Wilhelm Schuster

Wilhelm Robert Georg Schuster (born June 10, 1888 in Grabow ; † March 15, 1971 in Berlin ) was a German specialist in German studies , librarian and association official.

Training and work in Berlin

Wilhelm Schuster was the son of a pharmacist. He attended the Friedrichs-Gymnasium in Frankfurt an der Oder , which he left in 1907 with the Abitur. He then studied German, classical philology and philosophy at universities in Göttingen , Berlin and Kiel . During his studies he became a member of the Alemannia Göttingen fraternity in 1907 . After graduating from Kiel University in 1913, he passed the state examination in early 1914. In April of the same year he went to the Germanic Seminar at the University of Hamburg . Here he worked as a volunteer assistant at Conrad Borchling . Despite Borchling's promise to employ him as a paid assistant in early 1915, Schuster volunteered for military service in August 1914. He left the army on January 1, 1919 as a reserve lieutenant and probably served briefly in a volunteer corps.

Since Borchling had filled the promised assistant position at Hamburg University elsewhere, Schuster switched to the Halle University Library as a volunteer . A little later he moved to Göttingen and participated in the Ruhr uprising as a temporary volunteer in the student battalion . In 1919/20 he was a member of the DNVP . In July 1920 he went to the Schwerin City Library as a research assistant for three months , whose director Erwin Ackerknecht had a great influence on him. On October 1, 1920, the librarian accepted a new position at the Association of Upper Silesian People's Libraries in Gleiwitz . Schuster took part in the battles between irregulars around the region and received the Silesian Eagle II.

During his stay in Gleiwitz, Schuster married the librarian Elfriede Luise Auras on July 1, 1922, with whom he had a son. In the same year he took over the management of the Association of German People's Libraries for Polish Silesia and Galicia in Katowice . In this position in the "occupied territories" he showed great commitment to German culture and edited the newspaper Schaffen und Schauen . He also expanded the public libraries extensively. An arrest and charge for suspected high treason in 1924 resulted in an acquittal.

In 1926 Schuster moved to the Berlin City Library under the direction of Gottlieb Fritz (1873–1934). In 1928 he took over the chairmanship of the Association of German People's Librarians from Fritz and was appointed its deputy in the Berlin library on April 1, 1929. In the association he took part in lively discussions and helped design the association's library and educational maintenance, which competed with the booklets for libraries from Leipzig . From 1927 he co-edited the newspaper and wrote many articles in which he dealt with the general public library system and specifically the problem of the “borderland libraries”. In addition to book reviews, he gave lectures and collected lists of possible new acquisitions by the libraries for various subject areas or suggested that such lists be drawn up. Within the association, Schuster was seen as an intermediary between the librarians from Stettin and the "Leipzigers".

Work in the Hamburg library

After the sudden death of Otto Plates (1863–1930) in November 1930, who had headed the Hamburg library , Schuster took over the position of director of the facility on April 1, 1931. The bookhouses had several problems at that time: in addition to rising unemployment and inflation, the opening times could not be maintained for cost reasons and operations could only be secured through increased contributions. In addition, employees had to be terminated and the existing staff had to work longer. The administration of the book halls was considered to be clearly outdated, reading halls for children and young people did not exist. The greatest demand was for reading rooms for the unemployed. As the problems increased, Schuster called for access to be restricted, also in order to no longer have to serve the numerous unemployed. Schuster also organized bookhalls to buy works by the “New Right”.

Immediately after the seizure of power , Schuster offered himself to the National Socialists. During the 18th leadership meeting of the book halls on March 18, 1933, at which no “black lists” existed, he decreed that works not acceptable to the regime should be removed from the holdings of the book halls. In mid-April 1933 he wrote in Hamburg newspapers which tasks the public libraries in the German Reich should basically take on. He also created lists that included examples of literature that should be removed from school libraries. In August 1933 he set up the public library in Eppendorf , which was in the Holthusenbad, as a pure open access new one. With this form of installation, which is new for bookhouses, he oriented himself on the example of English public libraries . At the end of November 1933, the book halls took part in the German Book Fair in Hamburg . This took place in the Museum of Art and Industry and followed National Socialist claims.

Together with Wolfgang Herrmann , Schuster, who had been a member of the NSDAP since May 1, 1933 , made a statement to colleagues in September 1933. Both said that there was almost no unwanted literature to be found in most libraries. According to the librarians, the German public libraries have "always fought against literacy and asphalt literature for genuine literature". Schuster was of the opinion that the public libraries should be subject to the Ministry of Education under the direction of Bernhard Rust . As chairman of the association, he presented it as his personal achievement that this change was made in 1935.

Return to Berlin

Schuster was appointed to several committees and therefore moved to Berlin, where he took over the management of the city library from Gottlieb Fritz on May 1, 1934.

In August 1939, Schuster, who had always maintained contact with former soldiers from the imperial era, volunteered for military service. From September to December 1939 he was involved in the invasion of Poland and fought in the western campaign in France from May to September 1940 . During the occupation of the country, he tried to have literature confiscated for the library in Berlin, to which he subsequently returned. In January 1945 he was assigned to the Volkssturm and suffered serious injuries at the end of April 1945. He returned to Berlin in August 1946 from a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp with serious health problems.

Since he was considered “fascistically charged”, Schuster had lost the director's position in 1945 in absentia. In mid-1948 he submitted an application for denazification, which was approved in 1949. His work as director for the maintenance and expansion of the public libraries was praised, in particular the rescue of secreted books from the holdings of the Berlin city libraries. Presumably, however, he also acted self-serving and career-oriented. To this day he is accused of having shown premature obedience. From 1950 until his retirement in 1953 he taught again at the library school.

literature

• Angela Graf: Schuster, Wilhelm . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 6 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1025-4 , p. 306-309 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Willy Nolte (Ed.): Burschenschafter Stammrolle. List of the members of the German Burschenschaft according to the status of the summer semester 1934. Berlin 1934, p. 457.