Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Stamp: "Biblioteka Wydz, Prasowego M. S. Z. No 1569"
The object is plunder belonging to the Republic of Poland. A stamp clearly identifies the book as the property of the Press Office of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the interwar period, the Ministry was based in the Brühl Palace (Pałac Brühla) in Warsaw. The building was blown up by the Wehrmacht on 18 December 1944, shortly after the Warsaw Uprising, as part of the planned destruction of Warsaw. About a week earlier, the looting and theft of movable objects from the adjacent Saxon and Brühl Palaces had begun. The looting included the interior, furniture and decorative stucco. It has not yet been possible to determine whether the library was looted at this time or whether it had already been taken to Berlin.
The returned volume was added to the holdings of the Berlin City Library (Berliner Stadtbibliothek) after the end of the war in 1946, but was never accessioned. Based on a number (‘126’) in the book, it is clear that it was part of a delivery from the Salvage Office (Bergungsstelle für wissenschaftliche Bibliotheken), specifically from order 126 - the library of the Institute for State Research (Institut für Staatsforschung). According to a corresponding report by the Salvage Office, this library was mainly transferred to the Berlin Council Library (Ratsbibliothek) and the Berlin City Library.
The book was returned to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland by the German Foreign Office in August 2024.