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As part of the Berlin State Library's provenance research, the six volumes could be clearly assigned to the Cossmann-Werner Library on the basis of stamps and signatures. It was not possible to fully reconstruct how the volumes came into the possession of the Staatsbibliothek, as they were only incorporated after 1945 as replacements for war losses. There are no access documents for these holdings and therefore no information about their origin and consignor. What is certain, however, is that the Cossmann Werner Library was looted during the Reich Pogrom Night on 9 November 1938 and transferred to Berlin as part of the "concentration of Jewish libraries" ordered by Reinhard Heydrich. Against this background, the SPK has decided to restitute the items.

The Cossmann Werner Library goes back to the former rabbi of the Jewish Community (IKG) in Munich. Cossmann Werner (1854 - 1918) grew up in Poznan as the son of the Talmudist and Hebraist Philipp Werner. Between 1872 and 1876, he studied at the University of Breslau, followed by a doctorate at the University of Leipzig in 1877. After working as a community rabbi in Danzig, the IKG Munich elected Cossmann Werner as rabbi in 1894. In 1906, he donated his valuable library to the Jewish Community, which opened it to the public as the Cossmann Werner Library.

SPK President Hermann Parzinger explained: "In restitutions of Nazi-looted property, the focus is often on works of art, but of course countless books were also taken from their rightful owners. We have been able to return over 2000 works from the State Library in the last 20 years. I am particularly pleased that we have now also been able to restitute volumes to the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, which will help to fill gaps that were brutally torn."

"Almost a century after the Cossmann Werner Library was looted by the Nazis, every book that returns to our community means a small piece of justice: every restitution represents a piece of history that finds its place again. I would therefore like to thank the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for making the return of these six volumes possible. It shows that provenance research and restitution do not become less important with increasing distance from the Nazi era - on the contrary, they become even more urgent," says Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria.

Achim Bonte, Director General of the Berlin State Library, emphasised: "Considerable efforts will still be required to mitigate the injustice suffered in the best possible way. During the Nazi era, the State Library was a central distribution centre for looted books. Today it is a recognised centre for provenance research. We will continue to do our utmost to process our holdings."

The restituted volumes are mainly journal volumes of the Revue des études juives, which were added to the holdings of the successor institutions of the Prussian State Library in the eastern part of Berlin after 1945 to make up for war losses. Although no access documents are available for these holdings, the volumes were found in the project "Creating transparency" by systematically checking the subject group Judaica and Hebraica in the stacks and indexed in the online catalogue with all provenance traces. The IKG Munich used this provenance data to find the copies and contacted the provenance research team at the State Library. In addition, these volumes have provided important information for further provenance research: it is possible to identify this provenance via handwritten signatures even if the easily identifiable stamps are missing.

Press images for download: www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html

Provenance research at the SBB:
provenienz.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de

Project "Creating transparency": sbb.berlin/aiex3k