Horst Kunze (librarian)

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Horst Kunze (born September 22, 1909 in Dresden ; † July 18, 2000 in Berlin ) was a German librarian and from 1950 to 1976 Director General of the German State Library in East Berlin .

Life

The son of a pharmacist studied modern languages, German and philosophy in Vienna , Grenoble and Leipzig between 1929 and 1932 . During this time Kunze belonged to the Red Student Union .

After taking the exam for teaching qualification in higher education in 1933, he was in 1935 on the Bible translation of Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples and Pierre Robert Olivetan Dr. phil. PhD. He then completed a two-year apprenticeship as a scientific librarian at the Deutsche Bücherei . From 1937 until he was called up in 1942, Kunze worked as a librarian in Darmstadt.

In 1946 Kunze returned from French captivity and worked as a freelancer in Darmstadt. At the same time he wrote literary reviews for the radio. A year later, Kunze went to the Soviet occupation zone, where he accepted an offer as director of the university library in Halle an der Saale. In 1949 Kunze joined the SED.

In 1950 he moved to East Berlin, where he took over the management of what was then the Public and Scientific Library, later the German State Library, succeeding Rudolf Hoecker until 1976 and held it until his retirement. Friedhilde Krause became her successor . In 1953 he was appointed to the chair for library sciences at Humboldt University, where he also headed the institute for library sciences until retirement. In 1956, Kunze was one of the founders of the Pirckheimer Society in the GDR Cultural Association and was a member of its board. In 1961 Kunze received the GDR National Prize for his work . In 1964 he was elected President of the GDR Library Association. In 1972 he received the Gutenberg Prize of the City of Leipzig and in 1974 the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold. Kunze retired in 1978 and resigned from all offices.

In addition to promoting children's and young people's literature in the GDR, Kunze did a great job as editor of Werner Klemke's entire works . He also wrote numerous specialist literature on library science. Horst Kunze is the publisher of bibliographically beautiful or otherwise remarkable books (e.g. Dunkel war's ... ) and in this very special way enriched the GDR's book market.

He found his final resting place in the Grünau forest cemetery in field 20.

Works

  • Scientific work . An introduction, Akademie-Verlag , Berlin 1958 (2nd edition 1959).
  • About registering 3, extended edition. VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1968.
  • History of book illustration in Germany. The 15th century . Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1975 (2 volumes: illustrated book, text book).
  • (with Heinz Wegehaupt ) Mirror of proletarian children's and youth literature 1870–1936 . Children's book publisher, Berlin 1985.
  • History of book illustration in Germany. The 16th and 17th centuries . Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. / Leipzig 1993 (2 volumes: illustrated book, text book).
  • Werner Klemke : Life picture and bibliography of his book art work . Burgart-Presse, Rudolstadt 1999, ISBN 3-910206-30-1 .

literature

  • Wolfgang Schmitz : Horst Kunze - librarian, book scholar and bibliophile in socialism . In: Leipziger Jahrbuch zur Buchgeschichte 19 (2010), pp. 335–357.
  • Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Kunze, Horst . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Karl Klaus Walther: Horst Kunze as director of the University and State Library in Halle. A contribution to the 100th birthday. In: Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands 55, 2009, pp. 231–241.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , October 4, 1974, p. 2
  2. ↑ Bibliographic data in the DNB portal
personal data
SURNAME Kunze, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German librarian, general director of the German State Library in East Berlin
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 2000
Place of death Berlin