Gustav Wahl

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Gustav Wahl (born July 25, 1877 in Berlin , † April 12, 1947 in Hamburg ) was a German librarian . As director, he headed the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig and the State and University Library in Hamburg.

Life

After graduating from the French grammar school in Berlin, Gustav Wahl studied law for three semesters , then Germanic and Romance philology and philosophy in Freiburg , Berlin and Heidelberg . During his studies he became a member of the Allemannia Berlin fraternity in the winter semester of 1896/97 . In 1901 he received his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg on the subject of " Johann Christoph Rost : a contribution to the history of German literature in the 18th century". During that time he worked as an assistant to Richard Schröder atGerman legal dictionary with. On April 1, 1902, his library career began as a trainee at the Heidelberg University Library . On August 1, 1904, he was appointed scientific assistant. In this function he worked in 1905 when the Heidelberg University Library moved to a new building.

In 1907, choice was the successor of Professor Möbius librarian and head of the library of the Senckenbergische Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main. Among other things, he redesigned the Senckenberg Library into a public institution and reorganized it.

On January 31, 1913, the Association of German Booksellers appointed Wahl as the first director of the newly founded Deutsche Bücherei. He took office on May 15, 1913. There he was involved in building the library by introducing an organization, selecting employees (four academic librarians and 60 other employees) and looking after the new library building. Tensions and differences with Karl Siegismund, the chairman of the executive committee of the Deutsche Bücherei and head of the Börsenverein der Deutschen Buchhandels, because of the one-sided emphasis on bibliographical tasks and the fact that the librarians ignored the opinion, prompted Wahl to resign together with the other librarians in early 1914. The corresponding headlines in the press forced Karl Siegismund to make a public statement, which resulted in the withdrawal of the layoffs. Shortly after the inauguration of the new building, Wahl retired on October 23, 1916 due to factual differences of opinion with the Börsenverein.

On the same day he began working at the library of the Imperial Court in Leipzig. Wahl, who had been classified as permanently unfit for military service, applied for the position on September 6, 1916. On January 1, 1918, the senior librarian Wahl was appointed director of the Hamburg City Library as the successor to Robert Münzel, who died on July 11, 1917 , and was given the title of professor.

Grave column for Gustav Wahl,
Ohlsdorf cemetery

Wahl headed the library, which was transformed into a state and university library in 1921 and renamed the Library of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg in 1938, until his early retirement on January 1, 1943 due to illness. He was able to double the staffing and budget. The premises for administration and use as well as exhibitions were enlarged, but the new building plans were not feasible. In 1920 he turned down an offer to the Saxon State Library in Dresden . On his 66th birthday in 1943, Wahl saw the destruction of his library and large parts of its holdings in a British air raid ( Operation Gomorrah ).

Wahl was in Hamburg on the board of the local branch of the Association for Germanism . In the library he built up a collection of literature about Germanness abroad and works written by Germans living abroad. He also held lectures on the cultural history of German abroad as an honorary professor for books and libraries at the University of Hamburg from 1921 to 1944.

In the period from 1933 to 1943, the library organized 29 exhibitions under Wahl's leadership, who became a member of the NSDAP on July 6, 1938, and thus played an active role in Nazi cultural propaganda.

Gustav Wahl was married to Anna Raster and had three children.

At the Hamburg cemetery in Ohlsdorf there is a grave column for Gustav Wahl and his family at grid square Y 10/11 (south of Nordteich ).

literature

  • Alexandra Habermann, Rainer Klemmt, Frauke Siefkes: Lexicon of German Scientific Librarians 1925–1980 . Klostermann, Frankfurt 1985, ISBN 3-465-01664-5
  • Helmut Voigt: Leipzig - Hamburg - Dresden. On the resignation of Gustav Wahl from the management of the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig in 1916 and on his intended appointment to the head of the Saxon State Library in Dresden in 1920 . In: Harald Weigel (ed.): Festschrift for Horst Gronemeyer on his 60th birthday , Verlag Traugott Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-045-X , pp. 775-800.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ life data after the entry in the Saxon biography
  2. ^ Ernst Elsheimer (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members according to the status of the winter semester 1927/28. Frankfurt am Main 1928, p. 547.
  3. ^ Catalog of the Heidelberg University Library
  4. ↑ Klaus-Peter Schroeder: "A University for and from Jurists": The Heidelberg Law Faculty in the 19th and 20th centuries . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3161503269 , p. 393
  5. ↑ Central Journal for Libraries, 1907
  6. ^ Deutsche Bücherei 1912–1962, Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the German National Library, Leipzig 1962, p. 31
  7. ↑ Deutsche Bücherei 1912–1962, Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the German National Library, Leipzig 1962, p. 271
  8. ^ Gabriele Urban: The acquisition policy of the Hamburg city library from 1840 until its conversion into a state and university library in 1921 . In: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute for Library Science, Berlin Handouts on Library Science , Issue 107, page 57 (PDF; 1.2 MB)
  9. ↑ Gunnar B. Zimmermann: "The obligation to serve the national community is becoming more and more conscious" The exhibition practice of the Hamburg State and University Library during National Socialism. In: Information, magazine for library, archive and information in Northern Germany. 31st year October 2011 issue 1, page 57 (PDF; 2.5 MB)
  10. ↑ Gunnar B. Zimmermann: "The obligation to serve the national community is becoming more and more conscious" , pp. 59, 71 (PDF; 2.5 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Choice, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German librarian
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1947
Place of death Hamburg