Gustav Binz (philologist)

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Gustav Binz (born January 16, 1865 in Basel ; † January 29, 1951 there ) was a Swiss and German philologist and librarian .

Live and act

Gustav Binz was born in Basel, but grew up in Stuttgart and attended schools there. He then studied German and Romance philology as well as oriental studies at the University of Basel and Berlin . After a stay in Paris, including at the École des Chartes , he joined the library at the University of Basel in 1889 as an assistant . In 1892 he was promoted to third librarian. In 1893 he completed his habilitation in English philology; until his retirement in 1935 he gave regular lectures, also later in Mainz and Bern. Together with his colleague and friend Carl Christoph Bernoulli , who was promoted to senior librarian in 1891, Binz built the alphabetical card catalog according to the Prussian instructions as a replacement for the old volume catalog. In 1896 the library moved to the new building on Schönbeinstrasse, where all of the holdings had to be repositioned. In addition, Binz began to describe the German medieval manuscripts in detail; a volume of this catalog was published in 1907.

In 1908 Binz became senior librarian and thus director of the Mainz city library, succeeding Wilhelm Velke, who had left the year before . At that time the library was still housed in the electoral palace, the books were on high shelves, two rows behind one another, and only Binz had signature plates attached to the spine of the book. The construction of his own library building on Rheinallee, completed in 1912, fell during his term of office. Binz was also able to record successes with the so far very modest staffing levels. In 1913 two new posts were created for academic officials, one each for the library and one for the city ​​archive, and two new posts for library secretaries. This enabled a new cataloging of the holdings and, with Wilhelm Diepenbach , the first scientifically trained civil servant of the city archive, a first systematic inventory of the coin cabinet. Like his predecessor Velke, Binz was in charge of not only the city library and the associated city archive, but also the coin cabinet and the Gutenberg Museum, which had existed since 1900 .

In 1920 Binz returned to Switzerland. From April 1920 to March 1923 he was Vice Director of the Swiss National Library (now: National Library) in Bern. During this time he reclassified the law and social sciences department and created a topographical catalog for it.

On March 15, 1923, Gustav Binz was elected as senior librarian in his hometown of Basel to succeed Carl Christoph Bernoulli, at the same time he was given a teaching position for English philology and library studies at the university, on June 23 with the title and rights of a full professor. Since he found large residuals, all special work was temporarily suspended. Binz immediately introduced a specialist librarian system, new bookkeeping and accession registers were set up, and above all, he successfully endeavored to raise funds for the library: from 1922 to 1933 the number of employees grew from 20 to 30, and the state contribution from CHF 25 '000 to CHF 60'000, the number of visits from users increased from 33'687 to 80'584 and the volumes on loan from 52'171 to 105'621. In order to remedy the lack of space, Binz was already developing plans for an extension or a new building.

Gustav Binz resigned from office in 1935 at the age of 70. He then resumed the description of the Basel manuscripts and continued this work for twelve years with the usual care and conscientiousness. There was no longer any publication, but his manuscript still forms the basis of the catalogs for numerous medieval Basel manuscripts.

Fonts (selection)

  • The German Manuscripts of the Public Library of the University of Basel . Volume 1: The manuscripts of the department A . University Library, Basel 1907 (no more published) ..
  • Literary booty from Mainz in Swedish libraries. In: Mainz magazine . Volume 12/13, 1917/18, pp. 157-167.
  • Review of the writings Werner Oskar Felix Hodler: Contributions to word formation and word meaning in Bern German. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1923.

literature

  • Wilhelm Diepenbach: Gustav Binz as director of the Mainz city library 1908-1920 . In: Karl Schwarber (Hrsg.): Festschrift Gustav Binz for the 70th birthday on January 16, 1935 by friends and colleagues . Benno Schwabe, Basel 1935, pp. 23-29.
  • Marcel Godet: M. Gustave Binz et la bibliotheque nationale suisse . In: Karl Schwarber (Hrsg.): Festschrift Gustav Binz for the 70th birthday on January 16, 1935 by friends and colleagues . Benno Schwabe, Basel 1935, pp. 30–32.
  • Karl Schwarber (Ed.): Festschrift for Gustav Binz's 70th birthday on January 16, 1935, offered by friends and colleagues . Benno Schwabe, Basel 1935. (with photo).
  • M (ax) B (urckhardt): In memory of former senior librarian Prof. Dr. phil. Gustav Binz . In: Basler Nachrichten , January 30, 1951, No. 45.
  • Elisabeth Darapsky : Librarians of the Mainz City Library. In: Jürgen Busch (Ed.): De Bibliotheca Moguntina. Festschrift of the Mainz City Library on the 50th anniversary of its building Rheinallee 3 3/10 on November 7, 1962. Mainz 1963, pp. 17–30.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gustav Binz: The German manuscripts of the public library of the University of Basel . Volume 1. The manuscripts of the department A . University library, Basel 1907.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Diepenbach: Gustav Binz as director of the Mainz city library 1908-1920 . In: Karl Schwarber (Hrsg.): Festschrift Gustav Binz for the 70th birthday on January 16, 1935 by friends and colleagues . Benno Schwabe, Basel 1935, pp. 23-29.
  3. ^ Marcel Godet: M. Gustave Binz et la Bibliothèque nationale Suisse . In: Karl Schwarber (Hrsg.): Festschrift Gustav Binz for the 70th birthday on January 16, 1935 by friends and colleagues . Benno Schwabe, Basel 1935, pp. 30–32.
  4. ↑ Eberhard Vischer in: Karl Schwarber (Hrsg.): Festschrift Gustav Binz for the 70th birthday on January 16, 1935 by friends and colleagues . Benno Schwabe, Basel 1935, pp. 18-20.
personal data
SURNAME Binz, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philologist and librarian
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1951
Place of death Basel