Carl Wehmer (librarian)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carl Wehmer (born January 9, 1903 in Hanover ; † September 15, 1978 in Dossenheim ) was a German librarian , university professor and from 1953 to 1965 head of the Heidelberg University Library .

Life

Wehmer studied law, history, art history, German literature and geography at the universities of Marburg, Göttingen, Munich and Berlin , where he received his doctorate in 1932. In 1935 he became a member of the commission for the general catalog of Wiegendrucke (GW). In 1937 he received a teaching position at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin. Four years later he was appointed library councilor at the Frankfurt City and University Library (StUB), but went to Prague to take up a teaching position at the German Charles University until 1945 . There he was also head of the state and university library.

In 1949, Wehmer was deputy director of the Frankfurt City and University Library until he took over the management of the Hessian Library School in that city in 1952. Just one year later, he went to Heidelberg University Library as chief library director, an office he held until 1965. Also in 1953 he was given a teaching position at Heidelberg University and two years later he became an honorary professor in Frankfurt.

From 1957 to 1963 the librarian was a member of the library committee of the German Research Foundation (DFG), and he has the same function on the Science Council. He was also a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences .

Wehmers achievements lay in the improvement of book acquisition, lending , cataloging and the training of the next generation. He arranged for the manuscripts of the famous Bibliotheca Palatina that remained in Rome to be completely photocopied. In 1965 the University of Heidelberg made him an honorary senator .

In 1955 his library opened a department for students with textbooks in open access . The expansion and new building plans during his tenure were first postponed from 1962 to 1966, but then prevented by the economic recession . It was not until 1978 that a branch of the university library was set up in Neuenheimer Feld .

Works (selection)

  • On the five hundredth anniversary of the invention of the printing press , 1940 (together with Kurt Ohly and Erich von Rath ).
  • Studies of medieval book scripts. Halle (Saale) 1932.
  • The names of the "Gothic" book fonts. A contribution to the history of Latin paleography . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , vol. 49, 1932, pp. 11–34.
  • The names of the "Gothic" book fonts II . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , vol. 49, 1932, pp. 169–176.
  • The names of the "Gothic" book fonts 3 . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , vol. 49, 1932, pp. 222-234.
  • The oldest type sample sheet from a German printing company. Graefenhainichen 1936.
  • Leonard Wagner the creator of Fraktur? 1938.
  • Incunabulary . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , 57 (1940), pp. 214–232.
  • Selection directory. Prague, library of the reading and speech hall of the German students, 1943.
  • Prague libraries. Prague 1944.
  • The scribbler sheets of the late Middle Ages. [Rome], Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1946.
  • Mainz proofs in the type of the so-called astronomical calendar for 1448. Munich 1948.
  • Fates and ways of the “Manessian song manuscript”. Heidelberg 1955 (with Karl Preisendanz ).
  • Friedrich Adolf Schmidt-Künsemüller: William Morris and the newer book art. Contributions to books and librarianship. Volume 4, Wiesbaden 1955. (Ed.)
  • Forgotten books from Ottheinrich's library. Heidelberg 1958.
  • Why student libraries? Heidelberg 1958.
  • Forgotten books from Ottheinrich's library. Heidelberg 1958.
  • A deeply founded heart: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's correspondence with Johann Gustav Droysen . Heidelberg 1959. (Ed.)
  • With painting and writing. Emperor Maximilian I and the printing press . In: Ewald Lissberger (ed.): In libro humanitas. Festschrift for Wilhelm Hoffmann on his 60th birthday, April 21, 1961 , Stuttgart: Klett 1962, pp. 244–275.
  • Proba centum scripturarum / accompanying text. Leonhard Wagner's Proba centum scripturarum. 1963.
  • The Heidelberg University Library. Heidelberg 1965.
  • German book printer of the fifteenth century. (For Victor Scholderer on October 9, 1970). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1971. ISBN 3-447-01277-3 .
Associate Editor
  • the series Facsimilia Heidelbergensia and
  • of the Heidelberg yearbooks .

literature

  • A. Habermann: Lexicon of German Scientific Librarians 1925–1989. Frankfurt am Main 1985. pp. 375f.
  • Carl Wehmer in memoriam. In: Börsenblatt for the German book trade. Volume 34, 1978. B789-B790.
  • Bibliotheca docet - Ceremony for Carl Wehmer . Erasmus bookstore publisher, Amsterdam 1963

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wehmer, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German librarian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1978
Place of death Dossenheim