Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation restitutes 384 books from the Berlin State Library to the Potsdam St John's Lodge "Teutonia zur Weisheit"
Press release from 06/23/2016
Today, Barbara Schneider-Kempf, Director General of the Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage, handed over 384 volumes from the former library of the Masonic Lodge to Matthias Bohn, a member of the board of the St John's Lodge "Teutonia zur Weisheit" in Potsdam. The books were identified in the Berlin State Library as a loss of the lodge due to Nazi persecution. They contain general literature on Freemasonry, instructions, statutes, scientific texts, songs, journals and numerous monographs from the 18th to the early 20th century. The Lodge will continue to make the volumes available to researchers.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, emphasised on the occasion of the restitution: "Not only Jews were persecuted, disenfranchised and expropriated under National Socialism. Numerous other population groups were also persecuted, including the Freemasons. Their history must also be analysed and their rightful property returned to them."
Matthias Bohn explained: "When all masonic lodges were dissolved in 1935 under pressure from the National Socialists, their respective property was abducted, dispersed or irretrievably destroyed. We brothers of the Teutonia zur Weisheit St John's Lodge, which was re-established 25 years ago, are therefore all the happier that we now have almost 400 of the more than 2,000 books we once had back with us. We can refer to a history of over 200 years, and this development of our lodge can be seen above all in our books, in the contents as well as in the stamps and traces of previous owners."
Barbara Schneider-Kempf explained that "it is a matter of course for the Berlin State Library, as part of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, to use all available means to clarify the injustice of that time with regard to looted books, autographs, manuscripts, printed music and other materials and to always return items identified as Nazi-looted property to their rightful owners as quickly as possible."
The books of the St John's Lodge "Teutonia zur Weisheit"
The St John's Lodge "Teutonia zur Weisheit" was founded in Potsdam in 1809 as a daughter lodge of the Grand National Mother Lodge "Zu den drei Weltkugeln". In the years that followed, one of the largest lodge libraries in Germany was established, which at the height of its existence contained over 2,000 volumes. Under pressure from the Nazi regime, the lodge gradually ceased its activities from 1934 - it was not re-established until 1991. In February 1935, in direct connection with the forced self-dissolution, the liquidator sent the masonic literature from the library as a gift to the Prussian State Library (now the Berlin State Library). From then on, these books shared the fate of the Prussian State Library's holdings: from 1941 onwards, they were almost completely removed from storage to protect them from the effects of war, and collections were separated or lost in the process. After 1945, some of the holdings were located in the Federal Republic of Germany or in West Berlin, others in East Berlin. The books of St John's Lodge also remained divided between East and West. The West Berlin State Library held 640 volumes from the former Potsdam Lodge, which were restituted to the Grand National Mother Lodge "Zu den drei Weltkugeln" by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in 1965. Since 1992, the two successor institutions of the Prussian State Library in West and East have been united in the Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage. As part of the systematic research into the holdings of Nazi-looted property, the 384 volumes of the St John's Lodge that have now been restituted were finally identified.
Provenance research at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Clarifying the provenance of its holdings is a central task for all institutions of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. In the course of its systematic research, the Berlin State Library has been able to return more than 1,000 objects to their rightful owners. References to such holdings can be found in the library's surviving acquisition files and accession books, as well as in the books themselves. Ownership entries such as stamps and handwritten notes provide important clues for the search for looted books and their owners. All research results for cases that have already been clarified as well as those that are still unresolved can be viewed in the database www.lostart.de and in the online catalogue of the State Library www.stabikat.de . The latter also documents the provenance history of all objects restituted to date. All information on the Teutonia holdings can be found at sbb.berlin/goa2bl.