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Only with the support of their colleagues in Krakow were the librarians in Berlin able to catalogue all the objects in the Autographa collection for the first time. The new catalogue replaces an incomplete and difficult-to-read handwritten index from the first half of the last century with the first complete catalogue of all individual objects, which is easy to use.

For the first time, the catalogue describes the currently largely unknown but culturally and historically extremely important collection of autographs from the former Prussian State Library, which unites letters and other handwritten documents from important personalities from five centuries under the name "Autographa Collection". Researchers can now use the catalogue to search specifically for autographs and request them for use on site in Krakow. A disadvantage, however, is that the holdings have been removed from their original collection context, which is based on a centuries-long collecting tradition, and are therefore unable to develop their full impact for science and culture.

To date, the degree of scholarly analysis of this collection, with its interdisciplinary and epoch-spanning density ranging from Martin Luther to Stefan Zweig, has been rather low. Although most of the manuscript holdings have been usable for years, storing them in Berlin would advance the analyses in a completely different way. As the existence of the "Berlinka" in Krakow was unknown for over thirty years until the end of the 1970s, there is a considerable need for scholarly research into the documents.

In addition to this collection of autographs, the holdings in Krakow, which originated in Berlin and are known as the "Berlinka", also consist of other valuable documents (including 443 music autographs by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, among others; the Varnhagen von Ense autograph collection, which consists of around 200,000 items, and much more). Due to its size and the quality of the items in the collection, the Berlinka can be regarded as an intellectual diary of the Germans.

The Foundation sees the joint projects of the two libraries, of which this catalogue is just one of several, as a positive signal with which it intends to contribute to constructive discussions between Germany and Poland at a specialist level and to the resolution of unresolved issues relating to cultural assets relocated as a result of the war.

Background information

The significance of the collection:

The Autographa Collection contains the core of the autographs of the Churfürstliche Bibliothek, later the Prussian State Library, now the Berlin State Library, which was founded in the 17th century. Constantly growing, the collection comprised around 220,000 autographs in 1941, including 30 letters by Martin Luther, 202 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 118 by Heinrich von Kleist, 299 by Jacob Grimm and 138 by his brother Wilhelm, over 850 by Alexander von Humboldt and more than 100 by his brother Wilhelm. There are also 30 letters by the philosopher Leibniz, 64 by Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel, 158 by Rilke and 11 by Schiller. The catalogue lists numerous other handwritten documents, including those of the people already mentioned - poems, notes, copies, fragments of works and much more. The documents provide information about the intellectual activity of their authors. Almost 17,500 authors and recipients of documents of all kinds are listed in the catalogue.

Most of the autographs in the collection were written by German philosophers, theologians, politicians, scientists, researchers, writers, aristocrats and artists. In smaller parts, however, the collection also has a European character, as the library's acquisition policy has always been universal in terms of both language and geography. Intellectual greats whose estates found their way into the library always had correspondence partners in other European countries. This is why the Autographa Collection also contains a letter from Queen Marie Antoinette and a letter from Count Giacomo Leopardi.

The Autographa Collection is of great cultural and historical significance, as letters have been the central medium for the exchange of ideas since the Renaissance and for centuries - in the absence of other means of communication. The surviving written correspondence of poets and scientists, statesmen and philosophers reflects the history of the emergence of intellectual and ideological currents and the development of Germany as a cultural nation.

History of removal from storage:

The Autographa collection - like many other valuable collections and objects in the Prussian State Library, including the Mozart and Beethoven collections and the Varnhagen von Ense autograph collection - was relocated eastwards to the former German territories from 1941 as a precautionary measure to protect it from war damage. Initially, the collection was moved to the Silesian castle of Fürstenstein (Ksiaz), and in 1944 to the monastery of Grüssau (Krzeszow). A total of 505 boxes were stored in the monastery in Grüssau. After the end of the war, this monastery also belonged to Polish territory and the treasures of the Prussian State Library found there were transferred to the Krakow University Library. Since the end of the 1970s, it has been known that this part of the Prussian State Library's relocated holdings - there were 30 relocation sites in total - is located in Krakow. Around 5 per cent of the Autographa collection was lost as a result of the war, around 10,000 items (presumably including 16 autographs by Kant). 210,000 are now in Krakow. Nevertheless, the catalogue lists all the autographs that ever existed on the basis of the old Berlin catalogues.

Significance of the catalogue:

Since the end of the 1970s, these holdings of the Berlin State Library in Krakow have been accessible to users. The material in the Autographa Collection held there is still in the same condition as when it was moved: in mostly incompletely labelled folders or with incorrectly assigned names. Thanks to the catalogue that is now available and the considerably improved indexing conditions, the Autographa Collection can now be used much more easily and hopefully more intensively.

The catalogue is also extremely important for the use of holdings in Berlin. This is because it lists numerous documents that are directly related to estates and other materials held in Berlin: Until its removal from storage from 1941 onwards, the Autographa collection grew by removing letters and other written documents from estates and incorporating them into the autograph collection. In this respect, the Autographa Collection represents the complementary part of the bequests held in Berlin, for example the bequests of Herder, Jean Paul or Hegel. These bequests in Berlin therefore lack the significant, meaningful components that are now in Krakow. The catalogue thus also functions in Berlin as a gap catalogue for the Berlin library holdings in Krakow.

Further co-operation between Krakow and Berlin:

Since the mid-1990s, there have been joint projects at the working level between the Krakow University Library and the Berlin State Library: Both libraries made the State Library's holdings of music manuscripts by outstanding composers available for a microfiche edition by the K. G. Saur publishing house, thus reuniting the collections, at least virtually. So far, the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have been published on microfiche, and the publication of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's works is planned. With funding from the German Research Foundation, French manuscripts were catalogued in 2006.

It is planned to present the catalogue of the Autographa Collection to the public at a specialist colloquium in Krakow in the near future.

Return of holdings:

Some of the Prussian State Library's holdings have been returned to Germany from Poland:

• In 1965, 92,000 books (technology, agriculture, philologies), including 27,400 large-format newspaper volumes, came to the German State Library (GDR) as a gift to its socialist neighbour. These were all books from the 19th and 20th centuries.
• In 1977, on the occasion of the signing of the friendship treaty between Poland and the GDR, Head of State Gierek presented E. Honecker with six autographs: the working transcript of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, the Mass in C minor and the Magic Flute, as well as a harpsichord concerto and a flute sonata by Bach.
• In 2000, President Buzek presented Chancellor Schröder with a 16th century print of Luther.

The following cultural artefacts from Germany, which were in the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, have so far been returned to Poland:

• In 1992, the so-called Poznan Gold Treasure (extensive collection of mainly antique jewellery and coins) from the Poznan Archaeological Museum.

To the catalogue:

Helga Döhn: Die Sammlung Autographa der ehemaligen Preußischen Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (book), Autograph Catalogue (CD-ROM). Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005/2007
ISSN 0342-3972, ISBN 3-447-04331-8

Available:

In bookshops: 129 euros (book and CD-ROM)

At the sales stands of the Berlin State Library: 74 euros. Haus Unter den Linden 8, Haus Potsdamer Straße 33. Information and orders: Björn Vogler, 030 / 266 1356, e-mail

Press contacts:

Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Dr Stefanie Heinlein
Tel.: ++49 (0)30 25463-206, Fax: -268
E-mail

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Jeanette Lamble
Unter den Linden 8 | 10117 Berlin
Tel. ++49 (0)30 266-1369 Fax: -1777
E-mail
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