Heinrich Uhlendahl

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinrich Uhlendahl (born March 4, 1886 in Borbeck , † December 28, 1954 in Leipzig ) was a German librarian and from 1924 to 1954 as director or general director of the German library in Leipzig.

Life

Heinrich Uhlendahl was the son of a Catholic railway station assistant. He had two brothers. After the father's death in 1891, the mother later married the station master Franz Tannewitz, father of Anna Tannewitz .

Uhlendahl attended the Königliche Gymnasium (today Quirinus Gymnasium ) in Neuss and passed his Abitur there in 1905. A classmate was Joseph Frings . Then studied Uhlen Dahl German literature, history and philosophy at the universities of Berlin and Münster , where he arrived April 3, 1912 (viva voce) with a dissertation on Heinrich Heine and E. T. A. Hoffmann doctorate (Rating: cum laude). In October 1914 he passed the philological state examination for teaching at secondary schools. This was followed by his formative military service as a field artilleryman during the First World War . He rose from simple soldier to lieutenant and battery leader and was wounded three times. Uhlendahl was released on December 23, 1918 and joined an artillery division of the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division on January 6, 1919 as a free corps fighter , with which he was involved in fighting the Berlin riots in January 1919. On January 23, 1919, the traineeship began at the Prussian State Library , which was interrupted by another Freikorp activity in March 1919. In March 1920 he finally resigned from the Reichswehr.

In May 1920, Uhlendahl passed his library examination with the grade sufficient and became a library assistant. Within around 2.5 years he was promoted to library councilor and in October 1923 became assistant to director Fritz Milkau . From October 1, 1924, Uhlendahl headed the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig. He built up the system of the German National Bibliography, in whose various rows the literature of the German-speaking countries, which the Deutsche Bücherei had collected as completely as possible, was recorded. From 1924 to 1928 he was deputy chairman of the Association of German Librarians , and he was also one of the co-founders of IFLA . He was an assessor at the highest inspection body, which was set up at the German library in 1927 after the law to protect young people from trash and dirty writing came into force .

Heinrich Uhlendahl grave in the south cemetery in Leipzig

Uhlendahl was one of the people who founded the Rotary Club Leipzig on June 11, 1929 .

Five months after the " seizure of power " he was removed from office by the Gestapo in June 1933 due to a denunciation and arrested for three days, but reinstated on July 1st. In September 1933 he joined the Nazi cultural community and in November 1933 the Stahlhelm . In 1934 he was transferred to the SA as a member of the Stahlhelm and in 1935 to the SA reserve. This he had to leave in 1938 under pressure from the Leipzig NSDAP district leadership. In addition, he belonged to the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV) from April 1934 .

In 1938 Uhlendahl was appointed director general of the Deutsche Bücherei , which had been subordinate to the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda since June 30, 1933 . It was said of the bachelor Uhlendahl that he was married to his library. He did appreciate the sociability: at the end of the 1930s he was a member of 43 clubs.

During the Second World War he was able to protect the library's holdings from destruction by swapping them out in good time.

On November 29, 1945, Uhlendahl was confirmed as head of the German library by the Soviet military administration . He was the only head of an academic library in the Soviet occupation zone who held his post before 1945.

In the post-war period he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Libraries in the GDR, was head of the library commission for bibliography and documentation and was subordinate to the State Secretary for Higher Education. In 1951/52, due to his reputation in the Federal Republic of Germany and the new competition there, the German Library , he survived the attempt by some SED officials to remove him from his post as director. Uhlendahl died of a heart attack at the age of 68 . During his tenure, the book inventory and the services of the Deutsche Bücherei were steadily expanded, the number of employees rose from 50 to 300.

Among other things, Sören Flachowsky writes about Uhlendahl: "In Uhlendahl's written records there are hardly any statements that give concrete information about his political attitudes." "He had latent, but by no means radical, reservations about Jews."

Honors

On September 26, 1932, President Paul von Hindenburg awarded Uhlendahl the Goethe Medal for Art and Science on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Deutsche Bücherei . Under Adolf Hitler he was awarded the Loyalty Service Medal and in 1954 the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic by President Wilhelm Pieck .

Works

  • When we were recently in Regensburg: a literary-historical sketch . Propylaea, Berlin 1924
  • Something about the lady of the camellias: what is not in Dumas' . Poeschel & Trepte, Leipzig 1929
  • Libraries yesterday and today . VDI-Verlag, Berlin 1932

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 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. 314 f.
  2. ↑ Rudolf Blum, In: Archive for the history of the book , Volume 35, ed. v. Monika Estermann u. a .:, De Gruyter, 1990, ISBN 3-7657-1587-5 . Page 262.
  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. 569.
  4. ^ A b Ernst Klee : The cultural 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. 624.
  5. ↑ Gerd Simon: Chronology Uhlendahl, Heinrich , pp. 34, 25 (PDF; 331 kB)
  6. ↑ Gerd Simon: Chronology Uhlendahl, Heinrich , pp. 34, 25 (PDF; 331 kB)
  7. ^ Deutsche Bücherei 1912–1962, Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the German National Library, Leipzig 1962, p. 278.
  8. ↑ RGBL 1933, p.449: Ordinance on the tasks of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. June 30, 1933
  9. ^ Christian Rau: "National Library" in the divided country. The German Library 1945–1990 . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3199-0 . P. 124.
  10. ↑ Sören Flachowsky: "Armory for the swords of the spirit". The Deutsche Bücherei during the Nazi era. P. 321.
  11. ↑ Sören Flachowsky: "Armory for the swords of the spirit". The Deutsche Bücherei during the Nazi era. P. 323.
personal data
SURNAME Uhlendahl, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German librarian
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Borbeck
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1954
Place of death Leipzig