Restitution: Books of the French Politician Georges Mandel
News from 07/15/2022
Books from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and SLUB Dresden have been returned to the descendants of French politician Georges Mandel
The Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, SPK) and the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (Saxon State and University Library Dresden, SLUB) have returned a total of five books from their collections to the descendants of the distinguished French journalist and politician Georges Mandel. Mandel had been an outspoken opponent of Nazism even before the start of World War II. Following the occupation of France, he was persecuted by the Vichy regime and murdered by government paramilitaries, the Milice française, in 1944. The books were formally handed over on Friday, July 15, 2022, by French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne at Matignon, her official residence in Paris. Also at the event was Andreas Görgen, representing Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
The four books returned by the SPK were found in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) as the result of a provenance research project that examined former holdings of East Germany’s Zentralstelle für wissenschaftliche Altbestände (Center for Old Scientific Bookstock). The research project was funded by the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste (German Lost Art Foundation). One additional work with the same provenance was found in SLUB Dresden. The SPK coordinated the restitution process and, with the help of the Commission pour l’indemnisation des victimes des spoliations et intervenues du fait de législations antisémites en vigueur pendant l’Occupation (CIVS), contacted Mandel’s descendants and offered to return the books.
SPK President Hermann Parzinger commented: “I am pleased that the Staatsbibliothek is again able to return works forcibly taken from someone persecuted by the Nazi regime. Works in our collections that were acquired under these circumstances must be identified, and fair and just solutions must be found for them in accordance with the Washington Principles. We have been working on this for many years and have been able to return over 350 artworks and more than 2000 books to their rightful owners.”