Fritz Prinzhorn

Fritz Adolf Albert Prinzhorn (born October 15, 1893 in Berlin , † August 21, 1967 in Bonn ) was a German librarian . Alongside Hugo Andres Krüß , he was one of the most important representatives of the German documentation movement , to whose librarianship he can be counted. He dealt with methods of standardization and the indexing of the content of literature. In addition to a focus on technical magazine literature, Prinzhorn transferred his categories to an increasingly politicized regional studies and developed regional bibliographies on the literature of Eastern European countries. As a staunch National Socialist , he also worked with organizations and offices of the Reich Security Main Office , although his precise connections to the SS have so far remained unclear. After the Second World War , Prinzhorn was able to re-enter the library service in the Federal Republic of Germany and from 1955 was director of the library of the Foreign Office .

Life

Prinzhorn, whose father was a teacher, studied mathematics , natural sciences, philosophy and geography at the universities of Jena and Berlin . 1918 doctorate he in Jena on the skin and the regression of hair at the hairless dogs to Dr. phil. in zoology . In October 1919 he passed the state examination and then joined the library service as a volunteer at the Berlin State Library . In 1921 he passed the specialist examination for assessor and in 1925 was employed as a regular librarian at the Berlin university library. Promoted to the Library Council in 1926, he worked on the International Bibliography of Anatomy . Prinzhorn was given leave of absence in 1927 to temporarily manage the library of the Technical University of Berlin . In 1929 he took over the management of the library of the TH Danzig , where from 1932 he also held a teaching position for library studies .

On May 1, 1933, Prinzhorn joined the NSDAP . He was instrumental in the fact that the Association of German Librarians held the 1934 Librarian Day in Danzig . In 1935 he became a member of the Prussian Advisory Board for Library Matters . In 1937 he received an extraordinary professorship for book studies at the TH Danzig. After Otto Glauning left the company , after a two-year vacancy in 1939, he took over the management of the Leipzig University Library and became a full honorary professor for library sciences at the Philological-Historical Department of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig . In 1941 he became the first president of the newly founded German Society for Documentation (DGD).

After the end of the war, Prinzhorn lost his positions. In the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany he was able to return to the library service. In 1949 he took over the construction of the library of the Institute for International Studies in Bremen . In 1951 he became director and in 1955 director of the library of the Foreign Office in Bonn . In 1967 Prinzhorn committed suicide.

Act

As a librarian, Prinzhorn dealt with questions of standardization. In 1925, together with Fritz Wlach, on behalf of the Office Organization Committee at the Reich Board of Trustees for Economic Efficiency, he published the uniform ABC rules , which were the direct predecessor of the DIN 5007 sorting standard . In addition to Albert Predeek , Prinzhorn is counted among the leading representatives of the "documentation movement". Since 1927 he has chaired the committee for magazine design and later also the committee for collaboration of bibliographies and paper sheets at the technical standards committee for libraries, books and journals and published on questions of documentation and the importance of the standardization of references. Under his direction, technical journals in particular were indexed in terms of content at the TH Danzig using a keyword catalog.

Prinzhorn campaigned for National Socialism . At the Librarian's Day in Danzig in 1934, which he organized, he gave the lecture on “The tasks of the libraries in National Socialist Germany”, in which he committed himself to National Socialism and the political educational mandate of the libraries. He made a name for himself as an editor of bibliographies on Eastern European issues . As early as 1931 he published the bibliography "Danzig-Poland Corridor and Border Areas", which in 1939 became the bibliography "Deutsche Reichsgaue im Osten, Generalgouvernement". In 1936 he applied for funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for further bibliographies on "Memel, East Prussia, Baltic States and Finland" and "Bohemian-Moravian Region including Slovakia and the former Karpatho-Ukraine". In 1938 he published a bibliography "Czechoslovakia and Border Areas", which was restructured from 1940 as the bibliography "Reichsgau Sudetenland, Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia".

The DGD, co-founded by Prinzhorn, dealt primarily with questions of the development and evaluation of the scientific literature of hostile foreign countries with regard to military, technical and economic applications. The DGD was closely linked with state institutions. The extent to which Prinzhorn cooperated with the SD , was active as an informant or was a member of the SS has not yet been clearly clarified, but appears to be very likely. After Flachowsky he was a supporting member of the SS . For the German Institute for International Studies under Franz Six , the Leipzig University Library, under Prinzhorn's direction, compiled the European bibliography and in this respect worked together with the International SD. Flachowsky describes it as a close cooperation with the SD.

In 1939/40 shortly after the occupation of Poland , Prinzhorn requested Torah scrolls and cult objects from the Jewish community in Krośniewice for the university library . In this respect, the university library was actively involved in the systematic robbery of Jewish cultural assets. It seems more than likely that Prinzhorn was the only specialist adviser to compile the list of libraries and archives that were looted by the RSHA commands in September 1941 in the Baltic States , including the extensive archive of the Jewish historian Simon Dubnow .

Fonts

• The skin and the regression of the hair in naked dogs <No. 6 of Fauna et Anatomia ceylanica>. Fischer, Jena 1921.
• and Fritz Wlach: Standard ABC rules. 2nd Edition. Beuth-Verl., Berlin 1926.
• Rationalization in libraries, books and magazines. sn, Berlin 1928.
• and Heinz Ahlenstiel: International Bibliography of the Anatomy of Humans and Vertebrates. Jena 1929.
• International rules for citing journals. W. de Gruyter & Co, Berlin 1930.
• The design and evaluation of the journals and current bibliographies . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , vol. 48, 1931, pp. 432–444.
• (Ed.): Memel region and Baltic states. [from vol. 3:] u. Finland. A bibliography with esp. Berücks. of politics and Economy. Edited by Fritz Prinzhorn. 1935/1936 with addendum from d. J. 1931/1934. (Kafemann [according to communication: Danzig-Langfuhr, Rickertweg 15: Bibl. Dir. Dr.] Fr. Prinzhorn), Danzig 1931–1938.
• (Ed.): Gdansk-Poland Corridor and Border Areas. A bibliography with a special focus on politics and economy 1931 and 1932. Danzig 1932.
• (Ed.): Gdansk-Poland Corridor and Border Areas. A bibliography with a special focus on politics and economics. Library of the Technical University, Gdansk 1933–1941.
• The tasks of the libraries in National Socialist Germany. [Lecture given on May 25, 1934 at a public rally of the Association of German Librarians in Danzig]. Eichblatt, Leipzig 1934.
• The problem of documentation and the collaboration of specialist bibliographies. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1935.
• Structure and organization of the German bibliographies and Report sheets and their collaboration with the libraries. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1937.
• Status of standardization and documentation work in the individual countries, especially in Germany. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1938.
• and Manfred Hellmann: Literature on Lithuania (1928–1938). Hirzel, Leipzig 1939.
• (Ed.) With Heinrich Jilek (arrangement): Reichsgau Sudetenland, Reich Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia. A bibliography with a special focus on politics and economics. Leipzig 1940.
• (Ed.): Europe Bibliography. Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1940.
• (Ed.): Europe. Bibliography. In connection with the Leipzig University Library. Otto Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1941ff.
• (Ed.) German Reichsgaue in the East and Generalgouvernement A bibliography with special consideration of politics and economy. (Press R. Wagner son Weimar), Leipzig 1941.
• The development of documentation in the field of technology and economy in Germany. In: Wirtschaftsdienst: magazine for economic policy. 31, No. 2 1951, pp. 27-34.
• Library catalog. Bremen Committee for Economic Research. [Bremen]. January 1, 1951 (arranged by: F. Prinzhorn.). st, Bremen 1951.
• Peculiarity and significance of the parliamentary and government libraries. German Bundestag, Bonn 1961.
• Documentation and book studies. Bouvier, Bonn 1964.

literature

• Art: Fritz Adolf Albert Prinzhorn . In: Chair of Modern and Contemporary History, Historical Seminar of the University of Leipzig (Ed.): Professor Catalog of the University of Leipzig / Catalogus Professorum Lipsiensium , (accessed on October 9, 2015).
• Elke Behrends: Technical-scientific documentation in Germany from 1900 to 1945. With special consideration of the relationship between library and documentation. Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden 1995.
• Alexandra Habermann, Rainer Klemmt, Frauke Siefkes: Lexicon of German Scientific Librarians 1925–1980 . Klostermann, Frankfurt / Main 1985.
• Gerd Simon with the help of Ulrich Schermaul: Chronologie Fritz Prinzhorn (first version Oct 2004, provisional final version Nov 2005) ( PDF , accessed October 9, 2015).
• Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . 2nd Edition. Volume 8 (Poethen – Schlüter). KG Saur, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-598-25038-5 , p. 85.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 424.
2. ^ Andreas Thüsing: The Leipzig Student Council 1947–1948 . In: Ulrich von Hehl (Ed.): Saxony's State University in Monarchy, Republic and Dictatorship. Contributions to the history of the University of Leipzig from the German Empire to the dissolution of the State of Saxony in 1952 . Evang. Verl.-Anst., Leipzig 2005, p. 500.
3. ↑ Sören Flachowsky: " Armory for the swords of the spirit". The Deutsche Bücherei during the Nazi era . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3196-9 , p. 542.
4. ^ Gideon Botsch: "Political Science" in World War II. The "German Foreign Studies" in action 1940–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, p. 149.
5. ↑ Sören Flachowsky: " Armory for the swords of the spirit". The Deutsche Bücherei during the Nazi era . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3196-9 , p. 781.
6. ↑ Peter König u. Cordula Reuss: The Torah Scrolls in Leipzig - A library search for traces . In: Yearbook of the Simon Dubnow Institute 9 (2010), p. 87.
7. ↑ Carsten Schreiber: From the Philosophical Faculty to the Reich Security Main Office. Leipzig doctoral students between the university and research on opponents . In: Ulrich von Hehl (Ed.): Saxony's State University in Monarchy, Republic and Dictatorship. Contributions to the history of the University of Leipzig from the German Empire to the dissolution of the State of Saxony in 1952 . Evang. Verl.-Anst., Leipzig 2005, pp. 276f.