Provenance research

Nazi-confiscated cultural property or Nazi-looted cultural property refers to all cultural assets that were confiscated from their rightful owners by the Nazi executive organs for "racial", religious, political or ideological reasons during the National Socialist era from 1933 to 1945. Nazi-looted cultural property also includes objects that were sold under duress and sometimes far below their value in order to secure a livelihood or finance emigration.

The book as a cultural product also falls into this category. Libraries served as collection points for confiscated literature or acquired valuable book collections that came from the possessions of people who were usually persecuted as "Jewish". House and private libraries were just as much a focus as party or institute libraries. The Nazi executive organs entrusted with the utilization of cultural assets had unrestricted access to them. Nazi-looted cultural property found its way into public and academic libraries in a variety of ways. The Berlin City Library (BStB) was one of them.

The historical stocks of the Berlin Central and Regional Library

With the Berlin Collections, we collect and record Berlin's cultural heritage. Our holdings include current and historical media from almost all areas of literature and subject matter related to Berlin.

The central task of the Provenance Research Department is the investigation and identification of looted books and the paths they took after being confiscated as a result of persecution. Our primary goal is to return clearly identified Nazi-looted cultural property to the rightful heirs, communities of heirs or legal successors.

The identified books are often the last testimonies of their previous owners and thus form a bridge between the past and the present. Our work helps to provide descendants with information about the fate of their ancestors and thus close gaps in the family history. Behind every stolen book lies a fate. This means that we are working in an emotionally very sensitive field of research that contributes to coming to terms with Nazi injustice.

1.1 million books

We currently assume that there are 1.1 million books in the ZLB's stock that are the focus of our research and could be Nazi-looted cultural property. Each of these objects must be identified, examined for traces and documented. Handwritten entries, stamps, bookplates and signatures show us the way and, ideally, allow us to draw conclusions about previous ownership. In addition to books, other objects in the collection such as manuscripts, posters and sound recordings must also be taken into account.

We treat the results of our research transparently. All identified provenance features are published in the cooperative provenance database Looted Cultural Assets. Open Access provides users worldwide with low-threshold access to our research data and results. It also provides the opportunity to contribute further information to our research.