Severin Corsten

Severin Corsten (born December 8, 1920 in Heinsberg ; † October 18, 2008 in Bonn ) was a German librarian , historian and book scholar .

Corsten was the son of the mayor of Heinsberg, Leo Corsten, who was pushed out of office by the Nazis in 1933 ; his uncle Hermann Corsten (1889–1968) was director of the University and City Library of Cologne from 1933 to 1954 . Severin Corsten graduated from the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium in Aachen in 1939 and began studying mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt , which he had to break off in the autumn of 1940 due to the war.

After World War II , he studied the summer of 1946, history , German language and literature , philosophy and Latin at the University of Bonn , where he in 1951 Franz Steinbach with a thesis on The Dominialgut in the Official Heinsberg from its beginnings to the 18th century doctorate was. He finished his subsequent traineeship at the librarian training institute in Cologne with an assessor thesis on the beginnings of Cologne printing . From 1954 to 1963 he was employed in the library of the Foreign Office in Bonn .

In 1963, he moved to Cologne's university and city library as deputy director, which he managed from 1971 until his retirement in 1986 (as the third successor to his uncle). In addition, he held teaching positions at the University of Cologne , at his former training location, the Cologne Librarian Training Institute, and at the then state-recognized library training institute of the Borromeo Association in Bonn . In 1975 he was appointed honorary professor by the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Cologne .

From 1966 on Corsten worked first as secretary, then from 1979 to 1995 as chairman of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine , and thus at the same time as editor (1966–1979) or publisher (1979–1995) for the nationally renowned regional specialist journal Annalen des Historical association responsible for the Lower Rhine , in which he himself published regularly. For his services to the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine, Corsten was elected honorary chairman when he retired in 1995.

In addition, Corsten published numerous studies that dealt with book and library science topics as well as with aspects of the history of the Rhenish region and in particular with the history of his homeland, the district of Heinsberg . Corsten's regional studies are characterized by a particularly close-to-source level of detail, in that he endeavored to combine scientific accuracy with comprehensible clarity.

In 1985 Corsten initiated a complete revision of the alphabetically ordered standard work Lexicon of the entire book industry (which is still published to this day) , as its editor until the 57th delivery (2008) and for which he, as well as the Lexicon of the Middle Ages , made many contributions of his own.

In 1986 he received the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany

Fonts (selection)

See Wolfgang Schmitz , Kurt Hans Staub (eds.): Severin Corsten on his eightieth birthday on December 8, 2000. Bibliography of his writings 1951 to 2000 (= small writings of the University and City Library of Cologne. Volume 7). University and City Library Cologne, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-931596-17-6 .

• The Domanialgut in Amt Heinsberg from the beginning to the end of the 18th century (= Rheinisches Archiv. Volume 43, ISSN  0933-5102 ). Röhrscheid, Bonn 1953.
• The beginnings of Cologne printing. In: Yearbook of the Cologne History Association. Volume 29/30, 1957, ISSN  0341-9320 , pp. 1-98, digitized .
• Studies on books and libraries. (= Works and bibliographies on books and libraries. Volume 5). Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1988, ISBN 3-8204-1356-1 (collected essays, table of contents ).

literature

• Hans Limburg u. a. (Ed.): Ars impressoria. Origin and development of the printing press. An international celebration for Severin Corsten on his 65th birthday . Saur, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-598-10587-8 .
• Heinz Finger : The Rhenish historian and librarian Severin Corsten (December 8, 1920 to October 18, 2008). In: Analecta Coloniensia. Volume 7/8, 2007/08, ISSN  1861-7263 , pp. 71-80.
• Heinz Finger: In memoriam Professor Dr. Severin Corsten. In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine . Volume 112, 2008, pp. 1-5.
• Wolfgang Schmitz : Obituary for Severin Corsten (1920–2008). In: Gutenberg yearbook. Volume 84, 2009, ISSN  0072-9094 , pp. 346-349.

Web links

• Literature by and about Severin Corsten in the catalog of the German National Library
• Publications by and about Severin Corsten in the Opac der Regesta Imperii

Remarks

1. ↑ Heinz Finger: The Rhenish historian and librarian Severin Corsten (December 8, 1920 to October 18, 2008). In: Analecta Coloniensia. Volume 7/8, 2007/08, pp. 71-80.