shown that, in addition to art collections, books were also affected, the looting of which was perfectly organized from the very beginning in an appalling manner. Opposing literature was confiscated, destroyed or collected by Nazi authorities and then found its way into libraries - including the predecessor institutions of today's SLUB, the Saxon State Library and the Dresden University Library. In addition to the allocations from state security agencies, the State Library also received books from the Reichstauschstelle, which distributed large stocks of looted books, especially during the Second World War, as well as from the antiquarian book trade.

At the end of the Second World War, German libraries suffered great losses. Like other institutions, the Saxon State Library endeavored to fill the gaps in its holdings. Books and old collections that were considered "ownerless" and were in collection points or libraries after the end of the war were secured and redistributed by various institutions in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR. This also included books that are now considered Nazi-looted property.

The identification, documentation and restitution of unlawfully acquired books is a concern of provenance research at the SLUB. In doing so, we acknowledge our historical responsibility. Since 2009, we have been conducting systematic provenance research projects with the support of various funding institutions, but even before that there had already been isolated returns of books and other cultural assets that had been identified as looted property.

The first step was to examine the additions from 1945 to 1990, which came to various cultural institutions in the course of the expropriation of manor houses and castles in the Soviet occupation zone, later the GDR. Since 2011, the holdings of the SLUB have been examined with regard to cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution - initially those of the Saxon State Library, and since September 2021 those of the Dresden University Library, both predecessor institutions of today's SLUB. Identified traces of ownership are published in the SLUB catalog and in the Deutsche Fotothek; detailed articles and case dossiers are presented transparently on the SLUB website and via the Qucosa publication server. If possible, the rightful heirs will be identified and the books restituted.

Tracing the provenance of books is difficult: individual collections were often torn apart, distributed to different libraries and incorporated into the holdings there without any indication of origin. Today, the traces in the books themselves are often the only clues to their previous owners: Ex-libris, seals and stamps as well as handwritten entries can be used to embark on the often laborious search for former owners. But even rather unspecific features such as signatures and numbers may provide clues to the provenance.

At the SLUB, we have thoroughly examined every single book from the years 1933 to 1990 and documented the provenance features present in them. A total of around 350,000 books were examined in this way. Evidence suggesting the suspicion of Nazi-looted property can also be found in the surviving accession books of the Saxon State Library: if "Gestapo" or "Reichstauschstelle" is noted as the origin, this is highly suspicious. This also applies to some antiquarian bookshops, as recent research has shown. Unfortunately, the destruction of the Japanese Palace in the spring of 1945 destroyed large parts of the library files, making the internal source situation difficult overall.

The provenance researchers at the SLUB Dresden are well networked with the specialist community: among other things, they are involved in the „Arbeitsgemeinschaft Provenienzforschung in Sachsen“ (Working Group on Provenance Research in Saxon)" and the " „Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung und Restitution – Bibliotheken“ (Working Group on Provenance Research and Restitution - Libraries).

Your contacts:
Jana Kocourek, Head of Department Manuscripts, Old Prints and Regional Studies
Project staff: Elisabeth Geldmacher, Nadine Kulbe, Gabriela Brudzyńska-Němec, Olivia Kaiser
E-mail:raubgut@slub-dresden.de