Provenance Research WG in Saxony

The Provenance Research Working Group (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Provenienzforschung) in Saxony is an informal association of academics and librarians active in the field of provenance research on historical contexts of injustice that has been in existence since January 2018. It is the result of the initiative and personal commitment of its members.

The working group strives for a stronger institutional anchoring of provenance and Nazi-looted property research in Saxony - with the aim of sensitizing Saxon cultural institutions, political actors and the public to the topic. The participants would also like to make professional exchange more productive at a working level. As provenance research is mainly organised in temporary projects due to the funding structures, it is all the more urgent to ensure a joint exchange and sustainable documentation of research data in order to avoid duplicate research and to carry out restitutions together.

Past provenance research projects have shown that public and academic libraries and museums contain a large number of objects that were looted by the Nazis or objects from other historical contexts of injustice. These collections came into the institutions directly during the National Socialist era, but also long after the end of the war. Provenance research is therefore dedicated not only to Nazi-looted property but also to unlawful expropriations in the context of land reform in the Soviet occupation zone (castle seizures) and as a result of GDR injustice (e.g. in the case of Republikflucht). One of the basic prerequisites for successful work is an exchange between the interested staff employed here and the freelance and committed researchers who have been working in this field for many years.

One of the short and medium-term goals of the working group is to establish a research infrastructure that can make results transparent. Currently, the Gemeinsame Normdatei (GND) of the German National Library (DNB) offers itself as a reusable instrument for cataloging and documentation. The image database of the Deutsche Fotothek is also open to interested institutions for the verification of provenance features.

In the long term, the members of the working group would like to be available as contacts for questions relating to provenance and Nazi-looted property research. The academic funding structures in Germany as well as the financial situation of academic and cultural institutions mean that the employment situation for academics and librarians is precarious and they can therefore only work in the field of provenance research for a limited period of time. The results and knowledge gained from this work cannot continue to exist without support and are lost when employment ends. This initial situation is one of the most important challenges currently facing provenance research. The working group tries to counteract this by offering a framework and a platform for exchange, contact and joint work.

If you have any questions for the working group or about provenance research in Saxony or would like to take part in the twice-yearly meetings, please contact us: Volker Cirsovius.