The Fate of Displaced Medieval Manuscripts and Documents from the Hanseatic cities

Abstract

This review article sums up the available data on the fate of archival and library materials from the German cities Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen which were transported to the Soviet Union after WW2. The main focus is on medieval manuscripts and documents. Despite the fact that these cities were in the British occupation zone, their archival and library fonds became Soviet war trophies, because in 1942-1944 they were evacuated to various places shortly before these became parts of the Soviet occupation zone. They were transported to Leningrad by train in August 1946. Most medieval manuscripts and documents did not remain in Leningrad. In the early 1950s part of the trophies were handed over to the German Democratic Republic, while another significant amount of the Hanseatic fonds was returned to Germany in the 1980-90s from the Soviet Union and from independent Georgia and Armenia; yet a considerable part of archival and library materials remained in the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, very little is known about the time and places of their subsequent movements, as published documents cover only the period of 1945-1946. Thanks to recent discoveries some displacements can be traced down to the former Soviet cities Leningrad, Moscow, Tomsk, Tbilisi, Yerevan. The review lists German trophy medieval manuscripts and archival materials discovered and identified in Moscow (Moscow State University, Russian State Library, Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts), Saint-Petersburg (National Library of Russia) and Tomsk (Tomsk State University). Moreover, at least one medieval manuscript is documented as being preserved in Yerevan.

Keywords:

displaced art, Germany, manuscripts, middle ages, Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen