Provenance Research in the Library of the Topography of Terror

Since October 2023, the library of the Topography of Terror has been reviewing its collection for Nazi-looted property in a project funded by Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste (German Lost Art Foundation).

Provenance Research

The aim of provenance research is to reconstruct the history of an object, e. g. a painting, a sculpture, a piece of furniture, or a book. This is done on the basis of entry registers, purchase records or receipts, other documents, and not least provenance indicators in or on the object itself, such as stamps, autographs or numbers.

In the field of fine art, but also regarding manuscripts and early printed books, provenance research has been a common practice for many decades. However, the term provenance research as it is used today often refers to identifying objects from Contexts of Injustice in the collections of museums and libraries. In the case of Germany, these contexts are the colonial period, the Nazi regime and the expropriation of property during the land reform in the Soviet occupation zone and later by the German Democratic Republic.

Nazi Germany, in particular, enriched itself on a large scale from the property of the people and institutions it persecuted: Jewish parishes, organisations and private individuals, Masonic Lodges, political opponents, trade unions, monasteries and other persons and corporate bodies in Germany as well as in occupied countries.

In 1998, 43 states and 13 non-governmental organisations signed a voluntary self-commitment to trace this looted property (Washington Principles). The following year, the Federal Government of Germany, the Lander (federal states), and the National Associations of Local Authorities reaffirmed their commitment to ‘look for and identify further Nazi-confiscated cultural property in so far as the legal and factual possibilities allow and, if necessary, take the necessary steps to find an equitable and fair solution’. (Joint Declaration).

In 2015, the German Lost Art Foundation, based in Magdeburg, was established as a central point of contact for questions concerning unlawfully seized cultural property and as a funding body for provenance research projects. It publishes search requests and found object reports in the Lost Art Database – that also includes wartime losses – and operates the research database Proveana.

Current Project

As part of the German Lost Art Foundation funded project, the Topography of Terror Foundation is now examining its library collection for cultural assets confiscated as a result of persecution during the National Socialist Era (so called Nazi-looted property).

Although the Documentation Centre's specialist scientific library is comparatively young and did not benefit directly from looted property, its collection also includes roughly 8.000 books that were published before 1946. These books have been acquired through transfers from other libraries, donations and bequests from private individuals, duplicate exchanges, and antiquarian acquisitions – common ways for looted property to change hands after 1945.

The Topography of Terror Foundation is a member of the Looted Cultural Assets (LCA) cooperation, an association of several German libraries for mutual support in investigating and returning books seized in the context of Nazi persecution to the heirs and legal successors of the former owners. Research findings about individual objects, provenance indicators, persons, and corporate bodies are continuously entered and updated in a jointly operated and publicly accessible database. Books suspected of being Nazi-looted cultural property are also listed in the Lost Art Database and identified in the library catalogue.

The findings of the project will be released in a conclusive publication.