89 years ago today, 12 April 1933, the German Student Union began a nationwide propaganda campaign by publishing their leaflet “Twelve Theses Against the Un-German Spirit“. Being avid supporters of the new rulers, the students aimed to antagonize Jewish, leftist and dissident authors. “Un-German“ literature was to be removed from German book shops, subscription and general libraries. The purge lasted for multiple weeks and iconically culminated in a number of public book burnings on 10 May 1933. Many authors whose books had been determined to be burned had to fear for their lives, fled into exile or fell victim to the Holocaust.

Georg P. Salzmann’s collection of forgotten literature

Georg P. Salzmann (1929-2013) was only a kid at the time, grew up with the Nazi ideology. It was only after the war that he learned about the banned and burned literature. Decades later he began to systematically collect first editions of the outlawed works. His efforts were rewarded with more than 12.000 books, among them countless rare first editions, for example by Stefan Zweig, Irmgard Keun, Erich Kästner and Franz Werfel. In 2009 he passed his collection on to the library of the University of Augsburg, where it was made available in its entirety to researchers, lecturers, students and everyone interested. Since then there have been multiple physical exhibitions as well as projects and teaching-learning cooperations surrounding the burned books. The newly opened online exhibition is the first one to present the collection in digital space and will make it permanently visible far beyond its regional reach.

Modern presentation in digital space

Featured examples allow visitors to discover the works and the fates of the outlawed authors online. Aside from detailed literature exhibits, the exhibition offers introductory knowledge on the 1933 Nazi book burnings, exile during the Nazi regime und the German exile literature 1933-1945. An embedded video documentary shows how and why Georg Salzmann found the burned books and his passion for collecting them.

As subject consultant for German Studies Dr Andreas Voß has been responsible for the book collection at the University Library since 2018. She has planned and curated the virtual exhibition and ultimately realised it with the support of external contributors. Introducing central themes and questions in an easily understandable way and reaching a broad audience – that was her goal. “Reaching the young generation was one of Georg Salzmann’s main interests. We want to continue his commitment for making education and remembrances work come alive and encourage engaging with German literary and contemporary history“, explains Voß. After all, the Salzmann collection offered a multitude of questions and connection points for teaching and research projects in its abundance of works and life lines. The virtual presentation is consciously directed at teachers and learners and should be understood as an invitation to discover the Library of the Burned Books for own projects in research or organising exhibitions. The Augsburg University Library is a willing coooperation partner in this endeavour.

Andreas Voß looks into the future with optimism: “I think that the online exhibition makes curious and awakens the desire to learn more about the topic. And this would be exactly what Georg Salzman had in mind.“

To the online exhibition: https://ausstellungen.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/verbrannte-buecher/

More about the collection: https://www.uni-augsburg.de/de/organisation/bibliothek/sondersammlungen/bibliothek-der-verbrannten-buecher/