Carl Alexander Library

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The original location of the CAB was in the Eisenach Predigerkloster

The Carl Alexander Library , or CAB for short, was opened in Eisenach on January 9, 1889 and existed until 1967. The collection was founded by Grand Duke Carl Alexander .

history

The idea of ​​founding a public scientific library in the royal seat of Eisenach was a matter close to the heart of the Grand Duke, who was interested in art and science.

In its founding phase , the library comprised essential parts of the so-called Wartburg library , the Eisenach Canzley library , the library of the Eisenach appellate court and the Eisenach grammar school library, which has been in existence for 350 years. In the early years, private individuals such as the Ruhla scholar Alexander Ziegler expanded these collections through gifts and bequests. The former Dominican monastery on Predigerplatz was chosen as the location of the library. The Eisenach grammar school was already located here, and its directors and teachers took over the management and administration of the valuable holdings.

Problematic for the continued existence of the library was its undefined status as a partly state, partly communal collection and the inadequate financial resources. In the legal dispute about the compensation for the prince after the abdication of the last reigning Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst in 1918, the Carl Alexander Library also had to be found. The Carl Alexander Library Foundation was established on November 25, 1926 to manage the holdings and as a basis for the further expansion of the collection . It consisted of representatives from the State of Thuringia, the City of Eisenach and the Wartburg Foundation . In 1933 the library was grouped into the two departments of the scientific area and the public library .

The library survived the war relatively unscathed. After the end of the war, as part of the denazification process, the younger holdings were checked and around 2000 volumes were removed . The liquidation of the Carl Alexander Library, which was envisaged as early as 1947, with the transfer of the valuable scientific holdings to the Gotha State Archives , was initially prevented. This was followed by years of tug-of-war with those responsible for cultural policy in the GDR government over the future of the Wartburg library and other holdings of the CAB. In 1955 it was possible to relocate essential parts of the Wartburg library to the castle; in 1958 this was officially confirmed with a handover protocol.

In 1967, the year of the Wartburg jubilee, the CAB came to an end: City and District Library, City Archives and Wartburg Foundation were given the opportunity to review the holdings for books of interest to them; the remaining holdings were finally relocated to Berlin by mutual agreement, where these books are under supervision of the German State Library should be sorted, cataloged and prepared for further use. Subsequently, a part was to be distributed to Thuringian libraries and another part finally offered for sale to the central antiquariat.

Today the remains of the book collection are publicly accessible in the scientific holdings of the Eisenach library, in the city archive and in the Wartburg archive.

literature

  • Max Baumgärtel and Otto von Ritgen: The library. In: The Wartburg. A monument to German history and art . Berlin 1907, pp. 497-499.
  • Reinhold Brunner : Disappeared books - On the history of the Carl Alexander library in Eisenach In: EISENACH yearbook 1992. Hitzeroth-Verlag, Marburg 1992. P. 62–76.
  • Hans Meier zu Eissen: The book robbery in the GDR - The looting of the aristocratic and high school libraries in the GDR . Münster 2007. ISBN 978-3-9800885-4-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jutta Krauss Carl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach on his 175th birthday. His relationship to politics and art. In: Wartburg-Jahrbuch 2 (1993) pp. 11-39
  2. ↑ Ursula Wenke Brief outline of the history of the Wartburg library. In: Wartburg-Jahrbuch 2 (1993) pp. 181–194
  3. ↑ Reinhold Brunner : Disappeared books - On the history of the Carl Alexander library in Eisenach In: EISENACH yearbook 1992, Hitzeroth-Verlag Marburg 1992. S. 62f
  4. ↑ Government and News Gazette for Sachsen-Weimar Eisenach , born 1921, No. 29, Part I Government Gazette, p. 129.
  5. ↑ a b Reinhold Brunner Disappeared Books - On the History of the Carl Alexander Library in Eisenach In: EISENACH-Jahrbuch 1992, Hitzeroth-Verlag Marburg 1992. P. 63f
  6. ↑ Reinhold Brunner Disappeared Books - On the History of the Carl Alexander Library in Eisenach In: EISENACH-Jahrbuch 1992, Hitzeroth-Verlag Marburg 1992. P. 70
  7. ↑ Ursula Wenke Brief outline of the history of the Wartburg library. In: Wartburg-Jahrbuch 2 (1993) pp. 185f

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