SLUB Projects

Our comprehensive research results are documented in the catalogs of the SLUB and the "Provenienzforschung" (Provenance Research) collection in the Deutsche Fotothek. We report specific finds to the Lost Art database. Case dossiers are published in the series "Provenienzforschung an der SLUB" (Provenance Research at the SLUB) on the Qucosa document server.

Duration: 2009-2013 | Sponsor:  Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Saxon State Ministry of Science and the Arts)

The SLUB's first extensive project on illegally expropriated book collections served to search for so-called "Schlossbergungsgütern" in the library's acquisitions from 1945 to 1990. A total of around 215,000 works published before 1945 were recorded and the provenance characteristics contained therein documented.

The "Schlossbergungen" are connected to the "land reform" carried out in 1945/46 on the territory of the Soviet occupation zone, in which large landowners who owned more than 100 hectares of land as well as owners of smaller farms classified as war criminals and NSDAP members were expropriated without compensation. This measure also affected members of the Saxon nobility to a greater extent. The families were expelled from their former estates and some were interned. The cultural assets left behind were confiscated by the Saxon state administration and distributed to cultural institutions.

In this project, collections from numerous Saxon aristocratic libraries were identified, documented and restituted, including parts of the library of the former Saxon royal family.

Duration: 2011-2013 | Sponsor: Arbeitsstelle für Provenienzforschung (heute Stiftung Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste) (Office for Provenance Research (now the German Lost Art Foundation))

The subject of the research was the printed and manuscript books and maps from the years 1933 to 1945 from the holdings of the former Saxon State Library. The information on the previous owners was recorded and evaluated in a database. In a second step, the identified persons and institutions were compared with in-house documents, external archives and databases. In the case of confirmed cases or suspected Nazi-looted property, the relevant media were then documented and the heirs or legal successors of the former owners were identified. As a result, over 1,000 cases of Nazi-looted property or suspected Nazi-looted property were submitted to the Lost Art Database.

Duration: 2017-2020 | Sponsor: German Lost Art Foundation

At the end of the Second World War, German libraries suffered major losses of holdings. The Saxon State Library (SLB) alone, the predecessor of the SLUB, lost over 200,000 volumes during the war. Like other libraries, it filled the gaps in its holdings with books and old collections that were considered "ownerless", which were secured and redistributed by various government institutions after the end of the war. These holdings, acquired after 1945, thus included numerous cases of secondary Nazi-looted property that did not come to cultural institutions directly from Nazi authorities or expropriated persons, but were obtained from initially unsuspicious sources, such as second-hand bookshops. As part of this project, around 1,000 suspected cases were investigated in order to identify heirs or legal successors and restitute the books.

Duration: 2021-2025 | Sponsor: Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste (German Lost Art Foundation)

The former university library of the Technische Universität Dresden (UB) merged with the Sächsische Landesbibliothek (SLB) in 1996 to form the SLUB. In this project, we are systematically examining the holdings of the departments of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Sport, Marxism-Leninism and Architecture as well as the Forestry Library (Tharandt) and the branch libraries of Medicine and Law.

The University Library goes back to the library of the Technische Hochschule Dresden (TH), founded in 1828, and also suffered considerable losses at the end of the Second World War: the main building was destroyed in the attack on February 13, 1945, and 70 percent of the book collection was lost. After that, books from confiscations and thefts were added. In the course of preliminary spot checks, we were able to find numerous ex-libris, stamps, ownership entries and dedications that suggest the suspicion of Nazi-looted property, including possessions of the lawyers Heinrich Klang, Max Alsberg and Heinrich Veit Simon as well as the Grand Lodge of Vienna. The aim of this project is to systematically check around 100,000 volumes of the former University Library for Nazi-looted property and to identify heirs or legal successors and subsequent restitution.

Laufzeit: 2026–2028 | Förderer: Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste

Seit 2011 wurden über 300.000 Bände aus den Beständen der SLUB Dresden auf NS-verfolgungsbedingt entzogenes Kulturgut (NS-Raubgut) überprüft. Die systematische Durchsicht umfasste Teilbestände beider Vorgängereinrichtungen des Hauses: der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek (SLB) und der Universitätsbibliothek der Technischen Universität Dresden (UB). Dabei wurden fast 27.000 individuelle Provenienzmerkmale dokumentiert, von denen nach aktuellem Stand ca. 1.000 Merkmale sicher oder mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit auf NS-Raubgut hinweisen (über 300 Einzelfälle). Dies betrifft NS-Raubgut aus der Verfolgung von Jüdinnen und Juden sowie aus religiöser, weltanschaulicher und politischer Verfolgung in Deutschland und in den besetzten Gebieten.

Eine Ermittlung der Voreigentümer:innen bzw. Rechtsnachfolger:innen mit anschließender Restitution konnte seit 2018 bisher bei 31 und damit nur bei einem geringen Teil der ermittelten NS-Raubgut-Fälle erfolgen. Die SLUB Dresden verfolgt mit diesem Projekt das Ziel, in über 300 als NS-Raubgut bewerteten Fällen Erb:innen und Rechtsnachfolger:innen für Personen und Körperschaften zu identifizieren. Dies ist die Voraussetzung für eine mögliche Restitution oder gerechte und faire Lösung im Sinne der Washingtoner Prinzipien.