Book burning in Hanover

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The book burnings in Hanover took place on May 10, 1933 at the Bismarck Column following a similar pattern to the other book burnings in Germany , but less strictly organized.

history

The Bismarck Column around 1912, the place of the later book burning, in the background the Bismarck School
Postcard number 558 by Ernst Walther, around 1912; from the collection of Rainer Hoffschildt

Shortly after the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, initiated Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda The Culling "un-German art and literature" as " Action against the Un-German Spirit ". The National Socialist German Student Union was commissioned with the implementation . A three-person "combat committee" was formed in Hanover, to which Curt Habicht belonged as a representative of the TH Hanover . From April 12, 1933, the main component of a preparatory “educational campaign” was the dissemination of “12 theses against the un-German spirit”; IA Hansen signed the corresponding leaflet for the "Combat Committee of the German Student Union Hanover" . Thereupon members of the student “combat committee”, mostly in SA uniform, meticulously searched bookshops, lending libraries, school and university libraries and also private collections in order to confiscate works by Jewish and politically left-wing authors. Even works by liberals and pacifists , but also so-called “ erotic ” literature, especially “ homoerotic ”, whether scientific or fictional , was on the undated blacklist . But the Hanoverian " shock troops " were obviously ill-informed, not Black owned lists and were not equal in Hannover bumbling before than, say, against the Institute of Sexology of Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin. A party member complained in a letter to the NSDAP on May 9, 1933 :

“Re: Action against dirty and junk literature
On Saturday morning, two SA people appeared in the Richard Beek bookstore, Lister Platz, which can be described as national, and, as I am told, asked for some exotic writings. After some back and forth it was found that they meant erotic writings, they were given some books. The two SA men then left the shop ... "

In the same letter, the party comrade complained that the bookstore on Lister Platz was visited a second time in the afternoon by two SA men and that the now unsuccessful project of the confiscation caused “lively indignation ... among customers”.

Collection points for the books to be burned were the Technical University , the Veterinary University , the Goethe Gymnasium and the Realgymnasium , the Leibniz School and the Humboldt School as well as the state-municipal crafts and arts and crafts school . The director of the Leibniz School, Fritz Heiligenstaedt , who was also deputy head of the municipal evening school and head of the “Advice Center for Folk Libraries in the Province of Hanover”, reported to the “Combat Committee” that his libraries had been “cleaned” and enclosed a letter from his advice center to the libraries , which said among other things:

"Under all circumstances the following must be removed: ... instructive and entertaining literature that undermines the moral and religious foundations of our popular life."

A truckload of books came together from all over Hanover and was burned on May 10, 1933 on the Bismarck Column. The day after the reported Hannoversche Kurier that the student torchlight at the mansions Avenue on George Garden began his path took them through the entire Hanover downtown, lined with thousands of spectators, the king Platz by Lange Laube , George Street , Hildesheimerstraße and Geibelstraße up to the Bismarck Column. At the head marched the National Socialist student body, followed by SA chapel , the corporations in full regalia , under which members of the "Academic riding clubs" were on horseback. Works by Karl Marx , Kautsky , Heinrich Mann , Erich Kästner , Heinrich Heine and many others were put on a pyre at the Bismarck column with "stirring" speeches by various speakers, including Victor Curt Habicht again, and "with the cheering of the large audience" burned. The Lower Saxony daily reported on May 12th of that year that "a number of 'prominent' erotica" would have been there.

Commemorative events for the 80th anniversary

Information boards about the book burning and the Bismarckian column

On the 80th anniversary of the book burning on May 10, 2013, the culture of remembrance project of the state capital Hanover published a flyer for the event The Path of Burned Books : This provides information about the five stages of the event, where “small information events, readings and campaigns about the authors and their books "took place:

literature

Web links

Commons : Book burning in Hanover  - collection of pictures

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Rainer Hoffschildt: The book burning on May 10, 1933 (see literature)
  2. ↑ a b c d e Klaus Mlynek: Book burning. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 92
  3. ↑ Hugo Thielen : Bismarck column (see literature)
  4. ^ A b According to Rainer Hoffschildt: Letter from Kurt W. , May 9, 1933, Lower Saxony Main State Archive Hanover , Hann. 320 IV No. 10
  5. ↑ see leaflet, shown by Rainer Hoffschildt: Olivia ... (see literature)
  6. ↑ Information according to Rainer Hoffschildt in: Anke Dietzler: Book Burning in Hanover ... (see literature)
  7. ^ Karljosef Kreter, Julia Berlit Jackstien: Way of the burned books

Coordinates: 52 ° 21 '24.4 "  N , 9 ° 44' 23.2"  E