Aloys Ruppel

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Memorial plaque for Aloys Ruppel at the Gutenberg Museum Mainz

Aloys Leonhard Ruppel (born June 21, 1882 in Opperz, today part of the municipality of Neuhof (near Fulda) ; † July 11, 1977 in Mainz ) was a German librarian , archivist and historian .

Life

After attending school in Hanau, Ruppel studied history, German, Latin and geography in Würzburg, Marburg, Berlin, Münster and Strasbourg from the 1904 summer semester. During his studies in Würzburg he joined the Catholic student association WKSt.V. Unitas Hetania at. In Berlin he was noticed by a lecture, whereupon he was appointed tutor of Prince Albrecht von Hohenzollern. In 1908 he received his doctorate in Münster and worked as a volunteer at the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome for the next two years . In 1911 he became an archive assistant and librarian at the Lorraine district archive in Metz, and in 1914 his last imperial archive director. After the First World War he switched to library service and in 1919 took over the management of the Fulda State Library .

In 1920 Ruppel became director of the Mainz City Library and the institutions connected with it, the City Archives, the Coin Cabinet and the Gutenberg Museum with Gutenberg Library. He was the founder and publisher of the Gutenberg yearbook since 1926 and an authoritative member of the board of the Gutenberg Society .

On June 23, 1933 (the day before St. John's Day ), Ruppel used a trick to save endangered book stocks in the city library from the National Socialists, who burned books on Halleplatz in what was then the city ​​hall . In 1934 he was dismissed as head of the city library and the city archives for political reasons and replaced by Richard Dertsch , who was loyal to the regime, but Ruppel remained director of the Gutenberg Museum. When Richard Dertsch was deposed from this position in 1943 because of his non-ideological involvement in the political fate of his colleague in the city library, Elisabeth Darapsky , Ruppel took over the office of director of the city library and archive again, initially on a temporary basis.

When it became known in autumn 1945 that the French military government wanted to reopen the Mainz University, which was closed by the French in 1798, Ruppel campaigned for the university to be named after Johannes Gutenberg. He also stubbornly advocated the establishment of a chair for the history of printing at the University of Mainz. In the summer semester of 1947 Ruppel received a professorship for books, writing and printing at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , the so-called "Gutenberg Chair". On the other hand, he spoke out vehemently against a merger of the university library with the city library which he directed.

In 1950 Ruppel resigned as head of the Mainz city library. He held the office of director of the Gutenberg Museum until 1962.

Grave of Aloys Ruppel in the main cemetery in Mainz

Scientifically, Ruppel dealt primarily with the life and work of Johannes Gutenberg , about whom he wrote a biography and numerous treatises. In 1925 he was able to acquire the second volume of a Gutenberg Bible (B42) for the Gutenberg Museum .

Aloys Ruppel was married to Thea Baumeister since 1919. From this marriage a daughter and two sons were born. Ruppel died in July 1977 at the age of 95. His grave is in the main cemetery in Mainz .

Awards and honors

Ruppel was an honorary citizen of the Neuhof community and the city ​​of Mainz (1957) . In 1952 he received the Cross of Merit (Steckkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany, and in 1972 the Great Cross of Merit. The building of the former school house for the Catholic elementary school in Opperz, today u. a. The club house, on the St. Michael church square in the Neuhofer district of Opperz, bears his name. He was an honorary doctor of two American universities, a full member of the Academy of Charitable Sciences in Erfurt and a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Joachim Kopplitz, Gunther Ganz: Aloys Ruppel, Gutenberg researchers and Unitarians . In: Wolfgang Burr (ed.): Unitas manual . tape 1 . Verlag Franz Schmitt, Siegburg 1995, p. 303 .
  2. ^ Ulrich Pfeil: Eugen Ewig - "Créer un ordre transnational". From a mediator between Germany and France . In: ders. (Ed.): The German Historical Institute Paris and its founding fathers. A personal history approach . Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58519-3 , pp. 293–322, here: p. 299.
  3. ^ Aloys Ruppel: Johannes Gutenberg. 1939.
personal data
SURNAME Ruppel, Aloys
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruppel, Aloys Leonhard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German librarian, archivist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuhof (near Fulda)
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1977
Place of death Mainz