Plathe Castle Library

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Bookplate library Plathe Castle with coat of arms of the von Bismarck-Osten family
Bookplate library Plathe Castle with location signature
Karl Graf von Bismarck-Osten in the Schloss Plathe library
Library wing of Plathe Castle

The Schloss Plathe library was a noble library in Pomerania . Her main focus was Pomeranian history and literature. It was founded in the middle of the 18th century by Friedrich Wilhelm von der Osten (1721–1786) and expanded by his descendants. The library remained undivided in the same place until 1945. Today large parts are in various European libraries and archives .

history

The Schloss Plathe library is one of the most important Pomeranian aristocratic libraries of its time. It was founded in the middle of the 18th century in Plathe (Pomerania) as a collection of documents and evidence of Pomeranian history. According to the wishes of its founder Friedrich Wilhelm von der Osten, it remained in the private possession of his descendants at the family's ancestral seat, Schloss Plathe, until 1945. Its last owner was Karl Graf von Bismarck-Osten (* March 21, 1874 in Kniephof ; † June 19, 1952 in Bad Nauheim ), who significantly expanded the collection in its special field of Pomeranian history and by placing it in fire-proof rooms and creating a systematic one Professionally designed card catalog . The collection comprised around 16,000 works.

The upheavals of the Second World War marked the end of the continuous holdings of the Plathe Castle Library. At the beginning of March 1945, in view of the approaching eastern front, the Szczecin provincial administration provided Karl Graf von Bismarck-Osten with a freight wagon to the west of the Reichsbahn to secure historically significant archive material . However, in view of the Russian armored spearhead expected in a few hours, it was decided to give priority to saving human lives. In the end, only some of the boxes with the collection found space in the wagon, mainly parts of the handwritten section and the parchment documents. Most of the library remained in Plathe Castle and later moved to the University Library of Łódź and the Polish National Library in Warsaw. Quite a few works also seem to have disappeared in the post-war chaos.

The part of the handwritten department of the library that left Plathe by wagon in 1945 (documents and other documents of Pomeranian history from the 16th and 17th centuries) came back into the possession of the von Bismarck family partly after the end of the war and partly after German reunification -East. Today it is on deposit in the Greifswald State Archives and in the Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald .

The library's card catalog, which was created around 1900, is also in the possession of the von Bismarck-Osten family . It consists of 16 drawers and clearly documents the entire collection of the Plathe Castle Library. Only the whereabouts of the contents of the drawer Pomeranian Cities and Landscapes GZ is unclear. The remaining maps are all available in digital form to enable a broader scientific use.

Contents overview of the collection

The structure of the library's card catalog gives an idea of ​​the panorama of your collection. The structure is as follows:

  1. Manuscripts
  2. Parchment Deeds
  3. Books
    1. General (Lexicons)
    2. philosophy
    3. theology
    4. Law & Constitution
    5. medicine
    6. Science, mathematics
    7. history
    8. Coinage
    9. Genealogy, heraldry
    10. Memoirs, letters, religious history, universities
    11. Geography, topography, travel, folklore
    12. State economy, economy, agriculture, national and domestic economics, trade, hunting, social sciences, statistics
    13. Militaria, horsemanship, court life, cavalry science, sport
    14. Education, lessons, games
    15. Fiction
    16. Linguistics, classic
    17. Arts, crafts, technology, art history
    18. Varia, curiosa, witchcraft, sorcery
    19. Tables, plans, views, maps
    20. Art sheets, engravings
    21. Bunsenania (historical documents of the von Bunsen family)
  4. Pomerania
    1. Pomeranian geography
    2. Pomeranian story
    3. Pomeranian Law & Constitution
    4. Pomeranian agriculture
    5. Pomeranian fiction
    6. Pomeranian maps
    7. Pomeranian cities and landscapes
    8. Pomeranian portraits

Collection focus

The collection consisted of around 16,000 works and was initially characterized by the fact that it contained the European educational canon of an intellectually interested representative of the upper classes from the Age of Enlightenment . Hence the works of ancient writers, the Renaissance , humanism , but above all the French Enlightenment. From their early days z. B. Dictionnaire historique et critique from the year 1697 by Pierre Bayle and from the main epoch the important works by Voltaire , Diderot , d´Alembert , Rousseau etc. The works of Frederick the Great were also found in first editions. The particularly extensive inventory of books of the Enlightenment was also due to the fact that the founder of the library, Friedrich Wilhelm von der Osten , was active as a real secret chamberlain at a young age at the court of Frederick the Great and in the intellectual milieu there . He had also had the forbidden work De imposituris religionum ( On the Frauds of Religions ) copied from Friedrich's library in Sanssouci . There were also important works on European history and natural science, e.g. B. Schedelsche Weltchronik in German and the well-known Theatrum Europaeum in six large volumes with the copperplate engravings by Matthäus Merian from the 17th century .

Another focus of the library was the history and theology of the Reformation . First and foremost are the first editions of the translation of the Bible by Martin Luther from 1534, printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg , with woodcuts by Cranach , Dürer , Altdorfer , Holbein , etc. a. to be mentioned, including Luther's other Reformation writings, mostly also first editions. In addition, the Bible translations from this period into French, Italian (by Jean Diodati from Geneva ), English and even into Pomeranian flat were available. Of course, Luther's friend and close comrade, the Pomeranian reformer Johannes Bugenhagen, was represented with over a hundred original prints.

This leads on to by far the most important focus of the library, namely the extensive collection on Pomeranian history and literature. First of all, the manuscripts should be mentioned here, which were summarized in approx. 300 anthologies in folio format , including the Epitome Chronicorum Pomeraniae von Bugenhagen and the Pomerania of Thomas Kantzow (both in copy) as well as numerous Pomeranian chronicles. Above all, the era of the Pomeranian dukes and the Pomeranian aristocratic families who were subordinated to them is represented here in many documents and documents. Much of these manuscripts are stored in the Greifswald State Archives. The Plather collection also contained around 200 maps relating to Pomerania, including three early copies of the Lubin map and around 240 engravings with portraits of Pomeranian personalities.

literature

  • Ludwig Biewer : Friedrich Wilhelm von der Osten, his palace library on Plathe and his Pommersches Wappenbuch from 1781. In: Bernhart Jähnig, Knut Schulz (Ed.): Festschrift for the 125th anniversary of the Herold in Berlin 1869-1994. Self-published, Berlin 1994, pp. 25–32.
  • Ferdinand Graf von Bismarck-Osten: The collection at Schloss Plathe and its founder Friedrich-Wilhelm von der Osten (1721-1786). In: Baltic Studies . New episode Volume 62, 1976, pp. 63-72. ( online )
  • Karl Graf von Bismarck-Osten: Friedrich-Wilhelm von der Osten (1721-1786). In: Pomeranian Life Pictures . Volume IV, edited by Walter Menn, Cologne 1966, pp. 142–152. ( Series in the catalog of the German National Library )
  • Karl Graf von Bismarck-Osten: The library at Schloss Plathe. In: Plathe in Pomerania. Martin Weichert Verlag, Hamburg 1966, pp. 94-100.
  • Vanessa de Senarclens: Parts of a scattered book collection from the 18th century. The Schloss Plathe library and its users . In: Cora Dietl , Malgorzata Kubisiak (ed.): Unknown treasures. 16th century Germanica in the University Library of Lodz . Publishing house of the University of Łódź, Lodz 2018, pp. 117–136.

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