Karl August Barack

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Karl August Barack

Karl August Barack (born October 23, 1827 in Oberndorf am Neckar , † July 12, 1900 in Strasbourg ) was a German specialist in German studies and a librarian.

As the Fürstlich-Fürstenbergischer Hofbibliothek in Donaueschingen he published the catalog “The Manuscripts of the Fürstlich-Fürstenbergische Hofbibliothek zu Donaueschingen ” and from 1871 was the first director of the Imperial University and State Library in Strasbourg .

Live and act

Barack was fortunate that as a child of “poor parents”, on the recommendation of his first teacher, he was able to switch to the Latin school in Oberndorf and, with financial support from relatives , he was able to attend the grammar school in Rottweil and the university in Tübingen , where he went in autumn 1851 after studying philosophy, philology and history. Barack was a member of the Herzynia theological society in Tübingen. In order to earn a living, he initially took on a position as private tutor for the Lossen family, the owners of the Michelbacher Hütte in the Duchy of Nassau , from 1851 to 1854 .

After a six-month educational trip to several large libraries, in particular Vienna and Prague , he worked for 4½ years as conservator and secretary at the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg . He worked here with the historian Carl August Hugo Burkhardt , the Germanist Reinhold Bechstein , the historians Johannes and Jakob Falke and Karl Bartsch , who later became Professor of German and Romance Studies in Heidelberg, at whose instigation he published his first work in 1858, a complete edition of the works of Hroswitha von Gandersheim published. He maintained a lifelong, friendly contact with these scientists.

Donaueschingen

Fragment from Wigand von Marburg's rhyming chronicle (14th century) from the Donaueschingen collection, published by Barack in 1867; Karlsruhe State Library

After his engagement to Klara Löflund, the stepdaughter of the Schiller researcher Joachim Meyer, he applied for the second time to the Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Hofbibliothek in Donaueschingen. When he first applied, Joseph Victor von Scheffel was preferred to him. When he heard that Scheffel was planning to give up his office, this application was successful with the intercession of Baron Carl Heinrich Roth von Schreckenstein , then second director of the Germanisches Museum.

On January 7, 1860 he started his service and was trained by Scheffel. His first task was to integrate the Lassberg collection with over 11,000 prints and 280 manuscripts. The library was able to move into the government building, which was completed in 1732. He used the non-heatable rooms on the ground floor as storage space. There were six bright and large rooms on the first floor. In the middle and looking south, he set up a heated work and reading room, on both sides of which the most important holdings on history, German studies, German literature and the manuscripts and incunabula were housed. The second floor was gradually expanded for the rest.

Over a period of ten years, he created a handwritten catalog of the printed matter in slip form, sorted by the name of the author. In 1865 he published a printed catalog of the 925 manuscripts, in which these are described in detail on 608 pages. During his work, he realized that parchment had been written on or glued on in various old bindings . By detaching it, he obtained a number of important fragments. He also compiled a catalog of the 509 incunabula.

In 1863 he published the satirical-didactic poem "Des Teufels Netz", a pure text edition with notes from three handwritten sources, one of them from the Donaueschingen library. From two manuscripts from the Donaueschingen collection and eight from other libraries, he compiled the edition of the “Chronik der Reichenau” up to 1500. In 1866/67 the first edition of the Zimmerische Chronik , edited by Barack, was published , a German historical work from the 16th century, written as a family chronicle of the gentlemen of Zimmer . In 1868 he was one of the founding members of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings

Strasbourg

A decisive event in Barack's life was the destruction of the Strasbourg library in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. Together with the board of directors of the Munich court library and 49 scholars, he published an appeal on October 30, 1870, asking for book donations for the construction of a new library. Within a short time more than 100,000 volumes came together.

La Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg

Barack was offered the management of the new library. He took office on July 16, 1871. The new library was opened on August 9th. After another year, the collection had grown to 200,000 volumes. As early as October 1872 he was appointed "senior librarian with the character of a full professor". On November 29, 1895, in connection with the opening of the new library building, he received the title of Privy Councilor.

Cataloging was again the first task in Strasbourg. Barack also made sure that the holdings were quickly opened up to the public. He set up regular lending operations, made the holdings accessible to external users and set up an exhibition room for the treasures of the library. He also took care of the purchase of manuscripts, incunabula and collections of letters of local importance, such as Goethe's letters and notes from his time in Strasbourg. From 1879 he was able to take care of his own publications again, especially the second, heavily revised and still authoritative and citable edition of the Zimmerische Chronik , which appeared in 1880/81. This was completely digitized in Wikisource in 2006/07 .

In 1894 he published (without his name) an almost entertaining histori of the beautiful Elisa, a king's daughter from Portugal and grave Albrechte von Werdenberg [...] , although he only slightly changed his model, an elaboration by Joseph von Laßberg . He died on July 12, 1900 in Strasbourg.

Publications (selection)

  • The manuscripts of the Fürstlich-Fürstenbergische Hofbibliothek zu Donaueschingen. Laupp, Tübingen 1865 ( digitized version ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl August Barack: Fragments from Wigands von Marburg rhyming chronicle . Germania 12 (1867) 194-205
  2. ^ Association for the history of Lake Constance and its surroundings, statutes and list of members from December 1868: Stadtarchiv Lindau, B II / 85/4, acts of the city council, subject Bodensee-Geschichts-Verein, Tit. IV., Cap. 11, compartment 85, act 4.

Web links

Wikisource: Karl August Barack  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Barack, Karl August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Germanist and librarian
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberndorf am Neckar
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1900
Place of death Strasbourg