Oscar Grulich

Anton Oscar Grulich (born March 1, 1844 in Saathain , Liebenwerda district , † October 20, 1913 in Halle ) was a German librarian and initiator of the new library building for the Leopoldina Library in Halle as its secondary librarian.

Life

The son of the Saathainer deacon Anton Grulich and his wife Clara geb. Engelhardt attended the Schulpforta state school from 1858 to 1863 , studied classical and German philology in Halle (Saale) from 1863 to 1868, was a teacher at the Halle city high school from 1869 to 1875 and received his doctorate in Homeri carminibus in 1876 ​​with the dissertation Quaestiones de quodam hiatus genere . Because of a seizure disorder, which occurred shortly before the state examination and again in 1874, he had to give up teaching after five years. On September 1, 1875, Grulich moved to the university library as Amanuensis and from 1877 worked as custodian of the university library of the Royal Friedrichs University in Halle (today Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg ) and finally as senior librarian until his retirement on October 1, 1913. He died soon after of complications from a stroke. His grave is in the north cemetery in Halle. According to the baptismal register, Grulich's first name is Oscar, as he published, while the gravestone reads Oskar.

Act

After the physicist Hermann Knoblauch from Halle for the XV. President of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina was elected and the academy moved its headquarters to Halle, Grulich looked after the academy library as a part-time librarian from July 1, 1879 (until 1904) and took care of its transfer from Dresden to Halle. During the reorganization of the Prussian library system , he implemented the reforms at the University Library in Halle in his catalog system. Armed with this experience, he was able to put the academy library on solid foundations with a vision. The Leopoldina also owes the initiative and the conception of the new library building to him - not by chance in the vicinity of the university library and, like this one, in the then new steel frame construction by the same architect - whose inauguration on April 23, 1904 crowned his life's work. With this, the “suffering of a wandering library”, which he had impressively conjured up in 1885, was definitely over and the Leopoldina has since kept its headquarters in Halle, while previously it - several times together with the library - moved to the residence of the respective president.

See also : “1878–1932” in the article Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina

Grulich's catalog of the library of the Imperial Leopoldine-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists , begun in 1887, was presented at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. His history of the library and the natural history collection of the Kaiserl. Leopoldinisch-Carolinische Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher (1894) is rightly considered to be the most thorough and critical account of the history of the Leopoldina ever since he examined many of the sources available at that time in detail and assessed them with an unbiased view, without any hagiographic ambitions.

Works

• Sorrows and joys of a wandering library . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Vol. 2, 1885, pp. 117-134 ( online ).
• Catalog of the library of the Imperial Leopoldine-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists . Engelmann, Leipzig 1887–1905.
• History of the library and natural history collection of the Kaiserl. Leopoldine-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists. Hall 1894.

literature

• Biographical yearbook and German Nekrolog (DBJ). 1913, col. 93.
• [Max Perlbach]: From old books in the Halle University Library. Senior Librarian Oscar Grulich on the 25th anniversary of service on October 1st, 1900 / dargebr. from a colleague. Niemeyer, Halle a. P. 1900.
• Mechthild Hofmann: Oscar Grulich (March 1, 1844 - October 20, 1913). First librarian at the Leopoldina in Halle. In: Jahrbuch 1994. Leopoldina (R. 3) 40 (1995), pp. 479-488.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mechthild Hofmann: Oscar Grulich (March 1, 1844 - October 20, 1913). First librarian at the Leopoldina in Halle . In: Yearbook 1994, Leopoldina (R. 3) 40 . Halle 1995, p. 488 .
2. ↑ Ladislaus Buzas: German Library History of the Latest Time (1800–1945) . Reichert, Wiesbaden 1978, p. 174 .
3. ^ Oscar Grulich: Sorrows and joys of a wandering library . In: Centralblatt für das Bibliothekwesen . 2nd year, issue 4. Leipzig April 1885, p. 117-135 ( digizeitschriften.de ).