The University Library Freiburg is conducting its first systematic research project to investigate cultural property confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution (Nazi-looted property). The focus is on approximately 40,500 volumes from the University Library’s main collections as well as from the IGPP’s special library. The goal is to determine the provenance, acquisition history, and potential restitution claims of any items under suspicion and to document this information publicly. In doing so, the University Library has committed itself to the Washington Principles (1998) and the Joint Declaration (1999).
The project and its results will be appropriately documented in the Lost Art provenance database and in the Proveana research database of the German Lost Art Foundation, and made available to researchers and the public.
The project addresses the research gap left in Baden-Württemberg after the investigations into Nazi‑looted cultural property carried out by the Württemberg State Library (Stuttgart), the Baden State Library (Karlsruhe), and the University Libraries of Heidelberg and Mannheim. In the summer term 2023, the University Library Freiburg, together with the Historical Department, ran a provenance‑research seminar, which supplied the present project with its initial methodological concepts and insights.
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