Georg Leyh

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Georg Leyh (born June 6, 1877 in Ansbach , † June 19, 1968 in Tübingen ) was a German librarian and library scientist .

Life

After attending grammar school in Ansbach, Leyh studied philology and history in Munich, Strasbourg and Tübingen from 1896. He received his doctorate in 1903 in Tübingen with a thesis on the novellas Gottfried Keller . In 1904 he joined the library service as a research assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Library in Posen . In the following years he worked at the university libraries in Göttingen (1906–1907), Königsberg (1907), Berlin (1907–1909) and again Göttingen (1909–1913). From 1908 to 1910 he was acting head of the library of the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome. In 1913 Leyh went to the Royal Library in Berlin, and in 1915 to the University Library of Breslau as senior librarian . From 1914 to 1917 he did military service in the First World War. In 1920 Leyh became director of the University Library in Halle , in 1921 of the University Library of Tübingen , where he stayed until his retirement in 1947. A return to the Berlin State Library as First Director failed in 1934, presumably for political reasons.

Daughters: Uta Leyh (June 15, 1921 - October 24, 1999), librarian; Frowine Leyh-Griesser (December 23, 1927 - November 7, 2009), doctor / professor for dermatology and venereology at the University of Lübeck .

Services

Leyh is considered to be one of the key figures in German librarianship in the period between the two world wars. In 1912 he advocated in a fundamental essay The Dogma of Systematic Listings for reasons of space saving for the "mechanical", not subject-related list of books in library magazines , which was adopted by most academic libraries in Germany in the following decades. In addition, he published numerous works on other questions of librarianship (such as library organization or library construction ), based on his experience in the University Library of Tübingen.

In addition, Leyh was mainly active in the field of library history . He was the editor of the second edition of the Handbuch der Bibliothekswissenschaft , after having been co-editor of Fritz Milkau for the first edition . From 1922 to 1944 he published the Central Journal for Libraries . Since 1928 he was honorary professor for library science at the University of Tübingen. Leyh represented the classic occupation of the (humanities) scientifically trained librarian and refused to concentrate on pure administrative work in the library system.

Leyh was chairman of the Association of German Librarians (VDB) from 1935 to 1937 . He tried to maintain the independence of the professional association, which had been brought into line by the National Socialists, but had to resign in 1937. In 1951 he became an honorary member of the VDB. From 1920 he was also a member of the library committee of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft / Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft .

After 1945, despite the increasing political division, Leyh stood up for the unity of the German library system and rejected the establishment of the German library and West German competition with the Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen . In 1954 he accepted the GDR national prize . Later, however, he criticized politically influenced developments in the library system in the GDR.

Fonts (selection)

Bibliography in: Viktor Burr (Ed.): Georg Leyh. Directory of his writings . Wiesbaden 1957.

  • The dogma of the systematic listing . In: Central Journal for Libraries . Volume 29, 1912, pp. 241-259 ; Volume 30, 1913, pp. 97-136 .
  • The scientific city library . Mohr, Tübingen 1929.
  • Schinkel's design for a new building for the Royal Library in Berlin . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , vol. 48, 1931, pp. 113–119.
  • Cultural degradation and scientific libraries. In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , vol. 49, 1932, pp. 379–402.
  • Marginal notes on a catalog of portraits . In Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, 57 (1940), pp. 111-127.
  • Basics from the history of libraries . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, 57 (1940), pp. 337–351.
  • The German academic libraries after the war . Mohr, Tübingen 1947.
  • The education of the librarian . Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1952.
  • As editor and co-author: Handbuch der Bibliothekswissenschaft , 2nd increased and improved edition, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1952–1965.

literature

  • Paul Hadler: Weltanschauung and library history with Georg Leyh , in: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Volume 82, 1968, pp. 196-213.
  • Marta L. Dosa: Libraries in the political scene . Greenwood Press, Westport 1974, ISBN 0-8371-6443-5 , pp.?.
  • Walther Gebhardt: Georg Leyh 1877–1977 . In: Journal of Librarianship and Bibliography . Volume 24, 1977, pp. 209-223.
  • Hannsjörg Kowark : Georg Leyh and the University Library of Tübingen (1921–1947) . Mohr, Tübingen 1981, ISBN 3-16-444071-5 , ISBN 3-515-07997-1 .
  • Walther Gebhardt  :  Leyh, Georg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 434 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Alexandra Habermann, Rainer Klemmt, Frauke Siefkes: Lexicon of German Scientific Librarians 1925–1980 . Klostermann, Frankfurt 1985, ISBN 3-465-01664-5 , pp. 193-194.
  • Jürgen Babendreier: Discourse as a way of life. Georg Leyh and his book "The Education of the Librarian" . In: Wolfenbütteler Notizen zur Buchgeschichte, Volume 35 (2010), pp. 81–97.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Obituary notice "Schwäbisches Tagblatt" (Uta Leyh); Ärzteblatt Baden-Württemberg, vol. 65 (2010), no. 1, p. 27 (Frowine Leyh-Griesser).
  2. ↑ After the director of the German State Library in East Berlin, Horst Kunze , had dedicated a benevolent article to him on his 80th birthday ( Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Volume 71, 1957, pp. 169–174), Leyh became famous because of his later work on the German State Library and the German Library strongly attacked by the GDR side (Paul Hadler: Weltanschauung und Bibliotheksgeschichte bei Georg Leyh , in: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Volume 82, 1968, pp. 196-213).
personal data
SURNAME Leyh, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German librarian
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Ansbach
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1968
Place of death Tübingen