Collecting Educational Media: Making, Storing and Accessing Knowledge 9781800734845

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Collecting Educational Media

Collecting Educational Media Making, Storing and Accessing Knowledge

Edited by Anke Hertling and Peter Carrier

berghahn NEW YORK • OXFORD www.berghahnbooks.com

First published in 2022 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com © 2022 Anke Hertling and Peter Carrier All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hertling, Anke, 1976- editor. | Carrier, Peter, editor. Title: Collecting educational media : making, storing and accessing knowledge / edited by Anke Hertling and Peter Carrier. Description: First Edition. | New York : Berghahn Books, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021052790 (print) | LCCN 2021052791 (ebook) | ISBN 9781800734838 (Hardback) | ISBN 9781800734845 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Educational technology. | Audio-visual education. | Teaching--Aids and devices. | Instructional materials centers. | Instructional materials personnel. Classification: LCC LB1028.3 .C634 2022 (print) | LCC LB1028.3 (ebook) | DDC 371.33--dc23/eng/20220124 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052790 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052791 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-80073-483-8 hardback ISBN 978-1-80073-484-5 ebook

Contents

List of Illustrations, Figures and Tables viii Introduction. Collections, Collectors and the Collecting of Knowledge in Education 1 Peter Carrier and Anke Hertling Part I. Collectors and Collecting Chapter 1. The Polish School Museum in Lviv and Its Legacy in the Poznań University Library Anna Maria Harbig Chapter 2. The History and Singularity of a Government Library: The Collection of Educational Historical Printed Materials at the Austrian Ministry of Education Walter Kissling, Ernst Chorherr and Christian Treinen Chapter 3. Private Primer Collecting: An Aid or a Hindrance to Public Collections? Wendelin Sroka

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31

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Contents

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Chapter 4. Collecting Professional Pedagogical Knowledge around 1900: Adolph Rebhuhn and the German School Museum (Later German Teachers’ Library) Monika Mattes

78

Part II. Objects, Materials and Old and New Media Chapter 5. The Glass Slide Collection of the German Rural Residential Schools Association (Verband Deutscher Schullandheime e.V.) Bettina Reimers Chapter 6. Collecting and Using Audiovisual Educational Aids from East Germany Kerrin v. Engelhardt and Ulrich Ruedel Chapter 7. The Wall Chart Collection of the Danish National Museum of Education between Dissolution and Preservation Lea Cecilie Bennedsen and Anette Eklund Hansen Chapter 8. Collecting and Accessing Curricula at the Georg Eckert Institute Adriana Madej-Stang

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126

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Part III. Access and Acquisition Chapter 9. From the Critical Study of Jewish History and Culture to ‘Enemy Research’ and Provenance Research: The Library of the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary Jenka Fuchs

153

Chapter 10. Collecting Data towards Writing the History of China’s Socialist Education 174 Zhipeng Gao Chapter 11. Accessing and Acquiring Textbooks for Research Heather Sharp

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Contents

Chapter 12. Locating the History Textbooks of the Late Ottoman Empire Ömür Şans-Yıldırım Conclusion. Collecting Literacy when Gathering, Storing and Disseminating Educational Media Peter Carrier

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Index 229

Illustrations, Figures and Tables Illustrations 3.1. East meets West: The Russian phrase ‘The primer is the beginning of all beginnings’, in Old Cyrillic script, is accompanied by the picture of a rooster (Fibelhahn) teaching the Latin alphabet.

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3.2. Poster advertising the exhibition ‘Primers of the Peoples of the World’ at the National Library of Belarus in Minsk from 3 April to 26 September 2018, with items from the collection of Juris Cibuļs (Riga) and the National Library of Belarus. 62 3.3. Two editions of a German ‘cube reading box’ (Würfellesekasten) produced in Thuringia in the 1920s.

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5.1. Glass slide (original storage).

104

5.2. Astronomy lesson.

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5.3. Slide conservation.

107

6.1. Films, sound recordings and other teaching aids in the HTW collection.

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6.2. The HTW collection of audiovisual educational media.

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6.3. The archive cabinet with 35mm slide sets in the HTW collection. 119 7.1. A wall chart damaged by flooding in 1982.

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7.2. A damaged corner on a wall chart (left), a corner which has been cut and the tape replaced (middle) and a reinforced corner (right).

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7.3. A wall chart from 1902 mounted on canvas and roundwood. 133 7.4. A wall chart and passe-partout after disassembling.

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8.1. Curricula Workstation with collection descriptions.

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Illustrations, Figures and Tables

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Figures 2.1. Historical quantification of the collection’s holdings according to periods from 1849 to 1962. 44 8.1. Numbers of curricula from European countries (excluding Germany) collected by the library of the Georg Eckert Institute from 1945 to 2017.

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Tables 3.1. The conflation of factors motivating people to collect primers. 64 11.1. Categories determining the relative representativity of a textbook collection.

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Introduction

Collections, Collectors and the Collecting of Knowledge in Education Peter Carrier and Anke Hertling

Specificities of Educational Media Collections and Collecting

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n an age when both independent and institutionally affiliated scholars and educators aspire to unfettered access to sources of knowledge via digital platforms, it is timely to ponder the variety of mechanisms which govern the collection and distribution of these sources, in both the past and present. In spite, or even because, of our latter-day propensity to ‘click and grab’ (to paraphrase the name of the aptly named software ClipGrab),1 the collection, organisation and distribution of the documents on which much academic study is based is neither transparent nor of great import to those who produce scholarship. This applies above all to documentation used for purposes of interpretation and the evaluation of interpretative hypotheses in the hermeneutic tradition, in particular when studying the production and transmission of knowledge in the fields of the social and human sciences. For if we expect the gesture of clicking to provide a document within seconds, then our interest in the process by which that document has been made available (including the people who collected it, and where and how it has been stored) is stifled by the convenience of immediate satisfaction of the goal of finding that document. The purpose of this collection of essays about collectors, the collecting and collections of educational media is therefore to explore what happens between the gestures of clicking and grabbing, and thus

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to draw attention to the contingency of knowledge production and transmission both within and beyond the field of education. What are educational media? The essays contained in this collection cover collectable objects ranging from traditional teaching materials such as textbooks, wall charts and audiovisual aids used for pedagogical purposes (Bennedsen and Hansen, Fuchs, Harbig, Gao, Engelhardt and Ruedel, Sharp, Sroka, Şans-Yıldırım) to materials documenting school history and the development of teaching standards and methods in the form of curricula or even glass slides illustrating teaching in rural residential schools (Reimers, Kissling et al., Madej-Stang) to pedagogical literature (Kissling et al.). These four types of educational media correspond to the types of knowledge they convey. On a basic level, textbooks and audiovisual aids act as ‘media of knowledge’,2 while documentation of the history of education and teaching methods, norms and possibilities convey knowledge about the mediation of knowledge and, finally, interpretative pedagogical literature places both media of knowledge and knowledge about this mediation in social, political and historical contexts. In many cases, educational media operate on more than one of these three semantic levels. Common to all of them, however, is that they do not merely represent knowledge of a given society. Rather, they also document processes of knowledge transmission on several levels. In semiotic terms, for example, educational media collections draw attention to and encourage us to understand complex processes of meaning making. Once placed in a collection, a history textbook, to take the most well-known example, is not only a representation or a signifier of past facts and events, but an object of the collectors’ desire to reveal its signifying utility as an agglomeration of words and images subject to the influence of authors, editors, graphic artists, publishing constraints and historically and socially determined pedagogical doxa. Hence educational media collections foster study of knowledge production via representations and of knowledge transmission via representations of representations. Educational materials such as textbooks and wall charts are thus in effect both primary and secondary documents. As objects designed for use in classrooms, they are like primary documents insofar as they testify immediately to specific educational, social and political functions; as hermeneutic compilations of authorial texts, quotations, and reproductions of documents, they are secondary documents. We might also explain the specificity of educational media collections and collecting by conceiving of archives, educational media (above all textbooks, which are orchestrated textual and visual collections of knowledge) and collections of educational media in terms of three types of curatorship, according to which information and knowledge is gathered,

Introduction

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organised and made available. An archive is generally designed to store primary documents for an indefinite period and to address a broad range of users’ interests, whereas a textbook is usually a narratively organised collection of primary and secondary texts and images selected not exhaustively, but with respect to curricular stipulations and a specified thematic framework such as contemporary European history, which give expression to ‘ideological choices’.3 By contrast, collections of educational media are effectively metacollections insofar as they constitute archives of curatorial types. Hence the main distinction between collections of what may conventionally be called primary and secondary materials of knowledge production may be defined as a distinction between what (in an archive) constitutes a society’s self-knowledge and how (in an educational media collection) that knowledge is transmitted. The latter are arsenals not only of knowledge, but also of knowledge transmission types, as depicted in different didactic methods, material supports (films, notebooks, maps or textbooks, for example), within a given political or social regime. The difference between knowledge and knowledge presentation and transmission is not absolute, of course, insofar as they differ in the degree to which they draw attention to the methods and processes of knowledge transmission. By contributing towards and guiding knowledge about learning, collections of educational media have socio-epistemological consequences for societies run by state, group or individual authorities. One of the richest legacies of the history of twentieth-century historiography is the insight it has provided into the contingency of the knowledge on which judgements about everyday life, politics, society and history are made. Knowledge is not given but determined by the evidence made available to those who produce it and pass it on to others in the public sphere. As the historian Marc Bloch noted, societies use archives in order to rationally organise ‘knowledge of themselves’.4 The knowledge they contain is not absolute and exhaustive, therefore, but expedient. However, collections of educational media differ from other collections insofar as they show not only a society’s knowledge of itself, but knowledge of knowledge and how this has been passed on to successive generations. In contemporary western societies whose economies no longer primarily produce ‘crystalised work’ but rather ‘crystalised knowledge’,5 such collections therefore increasingly serve not only to document and mirror, but also to deepen and guide our understanding of how societies form knowledge of themselves or exchange such knowledge with others. In sum, educational media are collectable because, as objects of study, they may contribute towards knowledge about the expediency

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of knowledge and of knowledge production and transmission. As such, knowledge about their expediency is the responsibility of makers and users of collections who demonstrate that content cannot be considered independently of the form in which it is selected, stored, packaged and even restored or renovated for use by later generations.

The Aims of This Collection of Essays In light of the specificities of educational media collections and collecting outlined above, this book aims to build upon recent approaches to collections and collectors by exploring how documentation of our knowledge of knowledge transmission has been collected and what avenues these collections open for future research in this field. We invited authors to address not only the objects of collections such as textbooks, atlases, teaching materials (objects and images, including wall charts and maps), curricula and teachers’ and youth guidebooks, but also the structures of collections, the aims and motivations of public bodies and private persons who collect them, and the means by which they are collected, preserved, archived and disseminated. How and why are educational media conceived, selected, collected and managed? Who creates and maintains collections, and for whom? And what influence do modes of collecting have on researchers and their work and on our knowledge of the knowledge production and knowledge transmission process? We strove to break down the collection process into three component parts of conception, maintenance and usage. This subdivision is reflected in the three parts, ‘Collectors and Collecting’, ‘Objects, Materials, and Old and New Media’ and ‘Access and Acquisition’. The essays largely span the period from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present day. This reflects the fact that teaching materials and standards familiar to us today evolved in close relation to the historical development of schooling institutions. It was at this time that state schooling and curricula gained acceptance in Europe alongside officially authorised teaching materials, which were consequently deemed to be collectable by enthusiasts and educationalists. It is therefore paradoxical that, until the present day, teaching materials have rarely been systematically collected. The reason for this omission may lie in the fact that, as noted above, they testify less immediately to a society’s self-knowledge than to the means by which this self-knowledge is mediated and transmitted via authorial texts, quotations, and reproductions of documents. Another reason why teaching materials have seldom been collected in the past is that their inherent functionality has meant that they are generally

Introduction

5

not made with high-quality materials and not made to stand the test of time. Teaching materials are objects produced largely without regard to elegance or material beauty. As tools designed to be worked with effectively, their value is not based on their users’ aesthetic appreciation or a resulting sense of aura; frequent use often leaves them dog-eared, if not close to disintegration. Educational media are thus ephemeral objects which present a challenge to collection. Since educational media have generally not been made to last and are not considered worthy of collecting, it is not surprising that they have not previously been addressed in studies about collecting in the fields of education or material culture. Collecting Educational Media: Making, Storing and Accessing Knowledge aims to introduce some major lines of enquiry on the basis of case studies of the places, spaces, times, agents, aims, methods and contexts, as well as the uses and users, of educational resources. All of the authors are practitioners of collecting or using collections and enhance their studies with interdisciplinary expertise. Their accounts should be of interest to authors and readers of educational media, librarians, people working in the heritage and museum sector and to educationalists and historians of education. In short, this collection of essays acknowledges the history of collections and processes of collecting which become apparent from the encounter between collectors and the collections in which they have been involved. This volume thus acknowledges recent research into collecting by not assuming, in a teleological vein, that collections were conceived with the aim we often impute to them today, which is to provide services to researchers. The first part, devoted to collectors and collecting, traces collectors’ biographies and their motivations. For collections often emerge from irrational impulses or by accident, as Elsner and Cardinal’s work has shown, and are often exposed to the vicissitudes of inheritance, patronage, despoliation and censure before being gathered in the places and according to the structures familiar to us today.6 The main aim of this section is therefore to encourage enquiry into the role of human contingency in the collecting of educational media while acknowledging both the political and anthropological strands of collection research. The largely historical approaches adopted in this section reveal the extent to which collections of educational media from 1900 onwards were politicised. The close relationship between collecting and research at this time, which is most evident in Monika Mattes’ account of Adolph Rebhuhn’s ‘dual identity’, has today become a basic feature of research and special libraries and among private collectors. In this respect, Wendelin Sroka’s contribution to this book provides invaluable insights into the critically competitive practice of private collecting.

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The second part covers examples of the many different types of educational media, including glass slides, audiovisual documents or wall charts as well as textbooks and paper materials. The condition of wall charts kept in the Danish National Museum of Education, for example, testifies to the eventful history of a collection via traces of water resulting from leaks or flooding. As these durable consumer objects become more and more fragile over time, several authors appeal to a combination of physical preservation and digitalisation as a way of conserving these objects over as long a period as possible and of making them available over the long term. In addition to the technical and infrastructural measures required to counteract such problems digitally, the collection of curricula held at the Georg Eckert Institute shows that the current digital transformation is likewise impinging on acquisition and collection policies as they are applied to educational media, and that new collecting strategies are required in order to ensure that digital objects are adequately collected in the future. The third part explores some of the hurdles faced when accessing educational media, in particular challenges faced by researchers when consulting collections. Collections can, for example, be torn apart by political circumstance and become the object of provenance research (see Fuchs). Or else scholars encounter arbitrary obstacles to the research process induced by fragmentary collections and inadequate archiving techniques in libraries or private collections, and therefore necessarily fall back on non-traditional sourcing and acquisition techniques (see Sharp). Zhipeng Gao similarly shows how ‘past and current ideological struggles’ make it necessary to develop ‘special methodological and interpretive strategies’ when consulting and interpreting collections of educational media in contemporary China. The essays in this collection reflect the two main thematic trends of recent research into collections and collecting. One of these trends is political, focusing on stories of ways in which collections have been institutionalised in the service of national interests. Work by Mark Crinson about the use of collections in nation-building projects7 and by Eleanor Robson about claims to ‘own’ objects8 is also reflected in this volume. Collections of educational media were, as the historical essays in this book demonstrate, associated with expectations that they should underpin the emergence of national identities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several collections likewise emerged in the contexts of reform pedagogy as a driving force of educational change, and in step with the professionalisation of teacher training during the same period. Another trend is characterised by anthropological approaches to collecting that arose towards the end of the 1990s, represented by works

Introduction

7

such as John Elsner and Roger Cardinal’s The Cultures of Collecting (1994),9 which enquires not only into the history and theory of collecting but also into the human compulsion to collect. Susan Pearce aptly summed up this subjectivist approach when she observed, in 2002, that, ‘We’re interested in why people chose to collect what they collected – collecting as a social process’.10 Hence, the government-run Collection of Educational Historical Printed Materials at the Austrian Ministry of Education presented in this book was subject to a dynamic process characteristic of a time in which teachers were among the most frequent users of collections, and when educational practitioners actively contributed towards setting up and expanding collections. Personalities like Adolph Rebhuhn or the founders of the Polish school museum in Lviv were what we today would call ‘networkers’ with an array of contacts with professional people in politics and science and who provided indispensable support needed when constructing or expanding collections.

Dichotomies of Educational Media Collecting One of the discoveries we made when putting together this collection of essays was the extent to which thinking about educational media collecting is governed by dichotomies. Authors characteristically understand accessibility to educational media, which is the focus of the third part of this volume, in terms of a dichotomy according to which access is either regulated or open, or else on a scale according to which regulation of access is more or less transparent or arbitrary (see Gao). A further classification distinguishes broadly between human intervention and passion (including personal preferences, intuition and affect) and formalised or even digitally guided automated processes (including rationalised classification systems). A number of other dichotomies derive from this basic opposition. For example, are reasons for the emergence of a collection expedient and therefore intentional, or rather accidental? Are collectors curators of knowledge and therefore creatively involved in collecting and organising educational media, or does their work increasingly involve the mere technical management of information? And does digitalisation partially obviate human influence on existing collections when collecting and research is increasingly determined by search engines? Two contributions in particular explore the tensions between private and public collecting. Sroka explores the divergent motivations of private and public collectors of primers on the basis of their different motivations and funding mechanisms. At the same time, relations between private and public reveal ways in which personal preferences impinge

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on institutional standards when, for example, private collectors donate materials to library collections or when they withhold materials. Sharp, by contrast, explores the experiences of private researchers as users facing restrictions imposed on access to public collections but likewise underscores the interdependency of private and institutional collectors as they vie to acquire rare historical materials via online auctions. These authors show that it would be wrong to consider that collections are either public or private because private collectors often donate their collections to public libraries, or because collectors representing public collections rely heavily on commercial sources of books and objects in auctions, a phenomenon which has blossomed with the aid of online auctions (see Sroka and Sharp). Conversely, institutional collections also impinge on private collecting. The public access policies of publishers and institutional collections, for example, not only determine whether a scholar may acquire items of information, but thereby also encroach on the interpretations of educational scholars, potentially causing bias or omissions in their analyses of past educational techniques or blueprints for new ones (see Sharp). Hence the private and public spheres are interdependent. As Sroka points out in his chapter about primers, affect or ‘passion’ is not the exclusive domain of private collectors who leave institutional collectors to adhere to rule-based scientific methods. Sroka thus debunks the dichotomy between affect and rationality, where ‘collecting is seen as a private, individual passion removed from the public eye, whereas research represents a world of rationality and method, in full view of the research community and, when publicly financed, of state agencies’. While Sharp and Sroka draw on their direct experiences with the collection and acquisition of textbooks, most authors in this collection address and break down these dichotomies historically. That is, they tell the stories of the emergence and development of collections, as in the contribution by Fuchs about the origins, spoliation, disbandment and reconstitution of the collection of the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary before and after the Second World War. At the same time, all contributions to this book underscore the transitory nature of collections, which perhaps never reach a point of stability, as all objects of collection are subject to circulation and transitory fixity as their place, classification and order on shelves or in databases is a subject of constant revision.

New Paradigms in Educational Media Collecting? Akin to the recent development of scholarship about collections, which has shifted from a focus on the political expediency of state collections

Introduction

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to the anthropological study of ‘social processes’ underpinning collections, can we identify fundamental paradigmatic changes in the nature of collections themselves? Their waning role in the formation of national identity does indeed seem to be accompanied by changes in the nature of collecting itself. We can, for example, speak of a shift away from collections that serve the interest of creating or maintaining national heritage and towards topic-driven collections or subcollections within larger collections – driven by present needs of research or current topic fields like body, gender, migration or religion. Although the textbook collection of the Georg Eckert Institute was, from its very beginnings, put together in order to ideologically revise textbooks used during the National Socialist regime, internationally pertinent social topics increasingly play a central role in the acquisition policy of the library. Competition among researchers for funding and among foundations for the tutelage of politically effective (but not necessarily nationally driven) topics therefore determines in part what books and objects are now being collected. The most obvious change in recent years has been brought about by the arrival of digital technology. Publishers worldwide are increasingly publishing digital educational media, and practitioners are also creating their own digital teaching materials. Institutions which make use of open educational resources (OER) are also committed to the open, digital transmission of knowledge. But the sheer quantity of collectable materials on offer, the frequently restrictive business and licensing models and, above all, the difficulty predicting users’ needs make it difficult for libraries, archives and museums to stock materials for future use as and when users need them. Libraries and similar institutional collectors have instead developed ways of collecting on demand with policies that respond to actual needs and requests as they are submitted.11 If collections are now by definition incomplete and characterised by a paradigm of permanent inclusion or exclusion and of deficit corresponding to Judith Schalansky’s imagined inventory of known or unknown lost things or ‘losses’, which may be counted among a heritage worth preserving,12 it becomes all the more necessary to ensure that principles of collecting (even collecting on demand) are transparent in order to provide a basis for dialogue with scholars and the public sphere about the meanings and imperatives of collecting. Hence the vicissitudes of digital knowledge collecting, not unlike their analogue forebears, are subject to choices governing the general management of heritage, of what a society decides to keep or to lose and thereby consign to either knowledge or ignorance.13 The idea that collecting is a ‘social process’ does not only mean that we should try to understand its historical origins and subsequent functions

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in economy societies, but that collecting is a task to be carried out jointly by collecting institutions and their users at the same time (see MadejStang). The digital age offers the potential to induce the ‘social process’ of collecting educational media on a transnational scale and thereby to work towards a cooperative collection of objects and data. Internet portals such as the commercially run ‘Textbook Database’14 in South Africa, which lists learning materials designed for universities, are setting standards with which information about educational media may be collected virtually in a data bank, and which allows books to remain dispersed geographically. The state-funded ‘Emmanuelle’15 project in France also illustrates this trend towards non-physically placed collections. Such databases have dispensed with the national framework that guided Alain Choppin’s conception of the Emmanuelle project in France. Digitalisation facilitates access to documents regardless of the location of the user and increasingly (via multilingual infrastructures, for example) regardless of the differences between the languages in which documents are written and with which they are searched. Increased reliance on algorithms, for example, reduces the role played by contingency and personal whim outlined by Sroka and Sharp in this volume, such that scholars and educators are increasingly expected to ‘research’ for known documents rather than ‘search’ for unknown documents. A search engine requests users to supply specific terms and groups of terms which presuppose prior knowledge of the topic. The large number of electronically generated references to available materials then inhibits further searches and even partially thwarts curiosity, the use of cross-references and chance. The promise of an unequivocal correlation between what is sought and what may be found is part of ongoing work, instigated at the Georg Eckert Institute, which aims to create an international textbook catalogue that will facilitate the classification of collections regardless of the language in which a search word or sought document is formulated, so that documents in all languages may be found by using any search language. This process fulfils what Ossenbach has defined as a ‘need for a vocabulary or “thesaurus” with which to search for equivalent concepts in the databases of different countries’.16 To this end, the classification system of the International TextbookCat17 is being designed to take account of historical and geographical variations in the development and denomination of school disciplines, which differ both from one country to another and over time in each of these countries! These digital classification systems certainly address and may well meet the challenge of denationalising educational research and of fostering contingency, cross-referencing and chance, much like the thesaurus demanded by Ossenbach.18

Introduction

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Despite the development of virtual collections and digital classification systems, few specialists of collections have assessed the effects, for collectors, collections and their users, of the quasi abdication of responsibility for collecting to algorithms, exemplified by web crawling and the use of digital tools. For the subjugation of the human mind to automated criteria according to which objects are collected or found presupposes a notion of scientificity according to which the human mind is fallible and automation infallible. By exploring the threshold between analogue and digital collecting, this collection of essays also aims to articulate critical questions for the future. What role does historical contingency play in a collection? And what role does the whim of an impassioned collector play in an age in which digitalisation promises the comprehensive collectability of materials and infallible use of collections?

The Literacy of Collecting We hope that Collecting Educational Media: Making, Storing and Accessing Knowledge will encourage further research in this field. Much remains to be done, for example, to better understand the economy of collecting educational media as commercial products, small collections of materials used to teach unconventional disciplines such as home economics or health and safety, dominant Eurocentric traditions of collecting and gender aspects, including the almost complete absence of women as collectors in the history of collecting. But since most of the authors in this book approach educational media collections historically, this volume may serve above all to encourage further interdisciplinary historical enquiry. Work remains to be done about collections that once existed but no longer exist; collections of educational media in formerly colonised countries which deal with the colonial period or its aftermath; collections of informal educational media or so-called grey literature which does not necessarily adhere to institutionally or state-approved educational goals; and the evolution of classification types as they evolve from material into (or are incorporated into) digital forms, including the impact of digital collections on readers (among them teachers and learners) and educational research. The emergence of new paradigms of collecting outlined above also urges us to define a periodisation of educational media collecting. The fact that most collections of educational media, including the ones outlined in this volume, are confined to materials produced in the nineteenth century (a time when national movements strove to promote national cohesion via teaching within newly emerging state education systems

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with accompanying educational materials19) means that scholarly work about collections is also largely confined to this period. Who collects premodern educational media at a time when divine right and absolute monarchs governed minds before the development of state education systems? And can the ongoing digitalisation of educational media be understood in the context of an evolution of the means of collecting and using media rather than considering digitalisation as a historical caesura? Little has been written about either premodern educational media collections or their transition to modern and digital collections. Nonetheless, continuities and discontinuities seem apparent. One example of a continuity is that currently emerging placeless virtual collections and premodern collections did not (and still do not) primarily serve national interests. The overarching purpose of this collection should, we hope, be to encourage literacy among makers and users of collections. We today have at our disposal an ever more sophisticated array of digital tools with which to find every book, image and object and to assume that the found objects are exhaustive, if only the correct combination of search words is used. But can scientific quality be measured by the degree to which the scholar’s evidence is exhaustive? This encyclopaedic aspect of contemporary collecting is potentially misleading when, for example, scholars deal with materials that were collected accidentally and without the use of digital technology by people who relied not on efficient collecting tools but on intuition and personal taste. Moreover, contemporary scholars’ assumptions about the collections they use may diverge considerably from the aims and principles of the collectors. Hence this volume should promote collecting literacy by reminding those of us who assume that collections and their information retrieval techniques make exhaustivity almost self-evident, that in fact human affect, chance, failure and even price and caprice have in some measure contributed to the formation of the body of knowledge currently found in collections of educational media. If educational media collections, as outlined at the beginning of this introduction, are unique insofar as they foster understanding not only of knowledge production, but also of knowledge transmission via meaning-making processes, it follows that our understanding of education and educational techniques in the past and present can be judicious only if we also understand the visual, textual and material means by which knowledge has been and is now transmitted. Without collections of antiquated materials, our knowledge of past methods (and, with it, visual, textual and material literacy20) may disappear. By analogy, the

Introduction

13

new visual, textual and material literacies demanded by the digital revolution can be acquired only if collectors ensure that participants in it are equipped with knowledge of the visual, textual and material knowledge-making processes and of the means by which the knowledge they acquire reaches them. In short, collecting literacy entails knowledge of the collecting and preservation techniques of visual, textual and material objects and an ability to interpret and use these techniques in an articulate manner that can provide readers (whether teachers, researchers or political advisors) with the means to assimilate existing meanings in the context of a given field or discipline of learning, and to create new meanings. Yet collecting literacy also conveys a constant warning that the very act of placing a book or object in a collection effectively ‘destroys’ such artefacts by robbing them of their functionality and meaning by removing them from the context in which they had meaning for their original users.21 Scholars of educational media should therefore beware of the complacency inherent in our tendency to see present-day collections and collecting and classification techniques (including digital classification techniques) as the culmination of a linear development. In other words, we should take care not to perceive collections as a means of drawing attention to bygone technologies with which we reassure ourselves of our own functionality by declaring those technologies to be dysfunctional. Peter Carrier’s research focuses on the historiography and education of the Holocaust and national identities. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society and National Identities, and has recently published School and Nation (Peter Lang, 2013) and The International Status of Education about the Holocaust (UNESCO, 2015). Anke Hertling’s research focuses on cultural techniques of collecting, storing and transmitting in the field of cultural studies. She has published widely on the subject of digital transformation processes and their impact on educational media. Her essays ‘The Future of Managing Document Legacies’ (2011) and ‘Best Practice International TextbookCat’ (2020) won awards granted by the Library Journal.

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14

Notes  1.  2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.  9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

See https://clipgrab.org/ (accessed 15 September 2020). Höhne, Schulbuchwissen, 17. Crubellier, ‘Manuels d’histoire’, 433. Bloch, Apologie, 70. Gorz, L’immatériel, 31. See Elsner and Cardinal, Cultures of Collecting. Crinson, ‘Nation-Building’. Robson, Who Owns Objects? See Elsner and Cardinal, Cultures of Collecting and Grijp, Passion and Profit. Cited in Monaghan, ‘Collected Wisdom’. Anderson, ‘Collections’, 211. Schalansky, Inventory of Losses. See Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade, 156–62. https://textbookdatabase.co.za (accessed 20 May 2020). http://emmanuelle.bibliotheque-diderot.fr/web/ (accessed 20 May 2020). Ossenbach, ‘Textbook Databases’, 172. http://itbc.gei.de/ (accessed 20 May 2020). Ossenbach, ‘Textbook Databases’, 170. Ibid., 166. Mills, Literacy Theories, chapter 6. See Matthias Winzen’s exploration of the musealisation process as a process of destruction by ‘documentalisation’ in his ‘Sammeln – so selbstverständlich, so paradox’, in Schaffner, Batchen and Winzen, Deep Storage, 10–19 (12).

Bibliography Anderson, Rick. ‘Collections 2021: The Future of the Library Collection Is Not a Collection’. Serials 3 (2011), 211–15. https://serials.uksg.org/ articles/10.1629/24211/ (accessed 10 October 2020). Bloch, Marc. Apologie pour l’histoire ou Métier d’historien. Paris: Armand Colin, 1974. Crinson, Mark. ‘Nation-Building, Collecting and the Politics of Display’. Journal of the History of Collections 2(13) (2001), 232–50. Crubellier, Maurice. ‘Manuels d’histoire’, in André Burguière (ed.), Dictionnaire des sciences historiques (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1986), 432–36. Elsner, John, and Roger Cardinal. The Cultures of Collecting. London: Reaktion Books, 1994. Gorz, André. L’immatériel: Connaissance, valeur et capital. Paris: Galilée, 2003. Grijp, Paul van der. Passion and Profit: Towards an Anthropology of Collecting. Berlin: Lit, 2006. Höhne, Thomas. Schulbuchwissen: Umrisse einer Wissens- und Medientheorie des Schulbuchs. Frankfurt am Main: Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaften, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 2003. Lowenthal, David. The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. London: Viking, 1977.

Introduction

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Mills, Kathy. Literacy Theories for the Digital Age: Social, Critical, Multimodal, Spatial, Material and Sensory Lenses. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2015. Monaghan, Peter. ‘Collected Wisdom: A New Wave of Scholarship Examines the Centuries Old “Mental Landscape” of Collectors’. Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 June 2002. Ossenbach, Gabriela. ‘Textbook Databases and Their Contribution to International Research on the History of School Culture’. History of Education & Children’s Literature 9(1) (2014), 163–74. Robson, Eleanor (ed.). Who Owns Objects? The Ethics and Politics of Collecting Cultural Artefacts. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2006. Schaffner, Ingrid, Geoffrey Batchen and Matthias Winzen (eds). Deep Storage, Arsenale der Erinnerung: Sammeln, Speichern, Archivieren in der Kunst. Munich: Prestel, 1997. Schalansky, Judith. Inventory of Losses. Translated by Jackie Smith. London: MacLehose Press, 2020.

Part I

Collectors and Collecting

Chapter 1

The Polish School Museum in Lviv and Its Legacy in the Poznań University Library Anna Maria Harbig

T

he School Museum in Lviv (Lwów) was founded in 1907 with the purpose of documenting Polish school history from its earliest days to the present. The presence of this public collection of textbooks and school documents in occupied and divided Poland was also a political statement. It represented an indictment of the repressive language and school policies of the partitioning powers which, in Galicia, had largely faded away by the last third of the nineteenth century but had assumed anti-Polish characteristics in the Russian and Prussian occupied areas of Poland after 1870. As this chapter will show, the collection (and the scientific development of Polish school history associated with it) was linked to a commitment to honour the achievements of Polish teachers and to contribute to the improvement of pedagogical education. The extent to which these goals became increasingly anachronistic and the significance that the collection of the Polish School Museum assumed after 1918 is demonstrated by the fact that it was ultimately integrated into the Department of Education of the University of Poznań.

Pedagogical Professionalisation and Political Affirmation The first calls to establish a historical collection of Polish teaching materials in Galicia came from the pedagogue and historian Antoni Karbowiak (1856–1919), who worked as a secondary school teacher in Wadowice and Kraków and pioneered the scientific study of Polish education and school history. At meetings of the Polish Association of Secondary School

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Teachers (Towarzystwo Nauczycieli Szkół Wyższych) and the Polish Educational Association (Towarzystwo Pedagogiczne) during the 1890s, Karbowiak emphasised the need to collect comprehensive and detailed knowledge of local school history and, in a series of articles published in the journal Muzeum, outlined his vision for a historical exhibition about the Polish school system.1 Karbowiak received support from neither his colleagues nor the school authorities, and his proposal at the meeting of Polish historians in Kraków in 1900 to establish an institution within the Polish Academy of Sciences (Akademia Umiejętności), with the purpose of coordinating research into the history of education (especially the Old Polish era and the period from 1740 to 1867), fell on deaf ears.2 The first effective step towards the compilation and publication of a collection of school documents about Polish educational history was made by Mieczysław Tytus Baranowski (1851–1898). In addition to his work as a teacher trainer in Galicia, Baranowski had published several general pedagogical and natural history teaching manuals and, in 1893, was appointed as the primary school inspector for the district of Lviv.3 As a planner of the school exhibit of the 1894 Polish National Exhibition (Powszechna Wystawa Krajowa), Baranowski was able to ensure that, in addition to material documenting the post-1867 development of the school system in Galicia, historic primary school textbooks from other Polish provinces were also represented.4 Primary schools in Galicia were requested to search their libraries for old books and to send a copy of each edition to Lviv. In order to complete the exhibition’s collection of Polish teaching materials from earlier periods and other regions of Poland, additional textbooks from the period of the Russian and Prussian partitions of Poland were acquired from antiquarian book dealers. The textbook collection opened in 1894 as part of the Polish National Exhibition in Lviv. Baranowski’s aim was to demonstrate the development of the principles of teaching by presenting a series of textbook editions from the same school level. The exhibition catalogue contained approximately 1,700 entries arranged according to school type, language of instruction and subject area.5 Baranowski had expected this presentation to lead to the establishment of a school museum, or at the very least, to the collection’s incorporation into the Lviv municipal museum.6 These hopes remained unfulfilled. Regarding the whereabouts of Baranowski’s collection, Karbowiak later noted that the books had ended up in a storage room.7 Baranowski did not live to see the day when, after 1903, the Lviv textbook exhibition was integrated into the school museum he had envisaged.8 The establishment of the Polish School Museum was initiated in 1903 by the Galician Provincial School Board (Rada Szkolna Krajowa), the

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highest school authority in the region, after one of its members, the school inspector Ludomił German (1851–1920), had obtained the support of both Galician teacher associations. The author of numerous publications about pedagogy and literature and the co-author of several secondary school German-language textbooks, German was highly respected in the field. He was also active politically (as a member of the Imperial Council in Vienna after 19079) and enjoyed the confidence of both the Galician and the Viennese authorities. In his application for a subsidy for the Polish School Museum from the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs in Vienna, the governor of Galicia assured the ministry that the proper use of funds was guaranteed given German’s senior role in the project.10 The compilation of the collection began in 1903 with a regulation requiring school directorates and regional school administrations to send annual reports and copies of their own publications to the School Museum, and to report regularly about local measures to improve their schools.11 This interest in maximising the acquisition of internal school documents represented an extension of the scope and goals of Baranowski’s collecting activities. On an institutional level, the Polish School Museum in Lviv was founded in 1903 at the behest of an establishment committee which, after 1906, formed the basis of the museum’s executive board. The status of members of the establishment committee reflected the importance attributed to the Polish School Museum in the Galician educational landscape. These included another prominent representative of the Galician higher educational authorities, Franciszek Majchrowicz (1858–1928), a distinguished didactician who specialised in classical education and was dedicated to making the history of education in Poland more widely known.12 Other committee members included representatives of the Polish Secondary School Teachers’ Association – notably, the teachers and school directors Józef Czernecki, Henryk Kopia (curator), Celestyn Laskowski and Artur Passendorfer (secretary), who were also publicly active as publicists, publishers, editors and educational activists – as well as Polish Educational Association board members Jan Solecki and Józef Szafran, and Edmund Urbanek, an agitator for national pedagogy known for his popular songbooks. The reasons for establishing a school museum with a textbook collection in Lviv were manifold. It was hoped that an exhibition of teaching materials would contribute to teachers’ pedagogical development and serve as a source archive for scholarly research, thereby demonstrating the improvements in the Galician school system achieved by the generation of Polish teachers who had, after 1867, revitalised the textbook

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programme and achieved a measure of independence from the central authorities in Vienna. The programme of the Polish School Museum (which its founding documents refer to expressly as the ‘Polish School Museum’) represented an alternative to the school museum in Poznań, which was established in 1897 by the German Teachers Association in the Prussian area of partitioned Poland.13 The concept behind the Poznań School Museum, which was intended to present the German character of the school system in Greater Poland as an established fact, was in line with an aggressive Poland policy that had been further toughened by Bismarck’s law on the ‘culture struggle’ (Kulturkampfgesetz) of 1872. Likewise, in the Russian area of Poland, the authorities refused to tolerate, after the bloody uprising of 1863–64, any institution that might have facilitated the revival of national memory. It was only in 1905, after the government in St. Petersburg had permitted the reintroduction of Polish as a language of instruction (at least in private education), that the Urania Society for Scientific Teaching Materials (Towarzystwo Pomocy Naukowych Urania) was able to organise an exhibition of teaching materials that also included Polish-language textbooks.14 The decision to establish a permanent exhibition dealing with Polish school history in Lviv was rooted, primarily, in a critical attitude towards Prussian and Russian language and school policies in partitioned Poland and the legacy of Viennese school policy in Galicia, which continued to exert a negative effect. The speakers at the opening ceremony of the Polish School Museum expressed their criticism by using the metaphor of a ‘torn thread’ to describe the development of the school system in the Polish lands. This image referred to the ‘cracks’ the partitioning powers had caused in the Polish school system since the late eighteenth century, with the halting of Polish educational reforms in the wake of the partitions of Poland and the expropriation, in 1783–84, of the colleges of the Galician religious orders for use as German-language secondary schools and Imperial and Royal grammar schools (a practice linked to the Josephine language decrees, which remained in force until 1867). The second half of the nineteenth century saw an increase in anti-Polish measures in the school systems of the Russian and Prussian areas of partitioned Poland. After the uprisings of 1831 and 1864, the government in St. Petersburg shut down all Polish institutions of higher education, and in the Grand Duchy of Posen German was imposed as the language of instruction following the 1848 uprising. The idea of presenting the history of the Polish school system as an indictment of the foreign governments controlling the partitioned country was advocated by all the founding figures of the Polish School

The Polish School Museum in Lviv

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Museum. Ludomił German explained that ‘education according to foreign models went against the nature of the Polish child’ and that a study of the historical material would allow teachers and researchers to ‘rebind the torn thread of national education’.15 The fact that the debates surrounding the establishment of the museum and the speeches held at its opening would focus on the notion of a ‘Polish School Museum’ (repeatedly referred to as ‘our School Museum’), and that the exhibition would not be contained by state borders and would also include the schools in the Russian and Prussian occupied territories, was elucidated by Kazimierz Twardowski, chairman of the Association of Secondary School Teachers. Twardowski observed that ‘we Poles must constantly struggle against the curricula imposed on us by the foreigners and against methods that are foreign to us, to ensure that the schools are and remain Polish in language and spirit, something that can succeed only in this part of divided Poland [Galicia]’.16 At the opening ceremony of the Polish School Museum, the museum’s founders demanded the right to make autonomous decisions regarding teaching objectives and methods as well as the right to Polishlanguage instruction and teaching materials. In his speech, regional school council representative Ignacy Dembowski noted proudly that in Galicia, these demands had come close to realisation in the decades after 1867, emphasising that ‘the School Museum is our school’s family album and its pedigree and illustrates its rightful heritage and everything to which it is clearly entitled’.17 The function of the School Museum as a place of learning was emphasised by Kazimierz Twardowski, a professor of philosophy at the University of Lviv and chairman of the Secondary School Teachers’ Association, at the beginning of his speech at the museum’s opening.18 While the educational aspect of the museum was an essential theme of the museum founders’ correspondence with the central authorities in Vienna, this exchange did not reflect the linguistic-political discourse conducted (in Polish) by Galician teachers and school administrators. As the governor of Galicia (who hoped that the institution would stimulate a modernisation of the Galician school system19) observed, the desire to establish a school museum in Lviv had been reinforced by the exemplary effect of a series of teaching material exhibitions throughout turn-ofthe-century Europe.20 The school museum in Vienna, which opened in 1903,21 highlighted with particular clarity the lack of a similar institution in Galicia. In their grant request to the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs in Vienna, the founders of the Polish School Museum demanded that their institution be treated on a par with the Austrian School Museum in the capital.22

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Building and Consolidating the Collection The Polish School Museum consisted of three sections. The historical section included historic textbooks and other teaching materials as well as works about school history and works honouring distinguished educators. This section also contained relics (illustrations, medals, awards, stamps and testimonies) documenting the everyday reality of school life in the past. The second section of the museum was to be dedicated to the present and contain the newest didactic resources, including, in addition to textbooks and handouts, gym and playground equipment and playground plans. This section also contained a collection of pupils’ works (completed exercises and drawings). The third section was dedicated to ‘school hygiene’ and contained materials documenting the measures taken by schools to improve the physical development of children and adolescents and to prevent the ‘harmful effects of school life’.23 By 1905, the establishment committee of the Polish School Museum had collected 3,640 items. In 1906, the museum found a permanent location, and opened its doors to the public the following year.24 After 1909, the collection, which by then contained 7,656 volumes, was catalogued according to the following categories. a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h.

Pedagogy, didactics, school history and textbooks Maps, atlases and globes Didactic models and seals Pictures, illustrations and photographs Manuscripts and documents Pupils’ works School hygiene, equipment, objects (charts and templates) Annual reports and curricula; reports from educational associations, boarding schools and youth clubs i. Periodicals.25 After 1914, the directorates of other Habsburg territories began sending documents from their school administrations to the Polish School Museum. These included annual school reports from German, Czech, Slovenian and Croatian secondary schools.26 The interest in the museum expressed by teachers in Galicia confirmed that use was being made of its library. By 1914, approximately four thousand books were being borrowed annually. Teachers were allowed a say in decisions regarding acquisition; up to one hundred acquisitions based on specific requests by teachers were made each year.27 The funding of the school museum was the responsibility of the two Galician teacher associations. The Polish press presented the issue

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favourably and the institution received donations from private individuals within the teacher community and beyond. Yet the museum remained dependent on state support. The annual subsidy from Vienna, which had amounted to 1,000 crowns since the creation of the establishment committee in 1903, was successively increased to 1,500 and eventually 2,000 crowns. In 1913, the museum was promised an annual subsidy of 3,000 crowns (a payment which, however, was partly withheld or delayed in the following years due to the outbreak of war in 1914). The support granted by the Viennese Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs was meant to support the ‘continuing education of primary school teachers’, for whom courses were organised by the teachers’ association.28 The library’s holdings would have continued to grow had not the museum been forced, in 1917, to temporarily limit its acquisitions due to a lack of room and funds for new exhibition spaces.29 In 1918, the museum acquired a new building; at this point, its collection consisted of approximately sixteen thousand books and two thousand museum pieces.30 Over the next nine years, the library’s inventory increased by 50 per cent, to twenty-four thousand books in 1927. No other Polish library could boast such a comprehensive collection of school documents. The library’s extensive collection of complete annual reports, curricula and school statistics from Galician schools and educational and youth associations constituted a particular source of pride. The museum was in regular contact with the education ministries in Amsterdam and Bern and with Polish organisations in America and obtained statistical materials via Polish educational and social organisations there and in other centres of the Polish diaspora.31

The Acquisition of the Lviv Textbook Collection by the University of Poznań During the Great Depression, the teachers’ associations found it increasingly difficult to meet the costs of maintaining the Polish School Museum. The establishment of a museum of Polish school history in Warsaw, the capital of the Second Polish Republic, meant that government funding was no longer available. In addition, the political agenda which had led to the establishment of the museum (as a platform for protest against the school policies of the former partitioning powers) had lost its urgency in the reconstituted Polish state. Finally, in the wake of the government’s institutionalisation of teacher education, the museum had also lost its relevance as an institution for teacher training. Only its function as a museum endured, along with a general academic interest in the history of

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education and schools. In 1930, the Lviv Teachers’ Association approved the proposal of Jaxa-Bykowski, board member of the journal Muzeum and head of the Department of Education at the University of Poznań, to transfer the museum’s holdings to the Department of Education in order to preserve the integrity of the collection.32 Jaxa-Bykowski (1881–1948) had an academic background in philosophy, education and science and began his career as a secondary school teacher and school director in Galicia. After the reconstitution of the Polish state, he served as school inspector in Lviv and worked for a year in the Ministry of Education in Warsaw before assuming a position at the University of Poznań in 1927.33 With the donation of the holdings of the Polish School Museum, which comprised approximately twenty thousand volumes (of which fourteen thousand had been catalogued by 1933),34 Jaxa-Bykowski had provided the Department of Education with resources far surpassing those generally available to a university department. The board of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Poznań declared Jaxa-Bykowski’s pedagogical library unique in Poland.35 The transferred holdings included, in addition to the book collection, approximately one thousand additional exhibit pieces.36 On Jaxa-Bykowski’s initiative, several hundred objects from the collection of the Poznań School Museum, including material collected from schools throughout Greater Poland, were also transferred to the Department of Education.37 These materials included drawings made by pupils in Poznań in 1911 and 1913 depicting themes from their lessons in religion, German and biology. Such exhibits held a special interest for Jaxa-Bykowski, who had written a teacher’s handbook about the didactic function of pupils’ drawings in natural history teaching.38 Jaxa-Bykowski’s early forced retirement in 1933 was a political act dictated by the government in response to his alignment with the opposition in the political conflict. In the Second Polish Republic, the rift between the governing Sanacja and the opposition Endecja (National Democracy) movements was reflected, in the field of education, in the tension between the pedagogic concepts of ‘civic education’ (which envisaged the integration of minorities through Polonisation) and ‘national education’ (which called for the exclusion of minorities). In addition to representing the latter concept, Jaxa-Bykowski also opposed the government’s educational policy by advocating autonomy for Polish universities. The government’s measures affected not only Jaxa-Bykowski but the Department of Pedagogy as a whole. Upon the closing of the department in 1933, the library’s collection, which by then comprised twenty-five thousand volumes, was transferred to the Department of Psychology and Experimental Pedagogy, with which Jaxa-Bykowski had been closely affiliated.39 There, it was preserved and maintained under the auspices

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of Stefan Błachowski (1889–1962), who served as chairman of the department until his retirement in 1960. During the German occupation of Poland, Jaxa-Bykowski was active in various resistance organisations and, in the 1940s, assumed senior functions at the ‘Secret University’ (Tajny Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich) in Warsaw. After the war, JaxaBykowski was appointed chair of the Department of Education at the University of Poznań. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested on charges of activity against the state; he died shortly after his release in 1948.40 Despite his courageous involvement in the ‘Secret University of Warsaw’ under the German occupation, Jaxa-Bykowski’s pedagogical legacy is controversial. His research aimed to diminish the standing of Poland’s native Jewish, Ukrainian and German populations.41 When considering the question of whether Jaxa-Bykowski’s appropriation of pedagogy for nationalist purposes affected the makeup of the Lviv collection, it is important to note that the catalogue also contained materials the inclusion of which cannot be ascribed to a nationalist attitude. These include periodicals of the Polish socialist and Jewish labour movements, materials asserting the spiritual and cultural values ​​of Judaism and manifestos of the Ukrainian national movement.

The Preservation and Maintenance of the Collection after 1945 During the Second World War, the educational media collection of the former Polish School Museum, later housed in the University of Poznań Department of Education (1930–33) and Department of Psychology (1933–39), was confiscated by the German authorities. While approximately ten thousand books, reports, chronicles and other documents were eventually returned, the rest (over half of the original collection) was lost. In 1964, the Department of Education transferred these remaining holdings to the university’s central library. Of the 11,197 volumes, 4,524 were identified as duplicates or classified as superfluous. The remaining 6,673 items included 3,451 journals, 1,790 non-periodical single publications and 1,065 items classified as ‘special collections’ (zbiory specjalne). The latter included 507 manuscripts, 295 old prints, 55 maps and atlases, 95 drawings, 14 pages of sheet music and 100 pamphlets.42 The manuscripts, catalogued according to school and year, are now housed in the manuscript cabinet of the library’s Special Collections Department (Oddział Zbiorów Specjalnych, Pracownia Rękopisów). Between 2001 and 2003, the collections of the various libraries of the University of Poznań (and thus also the remnants of the Lviv collection) were integrated into the Polish National Book Inventory (Narodowy Zasób

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Biblioteczny). The additional funding thus obtained for the maintenance of the collections made possible the deacidification, in 2008, of all the items in the collection.43 Today, the Lviv Collection of Teaching Materials is accessible to the public in the reading room of the Special Collections Department of the Poznań University Library. Selected bibliographical data pertaining to the collection can be accessed via the library’s digital catalogue. Translation, Peter Laki Anna Maria Harbig completed her doctoral studies in the field of German literature and linguistics and now works in the faculty of philology at the University of Białystok in Poland. Her areas of specialisation include the history of teaching German as a foreign language, history textbooks and teachers’ guidelines and language and education policy during the partitions of Poland.

Notes  1.  2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.  9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

Karbowiak, ‘Towarzystwo Nauczycieli’, Appendix 1, 50–51. Banach, ‘Antoni Karbowiak’, 103. Bruchnalski, ‘Mieczysław Tytus Baranowski’, 285. Baranowski and Parasiewicz, preface to Książki szkolne. Ibid. Ibid. Karbowiak, ‘Towarzystwo Nauczycieli’, 51. ‘Dziesięciolecie Polskiego Muzeum Szkolnego’, 749. Hahn, ‘Ludomił German’, 396. Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie (AGAD), Inventory: c.k. Minsterstwo Wyznań i Oświaty 1848–1918, Sign. 287u, 1080–81. Sprawozdanie Komisji, 5. Lewicki, ‘Franciszek Majchrowicz’, 156. Ruszczynski and Ekke, ‘Fortbildungsbestrebungen’, 39. Szews, ‘O utworzenie muzeum’, 275. ‘Dziesięciolecie Polskiego Muzeum Szkolnego’, 753. Ibid., 758. Ibid., 756. Ibid., 758. AGAD, Inventory: c.k. Minsterstwo Wyznań i Oświaty 1848–1918, Sign. 287u, 1081–82. Most of the thirty-two existing school museums were in German-speaking territories. Jazdon, ‘Kolekcja Muzeum Szkolnego’. Daniel Oelbauer called this museum ‘…an example to be emulated’. Oelbauer, ‘Geschichte der Wiener Schulmuseen’, 2. AGAD, Inventory: c.k. Minsterstwo Wyznań i Oświaty 1848–1918, Sign. 287u, 1065. Jazdon, ‘Kolekcja Muzeum Szkolnego’ (n.p.). Karbowiak, ‘Towarzystwo Nauczycieli’, 53. Głowacka, ‘Z dziejów polskiego muzeum szkolnego’, 15.

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26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.

35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43.

29

Sprawozdanie Polskiego Muzeum Szkolnego, 7. Głowacka, ‘Z dziejów polskiego muzeum szkolnego’, 16. AGAD, Inventory: c.k. Minsterstwo Wyznań i Oświaty 1848–1918, Sign. 287u, 948, 954. Głowacka, ‘Z dziejów polskiego muzeum szkolnego’, 15. Sprawozdanie Polskiego Muzeum Szkolnego, 7. Głowacka, ‘Z dziejów polskiego muzeum szkolnego’, 14. Ibid., 21. Szulakiewicz, O uczących i uczonych, 106–8. ‘Opinia Rady Wydziału Humanistycznego w sprawie projektowanej przez Ministerstwo reorganizacji Wydziału’ [Statement by the council of the faculty of humanities on a draft proposal for the reorganisation of the faculty], 7 September 1933, Archiwum Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (AUAM), Inventory: Reorganizacja UP – zwinięcie Katedr na Wydziałach Humanistycznym, MatematycznoPrzyrodniczym, Prawno-Ekonomicznym, Rolniczo-Leśnym, Lekarskim w 1933 r., Sign. 15/83, 1–15, 6. Ibid., 7. ‘W sprawie pomocniczej siły naukowej przy Katedrze Psychologii’ [On the question of a research assistant at the department of psychology], 11 December 1933, in AUAM, Sign. 15/83, 1–3, 2. Ibid. Jagielska, ‘Prace rysunkowe uczniów’. Hellwig, ‘Ludwik Jaxa-Bykowski’, 134. Ibid., 135. Malinowski, ‘Ludwik Jaxa-Bykowski’, 150. Głowacka, ‘Z dziejów polskiego muzeum szkolnego’, 22. Jazdon, ‘Kolekcja Muzeum Szkolnego’.

Bibliography Banach, Andrzej Kazimierz. ‘Antoni Karbowiak (1856–1919)’, in Julian Dybiec (ed), Złota księga Wydziału Historycznego (Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2000), 97–105. Baranowski, Mieczysław, and Szczęsny Parasiewicz. Preface to Książki szkolne w szkołach ludowych galicyjskich i w innych ziemiach polskich dawnej używane. Lwów: c. k. Rada Szkolna Okręgowa Miejska we Lwowie, 1898. Bruchnalski, Kazimierz. ‘Mieczysław Tytus Baranowski’, in Władysław Konopczyński et al. (eds), Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 1 (Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 1935), 285. ‘Dziesięciolecie Polskiego Muzeum Szkolnego we Lwowie 1903–1913’. Muzeum 1(5) (1913), 746–827. Głowacka, Apolonia. ‘Z dziejów polskiego muzeum szkolnego’. Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Biblioteka 6 (1966), 3–32. Hahn, Wiktor. ‘Ludomił German’, in Władysław Konopczyński et al. (eds), Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 7 (Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności/Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1948–58), 396–398. Hellwig, Jan. ‘Ludwik Jaxa-Bykowski’. Kultura i edukacja 2 (1996), 127–36. Jagielska, Maria. ‘Prace rysunkowe uczniów poznańskich szkół z 1911 i 1913 roku w zbiorach Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej w Poznaniu’. Biblioteka 7 (2003), 59–68.

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Jazdon, Artur. ‘Kolekcja Muzeum Szkolnego we Lwowie w zbiorach Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej w Poznaniu’. Lecture, Pomeranian Library, Szczecin, 2016. Karbowiak, Antoni. ‘Towarzystwo Nauczycieli Szkół Wyższych 1884–1908’, in Muzeum. Czasopismo Towarzystwa Nauczycieli Szkół Wyższych (1909). Lewicki, Karol. ‘Franciszek Majchrowicz’, in Emanuel Rostworowski et al. (eds), Polski słownik biograficzny, vol. 19 (Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich – Wydawnictwo PAN, 1974), 156–57. Malinowski, Andrzej. ‘Ludwik Jaxa-Bykowski: pedagog – przyrodnik – antropolog’. Prace Naukowe. Kultura Fizyczna 4 (2001), 145–53. Oelbauer, Daniel. ‘Zur Geschichte der Wiener Schulmuseen bis 1945’. Wiener Zeitschrift für Bildungs- und Schulgeschichte 1 (2019), 1–4. Ruszczynski, Edmund, and Elise Ekke. ‘Fortbildungsbestrebungen der Posener Lehrerschaft’, in Paul Gutsche (ed.), Die Posener Volks- und Mittelschulen: ein Beitrag zur Würdigung der Unterrichtsausstellung der Stadt Posen auf der Ostdeutschen Ausstellung in Posen (Lissa in Posen: Oskar Eulitz Verlag), 27–39. Sprawozdanie Komisji Urządzającej Polskie Muzeum Szkolne za rok 1903/04. Lwów: Nakładem Towarzystwa Nauczycieli Szkół Wyższych, 1914, 1–14. Sprawozdanie Polskiego Muzeum Szkolnego za czas od 01 kwietnia 1917 do 31 marca 1918. Lwów: Nakładem Towarzystwa Nauczycieli Szkół Wyższych, 1918, 1–8. Szews, Jerzy. ‘O utworzenie muzeum historii oświaty’. Gdańskie Zeszyty Humanistyczne 12 (1964), 273–82. Szulakiewicz, Władysława. O uczących i uczonych. Szkice z pedeutologii historycznej. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2015.

Chapter 2

The History and Singularity of a Government Library

The Collection of Educational Historical Printed Materials at the Austrian Ministry of Education Walter Kissling, Ernst Chorherr and Christian Treinen

T

he Collection of Educational Historical Printed Materials at the Austrian Ministry of Education comprises 6,144 pedagogical monographs and anthologies published between 1776 and 1962. It is part of the former government library of the Austrian education ministry,1 which was closed to the public in December 2014 and closed down in 2019. This chapter draws attention to the collection and argues in favour of safeguarding and maintaining access to the holdings.2 This unique collection provides a wealth of sources for researchers. What distinguishes the education ministry’s pedagogical literature collection from similar collections in other libraries, and how did this distinction arise? These questions will be addressed by comparing the ministerial collection with the collections of the two largest libraries in Austria (the Vienna University Library and the Austrian National Library). A ministerial library must support the demands of its government agency and ministerial officials and align the compilation of its literary holdings with the government agency’s tasks. In the case of the collection of the Austrian education ministry, this relationship between library and government agency was reversed. The moving force behind building the library’s collection from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century was not, as is usually the case, a librarian implementing a centrally planned collection policy, but rather a ‘crowd’ of ministry officials who supplied the library with literature from the ministry’s various specialist departments (historically known as Departements). The differing responsibilities of these officials and their corresponding focus on texts published in their respective fields are among the reasons why

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the education ministry’s collection of historical pedagogical literature differs from that of other libraries. This practice, which contradicted modern notions of how a library should expand its holdings, would endure until the second half of the twentieth century, when the librarians finally took on an instrumental role.3 A government agency’s interest in knowing what is happening in its sphere of activity, who is writing literature about what and coming to what conclusions, necessitates an approach to acquisition. In the case of the collection discussed here, this means, for example, that while in general libraries place little importance on collecting and appropriately storing booklets and pamphlets, in the ministerial library even very thin booklets were considered to be collectibles, provided that they were relevant to the ministry’s sphere of activity. Furthermore, the ministry was interested in documenting not only school textbooks, but all texts by the state educational publisher.4 The education ministry, which was responsible for managing and overseeing the entire education system, paid attention to the publication of pedagogical material in all crown lands. In other respects, however, the Austrian education system was also compared with that of other states, particularly Germany. By contrast, libraries with collections dedicated to the respective crown land or nation were generally not required to adopt such a broad focus. The four modalities of the evolution of the library’s holdings described above (the role of specialised officials in procuring literature; the interest in booklets and pamphlets; the significance of texts by the state pedagogical publisher and the interest in pedagogical literature from the crown lands and abroad) together contributed to the development of a unique collection of historical pedagogical printed material. As pedagogical literature was part of the ministerial library,5 the development of the latter also influenced the formation of the pedagogical collection. For this reason, we will begin with an overview of the development, organisation and use of the ministerial library from its founding in 1849 to its transferral, in 2002, to the Federal Administrative Library in the Federal Chancellery and its successive closure, which led to the formation of a cohesive collection of educational historical printed material. Two groups of source material were central to our work. These included, on the one hand, unevaluated materials from the former ministerial library (with its predominantly process-generated administrative data)6 and, on the other, we drew on a recently created database of the literary holdings of the pedagogical collection, which served as the basis for our research-generated data and which allowed us to describe the properties of the collection in its current form. The contents of the database are limited to documents published after 1962, when a body of

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influential educational laws came into force that constituted a watershed in the history of Austrian schooling.7

The Ministerial Library as ‘Mother Institution’ After the Austrian Ministry of Public Education (Ministerium für öffentlichen Unterricht) was founded in March 1848, ‘the field of education [was liberated] from its previous subordinate position and rose to a status equal to that of the traditional administrative branches of the state’.8 In February 1849, the minister Count Franz Stadion found it necessary to ‘organise a collection of books and periodicals on the official objectives of the Ministry of Public Education and on its systematic work’.9 The first holdings were compiled from other government libraries, such as those of the dissolved Court Study Commission (Studienhofkommission). The chief librarian recorded that the holdings comprised 10,841 works in 1853, while a status report compiled by his successor in 1860 mentions 18,632 items.10 A ‘shelving plan’ introduced in 1856 divided the ministerial library’s holdings into two groups. These included, first, a specialised library for religious affairs (Cultus) and teaching (the latter subdivided into special pedagogy and educational legislation sections) and publications by the Imperial Royal School Textbook Publisher (k.k. Schulbücherverlag) and, second, a general library comprising the subjects of linguistics, history, science, mathematics, law, philosophy, art, encyclopaedias, atlases and manuscripts.11 This structure is also reflected in the history of the Viennese archives published in 1871 by the pedagogue, educational historian and historian of Austrian Judaism Gerson Wolf. Wolf described the library as ‘the most complete and significant of its kind with respect to Austrian education and its history’, noting that its holdings represented ‘virtually all literature in the field of pedagogy in French, Italian, English, Russian and of course German’.12 Pedagogical literature became a central focus of the ministerial library’s extensive collection. An inventory from 1904 shows that pedagogical literature was in first place in quantitative terms, followed by law, religious studies, art, history and other subjects.13 As will be shown below, the high standing of pedagogical literature in the library corresponded to the primary position of the pedagogical departments in the ministry. In addition, the categories overlapped. Thus, the law collection also comprised school legislation and the religious affairs section also included material relating to schools. The corresponding ministerial departments

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also added their specialist literature to the library, thus contributing to the primary position of pedagogical literature in the collection. In 1913, the library reported a total of 60,595 volumes, of which 9,566 were school textbooks and 11,900 were annual school reports. Between 1917 and 1937, the holdings doubled in size,14 which is not surprising considering the increase in pedagogical publishing activity that occurred during the First Republic. In 1938, following the National Socialist ‘annexation’ of Austria, the education ministry was dissolved and the activities that were initially conducted in Vienna were entrusted to the Reich Ministry of Science, Upbringing and National Education (Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung) in Berlin and, in May 1940, to the local Reich districts. Although the library continued to exist as part of the Reich Archive in Vienna, its activities were severely limited.15 A document from 1939 reveals that forty-six books, almost all of which had been published between 1934 and March 1938 (that is, by the previous regime) and which included three pedagogical books, were removed from the library. In 1945, the library was transferred to the newly established Federal Ministry of Education. In 1970, an inspection report by the directors of the National Library and the University Library declared a total stock of 230,000 volumes. The latest survey of the library’s holdings from 2001 reported 435,000 volumes (excluding the two special collections of school textbooks and annual school reports). In the early twentieth century, the library gradually became accessible to the public. The annual report of the archive and government library for 1910 states that ‘although the government library is not a public library … in some exceptional cases … right of use was also granted to external scholars, educators [Schulmänner] and writers’.16 In 1950, the first information sheet was published for external visitors; the library was henceforth ‘open to use by strangers to the ministry on a case-bycase basis’. Over the following decades, numerous students and scholars from Austria and abroad (particularly from the former crown lands of the monarchy) took advantage of this opportunity. In 2004 Helmut Engelbrecht told us that without recourse to the ministerial library, he would not have been able to write his multivolume, exhaustively referenced history of Austrian education. In 2002, the management of what was by then known as the Library of the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture was transferred to the Administrative Library of the Federal Chancellery.17 This happened in order to curb expenses and with accompanying comment about ‘clustering’ and ‘synergy effects’. Many of the library staff objected to this move, which had been carried out without their involvement, by making use of an early retirement regulation. The sole remaining

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librarian, Ingrid Höfler, continued to manage the textbook and school report collections that had remained the responsibility of the ministry until her retirement in 2014. Since then, the former library of the education ministry (and with it, the collection of historical pedagogical printed material) has no longer been accessible to the public. In 2015, the 65,000 items of the textbook collection and the 40,500 annual reports (from over 1,000 schools in 439 towns in the Habsburg Monarchy and modern-day Austria) were integrated into the Vienna University Library, with the assurance that both collections would continue with new publications.18

The Compilers and Collectors The education ministry’s sphere of activity and the officials it employed were crucial to the development of the collection for two reasons. First, the ministerial officials had a broader and more nuanced knowledge of pedagogical literature than librarians in general libraries at the time. Second, the ministry’s sphere of influence enabled more direct access to the authors of printed pedagogical works, to pedagogical publishers19 and pedagogical institutions that issued texts. The ministry’s specialist departments were assigned a fundamental role in expanding the literary holdings well into the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, the education ministry was divided into fifteen departments. Three of these were run by the Religious Section (which was responsible for Catholic, Protestant and other faiths). The Teaching Section had eight departments (three for institutes of higher education, universities and scientific institutions; one each for academic secondary schools or Mittelschulen, vocational schools and primary schools; one for scholarships, foundations and the school textbook publisher; and one department for art). The General Affairs Section comprised four departments, of which the most important were those in charge of religious affairs and teaching legislation.20 Ministerial officials were in closer professional (and at times even personal) contact with pedagogical scholars and authors than was possible for librarians (even those employed by the education ministry), who had more general tasks. More than other ministries, the education ministry was involved in a writing guild in its sphere of activity. It worked together not only with departments of universities and art schools, but also in departments of education, thanks to the involvement of educators (Schulleute). Initially, these educators were predominantly secondary school teachers and school inspectors, but from the second half of the nineteenth century,

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they also increasingly included teachers from primary and secondary schools. Societies of educators and private publishers, who were aware of the power relations, attempted to use the system to their advantage and sought to familiarise the ministerial authorities with their publications. School authorities had a decisive influence on pedagogical careers. Some dedications to education ministers found in the collection will probably have been inspired by this. It was not the ‘lonely librarian’ who was instrumental in increasing the quantity of pedagogical writings kept in the official library, but rather a small ‘crowd’ of specialised officials and, behind them, an even larger ‘crowd’ of educators who sought to make themselves visible and to bring their writings to the attention of government officials in the relevant departments. The close relationship to educators as a pedagogical author base is a feature of the educational historical collection, as will be shown below with reference to minor publications (booklet literature). The specialists in the technical departments created independent department libraries from the materials they had received, requested or purchased. Although the book collections of the departments responsible for primary schools, vocational institutes and middle schools (as well as the photography collection of the art department) were entrusted to the ministerial library around the year 1900, they were shelved and catalogued separately.21 The manager of ministerial affairs Count Richard Bienerth was able to record a short while later that the ministerial library housed ‘not only its own holdings of books … but also those of the other specialist libraries’ and called for a ‘reduction in the material entering into the latter’, demanding that ‘only the more valuable works or [those] actually necessary for future ministerial use’ be incorporated into the specialist libraries.22 This suggests that the specialist libraries had become, to use the chief librarian’s term, somewhat ‘overgrown’ and that the resulting lack of space must have provided the chief librarian (who had no control over the screening of new acquisitions) a welcome opportunity to voice his criticism in higher places.23 There appears to have been some friction between the chief librarian and the heads of the departments regarding the responsibility for the pedagogical texts in the ministerial library. The increasing professionalisation of the chief librarians made it easier for them to assert their interests within the ministerial bureaucracy, a development illustrated by the case of Wilhelm Pötzl, who worked at the library around the turn of the century. Pötzl, who had graduated as a jurist and completed his archival training at the Institute of Austrian Historical Research, served both as full-time chief librarian and, from 1896, as director of the education ministry archive.24

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Although the ministerial bureaucracy was mostly interested in collecting pedagogical findings that could be expected to help maintain existing conditions between the groups and classes, it did not entirely exclude divergent or opposing literature. This was because the ministry wished to be in a position to supervise such literature (and its Austrian authors) as need may arise, and perhaps also because it wished to have at hand materials that it could modify and reuse in the event that modernisation measures became necessary. The pedagogical historical collection contains an unknown quantity of such literature. Regarding acquisitions, the importance of the departments and educators increased in inverse proportion to the strength of the librarians’ position and the size of their budget. The weaker the librarian’s position and the smaller their budget, the more important were the departments and the educators.

The Position of Librarians With respect to the librarians’ position, several points must be considered. Until well into the 1890s, most head librarians were only employed provisionally, meaning that their primary function was to develop concepts in the ministry, while the direction of the library assumed secondary importance. As Baron Otto Steiner von Pfungen noted in 1886, after having been employed by the library for several years, he ‘had only completed bare necessities in the library and had worked mainly in the departments’.25 That the head of the ministry entrusted many library decisions to the officials in the departments rather than to the head librarian is understandable considering the officials’ more extensive specialised pedagogical knowledge.26 Alongside such general disregard for the position of the head librarian, one case of exerting a broad right of control over the acquisition process has survived. In 1854, undersecretary of state Josef Alexander Freiherr von Helfert, the highest-ranking official in the ministry, declared that ‘when purchasing books, cards, etc., it is necessary to gain the approval of the undersecretary of state’.27 And even as late as 1904, the steering committee struck nine works off a list of books that the head librarian had wished to acquire from the estate of the former liberal education minister Karl von Stremayr.28 Yet the sources we have seen provide no information about either the frequency of such interventions or the criteria on which they were based. In the case of Helfert’s memo, one can assume that, in the context of neo-absolutism and only a few years after the revolution of 1848, the author, a champion of Catholic conservatism, was keeping an eye out for any educational literature even remotely revolutionary in content.

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The sources suggest that with the amalgamation of archive management with library management in the late nineteenth century (a process that continued until shortly after 1945), the head librarians, now doing two jobs, adopted a more assertive approach to applying for resources (rooms, personnel, budget) for the ministerial library. One factor that may have contributed to this change is the strengthened position of the head librarian that resulted from the amalgamation. One should bear in mind that, with the exception of legislation and other administrative aids such as school and teacher directories, government agencies tended to place greater importance on their archives than on their library holdings. This personnel structure was beneficial to the ministerial library, and the head librarian’s dual role could also facilitate the support of research, to the extent that the shift from literature to archive material and vice versa (that is, the reciprocal procurement and supplementation of the respective source) became easier.29 Most of the head librarians employed between 1849 and 2002 were historians or jurists. Joseph Mozart, who held the position in 1849, was most familiar with pedagogy as a result of his role in reforming secondary schools, as co-editor of the ‘Journal for Austrian Secondary Schools’ (Zeitschrift für die österreichischen Gymnasien) and as editor of the multivolume ‘German Reading Book’ (Deutsches Lesebuch). Two chief librarians complied with the tradition of some Austrian civil servants who were poets, playwrights or novelists. These were the theologian Johann Baptist Salfinger (1853–54), who wrote against ‘French freethinking’ in popular novels, and under Liberalism Salomon Hermann Mosenthal (1864–77), who wrote the libretto of Otto Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and the successful folk play Deborah.30 Head librarian Richard von Bienerth (1887–89) went into politics, serving as education minister from 1905 to 1906 and as prime minister from 1908 to 1911. It is difficult to ascertain whether the librarians’ political convictions influenced the development of the collection, because the dates of new acquisitions were not recorded in the inventory books, and it is largely impossible to link titles to the tenure of any particular librarian. What can be said, however, is that with such a small budget, the selection process had to be very strict, abiding by whichever criteria may have been applied at the time.

The Library Budget The second factor that influenced acquisitions was the library’s budget. Throughout the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, the scant budget of the ministerial library made the free supply of pedagogical literature from the departments particularly important.

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Several statements about the budget survive from the decades around the turn of the century. In 1897, the head librarian Pötzl requested the most powerful steering committee of the ministry to limit purchases, due to the meagre budget, to ‘the most indispensable aids for ministerial use (compilations of laws and rulings, technical journals)’, noting that ‘due to a lack of necessary funds, the library cannot even purchase the most important publications in those scientific fields that impact the ministry’ and that ‘if these conditions continue, the ministerial library will undoubtedly be heading toward collapse’.31 That same year, the activity report of the ministerial library recorded that most of the new additions to the collection were donations.32 Between 1900 and 1910, the budget of the library (and that of the archive) remained at 2,000 crowns, while during the same period the holdings grew from 35,000 to 54,000 volumes.33 This increase can only be explained as the result of donations of free supplies from other sources (whether from individuals, mostly via the departments, or from secondary schools that were obliged by the secondary school reform of 1849 to supply the ministry with annual reports).34 Additional donations came from publishers, who sent their textbooks to the ministry, and from book exchanges with other libraries. A book exchange with the Vienna University Library took place as early as the nineteenth century, and from the twentieth century there is evidence of book exchanges with libraries in the former crown lands (especially in Brno and Bratislava) and in Germany (for example, with the university and regional library in Halle).35 Many of the acquisitions made in the twentieth century consisted of pedagogical works that had been discarded by school libraries. A ministerial decree of 1968 stipulated that it was ‘urgently desirable’ (dringend wünschenswerth) that the administrators of teachers’ or pupils’ libraries consult with the library of the education ministry before discarding books.36 School libraries were quick to respond. In 1969, for example, the federal secondary school in Vienna’s sixth district donated seven hundred volumes from its teachers’ library, which were to have been discarded, to the ministerial library, which integrated them into its holdings and exchanged duplicates with second-hand bookshops in Vienna and Germany. Items originating in school libraries37 are identifiable by their obligatory school stamps. In 1874, teacher training institutes were obliged to have school libraries. The focus of the ministerial library archives on discarded school libraries in the late 1960s can be viewed in the context of the intense debates surrounding educational reform at the time. These debates led teachers to the understanding that many pieces of pedagogical literature

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were no longer appropriate and that by removing them, they could free up much-needed space for new literature in their school libraries. As a result, newly published literature began arriving not only at the school libraries, but at the ministerial library as well. The latter reported to the presidium in 1970 that the ‘ministry’s reform work [and the] creation of new divisions, departments and sections’ had led to an influx of 4,230 volumes, meaning that the year 1969 had seen ‘the largest growth in the ministerial library in the 120 years of its existence’.38 In the early 1970s, the budgetary situation of both the ministerial library and the education ministry improved considerably. Between 1970 and 1975, the ministry’s budget more than doubled.39 While in 1964 the education ministry’s share of the overall federal budget was 5.64 per cent, by 1980 it had grown to 8.86 per cent, its highest level ever.40 The ministerial library’s budget for material expenses, which amounted to 77,868 schillings in 1962,41 increased from 200,000 schillings in 1971 to 550,000 schillings in 1977 (of which 495,000 were set aside exclusively for book acquisitions).42 The ministerial library received an almost equally large budget from the Federal Ministry of Science and Research. This ministry, which had been founded in 1970, had taken over and broadened some agendas of the education ministry, and the ministerial library accordingly became responsible for its collections as well. Gerhard Silvestri, head of the ministerial library from 1970 to 1994, has stated retrospectively that this large budget had allowed him to buy ‘almost everything’, including pedagogical books from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.43 The historical pedagogical collection contains several such books, complete with handwritten dates of purchase and the names of the secondhand bookshops from which they were acquired. The new approach to generating holdings became evident in the second half of the twentieth century, especially in the 1970s. By this time, texts donated by contributors and book requests from specialised officials were no longer relevant for the growth of the library’s holdings, because ‘the library usually had most of [these texts] already’.44 Thanks to the ample budget, it was now the librarians themselves who determined what literature would be added to the holdings. Since the growth in the library’s literary holdings was the result of an increase in the inner-ministerial budget (which was itself part of an increased overall ministerial budget), the availability of funds for the teaching division can be understood in the context of wider social and political changes. Most parents associated this social and occupational change with higher educational aspirations for their children. In terms of considerations about educational economics and structural measures on

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the supply side,45 this led to extensive debate about educational reform which drew much public attention.46 This development led to (and was in part motivated by) several factors, including the technocratic and emancipatory democratisation of society and education, the expansion, differentiation and specialisation of educational sciences, the rising number of university lecturers in the subject and a marked increase in pedagogical publications. In the Second Republic, the library of the Austrian education ministry was no longer merely a government agency library in the narrow sense, but rather a specialised pedagogical library that independently collected works on specific pedagogical areas and was used not just by officials but also, increasingly, by researchers. After the ministerial library was transferred to the Federal Administrative Library in 2002, the last librarian employed by the education ministry, Ingrid Höfler, assumed custodianship of the educational historical collection as the centrepiece of a ministerial library that was in the process of being dissolved. In 2005 and 2006, Höfler spent several months sifting through the approximately twenty-five thousand volumes of old holdings in order to identify historical pedagogical materials, which she then shelved separately in the stacks of the education ministry (where they were accessible until Höfler’s retirement in late 2014). From 2015, Ernst Chorherr, deputy head of the Administrative Library, identified further pedagogical titles in the extensive basement stacks.47 Together, these two librarians gave the ministerial library’s collection of old pedagogical literature its present form, creating a cohesive collection of 6,144 historical pedagogical titles dating from between 1776 and 1962.48

Dating the Collection The oldest part of the collection49 contains 157 pedagogical texts reflecting a temporal range of seventy-two years, from the bilingual ‘Essential Handbook for School Masters in the Illyrian Non-Uniate Primary Schools of the Empire. Royal Patrimony’ (Nothwendiges Handbuch für Schulmeister der illyrischen nicht unirten Trivial-Schulen der Kais. Königlichen Erblande) published in Vienna in 1776, to texts published upon the founding of the education ministry in 1848. The data about the following six historical periods, which are primarily based on political considerations,50 reveal not the number of titles that were added to the library in a particular period, but rather the number of titles that were published in a particular period and thus feature in the collection.

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At the same time, since most of the library’s acquisitions were recent contemporary publications, there is an indirect connection between a work’s publication date and its arrival at the library. The publication dates therefore provide information not only about the age of the collection’s holdings but also about the quantity of new literature that was added to the library at any time. As the periods are of different lengths, the concentration, or number of books per year, was also calculated. The concentration of texts differs from period to period and is largely dependent on three factors. These factors include the concentration of publications at the time (which in turn was influenced by social, economic and political conditions and by related developments in education and the sciences), the library’s budget and the influx of literature from the (specialist) departments. The first period, from the founding of the ministerial library in 1849 to 1868, was one of political heterogeneity and change. Political developments (including the neo-absolutism, military defeats, the weakening of the monarchy, the drafting of the constitution and the dawn of a liberal era) were reflected in the area of education as well (the reform of grammar schools [Gymnasien] from 1848 and 1849, and the transfer of the school administration from ecclesiastical to state control). The collection contains 242 publications from this period, corresponding to an average of twelve texts per year. The next, longer publication period (1869 to 1918) is similarly heterogeneous. Here too, political developments (the creation of the constitutional monarchy, a short liberal phase, the First World War, the collapse of the monarchy and the rise of the multi-ethnic state) paralleled educational reforms, which included the Imperial Primary School Act of 1869 (which extended compulsory schooling from six to eight years), the creation of the interconfessional primary school, teacher training reforms and the education policy rollback of the 1880s. This period is represented by 2,804 texts, which corresponds to an average of fifty-six texts per year. The third part of the collection, which covers the period of the First Republic (1919 to 1933), contains 1,083 publications, or an average of seventy-two printed materials per year. This is the largest concentration of published and inventoried printed material produced during the entire period examined in this study. The size of this part of the collection is significant, considering that only a very limited amount of literature from the former crown lands was sent to Vienna (these were mostly Germanlanguage publications from the Czech Republic). The high concentration of pedagogical literature was related to the social and political changes that followed the collapse of the monarchy and to a concept of humanism that was influenced by the correlation between ‘educational optimism’ (regarding the opportunities presented

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by a good education) and the desire for social change shared by a large proportion of the population, especially in the cities.51 All political groupings in Vienna and in the provinces contributed to a boom in reformative pedagogical publications. Teachers made a major contribution to these works, as authors and as readers. As a result, the ministerial library was faced with a new situation. As the head librarian Franz Josef Staub observed in 1919, the cost of ‘restructuring German-Austrian education and the incipient recourse to literature and libraries, as well as the involvement of the ministerial library, the enormous increase in literature in all areas of school organisation and school reform’ far exceeded the library’s budget of 3,200 crowns. This budget had remained the same since 1913, despite ‘demands increasing threefold … as a result of the new age’ and the library’s purchasing power having decreased fivefold.52 As a result of the meagre budget, the library stopped buying books, accumulated debt and began soliciting subsidies.53 The library’s dire financial situation suggests that only a part of the 1,083 pedagogical works inventoried during the First Republic were purchased. The remainder were most likely supplied by the specialist departments or were classified simply as ‘books received by the ministry’ (amtlich eingelaufene Bücher). Under the authoritarian regime (in the publication period from 1934 to 1937),54 the collection received 156 new titles, corresponding to an annual average of thirty-nine publications. The fact that there are ninety-one texts in the collection from the time of Nazi rule (in the publication period from 1938 to 1944)55 can be attributed to several factors, including the dissolution of the Austrian education ministry, the reduction of publishing activities during the war and the destruction or transfer of this literature to other libraries after 1945.56 The collection contains a total of 1,087 texts published between the beginning of the Second Republic and the end of the period examined in this chapter (1945–62). This corresponds to an average of sixty books per year, which is less than the corresponding figure for the First Republic. In 1949, in a letter to the budget group of the presidium, the library management protested the institution’s purchasing budget, claiming that it had fallen to its lowest level in decades and had been further devalued by rising book prices. As a result of the limited budget and Allied reorientation efforts (which focused primarily on education), most of the items to arrive at the ministerial library in the post-war period were donations. These included texts that had been published (mostly abroad, and primarily in the United States) between 1945 and 1949, and publications of UNESCO, which Austria had joined in 1948. Austrian publications from this period in

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Figure 2.1. Historical quantification of the collection’s holdings according to periods from 1849 to 1962. © The authors.

the collection are mostly limited to new curricula and requirements for teaching qualification examinations published by the Austrian Federal Publisher (Österreichischer Bundesverlag), which were donated to the library. The texts published by the Youth and People’s Press (Verlag für Jugend und Volk), the country’s second-largest pedagogical publisher, were probably likewise donated to the library. Most of the literature in the collection that had been published in Austria between 1945 and 1949 (including the school administration texts, which had become essential) had largely already been published before 1938. The use of these items thus represents a pedagogical recourse to the time before National Socialism, both to the time of the authoritarian system of the corporatist state (Ständestaat) and to that of the First Republic.

A Singular Collection of Small Publications A third of the holdings of (paginated) texts in the collection are booklets ranging from one to sixty pages in length. Most of them date from the second half of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Some were published by the author or by the in-house publishers of teacher societies, schools, municipalities, stakeholders or school authorities. These booklets contain statutes of teacher societies; statutes, disciplinary codes, curricula and study regulations of individual (mostly new)

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schools; internal regulations of corporations; and various other documents including memoranda, assessments, school medical reports and endowment records. Longer booklets were less likely to be self-published. The booklets also include inserts from journals, including non-pedagogical journals. The following list provides a series of examples of these booklets. Each of the most important in-house publishers is represented by two titles (almost none of these booklets is held by either the Austrian National Library or the Vienna University Library).

Booklets Published by Teachers’ Societies

Statute of the Austrian Musical Pedagogical Association (Satzungen des Vereines “Österreichischer musikpädagogischer Verband”) (Vienna: Im Verlag des Vereines, 1911) [7 pages]. Statute of the Austrian Countryside Boarding School Society (Statuten des Vereines “Österreichisches Landerziehungsheim”) (Vienna: Im Verlag des Vereins, 1912) [15 pages].

Booklets Published by Schools

Organisational Statute of the Public Commercial School in Schwaz, Tyrol (Organisationsstatut der öffentlichen Handelsschule in Schwaz in Tirol) (Innsbruck: Im Selbstverlage, 1908) [14 pages]. Study Regulations for the Schools of the Imperial Royal Art Academy in Prague (Studienordnung für die Schulen der k.k. Kunstakademie in Prag) (Prague: Im Verlag der Kunstakademie, 1915) [7 pages].

Booklets Published by Authorities

On the Promotion of School Gardening in Bohemia (Zur Förderung des Schulgartenwesens in Böhmen) (Prague: Statthalterei-Selbstverlag, 1901) [56 pages]. Syllabus of the Women’s Seamstress and Dressmaking Schools (Lehrplan der Frauengewerbeschulen für Weißnähen und Kleidermachen) (Vienna: Im Selbstverlag des k.k. Ministeriums für öffentliche Arbeiten, n.d.) [8 pages].

Booklets Published by Municipalities

Memorandum on the Establishment of an Upper Secondary School in Oberhollabrunn (Promemoria bezüglich der Errichtung eines OberRealgymnasiums zu Oberhollabrunn) (Oberhollabrunn: Verlag Gemeinde Oberhollabrunn, 1869) [12 pages]. The Local School Councils in the Viennese School District (Die Ortsschulräthe im Wiener Schulbezirke) (Vienna: Im Verlag des Schulbezirkes, 1892) [40 pages].

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Booklets Published by Educators

Gustav Pipetz, Austria’s Institutions for Deaf and Dumb, Blind and FeebleMinded Children in 1914. (Die Heilpädagogischen Anstalten Oesterreichs. Anstalten für Taubstumme, Blinde und Schwachsinnige Kinder im Jahre 1914) (Graz: G. Pipetz, 1914) [76 pages]. Rudolf E. Peerz, Short Instructions for Teaching at Rural Schools Based on the Syllabus for Unshared Single-Class Primary Schools (Kurzgefasste Anleitung zum Unterrichte an Landschulen mit Zugrundlegung des Lehrganges für die ungetheilte einclassige Volksschule) (Innsbruck: Rudolf E. Peerz, 1901) [44 pages]. By comparing the holdings of the ministerial collection, the Vienna University Library and the Austrian National Library, we can see that the latter two institutions’ collections of historical pedagogical booklets are markedly more deficient than their collections of historical pedagogical books. The booklet collections of these two libraries each correspond to only approximately 31 per cent of the ministerial booklet collection. There are several reasons for this. First, although there was a legal deposit featuring both libraries as repositories of self-published printed materials,57 the libraries did not fully comply with this regulation, which was particularly difficult to enforce when it came to self-published works. Second, in the second half of the nineteenth century, libraries were generally considered mere ‘storage facilities for valuable books’.58 Faced with a permanent lack of space, libraries tended to dispense with copies that were not considered worth keeping. Only in the 1890s did libraries begin to pay more attention to small publications, which were ‘stored tied together in bundles because only after a generation is it possible to decide what is valuable and what is not’.59 Third, the education ministry library (unlike the National Library, its predecessor the court library and the university libraries) considered small pedagogical publications worthy of collection because they were related to the ministry’s sphere of activity. School statutes, curricula, and similar documents which had been authorised by the ministry before publication were usually given to the library as specimen copies by the respective departments. Yet even in the case of a text like the Oberhollabrunn memorandum, the first recipient would have been the competent specialised department and not the library. The local councils probably would have contacted the officials before producing the text, in order to ascertain their chances of obtaining permission to establish a school. The text might have been designed to urge officials to follow through with their proposal (in which case the ministerial library would have been the wrong port of call). Such publications only arrived at the library after having been processed by the ministry.

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Collectibles Close at Hand As one would expect, the collection includes many texts published by the Austrian pedagogical state publisher, which was essentially subordinated to the education ministry.60 Since receiving the imperial privilege from Maria Theresa in 1772, the pedagogical state publisher published not only school textbooks, but pedagogical texts of all kinds.61 The collection contains almost four hundred works published between 1822 and 1962. These works can be divided into three categories. The first of these includes school-related regulations ranging from state and provincial acts to curricula, admission conditions and examination regulations. The second category comprises literature about child treatment and support and administrative recording methods, while the third category consists of methodical didactic literature for various school types and levels. The reason for the high proportion of booklets in the library’s holding that were published by the in-house pedagogical state publisher is that a separate curriculum was issued for every subcategory of each school type. This resulted in a large number of highly specific texts (including, for example, a ‘Curriculum for Three-Year Girls’ Civic Vocational Secondary Schools in Lower Austria, where Vegetables and Flowers are also Cultivated in the School Garden’).62 While curricula were also published in the ordinance gazettes of the ministry or the education authorities, it is difficult to locate them without knowing their year of publication (which is why the numerous individual curriculum editions should be recorded in an Online Public Access Catalogue). The differentiation of the school system in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was accompanied by an increase in the number of standards and individual regulations issued by the pedagogical state publisher in the collection of printed material. The question of nationality in the Habsburg Monarchy was another factor in this development.

Foreign Publications As the education ministry was responsible for overseeing the education system throughout the Habsburg Monarchy, its collection includes hundreds of pedagogical printed materials from the former crown lands. While most of these materials are written in German, many are in Czech, Polish, Ruthenian, Croatian and Italian. A similarly large section of the collection comprises printed material published in Germany (the National Library only holds literature published in Germany that pertains to Austria, a criterion that excludes most German pedagogical

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literature). The materials printed in Germany include some seven hundred works published in Berlin, twenty-eight of which were published by the GDR publisher People and Knowledge (Volk und Wissen). It is worth noting that (with one exception) these works were only added to the library’s holdings until 1955, the year the Allies left Austria. Other materials in the collection include a bundle of mostly official English-language texts about the Japanese education system published in Tokyo between 1880 and 1935, and approximately forty booklets of British school regulations for almost all British school types published by the British Board of Education between 1908 and 1913. The circumstances under which these two bundles arrived at the ministerial library are not entirely clear and might be explained by material in the Austrian State Archives. By contrast, the origin of the ministerial library’s samples of pedagogical literature from the United States and the United Kingdom (published between 1943 and 1962) is easier to explain. Entries and stamps in most of the books reveal that they were donated by the British Allies and the America House in Vienna. The entries also make clear that these books were given directly to officials at the ministry. It was from them (and not from the librarians) that the Allied donors could hope to gain influence over the Austrian education system. Titles such as Vitalizing Liberal Education, Introduction to American Public Education, Introduction to Exceptional Children and Education for One World, as well as works about school administration, curricula and studying in the United Kingdom, were clearly intended to serve the purpose of pedagogical reorientation. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the use of this literature.

Conclusion In the introduction to her volume, ‘Library and Research’ (Bibliothek und Forschung), Irmgard Siebert notes that the term ‘collection’ is primarily understood to mean ‘the results of a private, individual love of books and a passion for collecting’.63 Yet this definition can hardly apply to a collection of historical pedagogical material from a government library. The collection discussed in this chapter owes its genesis not to any particular collector, but to numerous specialist officials in the ministry and to an even larger number of educators and educational institutions that brought their demands and aims to the attention of the ministry via their own printed materials, with the intention of improving the school and education system and perhaps also in order to make themselves visible to an education authority whose appreciation they were seeking.

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Some of these materials were processed in the ministry with whatever result, and ultimately arrived at the ministerial library via the respective departments or the presidium. The historical pedagogical collection is thus more the result of a ‘crowd’ contributing to its ‘funding’, the efforts of numerous officials, teachers, compilers and donors who shared an institutional and (in most cases) specialised professional interest in the pedagogical sphere of activity of the education ministry. Though the ministerial library had employed a head librarian for over a century, the librarian only assumed a key role in cultivating the collection in the second half of the twentieth century.64 The collection’s unique evolutionary history is reflected by the fact that a large proportion of its texts are written by educators and represent bottom-up pedagogical views and ambitions. It can thus serve to relativise the tendency of early educational histories to ‘depict the workings of great men as the sole catalyst behind the historical process’, an approach which has had a devastating impact on educational history and on its image as a discipline.65 If the singularity of the collection can be seen as the result of its unique evolution, it can also be explained in terms of the collection priorities and tendencies of other libraries. For example, the Vienna University Library employed, in addition to filters for booklets, thematic filters as well. The nature of the thematic filters used for pedagogical publications is revealed by a comparison with the ministerial collection. Alternatively, whereas the University Library collected comparatively few works about subjects such as nursery care (Kleinkinderwartanstalten), kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, training colleges, home economics schools, commercial schools, trade and business schools, pedagogy and schools for blind, deaf and impaired pupils or those facing challenging social and health conditions, the situation was very different when it came to literature about academic secondary schools (Gymnasien). As teacher training for these schools was the responsibility of the universities and the corresponding literature complied more fully with the scientific requirements of a university library, the library collected works in this area very consistently. Such a selective pedagogical filter would have been inappropriate for the library of an education ministry responsible for the management and oversight of the entire education system. Over half of the titles in the Austrian education ministry’s collection of educational historical printed material are unique to that collection and cannot be found in either the Austrian National Library or in the Vienna University Library. In order to preserve valuable cultural assets and to promote research, this collection must be preserved and made accessible to the public.

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Walter Kissling first studied teaching then education in Vienna and Frankfurt am Main. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Education (Section for School, Education and Society) at the University of Vienna until 2013. In order to encourage students’ fondness for scholarly books and reading, he set up a reference library at the Department, which he ran until 2010. His areas of special interest are the history of education, textbook and educational media research, and academic writing as a subject of university teaching. During his ‘retirement’ he writes, works as a lecturer and strives to preserve historical educational collections. Ernst Chorherr studied history and German studies at the University of Vienna and worked in the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance and in the Contemporary History Library at Vienna University. Later, he was head of the library of the Lower Austrian Board of Education. Since 2013, Chorherr has been vice head of the Federal Administrative Library at the Federal Chancellery. He is also responsible for organising the dissolution of the former library of the Austrian Ministry of Education, which aims to maintain its historical educational literary holdings for researchers and the public while assuring ways in which other institutions may acquire parts of the holdings in order to ensure their future accessibility. Christian Treinen studied education science at the University of Vienna. During his academic internship in 2017 and 2018 he helped students to establish a record of the historical educational printed matter from the former ministerial library. He was also involved in managing public relations for the preservation of this collection. In 2021, he completed his degree in education with an MA thesis about educational research carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in the context of theories of globalisation.

Notes  1. The name of the ministry has changed many times over the course of its long history. Although it is now called the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung), for most of its existence its name included the word Unterricht (teaching). For the sake of simplicity, the term ‘education ministry’ is used here.  2. Clarifying the status of the collection is in the interest not only of educational science but also of the two institutions, the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (the host institution) and the Federal Administrative Library in the Federal Chancellery (to which the collection was consigned in 2002 and which is responsible for the printed material discussed in this chapter).

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 3. The role of this ‘crowd’ of civil servants and the late active involvement of the librarians will be addressed in more detail below.  4. The state educational publisher was founded in 1772. From 1773, during the Second Republic, it was referred to variously as the Verlagsgewölbe der deutschen Schulanstalt, k.k. Schulbücher-Verschleiss-Administration, k.k. Schulbücher-Verlag, Schulbücherverlag and Österreichischer Bundesverlag.  5. The ministerial library also included general legislative material as well as collections relating to the sciences, literature, art, religion and other cultural areas.  6. Vogel, Die Amtsbibliothek. Vogel worked as a specialist librarian in the ministerial library from 1948 to 1981. During this time, he compiled material about the library in three folders covering, respectively, the periods 1849–1938, 1938–70 and 1971–81. These folders, which contain typewritten duplicates and copies of archival documents as well as original archival material, are housed in the Federal Administrative Library. They are cited below as: Vogel, folder 1, 2, 3.  7. Another reason for the limited scope of the database was the fact that it was produced by students in an undergraduate seminar. The seminar (entitled ‘What Lies in the Cellar of the Education Ministry? A Literary Exploration for the Benefit of Educational Research’) was a research internship in educational studies in the Department of Education of the University of Vienna, directed by Wilfried Göttlicher and Walter Kissling in the winter semester of 2017/18. The students entered each document they found in the cellar of the ministry into an Excel file, adding details about the properties of each title and comparing their findings with the holdings of other libraries. This comparison demonstrated the singularity of the ministerial collection and exposed considerable shortcomings in other libraries. It also illustrated how an academic project can contribute to saving an endangered collection.  8. ‘… der Bildungsbereich [löste sich] aus seiner bisherigen untergeordneten Stellung und stieg zur Gleichrangigkeit mit den traditionellen staatlichen Verwaltungszweigen auf’. Engelbrecht, Geschichte, vol. 4: Von 1848 bis zum Ende der Monarchie (1986), 86f.  9. ‘die Veranstaltung einer Sammlung von Büchern und Zeitschriften zu den ämtlichen Zwecken des Ministeriums des öffentlichen Unterrichtes insbesondere zu den Systemalarbeiten desselben’. Vogel, folder 1, 1849 (ministerial reminder from 27 February 1849). The term ‘systematic work’ (Systemalarbeiten) refers to draft laws, regulations and organisations. 10. Vogel, folder 1, 1853 (annual report by Johann Salfinger) and folder 1, 1860. 11. Vogel, folder 1, 1856. 12. Wolf, Geschichte der k.k. Archive, 200f. Wolf also notes that the chief librarian at the time, Salomon Hermann von Mosenthal, strove primarily to acquire works from the field of teaching in order to use the library’s budget of ‘approximately 600 guldens’ in the most effective way possible. 13. Vogel, folder 1, library, catalogue 1901–04. 14. Vogel, folder 1, library 1917 and 1935–36. 15. Cf. Vogel, folder 2 (1938–70). 16. Vogel, folder 1, library 1910. The report names six external visitors to the library and their research projects. At the time, researchers drew more frequently on the ministerial archive (the report mentions twenty-two external visitors). 17. ‘Die Führung der Amtsbibliothek des Bundesministeriums für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur wird auf die Administrative Bibliothek im Bundeskanzleramt übertragen’, ordinance issued by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 12 July 2002. 18. More information about the school report collection is given in Kissling, ‘“… ein Motiv”’. The school textbook collection is described in Kissling, ‘Die Schulbuchsammlung’.

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19. School textbooks were the main source of profit for educational publishers, who were therefore dependent on the education ministry. When private publishers were admitted to the school textbook market in the mid-nineteenth century, with the result that the pedagogical state publisher (k.k. Schulbücherverlag) lost its monopoly, the ministry simultaneously declared that textbooks published by private publishers would henceforth require ministerial approval. 20. Musil, ‘Zur Geschichte des österreichischen Unterrichtsministeriums’. Waltraud Heindl-Langer, a historian whose work focuses on the Austrian administration and its officials, has rightly criticised how the Austrian education ministry ‘is neglected in historical assessments’ (‘in der historischen Aufarbeitung … vernachlässigt wird’). Heindl-Langer, Bürokratie und Beamte, 155. 21. Minerva. Jahrbuch der gelehrten Welt 11 (Strasbourg: Trübner, 1901/02), quoted in Vogel, folder 1, library 1895–98. 22. Vogel, folder 1, 1906 (circular from 25 April 1906). 23. From a modern-day perspective, of course, one rather welcomes a large historical collection; nevertheless, the collection would no doubt have benefited from some ‘pruning’ of its pedagogically irrelevant ‘overgrowth’. 24. Vogel, folder 1, libraries 1891–1910. This division of tasks among the departments at the ministry would, in the following decades, also be reflected in the ministerial library, especially regarding the sourcing and shelving of publications. 25. ‘Obgleich im Status der Bibliothek ernannt, hatte ich durch mehrere Jahre nur das nötigste in der Bibliothek, aber hauptsächlich in Departements gearbeitet’. Similar observations are made by Richard Freiherr von Bienerth, who worked in the ministry’s presidium and was at the same time provisionally entrusted with managing the ministerial library. Vogel, folder 1, libraries 1880–86 and 1887–89. 26. After the specialist library of the department of vocational institutes was entrusted to the ministerial library, the librarian was supposed to catalogue its holdings, but the decisions regarding which works to put on the shelves was retained by the head of the department, the principal Franz J. Freiherr von Haymerle, who was also the editor of the ‘Central Journal for Vocational Schooling in Austria’ (Centralblatt für das gewerbliche Unterrichtswesen in Österreich) (cf. Vogel, folder 1, library 1896–97). Similarly, when in 1906 several important publications were ceded to the schools due to a lack of space, the selection of the materials to be transferred was entrusted to the departments, not to the head librarian (circular from the head of the ministry, Richard Freiherr von Bienerth, 25 April 1906, in Vogel, folder 1, 1906). And when, in 1911, the head librarian asked the steering committee for guidance on whether to transfer texts of ‘Emperor Franz Joseph’s Bohemian Academy of Science, the Spoken Word and Art’ to university libraries, it was stipulated that the department for academic secondary schools (Mittelschulen) would be involved in the decision (Vogel, folder 1, library 1911). 27. ‘Für die Anschaffung von Büchern, Karten u. dgl. ist die Gutheißung des H. Unterstaatssekretärs einzuholen’. Vogel, folder 1, library 1854 (668/C.U.M.-1854). 28. Vogel, folder 1, library 1904–05. 29. The archivists’ good standing was due to their solid training, which had been regulated since the 1850s at the Institute of Austrian Historical Research. For the library staff, by contrast, such training was only introduced in 1929. The examinations they had to pass were regulated by the education ministry, which thus assumed the dual role of setting standards and, as the operator of the ministerial library and archive, enforcing their implementation. 30. Mosenthal’s ‘Tales of Jewish Family Life’ (Erzählungen aus dem jüdischen Familienleben) were published by Ruth Klüger in 2001. His play Deborah was performed four hundred times in New York. 31. Vogel, folder 1, library 1897 (Arch.-Reg. 25 A.D. ex 1898).

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32. Vogel, folder 1, library 1896–97. 33. Minerva, Jahrbuch der gelehrten Welt 11, quoted in Vogel, folder 1, libraries 1899–1910. 34. In 1950, such an influx was recorded under the category ‘Adskriptionen’ (Vogel, folder 2, library statistics for 1950). 35. Vogel, folder 2, activity report 1966. 36. Vogel, folder 2, library 1969. 37. Many of these school libraries, which had been established as part of the school reforms of 1849, were very old, and already contained extensive libraries when these acts came into force (Academic Secondary School Plan §55/4, Secondary School Plan §51). The Imperial Primary School Act of 14 May 1869 standardised the existence of district teachers’ libraries. The requirement to establish school libraries was subsequently extended to primary schools (Ministerial Decree of 20 August 1870, §44) and to teacher training institutes (Ministerial Decree of 26 May 1874, Organisational Statute for Teacher Training Institutes, §51). 38. Vogel, folder 2, 1970. The large influx of pedagogical literature into the collection of educational historical printed material occurred at a time that lies beyond the period covered by this study. 39. Activity report by the Federal Ministry of Education and Art, 1974. Ministry Press Office 1975, 11f. Federal Administrative Library at the Federal Chancellery, catalog number Per. II 32102. 40. Engelbrecht, Geschichte, vol. 5: Von 1918 bis zur Gegenwart (1988), 361. 41. Vogel, folder 2, library (Bundesrechnungsabschluss 1962). In 1966, the education minister had still mandated that book requests submitted by officials via the library be approved by their managers, for financial reasons. Works costing up to 100 schillings were to be approved by the respective department head, up to 500 schillings by the section head and over 500 schillings by the head of the presidium (Vogel, folder 2, library 1966, circular no. 52). 42. Personal communication from Gerhard Silvestri, December 2018. 43. Silvestri considered the acquisition of these old publications a ‘cultural mission’ (personal communication from Gerhard Silvestri, December 2018). 44. Ibid. The functions of the head librarian had also expanded to include researching education information systems, managing standardisation issues, developing IT deployment plans and training librarians. From the mid-1990s to the dissolution of the ministerial library in 2002, the budget was drastically reduced, meaning that ‘the vast majority of [available funds] had to be used for subscriptions’ (personal communication from head librarians Norbert Neumann and Josef Flachenecker, December 2018). The budget reduction coincided with the library’s devaluation in the context of the new organisation chart at the education ministry. 45. These considerations included the differentiation of the education system, the founding of pedagogical academies (1968), the founding of the education studies university in Klagenfurt (1970) and the facilitation of school attendance via (among other measures) the founding of new schools, the suspension of the admission examination in general high schools, the granting of free transport and free textbooks for pupils and the abolition of high school taxes. 46. Parliamentary high school reform commission (1968ff.), school reform commission (1969ff.). ‘Over the course of a decade, education became the focus of day-to-day politics. Its restructuring triggered a wave of development that can only be compared with the introduction of compulsory schooling’ (Engelbrecht, Geschichte, vol. 5, 367). 47. Chorherr’s appointment to this position was a stroke of luck for the collection. Chorherr had previously served as head of the federal library at the Lower Austrian education authority and hence was already familiar with the subject of educational literature.

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48. Our documentation of the educational historical printed material does not include pedagogical journals (for example, the journals of teachers’ societies from the monarchy and republic, of societies specialising in school types, the crown lands or provinces and of political teachers’ societies). The collection of approximately one thousand Austrian pupils’ magazines from the 1970s and 1980s, whose preservation is very fortunate as pupils’ magazines are not systematically collected by Austrian libraries, falls beyond the temporal scope of our study. 49. Since not all the 528 texts in the collection contain a publication date, and since the date of publication could not be established accurately from the texts’ context, it was not possible to date all of the items in the collection. What is certain, however, is that they were all published before 1963 and hence fall within the period covered by this study. 50. On the methods of classification, see Engelbrecht in Lechner, Rumpler and Zdarzil, Zur Geschichte, 11–34. 51. In the First Republic, social democratic notions of education became influential as a result of the brief takeover of the education authority by Otto Glöckel (1919–20) and the social democratic majority in ‘Red Vienna’ (1919–34). The expansion of the educational literature market during the First Republic was similar in many ways to that which took place (in a rather different context) in the late 1960s and 1970s. 52. Vogel, folder 1, library 1913–19. This increase was not only quantitative. The debate over school reform had also intensified, as evidenced by the titles of many of the texts in the collection published between 1900 and 1926, which include ‘The Struggle for Grammar Schools’ (Kampf um das Gymnasium), ‘The Struggle for School Reform’ (Kampf um die Schulreform), ‘The Struggle for Religious Education’ (Kampf um den Religionsunterricht), ‘The Struggle Against the Bookish School’ (Kampf gegen die Lernschule), ‘The Struggle Against Trashy and Smutty Literature’ (Kampf gegen die Schund- und Schmutzliteratur), ‘The Struggle for the Right to German Classes’ (Des Deutschen Unterrichts Kampf um sein Recht) and ‘The Struggle for the Imperial Primary School Act’ (Kampf um das Reichsvolksschulgesetz). (We thank our colleague Stefan Schober for drawing our attention to this wording.) 53. In the second half of 1920, Staub announced that acquisitions would be ‘discontinued due to a lack of funds’ (aus Geldmangel eingestellt). In 1921, he noted that he had ‘not purchased a single book since mid-September’. In 1921, Staub received a subsidy of 50,000 crowns, of which he spent 34,924 to buy 130 works. In 1922, Staub requested an additional subsidy of 50,000 crowns. In late 1922, the library’s unpaid bookshop bills amounted to 42,251 crowns, and further subsidies were requested. A sizeable portion of these funds was used to renew journal subscriptions. The books purchased included not just pedagogical literature but material for the entire collection of the ministerial library (Vogel, folder 1, 1920–21 and 1921–24). 54. This regime was in power until 12 March 1938. 55. But the Nazi regime was in power until 8 May 1945. 56. Nazi literature that returned to the ministerial library from the dissolved Viennese Reich Archive in 1945 was either destroyed, transferred to the Viennese education authority (the legal successor to the Reich prefecture) or donated to the national library, where it was ‘reserved for the special use of the library’ (Vogel, folder 2, 207 B.D./1947). 57. Press Act of 17 December 1862, §18. 58. ‘… daß Bibliotheken nur Aufbewahrungsstätten wertvoller Bücher seien’. MrázekSchwab, ‘Die Francisco-Josephinische Ära’, 468. 59. ‘… in Faszikeln geschnürt aufbewahrt, weil man erst nach einem Menschenalter entscheiden könne, was wertvoll sei oder nicht’. Ibid., 484. See also Pongratz, Geschichte, 102.

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60. Only in 1979 was the pedagogical state publisher established as a federally owned limited company (GmbH), with a majority of education ministry officials on its supervisory board. 61. For more information about the Austrian pedagogical state publisher see Kissling, ‘“… die Jugend”’. 62. Lehrplan für dreiclassige Mädchen (n.p.). 63. Siebert, Bibliothek und Forschung, 7. 64. All chief librarians were male. The library’s first female staff member was hired in the summer of 1918, but only in 1970 was a woman first appointed to a senior position (Vogel, folder 1, library 1912–52 and folder 2, library 1970). On the gender ratio among Austrian library personnel and the path to professional equality for female librarians, see Korotin and Stumpf-Fischer, Bibliothekarinnen. 65. Reh and Scholz, ‘Historische Bildungsforschung’, 116 (with a critical reference to Hermann Nohl and Wilhelm Flitner).

Bibliography Engelbrecht, Helmut. Geschichte des österreichischen Bildungswesens: Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. 6 vols. Vienna: Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1982–95. Heindl-Langer, Waltraud. Bürokratie und Beamte in Österreich, vol. 2: Josephinische Mandarine: 1848 bis 1914. Vienna: Böhlau, 2013. Kissling, Walter. ‘“… die Jugend aus keinen anderen als den vorgeschriebenen Büchern unterweisen”: Das Hilfsmittel Schulbuch als historisches Medium staatlicher Unterrichtskontrolle’, in Richard Olechowski (ed.), Schulbuchforschung (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1995), 116–74. Kissling, Walter. ‘“… ein Motiv für die Erhaltung dieser in ihrer Art gewiß einzigen Büchersammlung zu bieten”: Zum Fortbestand der Schulschriftensammlung des österreichischen Unterrichtsministeriums’, in Deutsche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft, Historische Kommission (ed.), Jahrbuch für Historische Bildungsforschung, vol. 20 (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2015), 307–28. Kissling, Walter. ‘Die Schulbuchsammlung des österreichischen Unterrichtsministeriums und das Bucharchiv des Österreichischen Bundesverlages: Österreichs größte Schulbuchsammlungen und ihre gesicherte bzw. ungesicherte Zukunft’, in Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Buchforschung in Österreich, vol. 2 (Vienna: Praesens, 2015), 23–43. Korotin, Ilse, and Edith Stumpf-Fischer (eds). Bibliothekarinnen in und aus Österreich: Der Weg zur beruflichen Gleichstellung. Vienna: Praesens, 2019. Lechner, Elmar, Helmut Rumpler and Herbert Zdarzil (eds). Zur Geschichte des österreichischen Bildungswesens: Probleme und Perspektiven der Forschung. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1992. Lehrplan für dreiclassige Mädchen-Bürgerschulen in Niederösterreich mit bürgerlichgewerblicher Richtung: An welchen im Schulgarten auch Gemüsebau und Blumencultur betrieben werden soll. Vienna: k.k. Schulbücher-Verlag, 1886. Mrázek-Schwab, Edith. ‘Die Francisco-Josephinische Ära bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts: 1845–1899’, in Josef Stummvoll (ed.), Geschichte der Österreichischen

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Nationalbibliothek, vol. 1: Die Hofbibliothek: 1368–1922 (Vienna: Hollinek, 1968), 419–96. Musil, Josef. ‘Zur Geschichte des österreichischen Unterrichtsministeriums 1848–1948’, in Egon Loebenstein (ed.), 100 Jahre Unterrichtsministerium 1848–1948: Festschrift des Bundesministeriums für Unterricht in Wien (Vienna: Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1948), 7–36. Pongratz, Walter. Geschichte der Universitätsbibliothek Wien. Vienna: Böhlau, 1977. Reh, Sabine, and Joachim Scholz. ‘Historische Bildungsforschung und ihre erziehungswissenschaftlichen Perspektiven’. Erziehungswissenschaft: Mitteilungen der DGfE 29 (2018), vol. 56, 113–20. Siebert, Irmgard (ed.). Bibliothek und Forschung: Die Bedeutung von Sammlungen für die Wissenschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 2011. Vogel, Otto. Die Amtsbibliothek des Unterrichtsministeriums. Chronologische Materialsammlung zur Geschichte, Statistik und Biographie der Mitarbeiter ab 1849. Zusammengestellt und fortgeführt bis Juni 1981 von Otto Vogel, in the Federal Administrative Library at the Federal Chancellery, catalog number B 189.463/vol. 1–3. Wolf, Gerson. Geschichte der k.k. Archive in Wien. Vienna: Braumüller, 1871.

Chapter 3

Private Primer Collecting

An Aid or a Hindrance to Public Collections? Wendelin Sroka

T

he past seventy years have seen the rise of private reading primer collecting in Europe and beyond. From Finland, Latvia and Russia to Germany, Slovakia and the United States, private collectors have built up significant collections of historic primers. A notice in a newspaper or on the internet might announce the exhibition of primers from a private collection, and frequent offers on the antiquarian market suggest a continuing interest in these materials. Yet not much is generally known about this phenomenon. This chapter, written by a primer collector and researcher, aims to fill that gap by exploring various aspects of private primer collecting, the motivations of different types of collectors and the relationship between private and public collections, as well as between private collecting and research. A notice announcing the sale of primers by a German antiquarian bookseller in 2018 addressed both ‘experienced primer collectors’ and ‘children’s book aficionados wishing to broaden their horizons’.1 This description of the target groups raises a series of questions. First, what are the distinguishing characteristics of primer collecting within the larger antiquarian book market? Second, why would private individuals wish to collect primers? Third, what different types of collectors are there? Fourth, what is the relationship between private and public primer collections, and between private collecting and research? And finally, is primer collecting merely a hobby? While reports about private primer collections have been published in several countries and collectors have begun publishing information

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about their collections on the internet, no effort has yet been made to present a general picture of private primer collecting as an international phenomenon. This chapter seeks to fill this gap by examining characteristics of private primer collections and their relationship to public collections, research and educational knowledge collection in general. The chapter draws on three types of sources, including published information, personal experience and information provided by colleagues. The publications examined range from exhibition catalogues and other printed sources, especially material published in Reading Primers International (RPI), the newsletter of the Reading Primers Special Interest Group (RP-SIG),2 to information obtained from the internet. ‘Personal experience’ refers to my dual capacity as an educationalist with a longstanding interest in historical and comparative primer research and as a primer collector. Finally, I am indebted to several of my fellow collectors and researchers for sharing their knowledge on primer collecting.3

General Features of Primer Collecting This section highlights some basic aspects of primer collecting, including collectors’ visibility and connectedness; collection content; acquisition practices and collection management. Not all primer collectors are willing to publicise their activity. A German study of twentieth-century primers, for example, refers to the collection of an unnamed school principal as an important source.4 Similarly, the catalogue of an exhibition organised by the RP-SIG in 2011 refers to ‘a private collection of primers’ as its primary source.5 These anonymous collectors were at least willing to make their collections available for research or exhibitions; others may not even go that far. The result is an obscure landscape of private collections, with holdings that may only come to light when they are offered on the antiquarian market. Some researchers who are also collectors may use their collections for their research while maintaining their anonymity as collectors, while other collectors might be more open. Since primer collection occupies a small and somewhat isolated niche within the broader domain of book collection, historic publications by bibliophile associations on book collection and book history only rarely include articles about primers.6 Except for a few members of the Reading Primers SIG, primer collectors tend to blend in among other bibliophiles. Many primer collectors appear to consider their activity an exclusively personal matter and see no added value in communicating with other collectors or researchers.

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Illustration 3.1. East meets West: The Russian phrase ‘The primer is the beginning of all beginnings’ in Old Cyrillic script is accompanied by the picture of a rooster (Fibelhahn) teaching the Latin alphabet. Front cover of the catalogue of a private primer collection. © Daugavpilskij pedagogičeskij institute (Timoščenko, Bukvar’).

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Which items are of most interest to collectors? From the Estonian aabits (alphabet book) to the Slovenian začetnica (beginner’s book), many languages use special terms to designate the first book given to young readers. These terms tend to change over time, and materials designed for early reading instruction reflect the varying conditions in which reading is taught in different contexts. Some collectors prefer to give a precise definition of the criteria according to which they build a collection, while others rely on more informal criteria. Their collections may or may not include, for example, home schooling textbooks, native language literacy materials for children who have already learnt to read in a second language or picture alphabet books. In this sense, collectors face challenges similar to those of textbook researchers or librarians. Second, a collection may be national or international. A national collection consists of primers published in the same country (although possibly in various languages), while international collections comprise primers from various countries in various languages. Third, a collection may focus on historical or current textbooks, or combine both perspectives. Fourth, a collection may be considered an independent project or form part of a larger collection of, for example, children’s books or materials for primary education. Fifth, collectors vary in their approach towards individual titles and copies of primers (for example, when considering different editions of a given primer). Whereas some collectors will limit their collections to one edition per title (or even per language), others will consider it important to include various editions or even nearly identical prints of the same title. Another question is whether to include reproductions (reprints, photocopies and digital copies). Sixth, primer collections vary in size, ranging from under one hundred to over ten thousand items. Primers are usually acquired in one of three ways: via purchase, exchange or donation. Whereas in the past collectors had to travel abroad in search of material, primers and textbooks can now be easily purchased from antiquarian booksellers via online marketplaces. The price range is also significant. Rare items in good condition may sell for over €500 or even €1,000. In 2018, a Church Slavonic primer published in Vilnius in 1806 was on sale on eBay for $4,499. Collectors may choose to diversify their collections by exchanging duplicates with fellow collectors or, occasionally, public libraries. They may also receive primers as gifts, especially from acquaintances in the teaching profession, who are often happy to donate old teaching materials that would otherwise be disposed of as waste. Alternately, collectors may ask their countries’ diplomatic missions and schools abroad to provide them with primers from the host country for inclusion in exhibitions or other public projects.7

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Acquisition practices vary greatly between collectors, depending, among other factors, on the collector’s aims and resources, and may also change over time. Private collectors often lack expertise in librarianship yet must confront a number of issues relating to that domain, such as organisation and cataloguing. Collections are generally catalogued, and a handwritten register of items received may provide additional information about the books and their history.

Motives for Collecting Primers By defining the focus of their collections, collectors are influenced by several factors, including habits or traditions of collecting which vary from one country to another, according to degrees of the cultural appreciation of primers, to the collected objects and to the professional background of the collector. In Slavonic, Baltic, Finno-Ugric and Germanic-speaking countries, the primer has, since the twentieth century, been considered a cultural and educational object in its own right. In the case of several national languages, including Finnish and Lithuanian, the first book printed in that language was a primer.8 Interest in primers has also been indicated by the publication of reprints of old primers in several countries. In Russia and other East-Slavonic countries, a ‘festive day of the primer’ (prazdnik bukvarja) is celebrated by and for first graders. The level of cultural appreciation for primers varies from country to country, but wherever that appreciation is publicly apparent it attracts the attention not only of researchers, but also of public and private collectors. Why do private persons collect primers? One answer has to do with the fact that the primer is a beginner’s book, and thus a book about beginnings. This characteristic is illustrated by the quasi-religious phrase ‘the primer is the beginning of all beginnings’ (bukvar’ načalo vseh načal’), the title chosen by the Russian-speaking Latvian collector Ludmila Timoščenko for the catalogue of her collection (Illustration 3.1), in which she describes the primer as ‘the first book for each of us with which we embark on the long journey of knowledge acquisition’.9 A similar description can be found in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Kinder lernen lesen’ (Children Learn to Read), which referred to the formative importance of the primer as ‘the first schoolbook, perhaps as the first book in general, in the child’s socialisation and enculturation process’, the importance of which ‘is recognised in all societies’.10 Another reason for collectors’ interest in primers relates to the multifaceted nature of the primer, which both contributes to its general allure

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Illustration 3.2. Poster advertising the exhibition ‘Primers of the Peoples of the World’ at the National Library of Belarus in Minsk from 3 April to 26 September 2018, with items from the collection of Juris Cibuļs (Riga) and the National Library of Belarus. © Nacyjanal’naja Biblijatėka Belarusi, Minsk.

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and offers collectors a range of aspects to engage with, allowing them to approach the same item from different angles and embark on multiple journeys of discovery. This multiplicity is suggested by Table 3.1, which includes both explicit factors (such as the book’s target group and instructional method) and factors that only become evident via analysis (for example, the worldviews and values expressed in the schoolbook’s texts and illustrations). The list of factors proceeds from physical characteristics and paratextual elements (such as author, title and foreword) to issues of content and history. Each factor on this list may contribute to the attractivity of a primer as a collectible. The list is not hierarchical, and not all factors are considered or valued equally by all collectors; while one collector’s focus may be on methods of reading instruction, another may be more interested in primers with illustrations by famous artists or in primers representing linguistic diversity. Collections may also include special holdings reflecting the collector’s special interests, which may involve any number of additional factors, from authorship to target audience. In general, primers can be seen as tools for those in power to teach learners not only to read words via a neutral technique of reading comprehension, but to ‘read the world’ in a normative manner. The power structures underlying a given text may be rendered visible by a series of factors that go well beyond textbook approval. These may include the portrayal of a political leader (whether emperor, king or communist party leader); the design of the frontispiece (‘materiality and design’); the designation of the publisher as, for example, ‘publisher for the Royal Court’ (‘publishers’); the dynamics of a bilingual primer, which might impose a foreign tongue on pupils with a family language other than that of the state (‘languages’) and references to historical figures presented as important parts of the communal heritage (‘worldviews and values’).

A Typology of Collectors Primer collectors come from a range of professional backgrounds, collect different items for different reasons, and use their collections in different ways. While a professional background in education, implying experience with educational media in a didactic context, is not a prerequisite, collectors are usually motivated at least in part by an interest in educational matters. This interest may focus on children’s books, methods of reading instruction, languages, values or politics, or a combination thereof.

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Table 3.1. The conflation of factors motivating people to collect primers. Factor

Explanation

design

A primer may consist of a single book or a series of booklets. Variables in design include size, format, paper type, cover design, binding, font and illustrations. Primers may use several fonts and font sizes, especially to emphasise new letters and/or syllables. Primers may contain text only or include illustrations, whether in colour or black and white. Special attention is often accorded to the design and content of a frontispiece, which may include a title vignette, and to picture-text units.

connection with other educational media

A primer is either published as an individual medium or as part of a set of materials (which might also include, for example, a copybook, dictionary or teacher’s guide). Primers may also be published in a series, and nowadays the print version can also be linked to electronic media, offering new opportunities for learners.

authorship

A primer may or may not bear the name of its author, editor or compiler. Information about authors may include their rank or function (for example, teacher, professor or administrator).

title

While most primers have titles, typically appearing on the title page and sometimes also on the cover, a significant number published in the early modern era and up to the nineteenth century do not. Titles range from the word ‘primer’ or its equivalent to longer titles indicating the primer’s language, target group, target institution or denominational orientation.

foreword

A foreword, often written by the author, provides information about his or her motives in compiling the textbook, and may include recommendations for teachers and/or parents regarding the primer’s use.

publishers

Publishers of primers include state publishing houses, private enterprises and religious and cultural organisations. Primers are also occasionally promoted, licensed and administered by the authors themselves.

textbook approval

A primer may or may not bear a seal of approval from an authorising institution. Approvals may be granted by public authorities (from state to regional level), by religious authorities or, in certain cases, by both.

target group(s)

Target groups range from preschool children and primary school pupils (usually first graders) to illiterate or semi-literate adults. A primer may address a specific target group (for example, children with special needs or illiterate soldiers). A primer may also include a preface addressing instructors and parents.

Private Primer Collecting

target institutions

The title or subtitle may refer to the institution(s) where the primer is meant to be used. This may be a nursery school, primary school, Sunday school, church school, institution of adult education or the family home. A collection might be limited to primers for use in primary schools or include primers for family-based instruction.

language(s)

Primers are either monolingual or plurilingual. Monolingual primers are generally aimed at promoting literacy in a state language or minority language or dialect; multilingual primers are mostly bilingual (family language and state language), but sometimes also trilingual or even quadrilingual (for example, family, regional, state and church languages).

areas of competence and related subjects

A primer may focus on reading only or combine reading instruction with one or more other disciplines such as writing, language, mathematics, drawing, religion, biology, history or civics, thereby representing several school subjects and addressing several pedagogical aims. Examples of such special primers include reading and writing primers and catechism primers.

worldviews and values

Texts and illustrations in primers often contain explicit and implicit messages regarding worldviews and values, ranging from religious beliefs or socio-political values to gender roles, family models and issues of identity construction.

didactic methods

Primers represent specific methods of reading instruction and thus constitute historical documents of those methods.

editions

In terms of publishing history, primers range from short-lived single editions to publications with numerous reprints. A title might be published in various versions simultaneously; for example, for urban and rural schools, with each version applying a different didactic method. A title might also be published by several publishing houses and/or in various countries.

item history, age and present condition

Information about the history of an item may be provided by the handwritten name of an earlier owner or, if the book in question was used in a school, by the names of the pupils who had used it. A primer in poor condition may be valued because of its age, rarity or content-related features.

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While a link may exist between primer collection and primer research, not all collectors who publish articles about primers are recognised members of a research community. Finally, in terms of usage, the spectrum ranges from collectors who maintain their holdings exclusively for private viewing to those who donate frequently to public exhibitions or allow parts of their collections to be published on the internet. By examining the starting point of each collection, it is possible to distinguish between four types of collectors: the children’s book collector; the teacher-collector; the author-collector and the researcher-collector.11 The children’s book collector. Many primer collectors are bibliophiles specialising in children’s books. In such cases, design (particularly illustrations) is the most important parameter in determining the collector’s choice. This focus is linked to the fact that primers from numerous countries were illustrated by prominent artists and may thus, as art books, form a separate category alongside alphabet books. The teacher-collector. A background in education and experience with primers as educational media may provide a strong impetus for learning more about the diversity of primers past and present. The character of these collections may be either national (in which case the collector’s purpose might be to examine the underlying methods of reading instruction in a given language) or international (reflecting a more general comparative interest in primers). The author-collector. Authors of primers tend to examine competing publications, as well as those no longer on the market. This professional interest may result in a collection, the focus of which may again be either national or international. The researcher-collector. This category includes researchers from a wide range of disciplines, from pedagogy, sociology and history to theology, linguistics and visual arts. Depending on the collector’s research interests, the collection might focus on primers only or include a larger body of collectibles, such as schoolbooks or other printed educational documents. It is important to emphasise that these types are analytical constructs based on a given collector’s point of departure. The following five profiles demonstrate the diversity of primer collectors. Juris Cibuļs, a pedagogue and linguist in Latvia, started to collect primers in the 1980s and has since built up the largest private collection of its

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kind in the world, with more than 10,000 items from 220 countries and other political entities in 1,139 languages. Items from the collection were featured in 190 exhibitions in museums, libraries and schools in Latvia, Russia (1987), Greece (2006), Estonia (2013) and Belarus (2018); partners and organisers have included the national libraries of Latvia (2014) and Belarus (2018). Cibuļs has also authored and co-authored primers in Latvian, Latgalian and the Purlovas dialect and authored several books on primers, including a history of the Latgalian primer and comparative presentations of various languages and cultures based on material from his collection.12 The collection’s website features a catalogue of the collection and additional information in English, Russian, Latvian, Latgalian and German. Zdeňka Markovičová is a Czech English teacher. A former engineer in the Czech army, in 2002 she served as an analyst for the Civil Military Cooperation Group in Kosovo, where she became involved in the reconstruction of schools and the supply of educational media, and started to collect primers, gradually expanding her collection from local (Albanian and Serbian) schoolbooks to texts from other countries. In 2013, she organised the first exhibition of materials from her collection at the municipal museum in the Moravian town of Vyškov; since then, twelve exhibitions with items from her collection have been held throughout the Czech Republic. The collection’s website (in Czech) documents the exhibitions and features digital reproductions of the cover or title pages of all the items in the collection. Markovičová has also published a video introducing her collection on YouTube. Franz Pöggeler (1926–2009) was a professor of general education at the University of Education in Aachen and at RTWH Aachen University. He achieved international recognition for his work as an advocate of lifelong learning and adult education. He also developed an interest in schoolbooks and schoolbook research, and by the end of the mid-1990s his collection of German educational media comprised over twenty thousand items. He eventually came to focus on primer collection and research. In the 1980s he contributed items from his collection to presentations about the history of German primers organised by major public libraries in Germany. The catalogues of the collection published by several of these libraries constitute important sources of information; the preface to the second edition of the catalogue published by the Württemberg Regional Library in Stuttgart in 1982 refers to the catalogue as a ‘proto-bibliography of primers’.13 Pöggeler’s focus was on the political content of primers and the ways in which the medium has been used for political propaganda.14

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Wendelin Sroka, the present author. My academic background is in comparative education with a focus on Eastern Europe, and my interest in primers dates to the times of the Cold War. I discovered my first primer, a Soviet Russian reading book, in a bookshop in East Germany, where I had come as a Western visitor. This book inspired me to learn more about political messages in primers from the countries of the Eastern bloc, and led me to begin collecting primers, an activity that went hand in hand with my professional career in comparative educational research and, later, federal administration. My interest in primers gradually broadened to include two other subject areas, reflected by special collections of primers published in Prussia and German American church primers. My interest in the material aspect of reading instruction led me to compile a complementary collection of ‘reading boxes’ (Schülerlesekästen). Apart from a few exhibitions, the collections have so far been mainly used for research purposes.15 Honoré Vinck was born in Belgium and studied Catholic theology in Paris. Between 1972 and 1999, he lived and worked in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a Catholic missionary, as a supervisor of numerous primary schools in the equatorial forest, and as director of the Centre Æquatoria Research Centre in Bamanya. The library of this centre contained a collection of colonial schoolbooks in African languages, to which Vinck also contributed. Upon his return to Belgium in 1999, he started to compile a personal collection of schoolbooks in African languages from the Belgian Congo. In 2018 the collection comprised around five hundred items, including a special collection of sixty primers in fifteen languages. Vinck uses his collection primarily as a source for his research on African colonial schoolbooks and the history of education in the former Belgian Congo.16 Despite their diverse professional backgrounds and motives, and despite the differences in the size, content and usage of their collections, these collectors share a common passion for collecting and a strong attachment to their respective collections, which constitute diverse yet structured worlds that reflect their personal interests and biographies.

Private and Public Collections and Research in Germany The relationships between private and public primer collectors and collections are manifold. Of particular interest are collectors’ respective acquisition practices, the degree of cooperation between them and the process whereby private collections are transferred to public institutions. The

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relationship between private collecting and research is also significant. Public institutions, even those specialising in the history of education or in school textbooks, tend not to consider their primer collections constituent parts of their holdings. Exceptions include the primer museum (Muzej ‘Alifba’) in Arsk, Tatarstan and the library of the Georg Eckert Institute (GEI) for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig. The uniqueness of the GEI primer collection was underscored by Gisela Teistler, director of the GEI library from 1981 to 2006 and author of a comprehensive bibliography of German primers published in 2003. Teistler reports that she and her team took ‘every suitable opportunity to complement the historical collection’, helping it to become ‘the largest of its kind in a German library’.17 Teistler also brings up the ambivalent attitude of public institutions towards private collectors, who are often perceived as both competitors and contributors. As competitors, Teistler notes, collectors have occasionally impeded the GEI’s efforts to complement its holdings by purchasing items faster or by offering to pay more than the institute (which is publicly financed).18 On the other hand, private collectors can also be helpful. As an example, Teistler cites the author and primer collector Ludwig Boyer, whom she thanks in the introduction to her bibliography and credits with having greatly contributed to ‘an enormous increase in the quality of the [GEI’s] holdings’ via his research and ‘because tirelessly investigating in libraries and other places he detected old primers and supplied us with photocopies of these items’.19 Many major national, university and special libraries contain impressive collections of primers, offering researchers a wealth of both primary and digitised sources. Yet libraries contain only a part of the historical primer production in a given country or language. According to Teistler’s estimate, up to 10 per cent of German primers may not be included in her bibliography, while 5,952 of her approximately 12,500 references are based on secondary sources only, without any reference to a library collection. The conclusion, Teistler suggests, is that ‘a high proportion of primers has existed that have not been preserved in any archive or library and as a result must now be considered lost’.20 Have these items really been lost? Online marketplaces have developed greatly since 2003, and items previously considered untraceable have been known to resurface on the market. Such items account for part of the items that appear in Teistler’s bibliography without inventory information, as well as of the ‘up to 10 per cent’ not included in the bibliography. Nowadays, as a result of a shift in library acquisition policies, the role of public libraries in the market has virtually ceased, leaving room for private collectors spurred by a specific interest (for example, a

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research interest in primer content in a given period or region) to hunt down so-called lost items. Regarding the collection of educational media other than textbooks, private collectors occasionally act more efficiently than public collections. In Germany, scholars of the history of reading and writing instruction in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can refer to the Research Centre for Historical Visual Media at the University of Würzburg for wall charts and to major libraries for textbooks. Yet there is no public institution that provides a comprehensive overview of other historical, massproduced materials for reading instruction, such as ‘reading machines’ (Lesemaschinen) and ‘reading boxes’ (Lesekästen), which were considered highly innovative at the time and were often patented by their manufacturers (see Illustration 3.3). Such materials, which were often marketed alongside textbooks by educational publishers, are well documented in older histories of reading instruction.21 The small collections of certain regional or local school museums provide anything but a comprehensive picture, leaving a gap in the field of material educational knowledge that is surprising considering the importance attached to the so-called ‘material turn’ by historians of education.22 Ludwig Boyer’s collaboration with the GEI library is but one example of the frequent exchange of information and materials between private collectors and public libraries. While in the past collectors and libraries frequently exchanged duplicate copies of items in their collections, this practice seems to have largely ended due to changing library acquisition policies, which in turn reflect a diminished interest in complementing collections of old schoolbooks. The history of public libraries is often linked with the transfer of private collections. In some instances, private primer collections were eventually donated to public institutions, either by the collectors themselves or by their heirs. In all these cases, the donors renounced their rights to the holdings in order to ensure their security and availability to the public. The following examples illustrate the fate of three large collections created by individual researchers. The picture they present is mixed and reveals that public institutions do not necessarily function as safe havens for collections. Example 1. Pöggeler Collection, Germany In 1997, Franz Pöggeler donated his educational media collection of over twenty thousand items, including a large collection of German primers, to the Bavarian School Museum in Ichenhausen (part of the Bavarian National Museum). In return, the museum agreed to use the collection for research.23 Yet efforts to obtain funds for the indexing and maintenance of

Illustration 3.3. Two editions of a German ‘cube reading box’ (Würfellesekasten) produced in Thuringia in the 1920s. Left: front cover illustration of an untitled edition featuring letter cubes with letters in Antiqua script. Right: an open ‘Steglitzer Lesekasten’ with cubes with letters in Gothic (black) and Sütterlin (red) script and compartments for forming words using tweezers. © Wendelin Sroka.

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the collection proved unsuccessful. As a result, the books are still stored in cases, unused and uncatalogued, making it impossible for researchers to reference them. This is all the more regrettable considering that although items from the collection have been exhibited in the past,24 no bibliographical information about them is available. Pöggeler’s academic estate, which includes his works, correspondence, life documents and other materials, fared better. It was transferred to the German Institute for Adult Education in Bonn in 2001. The catalogue of the collection, published by the institute that same year, reveals that the estate also includes a collection of photographic reproductions of historical school textbooks and primers.25 Example 2. Timoščenko Collection, Latvia In 2009, Ludmila Timoščenko, professor of primary education at the University of Daugavpils, Latvia, donated her collection of two thousand primers to the university, which according to the donor had allocated a building for a new primer museum.26 That same year, the collection was transferred to the existing university museum, where a first exhibition of primers from the collection was organised later that year.27 In the following years, a number of similar events were organised in libraries in Daugavpils and Riga, including exhibitions with a regional focus such as the 2012 exhibit, ‘Primers of Asian Peoples’ (Āzijas tautu ābeces).28 Yet the university never realised its plan to establish a primer museum. In the meantime, the museum housing Timoščenko’s collection has closed and no information about the collection is currently available. Example 3. Venezky Collection, USA The story of the primer and reader collection of Richard L. Venezky (1938–2004), a professor of educational studies, computer and information sciences and linguistics at the University of Delaware, is more uplifting. After Venezky’s death, his widow donated his collection to the Cubberley Education Library of Stanford University. The ‘Venezky Collection’, as it became known, is considered one of the library’s ‘notable collections’.29 In 2009, the Cubberley Education Library created an online exhibit entitled ‘American Primers and Readers: Featuring the Words and Collection of Richard Venezky’,30 which one scholar described as ‘an introduction to arguably the most extensive and certainly the most extensively documented primer collection in the United States’.31 The exhibit, which was structured according to eras and themes, constitutes a noteworthy example of a research-based and sustainable textbook collection.

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While the above examples are not necessarily representative, they do hint at the challenges that characterise the interaction between collectors and libraries. These challenges include the following. First, duplicates created by the transfer of private collections pose a general problem for public libraries. Second, in the wake of drastic changes in literacy acquisition practices, in most countries the primer has lost its former status as the ‘first book’ given to children. The importance of the primer as a document of educational and cultural history has thereby diminished, as has its attractiveness for public library collections. Third, the indexing and safe storage of books, not to mention the organisation of events aimed at bringing collections to the public, are increasingly seen as a cost factor, while the advantages of digitisation (which include sustainability and the facilitation of new, quantitative approaches to analysis) raise the question of why a public library should accept printed materials from a bygone era from a private person. Finally, in view of the fact that private collecting and research may seem in a sense equivalent (as they represent different modes of dealing with the same object) and considering that research materials are usually provided by research institutes, it is increasingly unclear why researchers should have to engage with both worlds and lead, so to speak, a double life. First, as mentioned above, scholars of primers will often find the objects of their research dispersed between various public institutions and having them available at any time and in one place can be an advantage. Second, as different as these two fields of action are (collecting is seen as a private, individual passion removed from the public eye, whereas research represents a world of rationality and method, in full view of the research community and, when publicly financed, of state agencies), they also have much in common. Neither is a nine-to-five activity; both involve curiosity and the will to gain new insights and a readiness to pay a certain price for those insights. Third, the collector’s passion and the researcher’s curiosity may complement and inspire each other. The items in a collection may be approached from various angles depending on the research question, and vice versa, the examination of individual objects may lead to new research questions. Yet alongside these potential advantages to combining the roles of collector and researcher, there are also disadvantages. In most countries, primer research is not well connected to broader and more acknowledged research fields and is often embedded in purely national traditions. Studies of primer history may lack the qualities expected from and found in other research areas. In this context, a collector’s enthusiasm may even be detrimental to the perception of primer study as a serious research

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field. The development of this field, which requires combining the expertise of collectors and researchers, thus remains highly challenging.

Primer Collecting: More Than Just a Fleeting Passion? As this chapter demonstrates, primer collectors as a group resist categorisation, and a collector’s attitude towards his or her activity may range from privacy and anonymity to active efforts to make the collections available to the general public and/or the research community. In certain cases, therefore, primer collecting is indeed nothing more than a private activity, whereas in other instances it is linked to the public or to research. These relationships are not without conflicts and tensions, yet they may also benefit both sides. Is primer collecting more than just a fleeting passion? The element of time implied in this question refers to two aspects of collecting: the activity of the individual collector and primer collecting as such. Whether or not the duration of a person’s activity as a collector can be considered ‘fleeting’ will depend on, among other considerations, the observer’s perspective. While it may indeed appear so in comparison with the relative longevity of stable public collections, collectors themselves may come to approach this question differently. For some, primers as paper-bound, stable collectibles may actually become a symbol of longevity, an antithesis to the constantly increasing speed of technical innovation. Yet primer collecting may indeed turn out to be a short-lived historical phenomenon. Almost all active primer collectors today are either close to or already have reached pension age. Primers have generally lost their importance for educational practice, and children nowadays first encounter written texts when they use electronic media. Why should people who grew up in the digital age develop an interest in collecting primers? Wendelin Sroka, born in 1952, is a German educationist with a specialisation in comparative education. Alongside a career in research and administration, from the 1980s he started to study and collect reading primers, mainly from European countries. In 2009 he initiated the Reading Primers Special Interest Group, which is a group within the International Society for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media. Sroka’s current research interests focus on transnational features of the reading primer over time, including catechetical texts and pictorial motifs.

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Notes  1. Versand-Antiquariat Bebuquin, ‘Fibeln, Fibeln, Fibeln’, https://www.bebuquin.de/ gebiete/fibeln/ (accessed 26 July 2018). Quotes from sources written in languages other than English are provided in this chapter in translation.  2. The Reading Primers Special Interest Group was founded in 2009 under the umbrella of its parent organisation, the International Society for Research on Schoolbooks and Educational Media (IGSBi). Since its beginnings the network is understood as a forum for researchers, librarians, collectors and other interested parties.  3. I wish to thank Juris Cibuļs, Riga (Latvia), Zdenka Markovičová, Vyškov (Czech Republic) and Honoré Vinck, Herent (Belgium) for their comments on primer collecting and for agreeing to be presented as primer collectors in this chapter.  4. Freitag, Fibeln, 18.  5. Geißler, Sroka and Wojdon, Lesen lernen, 5.  6. Articles on primers in publications edited by German associations of bibliophiles include an overview of rooster primers in Philobiblon, a quarterly published on behalf of the Maximilian Association and a review of Gisela Teistler’s bibliography of German primers in Marginalien, a quarterly of the Pirckheimer Association. See Benzing, ‘Zur Entstehung’ and Wegehaupt, ‘Gisela Teistler’.  7. For a German case, see Hofer and Schweizer, Kinder lernen lesen, 5; for a Polish case, see Wojdon, ‘A Forgotten International Collection’, 33–34.  8. For Finnish, see Agricola and Häkkinen, Abckiria, 7. For Lithuanian, see Rabačiauskaitė and Korsakaitė, Lietuviški elementoriai, 7.  9. Timoščenko, Bukvar’, 3. 10. Hofer and Schweizer, Kinder lernen lesen, 6. While such causal attributions are frequently made by collectors, in the perspective of educational research it is necessary to avoid, in the absence of empirical evidence, statements regarding the long-term effects of isolated input factors such as primers on education and the socialisation process. 11. Types are understood here as analytical constructs in the sense of Max Weber’s ‘ideal types’, meaning that under certain circumstances a collector might be assigned to more than one type. 12. Cibuļs, Latgaliešu ābeces, Tautu brīnumainās pasaules and Valodu un tautu brīnumainā pasaule; Cibuļs and Muzikante, Ābece 1. Klasei; Cybuļs and Leikuma, Skreineite. 13. May and Schweitzer, Wie die Kinder lesen lernten, ii. 14. Franz Pöggeler, ‘Fibeln und Zeitgeist’, in May and Schweitzer, Wie die Kinder lesen lernten, iv–vii; Pöggeler, ‘Politik in Fibeln’; Sroka, ‘Obituary’. 15. Sroka, ‘Political Values’, ‘Fibeln und Fibel-Forschung’. 16. Vinck, ‘Manuels scolaires’. 17. Teistler, ‘Schulbücher’, 13. 18. Ibid. 19. Ibid. 20. Ibid., 14. 21. See, for example, Fechner, Die Methoden, 276–89 and Sander, Die Lesemaschine. 22. See, for example, Reh and Wilde, Die Materialität des Schreiben- und Lesenlernens. 23. Teistler, ‘Schulbücher’, 26. 24. For example, the catalogue of an exhibition organised by the Württemberg State Library in collaboration with the Pöggeler collection in Stuttgart in 1982, which featured items from both collections, provides no information about the provenance of the individual items. See May and Schweitzer, Wie die Kinder lesen lernten. 25. Heuer, Findbuch, 136.

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26. ‘L. Timoshchenko podarila gorodu unikalnuju kollekziju azbuk’ [L. Timoschenko has given the city a unique primer collection], D-Fakti. Novosti Daugavpilsa i Latgalii, 17 August 2009. 27. ‘DU Muzejā atklāta ābeču izstāde’ [Primer exhibition opens at the DU Museum], Daugavpils University news release, 4 November 2009, https://du.lv/4-11-2009-dumuzeja-atklata-abecu-izstade/ (accessed 4 November 2021). 28. ‘Āzijas tautu ābeces Latgales Centrālajā bibliotēkā’ [Primers of Asian peoples in the Latgale Central Library], Latgale Central Library news release, 1 November 2012, http://www.lcb.lv/?lang=lv&nod=jaunumi&page=1&cid=1379 (accessed 3 September 2018). 29. Stanford Library website, https://library.stanford.edu/notable-collections. 30. Stanford Library https://web.archive.org/web/20190724164128/http://venezky.stanford. edu/ (accessed 18 December 2021). 31. Calfee, ‘American Primers’, 15.

Bibliography Agricola, Mikael, and Kaisa Häkkinen (eds). Abckiria. Kriittinen editio. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2007. Benzing, Josef. ‘Zur Entstehung der Hahnenfibel’. Philobiblon 3 (1959), 9–19. Calfee, Robert C. ‘American Primers: The Collections of Richard Lawrence Venezky’. Reading Primers International 2 (2010), 15–18. Cibuļs, Juris. Latgaliešu ābeces 1768–2008. Riga: Zinātne, 2009. Cibuļs, Juris. Tautu brīnumainās pasaules. Riga: Raudava, 2014. Cibuļs, Juris. Valodu un tautu brīnumainā pasaule. Riga: Raudava, 2016. Cibuļs, Juris, and Gundega Muzikante. Ābece 1. Klasei. Riga: Zvaigzne ABC, 1996. Cybuļs, Jurs, and Lidea Leikuma. Skreineite. Vuicūs laseit. Reiga: Latviešu valodas aģentūra, 2017. Fechner, Heinrich. Die Methoden des ersten Leseunterrichts: Eine quellenmäßige Darstellung ihrer Entwickelung. Berlin: Wiegandt & Grieben, 1882. Freitag, Inga. Fibeln im 20. Jahrhundert: eine formale und inhaltliche Analyse ausgewählter Fibeln in Bezug auf die Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Regensburg: Roderer, 2008. Geißler, Gert, Wendelin Sroka and Joanna Wojdon (eds). Lesen lernen … mehrsprachig! Fibeln und Lesebücher aus Europa und Amerika. Katalog zur Ausstellung der Arbeitsgruppe Fibeln im Rahmen der Tagung “Mehrsprachigkeit und Schulbuch” vom 22. bis 24.9.2011 an der Freien Universität Bozen in Brixen/ Bressanone. Bonn: Selbstverlag, 2011. Heuer, Klaus (ed.). Findbuch zum Nachlass von Franz Pöggeler, bearbeitet von Klaus Heuer. Bonn: Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung, 2001. Hofer, Adolf, and Robert Schweizer. Kinder lernen lesen: Fibeln aus aller Welt. Ausstellungskatalog. Esslingen: Kreissparkasse Esslingen-Nürtingen, 1985. May, Markus, and Robert Schweitzer. Wie die Kinder lesen lernten. Die Geschichte der Fibel. Ausstellungskatalog. Ausstellung der Württembergischen Landesbibliothek in Zusammenarbeit mit der Sammlung Pöggeler. Stuttgart: Württembergische Landesbibliothek, 1984.

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Pöggeler, Franz. ‘Politik in Fibeln’, in Franz Pöggeler (ed.), Politik im Schulbuch (Bonn: Bundeszentale für politische Bildung, 1985), 21–50. Rabačiauskaitė, Aurelija, and Ingrida Korsakaitė (eds). Lietuviški elementoriai. Kaunas: Šviesa 2000. Reh, Sabine, and Denise Wilde (eds). Die Materialität des Schreiben- und Lesenlernens: Zur Geschichte schulischer Unterweisungspraktiken seit der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2016. Sander, August. Die Lesemaschine in ihrer historischen Entwicklung und in ihrer Stellung zu den pädagogischen Strömungen der Gegenwart. Langensalza: Beyer, 1914. Sroka, Wendelin. ‘Political Values in East German and Estonian Primers in the 1980s: A Comparative Overview’, in Jaan Mikk (ed.), Väärtuskasvatus oppekirjanduses (Tartu: Tartu Ülikool, 1999), 97–100. Sroka, Wendelin. ‘Obituary: Franz Pöggeler (1926–2009)’. Reading Primers International 2 (2010), 9–10. Sroka, Wendelin. ‘Fibeln und Fibel-Forschung in Europa – eine Annäherung’. Bildung und Erziehung 64 (2011), 23–38. Teistler, Gisela. Fibel-Findbuch. Deutschsprachige Fibeln von den Anfängen bis 1944. Eine Bibliographie. Osnabrück: Wenner, 2003. Teistler, Gisela. Schulbücher als bildungsgeschichtliche Quellen: das Beispiel der Fibel (Eckert. Beiträge 6), Braunschweig: Georg Eckert Institut, 2009, 13. http:// repository.gei.de/handle/11428/88. Timoščenko, Ludmila. Bukvar’ – načalo vseh načal. Daugavpils: Daugavpilskij Pedagogičeskij Institut, 1991. Vinck, Honoré. ‘Manuels scolaires coloniaux africains: 26 livrets congolais traduits en français’. Annales Aequatoria 30 (2009), 5–610. Wegehaupt, Heinz. ‘Gisela Teistler: Fibel-Findbuch “Fi-Fi” … Eine Bibliographie’. Marginalien 171 (2003), 83–85. Wojdon, Joanna. ‘A Forgotten International Collection of Reading Primers’. Reading Primers International 15 (2018), 33–34.

Chapter 4

Collecting Professional Pedagogical Knowledge around 1900 Adolph Rebhuhn and the German School Museum (Later German Teachers’ Library) Monika Mattes The question whether it is the individual or the masses that constitute the more crucial factor in historical development is a matter of much debate. … I reject the idea that the masses are everything and that the individual actor is merely inspired and led by them from one success to the next, which would suggest that the individual lacks a natural dedication to his work and the ability to make independent decisions. My experience in my own field of work allows for no other position. —Adolf Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’1

I

n this reflection on his area of work, published in 1924, the librarian Adolf Rebhuhn was referring to the German School Museum, a special library for schoolteachers2 founded by the Berlin branch of the German Teachers’ Association (Deutscher Lehrerverein, DLV) in 1875. With the above quotation (from Rebhuhn’s ‘Retrospective on the First Fifty Years of the German Teachers’ Library’, written only a few months before his death), the museum’s longstanding chief librarian offers us a self-portrait and a reflection on his central role in the institution and on his professional career in general. With his references to contemporary cultural criticism of the ‘masses’ and ‘massification’ (which had intensified in the 1920s in the wake of Germany’s defeat in the First World War and the fall of the monarchy),3 Rebhuhn identifies with the Weberian concept of the ‘active individual’ (an objective, ascetic personality who sees his profession as a vocation). This notion might have corresponded to the self-image of urban employees in science-related disciplines after 1900 (for example, in the

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expanding university libraries).4 At the same time, Rebhuhn’s description evokes the figure of the ‘collector’, a personality whose talent and flair set him apart from the mass of ‘ordinary librarians’. Indeed, the personality factor seems to have played a major role in the success of the German Teachers’ Library. Rebhuhn transformed what had begun as an independent initiative to ‘raise the level of primary schools’5 and teachers in the early period of the German Empire into a comprehensive collection comprising various forms of educational media, including textbooks, primers, manuscripts and old prints. In its diversity, the collection far exceeded its original objective and, presumably, the ambitions of most schoolteachers. This chapter examines the individual views and attitudes of the collector whom his contemporaries regarded as the ‘creator’ of the German Teachers’ Library6 and investigates his activities from the broader perspective of library and epistemological history and praxeology. The chapter will thereby ascertain the degree to which collections should be viewed as the ‘result of scientific and cultural practice that is systematic and yet contingent’ on other factors.7 Collections can generally be understood as representations of knowledge resulting from practices of selection, acquisition and cataloguing which also contain information about those same practices. Book collection as a cultural practice has hitherto been studied mainly via the example of Early Modern princely court libraries, with a focus on the provenance, cataloguing and maintenance of valuable holdings and on their historical meaning for emerging ‘expert cultures’.8 The German School Museum library, which was founded during the early period of the German Empire, is indicative of the high number of libraries established by associations or companies as the library sector became increasingly functionally differentiated over the course of the nineteenth century.9 Against the backdrop of the dramatic transformation of the pedagogical canon around the turn of the century, this chapter examines a double question. What purpose did the DLV and the future book collector Rebhuhn ascribe to the collection activities of a school museum (or teachers’ library) in the context of, on the one hand, attempts to professionalise schoolteachers and, on the other hand, a pedagogical field in the process of establishing and differentiating itself as a scientific discipline in the German Empire? What was the relationship between the mandate and aspirations of a collection that aimed to document, archive and (possibly) museumise pedagogical knowledge and the items (books, printed materials and manuscripts) that it acquired? The chapter will attempt to answer these questions in four stages. First, it traces the backgrounds and motives for establishing a German

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school museum in the mid-1870s and the reasons for the rapid expansion of the museum’s holdings. Second, it examines the museum’s collection strategies, particularly those of its ‘chief librarian’. Third, it focuses on the historic character of the collection, mainly based on the inventory compiled by Rebhuhn. Finally, it briefly outlines the relevance of the collection today.

The Historical Framework: The Emergence and Development of the German School Museum In January 1876, the Berlin branch of the DLV announced, in the first issue of its new periodical ‘German School Museum: Literary Supplement to the Pedagogical Newspaper’ (Deutsches Schulmuseum: Literarische Beilage zur Pädagogischen Zeitung) that the German School Museum was to be established. Under the headline ‘What We Want’, the museum committee outlined the concept of a tripartite collection facility. Here a central collection point shall be developed which will bring together ancient and modern teaching and instructional materials for the purpose of comparative criticism and in order to present the various phases [in the development] of the school system (school museum). Here teachers will be able to choose from a rich selection of materials (teaching material exhibition) and, in contentious cases, to consult rare and more comprehensive sources (library).10

An exhibition of teaching and learning resources compiled in 1874 by a group of DLV members known as the ‘School Museum Committee’ provided the starting point and material foundation for the institution. The idea to establish a permanent collection was championed by Hermann Gallee, a prominent member of the association. Gallee, a teacher and later chair of the Berlin Teachers’ Association (Berliner Lehrerverein, BLV) which was founded in 1880, emphasised the need to allow teachers to ‘inspect and judge for themselves the teaching materials available for primary instruction, in order to be able to make an appropriate selection’.11 The second issue of the periodical included a statute emphasising the threefold objective of the institution, which was to include an up-to-date ‘permanent exhibition of teaching materials’, a school museum and a library designed to provide teachers with ‘pedagogical source materials, especially of the kind that cannot be acquired privately’.12 The museum in Berlin, set up ‘by teachers for teachers’, emerged out of a number of different historical contexts. For instance, it can be seen in the context of a wave of foundations of local and regional school

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museums in the second half of the nineteenth century (the document announcing the establishment of the museum in 1876 explicitly refers to the foundation of a school museum in Vienna the previous year13). The school museums, which in most cases developed out of exhibitions of primary school teaching materials, emerged either from local municipal initiatives or were founded by teacher associations, in which case they can be seen as an expression of efforts to professionalise teachers within the schoolteacher movement.14 Such forms of individual self-education enabled the teacher associations to provide those of their seminar-trained colleagues who lacked access to a university education with the means to acquire further training and knowledge, at a time when local education authorities had not yet assumed this task.15 Alternately, the museum’s founding can be seen in the context of the establishment of school museums in various countries in the wake of the world exhibitions of the nineteenth century. Since the world exhibition in Paris in 1867, education had been conceived of as an independent category, whereby each German state was represented in a separate exhibit rather than as part of a national exhibition (this separation continued even after the formation of the German Empire).16 In addition to the idea of a national collection centre (which would assume institutional form in 1915 as the Prussian Central Institute for Education and Instruction), one must also consider the efforts that were being made to develop a functionally differentiated library system. The number of smaller, specialised libraries founded by associations and companies grew rapidly in the last three decades of the nineteenth century.17 Finally, a crucial stimulus for the museum in Berlin was provided by the creation of the Central Pedagogical Library in Leipzig by the Leipzig Teachers’ Association in 1871.18 As Rebhuhn would note in retrospect, the founding committee’s early plans were ambitious but ‘rather careless’ in terms of their applicability.19 In the first three decades of its existence the museum faced numerous difficulties, especially with respect to the storage of artefacts, teaching media and books, which had been housed in the assembly hall of the Forty-Ninth Community School as a (long-term) interim solution.20 Due to these inappropriate storage conditions, exhibitions were limited to sporadic special exhibits lasting ‘just a few days’. The lack of space also meant that the goal of establishing a permanent exhibition would remain unrealised.21 In addition, the DLV suffered from a lack of funds (its budget depended on a small grant from the Prussian Teaching Ministry). Beginning in 1901, the association’s financial situation began to improve thanks to an increase in ministerial funding, an additional contribution from the

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municipality and an internal decision to allocate a portion of the association’s membership fee to the library.22 Yet even these funds failed to cover the library’s expenses, and conditions remained difficult. Until 1908, when the DLV relocated to a new building, the library’s opening hours were limited to just one day a week during the summer, as there was no light or heating in winter. Initially, all library-related and administrative tasks were performed on a voluntary basis by the association members themselves. Despite these adverse conditions, the library continued to expand. By the year 1900, over six thousand volumes were being borrowed each year.23 The rate of acquisition also steadily increased. While in 1879 the library’s collection comprised two thousand volumes, by 1884 that number had risen to five thousand, and by 1896 to twenty thousand. By 1900, the inventory contained twenty-five thousand volumes.24 Following the collection’s relocation in 1908, the library board decided to stop maintaining the teaching materials as a separate subject area and renamed the museum the ‘German Teachers’ Library’,25 an idea that had apparently been influenced by Rebhuhn’s personal interests as a collector. In retrospect, Rebhuhn interpreted this organisational break as a necessary precondition for the library’s future success. As he would later write, ‘The sick branch of that thirty-three-year-old tree, the German School Museum, was mercilessly severed in order to give the other branch, the library, more air and light’.26

Acquisition Strategies, or Rebhuhn the Book Collector A major factor in the successful development of the museum was indeed its chief book custodian Rebhuhn who, as DLV records note, had served the museum since 1879 and to whom the library ‘owed its existence in its present form’.27 We can assume that Rebhuhn’s activities as a librarian and collector were shaped by his biography to the extent that his standards in this area were set by his own intellectual ambition and respect for book knowledge. Born in 1854 as the son of a Silesian farmer, Rebhuhn owed his successful career as a schoolteacher to his diligence and discipline. After earning a primary school teaching certificate from the teacher training college in Reichenbach in 1874, he worked for a year as a teaching assistant at a primary school in the Silesian district of Goldberg-Haynau. At the age of twenty-one he moved to Berlin, where he taught at a private school and pursued his aspiration to become a schoolteacher. In 1878, Rebhuhn earned a middle school teaching certificate in science, mathematics

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and (in 1883) French. Meanwhile, in 1882, he passed an examination to become a school principal. From 1880 until his retirement in 1921, he taught writing, arithmetic, religion and singing at the Luisenstadt Secondary School (Luisenstädtische Oberrealschule) in Berlin. He turned down an offer to serve as school principal, most likely in order to be able to continue his avocational activities at the Teachers’ Library, which were very time-consuming.28 In his nearly forty-five years at the library, Rebhuhn acquired a level of expertise that enabled him to carry out any necessary tasks, from acquisition and cataloguing to administration and shelving. Having joined the BLV in 1879, Rebhuhn served as a central motivating force in the association from the very beginning.29 For book acquisitions, Rebhuhn relied primarily on the DLV periodical, which was used not just to advertise the School Museum but also to provide information about new acquisitions or donations, and to publish book reviews. Publishers and reviewers were asked to donate review copies to the library. Publishers who wished to publicise new releases would donate copies of primers, textbooks and other teaching materials, which were integrated into the collection. The periodical also served as a platform for requests to other pedagogues to search for potential collection materials at home. These requests included numerous appeals by Rebhuhn. In the following example from 1886, the librarian called on his colleagues to preserve potential treasures, thereby hinting at the scope and character of the collection he envisaged. Many precious books still languish forgotten in some corner or attic, at the mercy of dust and vermin … Dear colleagues, please help us salvage whatever can still be saved! In a few years, it might be too late! Please search your dwelling and ask your friends and neighbours to inspect theirs as well, to see if you might find, in some hidden corner, an old, illustrated bible, a song book, a catechism, an arithmetic book, a music book, a writing template, an old copperplate, a woodcut or some similar object, doomed to oblivion. … What might appear worthless to one individual may well fill a sensitive gap in our collection.30

For Rebhuhn, the collection of books and source material had become a mission and a passion he pursued at every opportunity, as can be seen from his appeal ‘to our avid traveller friends’ from 1889, in which he called on his colleagues at the DLV to look out for pedagogical materials such as ‘old textbooks, old issues of pedagogical journals, biographical documents and letters by pedagogues, books documenting the history of individual schools or schooling practices in particular towns or regions’31 on their holiday trips or excursions. Rebhuhn’s recommendations likely

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reflect his own persistence and resourcefulness in his pursuit of potentially valuable items. He thus advises travelling teachers to introduce themselves to ‘a local colleague’ in a ‘remote village’ and ask to see the ‘schoolhouse attic’, or to say a ‘kind word’ to the owner of the ‘village shop’ and inquire about old journals that were ‘occasionally used as wrapping paper’.32 Rebhuhn could testify to the successfulness of this method, which had once allowed him to salvage ‘an entire series of complete editions of a valuable journal’.33 In addition to the DLV, Rebhuhn also relied on other special networks for his collecting activities. These included an exchange association, founded in 1905, which allowed him to formalise already existing exchanges with school museums and pedagogical libraries such as the Comenius Library in Leipzig, the Teachers’ Library in Breslau and the South German Teachers’ Library in Munich. In this way, the School Museum obtained the annual reports and catalogues of these respective institutions as well as additional literature via the exchange or purchase of duplicates.34 Rebhuhn also systematically compiled special collections on the life and work of renowned pedagogues (such as Wilhelm Harnisch, Eberhard von Rochow, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Christian Gotthilf Salzmann, Jan Daniel Georgens, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander) or unique objects such as school coins.35 He showed a particular interest in Friedrich A.W. Diesterweg, whom he regarded as a model for schoolteachers. It was by making Diesterweg’s work accessible, Rebhuhn suggested, that his ‘enthusiasm for education and the wellbeing of the people [could] best be inspired in teachers’.36 In 1886, in preparation for the commemoration of Diesterweg’s one hundredth birthday in 1890, Rebhuhn began to contact friends and former students of the educator, thereby obtaining a large number of letters and other documents for the library.37 Rebhuhn’s attempts to establish a ‘Diesterweg Museum’ as a special department within the School Museum were, however, apparently disputed within the museum board. Johannes Tews, a schoolteacher and later educational politician who served as a board member from 1888 to 1890, warned that the collection of ‘relics’ such as Diesterweg’s fountain pen would result in the establishment of a ‘shrine’, which would encourage ‘bibliophile inclinations’ that would in turn overshadow more urgent educational and political tasks.38 While it is not possible here to examine in detail Rebhuhn and Tews’s views on tradition and progress in the general context of BLV discourse, it is reasonable to assume that, in the age of industrialisation and urbanisation, pedagogical information and training requirements were more

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closely associated with academic subjects and fields of study that had been influenced by these concepts. Therefore, we will need to examine in greater detail the degree to which, for Rebhuhn, the need to justify the historical focus of his collecting increased in proportion to the number of new topics and contemporary literature entering the pedagogical book market.

The Historical Profiling of the Library: Rebhuhn the Researcher The year 1896 saw the publication, after years of voluntary work by several DLV members under Rebhuhn’s direction, of the first printed catalogue of the German School Museum. In keeping with its authors’ professional aspirations, the catalogue was based on a ‘scientific library plan’ with main and subcategories which had been designed by a group of experts for the Central Pedagogical Library in Leipzig.39 A lack of financial resources meant that Rebhuhn’s compilation of the School Museum collection had so far been based mainly on donations and acquisitions from publishers and private individuals, and less on new purchases. For Rebhuhn, this classification system represented not merely a regulatory scheme to help librarians reference and (especially after the relocation of the library in 1908) shelve the collections, but also a guideline and useful orientation aid for acquisition. The catalogue and its system also indicate the genesis and contours of the collections. In the preface, Rebhuhn remarks on the inherent breadth and occasional imprecision of the collection area. As the catalogue clearly demonstrates, the institute envisages a maximally comprehensive collection of authentically pedagogical titles, while leaving to chance or even partly rejecting, on principle, the acquisition of scientific titles. Our pedagogical library … is designed to paint a picture of the pedagogical profession insofar as it is reflected in the literature.40

Distinguishing ‘authentically pedagogical titles’ might have presented a challenge at a time when the boundaries of the scientific disciplines were still being formalised and when pedagogical goals, and the DLV’s traditional dedication to (self)education, were changing.41 The centrepiece of the 300-page catalogue included a 27-page section dedicated to the biographies of individual pedagogues and featuring ‘images’, ‘manuscripts’ and ‘printed material concerning the life and assessment’ of recognised pedagogical figures.42 The question of whose names were, or were becoming, relevant or canonical in the 1890s (Comenius, Fröbel or Rousseau, for example) would need to be examined in the context of

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the establishment of pedagogy as a university discipline, considering that it was in this intellectual and personal milieu (of what could be termed ‘pedagogical dogmatics’) that teacher education and the professional self-image of the teacher developed.43 The largest part of the collection, represented by a nearly fifty page section about ‘Language Instruction’, included reading books and primers, teaching manuals, student editions of German classics, poetry anthologies, dictionaries and grammar and style guides. While this collection also included recent publications from the 1880s and 1890s, approximately two-thirds of the titles were older and had probably entered the collection via acquisition. Around the turn of the century, estate acquisitions and donations as well as a larger acquisitions budget contributed to a steep increase in the size of the collection. The length of the catalogue increased from 300 pages in 1896 to 495 pages in the new edition of 1904, even though numerous manuscripts and images that had been intended for a separate publication had not been included.44 In 1908, the collection contained forty thousand volumes, while four years later that number had risen to seventy thousand.45 Duplicate donations, which were ‘naturally very numerous’, were donated to other libraries or exchanged for other items from the library in Leipzig.46 As became evident, Rebhuhn was more interested in increasing the collection’s ‘intrinsic value’ than he was in maximising its size, which in any case lagged behind that of its sister institution in Leipzig. Thus, in a review written on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the School Museum in 1900, Rebhuhn noted that the collection contained, alongside ‘modern works, a significant number of literary rarities’ and that ‘pedagogues searching for rare sources could, to their surprise, make valuable discoveries’ such as the ‘approximately one hundred arithmetic manuals from the period between 1500 and 1800’.47 Rebhuhn’s collecting activities apparently rested on the need to balance his commitment to assist, in the spirit of the tradition of self-education, ‘the German teaching community in their efforts to further their training’48 and his wish to satisfy his own and his colleagues’ demand for special knowledge in the area of pedagogy and school history. As a librarian, Rebhuhn was aware of reading trends among schoolteachers. In his review of the library’s activity for the year 1911, he observed that ‘most borrowers naturally desired modern titles’ and that ‘literature about current pedagogical issues including civic education, work schools, school savings banks, modern religious education, modern poetry interpretation, special schools, school trips and local history was in particularly high demand’.49

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At the same time, Rebhuhn also considered the needs of another type of user when shaping the historical profile of the library. In the library’s terms of use, he also included ‘school inspectors’ and ‘pedagogical authors’ in the institution’s target audience.50 The latter constituted a particularly heterogeneous category that included not just the active and aspiring members of the BLV and the DLV, but potentially all authors and researchers active in the newly founded discipline of the ‘science of education’. For Rebhuhn, this target group justified the library’s ‘strongly history-oriented profile’, which he explained with what may be described as a modern, ‘service-oriented’ approach. If historical research is necessary, there must be places that provide the necessary source material to the fullest degree possible. Our sister institutions in Leipzig and Munich are striving along with us to achieve this for the science of education [sic]. We have now broadened the meaning of the term source material – and this is what gives our institution its unique character – by merging old prints with a collection of pedagogical manuscripts and images (including school medals). Why collect original prints? one might ask. … The conscientious researcher will take heed not to overlook, alongside known works of excellence, accompanying printed materials which might constitute an important connecting link.51

As a collector with decades of experience and a high level of expertise in his area of specialisation, Rebhuhn addressed historical specialists whom he regarded as dedicated independent scholars driven by a spirit of discovery. Rebhuhn would probably have defined himself as a ‘pedagogical author’. He had, after all, authored several minor works in the field of mathematics history (including studies of Adam Riese and mathematics instruction) in addition to his work on Diesterweg, whose letters he edited for publication.52 In his role as ‘Diesterweg’s executor’, Rebhuhn frequented the Society for German Education and School History (Gesellschaft für deutsche Erziehungs- und Schulgeschichte), which had been founded in 1880 and which in subsequent years would publish his source editions in the Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica (MGP).53 The degree to which Rebhuhn made a name for himself on the basis of his own publications54 and thereby stepped out of the ‘erudite shadow’55 of science is impossible to ascertain on the basis of the sources that are currently available. Rebhuhn’s ambition to contribute to the nascent field of educational history as a collector and researcher is indicated by his own (mostly) short publications as well as by his contributions as a source bibliographer. These included the source lists ‘Handwriting and Image as an Educational History Source’ of 1922 and ‘Printed Material of Past Centuries’, which

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was published posthumously in 1925.56 The latter work reflected what Rebhuhn referred to as the ‘principle of condensation’57 that had formed the basis of his collections and shaped his professional activity.58 The introductions to the two contributions also reflect Rebhuhn’s self-image in later years, which also featured, in addition to the image of the librarian and collector, that of the knowledgeable historian. As suggested by his comment about the historical role of the individual and the masses quoted at the beginning of this chapter, Rebhuhn was familiar with the debates over the reorientation of the cultural sciences that were taking place around the turn of the century.59 When formulating his guiding principle as a collector, Rebhuhn extended contemporary criticism of the predominant historicism of the science of history to the realm of pedagogy. This is illustrated by the following passage, in which Rebhuhn appeals to his colleagues to broaden the scope of historic collection and reconstruction beyond the works of pedagogical ‘masters’. His interest, he notes, includes, not just major figures of theoretical and practical pedagogy, but also people … who are cited only in small circles of experts. For even tiny links in a literary chain may assume meaning for researchers. Yet it often seems to me that pedagogical historiography is presented as a succession of strides from one summit to the next, whereby the connecting ridges with their low hilltops and the terrain from which they grow are barely touched upon.60

More research is necessary in order to ascertain the degree to which the criticism of historicism current at the time was also received within the Society for German Education and School History. Yet if it is true that after 1910 the agenda of the MGP shifted towards a nation- or Prussia-centric ‘general German school and education history’ (at the expense of special, local or regional school history61), then we are even more justified in interpreting Rebhuhn’s comments as criticism of an impending narrowing in the scope of research. Rebhuhn’s perception of the relationship between library (archive) and research had apparently grown so acute that it allowed him to formulate an agenda for future source-based research which expressed not adherence to a canon but rather (in a methodologically almost ‘modern’ sense) an interest in the intricate development of reception in the domain of educational history. I imagine a library like a ‘geological surface’ which reveals the existence, development and density of layers by means of dislocations, collapses, the intrusion of foreign objects and so on. Replace the layers with pedagogical currents, and we might discover a path towards a new and fruitful approach to the history of the science of education.62

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The Teachers’ Library Today The collections compiled by Rebhuhn still exist and constitute a core element of the Research Library for the History of Education (Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung, BBF). An exception to this is the collection of manuscripts, images and school coins that was transferred to Bensen (today Benešov nad Ploučnicí, Czech Republic) during the Second World War, and of which only approximately 1,300 (out of an original collection of over 3,000) manuscripts were returned. The original Teachers’ Library and its collection of ‘Old Prints’ dating from before 1830 also exist and are accessible to the public. Rebhuhn’s influence on the collections is still evident and is reflected by the fact that the old prints are housed separately in a special storage depot, and by the shelving system he designed for the Teachers’ Library, which has been largely retained (except for certain categories of stock such as journals and reference works, which have been shelved separately in the reading room). The small collection of school programmes and annual reports which Rebhuhn had grouped together under the category ‘journals’ has since expanded, thanks to extensive acquisitions, into a separate collection of the BBF. The collections, including the journals but excepting part of the annual reports, have been integrated into the library catalogue and formally indexed as title records. From the start, the BBF has aimed to make the School Museum collection available in digital format. Most of the journals (particularly those relating to general pedagogy, school pedagogy and religious education), school programmes and annual school reports are now available in the BBF digital text archive, Scripta Paedagogica. The Old Prints Collection formed the basis for the digital image archive Pictura Paedagogica. Historically, given the absence of access records indicating former collection contexts, the provenance of individual segments of the collection can only be determined via painstaking research based on characteristic features of individual volumes. Rebhuhn’s archive library offers researchers a rich trove of sources for the study of the social and cultural history of education between the eighteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The wide range of source texts in the collection (which include primers, children’s books, textbooks, school programmes, journals, pedagogical treatises and guidebooks) can also be used for the historical study of educational media, since they demonstrate, in an almost paradigmatic manner, the versatility and diversity of pedagogical media.

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Conclusion The compilation and formation of the collections of the German School Museum were so closely linked to the personality of Adolf Rebhuhn that the period between 1879 and 1924 might justifiably be referred to as the ‘Rebhuhn era’ in the history of the collection. It was above all via the collection of books and manuscripts that Rebhuhn realised his original commitment to collect (as part of a school museum and support institution for schoolteachers) contemporary and historical writings and teaching and learning resources, thereby establishing the archival character of the library. Yet he was less interested in artefacts intended primarily for exhibition, and consequently worked to loan out the infrequently used teaching aid collection when the opportunity for this arose following the relocation of the library in 1908. As a librarian, Rebhuhn strove to index and systematically catalogue the library’s rapidly growing collections. The development of the collection demonstrates that Rebhuhn’s expertise as a collector was the result of long years of experience, during which he also acquired proficiency as a librarian and special knowledge in the domain of the history of education. While he appears to have been driven by a quest to collect and thereby to acquire knowledge, his networking activities and communication and his search parameters initially focused more broadly on acquisitions and donations, supplemented by review copies and occasional purchases. With time, Rebhuhn acquired an increasingly refined sense (in the words of a fellow DLV member, ‘the eye of a scout’63) for the profiling of the collection. This involved, on the one hand, supporting teachers’ needs regarding knowledge and further training and acquiring current literature. Since the late nineteenth century, new pedagogical knowledge had challenged not merely subject-related educational content in reading, writing and arithmetic in teacher seminars, but also traditional educational objectives such as patriotism and piety.64 These trends also influenced the Teachers’ Library collection, as demonstrated by the increasing number of publications about pedagogical psychology and of writings addressing new disciplines such as local geography or the demand for civic education.65 On the other hand, Rebhuhn appears to have been particularly adept at developing the Teachers’ Library as a place where historical researchers could find sources documenting pedagogical conditions prevalent in past eras. Some of Rebhuhn’s own statements indicate that he saw himself not just as a collector, but (at a time when the science of education had not yet been established as a university discipline), also as a ‘pedagogical author’

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and historian. He published several minor works and was well connected in the educational and school history community. Drawing on this dual identity, Rebhuhn worked to strengthen the ties between library and research, an aim which is still pursued, if under different circumstances, by research libraries today. Translation, Peter Laki Monika Mattes holds a PhD in history and specialises in the field of library and information science. Since 2013 she has been a fellow at the DIPF/Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, where she works in the Research Library for the History of Education. Prior to that she was a fellow at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam from 2005 to 2011 and at the German Historical Museum from 2012 to 2013. Her special interests include the history of school knowledge, collections and provenance research.

Notes  1. ‘Es wird bekanntlich viel darum gestritten, ob für die geschichtliche Entwicklung der Masse oder dem [E]inzelnen die entscheidende Bedeutung zukomme. … Ich lehne den Gedanken ab, daß die Masse alles sei und der ausführende Einzelne nur von dieser Masse angeregt und getragen von Erfolg zu Erfolg geführt werde, so daß diesem Einzelnen eine natürliche Hingabe an sein Werk und selbständige große Entschlüsse abzusprechen wären. Meine Erfahrungen auf dem von mir vertretenen Arbeitsgebiete lassen nur diesen Standpunkt zu.’ Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’, xif.  2. These teachers were all men. Because women were initially not permitted to join the DLV, female teachers founded associations of their own. Uhlig, Berliner Lehrerverein, 75ff.  3. Cf. Bollenbeck, Eine Geschichte der Kulturkritik.  4. Jochum, Kleine Bibliotheksgeschichte.  5. Deutscher Lehrer-Verein zur Hebung der Volksschule, 1.  6. Schmidt, ‘Adolf Rebhuhn’.  7. Heesen and Spary, Sammeln als Wissen.  8. Friedrich and Zedelmaier, ‘Bibliothek und Archiv’.  9. Plassmann et al., Bibliotheken, 41f. 10. Deutsches Schulmuseum. 11. ‘Was wir wollen’, in Deutsches Schulmuseum. 12. ‘Statut des Deutschen Schulmuseums’, in Deutsches Schulmuseum, 2. 13. ‘Was wir wollen’, in Deutsches Schulmuseum. 14. On the history of organised reading, see the analysis of the reading circle organised by the BLV in Kemnitz, Lehrerverein, 198–232. 15. Uhlig, Berliner Lehrerverein, 6 and 60ff. 16. Fuchs, ‘Weltausstellung zum Museum’, 140. 17. Plassmann et al., Bibliotheken, 41f. 18. The Leipzig Pedagogical Library was founded as the ‘Comenius Institute’ and from 1917 was known as the ‘Comenius Library’. Pretzel, Geschichte, 214f. See also Ritzi, ‘Comenianische Ideen’.

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19. Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’, xiii; Laesch, ‘Deutsche Lehrer-Bücherei’, 240. 20. This location had most likely been chosen by Gallee, who taught at the school, as a temporary solution. However, the situation became permanent after the DLV board failed to secure permission to use the spaces at the Alte Münze in central Berlin (which the city magistrate had provided for the teaching material exhibition), as a permanent location. Henniger, Geschichte, 73f. See also Ritzi and Geißler, Wege des Wissens. 21. Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’, xiii. 22. Deutsches Schulmuseum, Katalog, i. See also Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’, xiii. 23. Laesch, ‘Deutsche Lehrer-Bücherei’, 238. 24. Rebhuhn, ‘Zum fünfundzwanzigsten Jubiläum’, 665f. 25. The exhibition of teaching resources was handed over to the local school museum. Cf. Henniger, Geschichte, 215f. 26. Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’, xiii. 27. ‘… der seit März 1879 auf seinem Platze steht und dem die Bücherei überhaupt das, was sie geworden ist, im Wesentlichen zu verdanken hat.’ Pretzel, Geschichte, 215. 28. Förster, ‘Deutsche Lehrerbücherei’, 25. 29. In retrospect, Rebhuhn characterised his early years as a young, self-taught librarian as ‘uncertain fumbling and continual trial and error, until finally, the necessary contact with booksellers and other libraries gradually brought a beneficial consistency to my work’. Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’, xii. 30. Rebhuhn, ‘Die ersten zehn Jahre’. 31. Rebhuhn, ‘Ein vertrauliches Wort’. 32. Ibid. 33. Ibid. 34. Hübner, Überblick. 35. Henniger, Geschichte, 116. 36. Rebhuhn, ‘Deutsche Schulmuseum’. 37. Henniger, Geschichte, 116–19. 38. Ibid., 120. 39. These experts included a grammar school headmaster from Kassel, a head librarian from Dresden, a school inspector from Heidelberg and a professor from Kiel. Beeger, ‘Bericht’, 137f. 40. Deutsches Schulmuseum, Katalog, i. 41. For a general discussion see Bruch, Gelehrtenpolitik. On the history of pedagogy see Tenorth, Geschichte der Erziehung. 42. Deutsches Schulmuseum, Katalog, 301. 43. Criblez, ‘Wozu Pädagogik?’ and Oelkers, ‘Geschichte der Pädagogik’. 44. Deutsches Schulmuseum, Katalog (see also the 1904 edition). 45. ‘Unser Vereinshaus’, 929 and ‘Die Deutsche Lehrerbücherei im Jahre 1912’. 46. ‘Die Deutsche Lehrerbücherei im Jahre 1912’. 47. Rebhuhn, ‘Zum fünfundzwanzigsten Jubiläum’, 666. 48. Deutsches Schulmuseum, Katalog, ii. 49. ‘Die Deutsche Lehrerbücherei im Jahre 1911’. 50. ‘Bedingungen für die Benutzung der Sammlungen des Deutschen Schulmuseums’, in Deutsches Schulmuseum, Katalog, iv. 51. Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’, xivf. 52. Rebhuhn, Briefe Adolf Diesterwegs. 53. Keck, ‘Entwicklung’, 15. 54. Förster, ‘Deutsche Lehrerbücherei’, 41–43. 55. Raulff, ‘Die Dinge’, 28. 56. Rebhuhn, Handschrift und Bild; Rebhuhn and Laesch, Pädagogisches Druckgut. 57. Raulff, ‘Die Dinge’, 27.

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58. ‘The collector of rarities, when confronted with a stream of irrelevant and unsought items [must] seriously consider whether an apparently worthless item might nevertheless find a connoisseur.’ Rebhuhn, ‘Zum Geleit’, in Rebhuhn, Handschrift und Bild, n.p. 59. Oexle and Rüsen, Historismus; Hübinger, Bruch and Graf, Kultur- und Kulturwissenschaften. 60. Rebhuhn, ‘Zum Geleit’, in Rebhuhn, Handschrift und Bild, n.p. 61. Keck, ‘Entwicklung’, 16. 62. Rebhuhn, ‘Rückblick’, xv. 63. Schmidt, ‘Adolf Rebhuhn’. 64. Geißler, Schulgeschichte, 296. 65. Mattes, ‘Der Bibliothekskatalog’.

Bibliography Beeger, Julius. ‘Bericht über die Comenius-Stiftung zu Leipzig’. Allgemeine Deutsche Lehrerzeitung 27 (1875), 137–38. Bollenbeck, Georg. Eine Geschichte der Kulturkritik: Von Rousseau bis Günther Anders. Munich: C.H. Beck, 2007. Bruch, Rüdiger vom. Gelehrtenpolitik, Sozialwissenschaften und akademische Diskurse in Deutschland im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2006. Criblez, Lucien. ‘Wozu Pädagogik? Zum Funktionswandel der Pädagogik in der Lehrerbildung’. Beiträge zur Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung 20(3) (2002), 300–18. Deutscher Lehrer-Verein zur Hebung der Volksschule. Berlin: Striese, 1972. Deutsches Schulmuseum. Katalog des Deutschen Schulmuseums. 1. Abteilung: Bücherverzeichnis. Berlin: Selbstverlag, 1896. Deutsches Schulmuseum: Literarische Beilage zur Pädagogischen Zeitung 1 (1876). ‘Die Deutsche Lehrerbücherei im Jahre 1911’. Literarische Beilage zur Pädagogischen Zeitung 37(2) (1912), 1. ‘Die Deutsche Lehrerbücherei im Jahre 1912’. Blätter für Pädagogische Literatur 38(2) (1913), 9. Förster, Christa. ‘Die Deutsche Lehrerbücherei wurde mein Schicksal’, in Christian Ritzi and Gert Geißler (eds), Wege des Wissens: 125 Jahre Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung (Berlin: Weidler, 2003), 24–43. Friedrich, Markus, and Helmut Zedelmaier. ‘Bibliothek und Archiv’, in Marianne Sommer et al. (eds), Handbuch Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 2017), 265–75. Fuchs, Eckhardt. ‘Von der Weltausstellung zum Museum: Zur Entstehung des Schulmuseums im 19. Jahrhundert’, in J. Forkel and B. Graf (eds), Zur Geschichte der Museen im 19. Jahrhundert 1789–1918 (Berlin: G+H Verlag, 2006), 137–51. Geißler, Gert. Schulgeschichte in Deutschland: Von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2011. Heesen, Anke te, and E.C. Spary (eds). Sammeln als Wissen: Das Sammeln und seine wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Bedeutung. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2001. Henniger, Gisela. Zur Geschichte des Deutschen Schulmuseums des Berliner Lehrervereins 1876–1908. Unpublished PhD thesis, Humboldt University, 1991.

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Hübinger, Gangolf, Rüdiger vom Bruch and Friedrich Wilhelm Graf (eds). Kulturund Kulturwissenschaften um 1900: Idealismus und Positivismus. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1997. Hübner, Max. Überblick über die Schulmuseen des Deutschen Reiches am Ausgange des Jahres 1908 und die Tauschvereinigung deutscher Schulmuseen. Breslau, 1909. Jochum, Uwe. Kleine Bibliotheksgeschichte. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2007. Keck, Rudolf W. ‘Entwicklung der pädagogischen Historiografie im 20. Jahrhundert: Periodisierung, Erträge und Perspektiven der Historischen Bildungsforschung’, in M. Chatty and F. Hargasser (eds), Vom Jahrhundert der Kinder zum Jahrhundert der Alten? Versuch einer Ortsbestimmung beim Übergang vom 20. zum 21. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1994), 14–36. Kemnitz, Heidemarie. Lehrerverein und Lehrerberuf: Eine Studie zum Verberuflichungsprozeß der Lehrertätigkeit am Beispiel der Berlinischen Schullehrergesellschaft (1813–1892). Weinheim: Deutscher Studienverlag, 1999. Laesch, Max. ‘Die Deutsche Lehrer-Bücherei’, in 50 Jahre Berliner Lehrerverein 1880–1930. Festschrift (Berlin: Selbstverlag des Berliner Lehrervereins, 1930), 240–43. Mattes, Monika. ‘Der Bibliothekskatalog als historische Quelle? Das Beispiel des Deutschen Schulmuseums um 1900’, in Kathrin Berdelmann, Bettina Fritzsche, Kerstin Rabenstein and Joachim Scholz (eds), Transformationen von Schule, Unterricht und Profession: Erträge praxistheoretischer Forschung (Wiesbaden: Springer, 2019), 257–70. Oelkers, Jürgen. ‘Die Geschichte der Pädagogik und ihre Probleme’. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 45(4) (1999), 461–83. Oexle, Otto Gerhard, and Jörn Rüsen (eds). Historismus in den Kulturwissenschaften. Geschichtskonzepte, historische Einschätzungen, Grundlagenprobleme. Beiträge zur Geschichtskultur 12. Cologne: Böhlau, 1996. Plassmann, Engelbert et al. (eds). Bibliotheken und Informationsgesellschaft in Deutschland: Eine Einführung, 2nd ed. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011. Pretzel, Carl Louis Albert. Geschichte des Deutschen Lehrervereins in den ersten fünfzig Jahren seines Bestehens. Leipzig: Julius Klinkhardt, 1921. Raulff, Ulrich. ‘Die Dinge und ihre Verwandten: Die Entwicklung von Sammlungen’, in Abendvortrag bei der Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Universitätssammlungen an der Universität Hamburg (Hamburg, 2016), 25–80. Rebhuhn, Adolf. ‘Die ersten zehn Jahre des Deutschen Schulmuseums’. Pädagogische Zeitung 15(6) (1886), n.p. Rebhuhn, Adolf. ‘Das Deutsche Schulmuseum im Jahre 1886’. Beilage zur Pädagogischen Zeitung 16(4) (1887). Rebhuhn, Adolf. ‘Ein vertrauliches Wort an unsere reiselustigen Freunde’. Pädagogische Zeitung: Litterarische Beilage 14(6) (1889), 14. Rebhuhn, Adolf. ‘Zum fünfundzwanzigsten Jubiläum des Deutschen Schulmuseums’. Pädagogische Zeitung 29 (1900), 665–67. Rebhuhn, Adolf (ed.). Briefe Adolf Diesterwegs. Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1907. Rebhuhn, Adolf. Handschrift und Bild als pädagogische Geschichtsquelle. Ein Nachweis von Quellen aus der Deutschen Lehrer-Bücherei. Berlin, 1922.

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Rebhuhn, Adolf. ‘Rückblick auf das erste Halbjahrhundert der Deutschen LehrerBücherei’, in Adolf Rebhuhn and Max Laesch (eds), Pädagogisches Druckgut vergangener Jahrhunderte. Ein erziehungsgeschichtlicher Quellennachweis aus den Beständen der Deutschen Lehrer-Bücherei anlässlich ihres 50jährigen Bestehens (Berlin, 1925), xi–xviii. Rebhuhn, Adolf, and Max Laesch (eds). Pädagogisches Druckgut vergangener Jahrhunderte. Ein erziehungsgeschichtlicher Quellennachweis aus den Beständen der Deutschen Lehrer-Bücherei anlässlich ihres 50jährigen Bestehens. Berlin, 1925. Ritzi, Christian. ‘Comenianische Ideen verwirklichen’. Comenius-Jahrbuch 2 (1994), 37–52. Ritzi, Christian, and Gert Geißler (eds). Wege des Wissens: 125 Jahre Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung. Berlin: Weidler, 2003. Schmidt, Otto. ‘Adolf Rebhuhn, der Schöpfer der Deutschen Lehrerbücherei’, in Fünfzig Jahre Deutsche Lehrerbücherei 1875–1925. Festschrift des Berliner LehrerVereins zur Jubelfeier seiner Bücherei am 4. September 1925 (Potsdam: A.W. Hayn’s Erben, 1925), 12–15. Tenorth, Heinz-Elmar. Geschichte der Erziehung: Einführung in die Grundzüge ihrer neuzeitlichen Entwicklung. Weinheim/Munich: Juventa-Verlag, 2010. Uhlig, Christa. Der Berliner Lehrerverein: Gründung und Etablierung 1880 bis 1902. Cologne: Böhlau, 1997. ‘Unser Vereinshaus’. Pädagogische Zeitung 41 (1908), 929f.

Part II

Objects, Materials and Old and New Media

Chapter 5

The Glass Slide Collection of the German Rural Residential Schools Association (Verband Deutscher Schullandheime e.V.) Bettina Reimers

I

n 2017, in light of its relevance for historical research (especially in the domain of the history of education), the inventory of the German Rural Residential Schools Association (Verband Deutscher Schullandheime, VDS) was transferred to the archive of the Research Library for the History of Education (Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung, BBF) of the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF | Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation). The documents constitute unique historical sources for research into Schullandheime (rural residential schools) as rural extracurricular learning locations. As will be shown below, the collection directly reflects the work of the VDS, which was founded after the First World War. The conservation, development and utilisation of its extensive slide collection represents a special challenge.

The Collection in Its Historical Context The first Schullandheime in the German Reich were established in 1911, largely on the initiative of teachers and school administrators who were open to progressive educational approaches and convinced that extracurricular learning could enable new learning experiences and facilitate the transmission of alternative teaching content, especially in big cities. By allowing pupils to spend time in the countryside, the initiators hoped

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to supplement traditional schooling practices, investigate new forms of teaching based on communal experience and development and, additionally, help to prevent health problems. The idea of the rural pedagogical field trip was also rooted in Wilhelmine and Weimar-era pedagogical reform efforts, rural residential school movements and a general critical attitude towards modern culture and city life prevalent at the time.1 Yet the Schullandheime were also established in response to a social concern for the children’s mental and physical welfare. In the fourth volume of the Pedagogy Handbook published in 1928, Rudolf Nicolai (1885–1970), a teacher and prominent champion of the Schullandheime concept, formulated its starting point and objective as follows. Within the public education system, it was the Schullandheim that first turned the new ideals into reality. It consciously strives for the harmonic formation of the whole human being. … Far from the big city, in healthy, beautiful surroundings, the school hosts classes and teachers for several weeks. In this fertile soil, the child can develop physically, increase his knowledge and grow inwardly by experiencing nature in the community.2

It is unclear which Schullandheim was the first to become operational. Data regarding the establishment and number of Schullandheime also differ greatly. Some sources place their number in the initial period (around the year 1919) at five,3 others at twenty.4 By 1925, the figure had grown to 1065 or 120.6 A particularly high number of Schullandheime were sponsored by fifty-four schools in Berlin and eighty schools in Hamburg. The Schullandheime were utilised by one or more schools and managed on the autonomous initiative of parents and teachers and (except for a few cases in large cities) were financed largely with voluntary contributions from parents, sponsors and school collections, without public funding. Schullandheime properties ranged from former forester’s lodges, farms and inns to new buildings specifically designed to receive and host groups of schoolchildren. All Schullandheime met the following criteria: they were located in the countryside (often near a lake), acted as supplementary institutions to city schools located not more than fifty kilometres away, and were suitable for hosting entire classes (often several at once). Municipal schools sent pupils of all levels, along with their teachers, to the countryside at regular intervals. The form and content of the lessons were often designed to allow for project-based and visual instruction, corresponding to the pupils’ age levels and the profile of the sponsoring school. In October 1925, with the founding of Schullandheime in full swing, the Central Institute for Education and Instruction7 in Berlin organised a conference of Schullandheim initiators. At this first joint event, the

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representatives of about 120 residential schools agreed on the expression Schullandheim as a collective designation for the various regional terms in use at the time, which included Schulheim (residential school), Landheim (rural residence) and Landschulheim (rural school residence). Although the institutions were heterogenous, the delegates agreed on a series of common core features and principles of the Schullandheim movement. A core aim of the practical work at rural residential schools was to further the pupils’ upbringing and education while also promoting their health and wellbeing. The pupils were to learn about community action by living together in a temporary community. Instruction would follow progressive pedagogical principles and would include lessons in preventive health education. This first conference saw the creation of the Imperial Association of German Rural Residential Schools (Reichsbund der deutschen Schullandheime, RSLH), the purpose of which was to enable closer cooperation within the movement. A founding committee was established and tasked with preparing a draft statute. The results of the committee’s work were presented at a second RSLH meeting in October 1926. At this meeting, the delegates adopted the draft statute and submitted an official request to register the association to the district court of Berlin.8 The tasks of the RSLH, as laid down in the draft statute, included providing financial, organisational and pedagogical assistance to the Schullandheime, supporting their acquisition and administration, representing them in public bodies (especially city and school administrations), and circulating a newsletter, which was to be published in Hamburg. In the wake of the German federal election in March 1933, the RSLH executive board issued a statement affirming that the Schullandheime had, since their inception, pursued national as well as social goals. In a dedication to Bavarian minister of education and Imperial Head Official (Reichsamtsleiter) of the National Socialist Teachers’ League (Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund, NSLB) Hans Schemm (1891–1935), RSLH chairman Nicolai expressed the association’s readiness to join the National Socialist movement.9 The gradual Nazification of the RSLH, which had been actively promoted by certain members of the executive board, culminated (after lengthy negotiations with the Hitler Youth and the NSLB) in the dissolution of the RSLH and its conversion into the ‘Reich Subject Area “Rural Residential Schools in the National Socialist Teachers’ League”’ (Reichssachgebiet ‘Schullandheime im Nationalsozialistischen Lehrerbund’). The realignment was announced at the RSLH general assembly of 13 July 1936, as part of the centrally directed public inauguration of the House of German Education (Haus der Deutschen Erziehung) in Bayreuth.10

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After the end of the Second World War and the division of Germany, many Schullandheime were utilised for other, mostly pedagogical purposes and were renamed accordingly (the ‘Young Tourists Station’, for example). This mainly affected Schullandheime in the Soviet occupation zone. In the western Allied occupation zone, at a meeting of the teachers’ association held in 1949 in Marburg, representatives of the Schullandheim movement established the Association of German Rural Residential Schools (Verband Deutscher Schullandheime, VDS). Initial contacts and cooperation between East and West began in 1990, and a working group was established to oversee the integration of the East German institution into the unified German association. The VDS exists to this day and works to implement progressive educational ideals and to disseminate the Schullandheim concept.11

Compiling and Preserving the Collection The compilation of the archive began with the establishment of the RSLH in 1925 and thus reflects the historical development of the VDS. The purpose of the collection, which was rooted in the initiative of three longstanding members of the association, Heinrich Sahrhage, Rudolf Nicolai and Carl Matzdorff, was threefold. It was intended to document the Schullandheime and their pedagogical activity; to provide promotional materials for the pedagogical concept of the Schullandheim; and to develop a network or index of affiliated individuals and institutions. To this end, the association compiled and secured documents relating to Schullandheime affiliated with schools in approximately three hundred cities throughout Germany. The activity of the association is documented, for example, in the minutes of its annual assemblies and in the records of the activities of its various working groups. Since 1935, the archive had been housed in the RSLH offices in the Albert Thaer School in Hamburg and curated by Sahrhage, the regional official responsible for the ‘Schullandheime Regional Subject Area’ (Gausachgebiet Schullandheime), who actively promoted the interests of the individual institutions and oversaw their development. The archive survived the turmoil of the war largely unscathed due to repeated relocations. In late May 1945, Sahrhage transferred part of the collection from the school building, which had been occupied by the British Allied forces, to the Hamburg school administration. Following Sahrhage’s death in 1969, the archive fell into neglect. In 1976, Klaus Kruse, head of the ‘Project Work’ pilot project and the VDS pedagogical department, assumed responsibility for the archive and laid the basis for an initial reappraisal of the history of the VDS. After Kruse’s retirement

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in 2016, the VDS executive board decided to discontinue their maintenance of the archive. In 2017, on the advice of the German Federal Archives, Kruse approached the BBF archive with an offer to donate part of the VDS collection. According to an agreement reached in 2016, all administrative documents relating to the foundation and management of the VDS, as well as the publication of the association’s newsletter, were to be entrusted to the Federal Archives. Such a division, however, would have resulted in the fragmentation of the archival material, leading to the loss of context information. In view of the archive’s significance for research in the history of education, the importance of upholding the archival principle of provenance and archival considerations regarding the protection of an integrally transmitted collection, the Federal Archives, recognising the expertise of the BBF as a special archive specialising in the history of education and educational practice, ceded its right to the collection to the latter institution. The VDS collection encompasses a physical area of twenty running metres and was in existence for over ninety years (from 1926 to 2017). The archive’s original organisational structure, revealed during the review process, was largely adopted and served as the basis for an initial acquisition list. During the initial survey, the entire collection was relocated in a manner that does justice to its historic value. The inventory includes founding documents, statutes, minutes of general meetings and documents relating to special working groups as well as a collection of material documentation relating to the Schullandheime, which fills twenty-nine archive boxes and contains class and project plans, designs for syllabi, programmes for celebrational and recreational events, pupils’ diaries and reports about their stay at the Schullandheim, photographs of buildings and interiors and illustrations of lessons and recreational scenes. The collection is rounded off by documents relating to the association’s properties (blueprints, interior and exterior design sketches, promotional materials, chronicles and registers of the individual institutions). The material thus provides comprehensive insights into the organisation and everyday school life of around three hundred rural residential schools in Germany and, to a lesser extent, abroad. The collection also includes sixteen boxes from Sahrhage’s personal archive, which were not acquired by the Hamburg State Archives in the 1980s and which contain, in addition to documents relating to the RSLH library and the association’s meetings, correspondence between Sahrhage and representatives of the regional and working groups, as well as Sahrhage’s extensive private correspondence with former pupils and parent representatives. The association’s periodicals, which included

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the RSLH newsletter Das Schullandheim (1927–43), an eponymous journal published regularly since 1950 and other publications about the Schullandheim movement and its pedagogy were also integrated into the BBF library stock. The transfer of the complete source holdings to the BBF, a designated special archive, is a prime example of the initiative ‘Cooperative Collecting – A Strategy for the Future’ (Sammeln im Verbund – eine Strategie für die Zukunft). This initiative, which draws on observations put forward by the special archives of the Leibniz Association, aims to ensure the preservation and archival appraisal of items of national cultural heritage (of non-governmental provenance) in designated centres of expertise which are integrated into specialised research institutions and as such are actively involved in the transmission, development, research and provision of unofficial archival material for researchers and the general public.12

The VDS Glass Plate and Slide Collection The VDS slide collection is unique in its scope and quality. It consists of approximately 1,300 monochrome diapositives and negatives on glass substrates, most of which were arranged in metal and wooden boxes. The slides represent two photographic processes, the wet collodion process (1851–1900) and the gelatine drying process (1878–1940).13 The binding agent in the photographic coating, consisting of collodion or gelatine, was covered with a protective glass. The collection can be divided into three thematic categories: illustrations of rural residential schools (inside and outside perspectives); images of daily life at the school; and visual aids for the teaching of specialised subjects. Illustration 5.1. Glass slide (original storage). © Anna Duda.

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The school illustrations and images of daily life were used as models for designing new Schullandheime, as promotional material for the Schullandheim movement and as illustrations in its publications. The richness of the material can be attributed to the influence of Sahrhage, who served as custodian of the photograph collection. Most of the photographs were made by Sahrhage himself, who used them to promote the Schullandheim concept in his lectures as RSLH board member. The images of daily classroom situations allow us to draw conclusions regarding the teaching methods and materials employed in the residential schools and the content imparted in various subjects (for example, astronomy). Illustration 5.2 shows the form of visual instruction employed in the Schullandheime. In keeping with the tradition of progressive education, pupils were expected to experience and to acquaint themselves with nature, and to build on this knowledge in order to understand and apply the lesson content based on their own original observations and experiments. The nature of the learning content in certain subjects (primarily in scientific disciplines such as botany, zoology and geography) is documented by a series of glass slides. The rural environment of the Schullandheim allowed pupils to implement and to experiment with learning content (for example, by observing insects and birds) which in an everyday school context could often only be imparted theoretically. Following the transfer of the glass plates to the BBF archive, the inventory was examined and checked for duplicates. Lost internal correlations were restored, and series were formed based on indicators such as marginal annotations or clearly identifiable objects and subject areas. Series were thus established according to content and subject-related correlations. Examples include series about genetics and heredity, evolution, animals and their habitats, plants and ecosystems, cell biology, local Illustration 5.2. Astronomy lesson. © Anna Duda.

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history and geography. The fact that the collection contains materials from contemporary teaching aid catalogues as well as plates made by teachers and/or pupils is particularly significant. One may assume either that the respective teaching unit had no access to visual material (generally provided by teaching aid provision centres), or that the pupils had been encouraged to create slides as part of a didactic exercise. During the indexing process, and as part of their reports on individual Schullandheime, researchers will compare the slides with images published in the VDS journal in order to match images that had not been clearly categorised with specific locations and events. During the cataloguing process, researchers must create an appropriate classification structure (or at the very least, an annotation or link) to represent the location of plates in a series, in order to document an item’s immediate collection context. In order to integrate the slides into the overall context of the VDS tradition, they must also link them with written and photographic contextualising documents such as contemporary teaching aid catalogues or administrative documents in the collection itself.14 Finally, they must also include author references in order to simplify copyright clarification. The sensitive part of the collection was entrusted to a photograph conservator. The slides were subjected to various cleaning processes. These included a dry mechanical cleaning of both sides and a wet mechanical cleaning, with alcohol and water, of the sides and edges of each slide. Broken or otherwise damaged slides were fitted with a protective cover glass, and unsealed edges and detached labels were repaired. All slides were then sheathed in four-flapped envelopes or archival sleeves and transferred to micro-corrugated cardboard holders for vertical storage.15 Since the original items are fragile and susceptible to the mechanical hazards posed by frequent use, the BBF plans to digitise the slides in order to better conserve and preserve them. Independently of this process, the archive also plans to organise a temporary exhibition of the slides in order to illustrate their unique material qualities and the authenticity, or extrinsic value, of the historical material. Excepting cases in which the substrate material or the manufacturing process itself constitutes the primary research subject, the material available for viewing will consist primarily of digital representations of the originals. In this regard, one must keep in mind that digitisation deprives the slides of their material dimension. Not even a high standard of digitisation can compensate for this fact, since it is only the ‘sum of content and form of transmission’ that ‘transforms objects into distinctive historical evidence’.16 As the memorandum of the German Alliance for the Preservation of Written Cultural Heritage (Allianz zur Erhaltung des schriftlichen Kulturguts) suggests,

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despite the high cost in funds and human resources of digitisation (content replication) and additional measures for inventory conservation (asset preservation), the material uniqueness of the collection precludes a cassation of the originals after digitisation, since ‘these procedures cannot be played out against each other, but complement each other’.17

The Significance of the Collection The VDS collection contains unique, heterogenous source material about the history, characteristics and regional development of German rural residential schools which allows researchers to study a broad range of issues. In addition to encouraging researchers to evaluate the history of the VDS, the material also allows them to historically process the practical activity of the individual Schullandheime and to undertake comparative studies within the Schullandheim landscape (north versus south, east versus west, and so on). The material may likewise inspire comparative studies of other educational institutions and learning locations in various historical periods. The material is unique in that it represents both a teacher’s and a pupil’s perspective and can therefore serve as the basis for a variety of analyses. The extent to which the sources illustrate the negotiation processes that took place between what was initially a temporary, privately founded educational institution (later under the umbrella of

Illustration 5.3. Slide conservation. © Anna Duda.

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the VDS) and the state education authorities can only be determined via archival processing. Particularly striking and significant for historical education are the parallels between the conceptual, structural and foundational history of the Schullandheim movement and, for example, the adult education centre movement (Volkshochschulbewegung). These parallels encompass not just these schools’ privately initiated founding and subsequent institutional development, but also their ability to integrate into or adapt to National Socialist educational ideals. In this context, much insight could be gained by uncovering the mechanisms of and motives for the active promotion of Nazification within the VDS by individual members of the association, and by analysing the infighting and turf wars that took place between the representatives of various camps within it. Furthermore, since it is reasonable to assume that the provenance of the individual items was not appraised on a communal level, the source corpus (especially the documents relating to the association’s properties) is also relevant to other disciplines, such as the history of architecture, interior design and landscaping. The glass slides (most of which date to the 1930s and 1940s) and the various documents relating to the individual institutions are especially helpful when reconstructing the pedagogical methods employed in the Schullandheime. The pupils’ reports also provide important insights, allowing researchers to scientifically examine the everyday lives of a generation of children who had been evacuated from the cities due to war-induced dangers and supply shortages. Translation, Peter Laki Since completing her doctoral thesis about the movements promoting colleges of further education in the Weimar Republic in 2000, and an MA in archival science at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam in 2013, Bettina Reimers has, since 2008, been head of the archival work area at the BBF/Research Library for the History of Education in Berlin. Since 2017 she has also taught in the department of information science at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam.

Notes  1. See Kerbs and Reulecke, Handbuch.  2. ‘Im öffentlichen Schulwesen hat das Schullandheim zuerst die neuen Ideale in die Wirklichkeit umgesetzt. Es erstrebt bewußt eine harmonische Ausbildung des ganzen Menschen. … Abseits von der Großstadt in gesunder, schöner Umgebung nimmt das Heim für mehrere Wochen Klassen mit ihren Lehrern auf. Und in diesem Pflanzgarten kann das Kind sich körperlich entfalten, kann das Wissen vergrößern und kann durch

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 3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.

 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

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das Erleben in der Natur in der Lebensgemeinschaft auch innerlich weiterwachsen.’ Nicolai, ‘Das Schullandheim’, 365. Kruse and Mittag, Von den Wurzeln, 15. Nicolai, ‘Das Schullandheim’, 367. Kruse and Mittag, Von den Wurzeln, 15. Nicolai, ‘Das Schullandheim’, 367. On the function of the Central Institute for Education and Instruction as a training institution, see Böhme, Zentralinstitut. The board members of the RSLH included Nicolai, who served as chairman; deputy chairman Carl Matzdorff (*1859), who also served as archivist and educational press speaker; Theodor Breckling (1888–1948), treasurer and head of member support; and board member Heinrich Sahrhage (1892–1969), who also served as head of the financial department, curator of the photograph collection, chief editor of the RSLH newsletter and daily press speaker. Cf. König, ‘Schullandheimpädagogik’, 70. Ibid., 80. For a current profile of the VDS, see Frost, ‘Verband Deutscher Schullandheime’. For more information about this initiative, see Füßl, ‘Sammeln’. Schmidt, Fotografie. Cf. Bauer, ‘Bildarchive’, 33. Lavédrine, Guide. ‘die Summe aus Inhalt und Überlieferungsform … macht aus den Objekten unverwechselbare Zeugnisse.’ See Zukunft bewahren. ‘Beide Verfahren können nicht gegeneinander ausgespielt werden, sondern ergänzen einander.’ Ibid.

Bibliography Bauer, Elke. ‘Bildarchive im digitalen Wandel: Chancen und Herausforderungen’, in Irene Ziehe and Ulrich Hägele (eds), Fotografie und Film im Archiv: Sammeln, Bewahren, Erforschen (Münster: Waxmann Verlag, 2013), 27–38. Böhme, Günther. Das Zentralinstitut für Erziehung und Unterricht und seine Leiter: Zur Pädagogik zwischen Kaiserreich und Nationalsozialismus. Neuburgweiler, 1971. Frost, Heiko. ‘Verband Deutscher Schullandheime (VDS)’, in Maren Gronert and Alban Schraut (eds), Handbuch Vereine der Reformpädagogik: Überregional arbeitende reformpädagogische Vereinigungen sowie bildungsentwicklerisch initiative Einrichtungen mit Brückenfunktion in Deutschland, Österreich, der Schweiz, Südtirol und Liechtenstein (Baden Baden: Ergon Verlag, 2018), 555–61. Füßl, Wilhelm. ‘Sammeln im Verbund – eine Strategie für die Zukunft’, in Heinz Peter Brogiato and Klaus-Peter Kiedel (eds), Forschen | Reisen | Entdecken. Lebenswelten in den Archiven der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft (Halle: Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2011), 11–18. Kerbs, Diethard, and Jürgen Reulecke (eds). Handbuch der Deutschen Reformbewegungen 1880–1933. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag, 1998. König, Karlheinz. ‘Schullandheimpädagogik im Griff des totalitären Staates (1933– 1943/45)’, in Schullandheimbewegung und Schullandheimpädagogik im Wandel der Zeit (Hamburg: Verlag Verband Deutscher Schullandheime, 2002), 61–136.

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Kruse, Klaus, and Tobias Mittag. Von den Wurzeln bis zum Jahre 1933. Hamburg: Verlag Verband Deutscher Schullandheime, 2002. Lavédrine, Bertrand. A Guide to the Preventive Conservation of Photograph Collections. Michigan: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2003. Nicolai, Rudolf. ‘Das Schullandheim’, in Herman Nohl and Ludwig Pallat (eds), Handbuch der Pädagogik, vol. 4 (Bad Langensalza: Verlag Julius Beltz, 1928), 365–69. Schmidt, Marjen. Fotografie in Museen- Archiven und Sammlungen: Konservieren, Archivieren, Präsentieren. Erarbeitet im Rahmen eines zweijährigen Restaurierungsprojekts der Landesstelle für die Nichtstaatlichen Museen in Bayern und des Münchner Stadtmuseums. Munich: Weltkunst Verlag, 1994. Zukunft bewahren: Eine Denkschrift der Allianz zur Erhaltung des schriftlichen Kulturguts. Berlin: Allianz Schriftliches Kulturgut Erhalten, 2009. http:// www.allianz-kulturgut.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Allianz_Kulturgut/ dokumente/2009_Allianz_Denkschrift_gedruckt.pdf (accessed 8 August 2019).

Chapter 6

Collecting and Using Audiovisual Educational Aids from East Germany Kerrin v. Engelhardt and Ulrich Ruedel

Why Collect Educational Films?

I

n his study of film as a historical source, Johannes Etmanski notes the enormous impact that film and television have had on public consciousness over the last half century. ‘Film and television’, he writes, ‘have been the leading journalistic medium worldwide for the past sixty years at least. They shape our knowledge, our identity, our historical conscience, our ideas about our neighbours and others like no other medium’.1 That being said, these media are often neglected in historical analysis. This neglect is typically justified by what is often seen as the sources’ ‘second-rate status’ as media that do not depict reality ‘true-to-life’ but rather are purposefully staged and produced. But the special value of films lies precisely in their accentuation of certain aspects of reality. Thus, according to Etmanski, ‘non-fictional films’ in particular can be analysed as ‘residual sources’ or as an ‘impression and excerpt of an erstwhile “visible reality”’.2 Etmanski argues for a stronger focus on films as primary research sources instead of merely seeing them as accessories to printed materials. A similar statement can be made for educational studies.3 Educational media influence culture as much as they are influenced by it. ‘Culture’ here is understood as ‘the product of human reference to the world’, which can be studied as ‘meaningful behaviour in practices, artefacts, and writings’.4 Educational films should be seen as repositories of cultural knowledge and practices and thus as a cultural-observational medium. Educational films were not only part of a changing (but specific) audiovisual culture and repositories of intentionally created bodies of

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knowledge and mediation practices. They were also involved in mediahistorical and technical-historical processes of change, and thus reflect, like all educational media, ‘a media-historical development on the horizon of pedagogical and didactic positions’.5 Recent studies have drawn attention to the different pedagogical attitudes that developed in the two German states. In East Germany, educational films were appreciated as affect-oriented teaching materials; it was hoped that their emotional impact would help impart abstract (especially ideological) teaching content more easily. This estimation was not constant; rather, it was related to processes of political change and pedagogical discourses on emotional and rational learning.6 In West Germany, educational films were considered suitable for various phases of instruction (for example, for introducing new topics or for deepening or checking learning results). In a study published in 1972, Hans Krauss provided instructions and example analyses to show how teachers could critically evaluate films and use them in their instruction.7 Krauss considered the role of the film in relation to the learners’ ‘experience of reality’ (in media-aesthetic as well as thematic terms) and argued in favour of a more positive valuation of the medium.8 Kurtheinz Hochmuth’s experimental study (1976) examined the possible applications of educational films and recordings in class instruction in order to expand ‘knowledge about the effect of these media’ and ultimately guide teachers towards the use of media.9 In 1992, Claudia Mikat published a series of guidelines intended to serve as an ‘orientation aid’ for the analysis and planning of pedagogical films and television series.10 More recently, in 2001, Karin Kneile-Klenk initiated a media-pedagogical study of film as an educational medium. The study found that while in East Germany more attention was paid to the function of media in order to align its production with government policy, in West Germany the use of media was approached with greater scepticism.11 Viewed from a historical perspective, these analyses themselves become sources for studies appraising the historical use of teaching materials. An example of this is the educational film project ‘Educational Film in the Interwar Period: Germany, France and Italy, a Comparison’ conducted at the Georg Eckert Institute from 2014 to 2019.12 In this way, medial practices are related to theoretical discourses. Paul Saettler conceived his study, The Evolution of American Educational Technology (1990), as a source of practical knowledge about learning and teaching processes, introducing didactics and technology and presenting the use of technological media as didactic technology.13 Previous studies of the history of educational film include Devin Orgeron’s study of educational film in the United States, which both

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addressed the production and content of the films and contributed to their availability as an online resource, and Charles Acland and Haidee Wasson’s study of the sociopolitical entanglements of so-called functional films.14 Against the backdrop of the media shift, Geoff Alexander, in his Academic Films for the Classroom (2010), propounds a production-oriented history of educational film and addresses the disappearance of the 16mm film from classrooms and its afterlife in digital media collections on the internet, which has become an important medium for the transmission of digitalised films.15 Eef Masson’s systematic analysis of the analogous situation in the Netherlands addresses the films’ specific compositional forms.16 However, no comparable study has yet been made for the two German states.17 The teaching materials produced in West and East Germany from 1950 to 1990 have yet to be systematically classified, indexed and made archivally accessible. Likewise, the interaction between various types of technical media in the teaching process and the didactic relationship between technical conditions and submitted content have yet to be systematically considered. It is necessary to keep in mind that teaching materials, particularly as intentionally indicative media, cannot be perceived as purely neutral documentations of reality. Technical educational media not only combine transposed media-specific bodies of knowledge, but also evoke emotional or idealised attitudes towards their content, a process familiar from filmic representations of historical events in history classes. One can detect formal patterns in educational films that can be traced back to certain motivational strategies, such as the use of youthful protagonists to facilitate self-identification among viewers.18 Film images have strong suggestive power and are able to evoke both emotions and the semblance of objectivity.19 In this sense, one must keep in mind the specific quality of the medium, namely, that film content and meaning are ‘principally the result of a differentiated concurrence of various factors’, while their reception is largely determined by ‘unconsciously perceived factors, prescribed by filmmakers in a targeted chronological order’.20

The History and Context of the Archive The media archive of the University of Applied Sciences Berlin (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, HTW) comprises a collection of films, magnetic tapes, slides and overhead transparencies unique in its breadth and completeness. The material in the collection originated

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from the Institute for Film, Image and Sound (Institut für Film, Bild und Ton, IFBT), an institution that had been subordinate to the East German Department of Education, and dates mostly from between 1962 and 1989. A few materials date back even further. Some, from the 1940s, were inherited from the equivalent institution of the Third Reich, the ‘Reich Institute for Film and Image in Science and Teaching’ (‘Reichsanstalt für Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht’, RWU). The collection also includes oral history videotapes from the time of the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 and 1990. After surviving the turmoil of the German reunification (thanks to the efforts of Jürgen Sieck), the collection came under the custodianship of Martin Koerber, then a professor in the newly formed audiovisual track of the school’s conservation-restoration/field archaeology programme.21 The collection’s vast array of media encompasses still photographs (typically mass-reproduced slide series, some for 3D viewing in respective viewers); moving 16mm and 35mm images, including select master materials; audio recordings on reel-to-reel and cassette tape; and teaching ‘overhead transparencies’ (often arranged in sets taped together in sandwich form to allow a gradual build-up of technical or scientific drawings from their individual graphic components). The collection thus constitutes a representative, relatively large stock of mixed educational media from the GDR. The principle of mixed media is also related to the consideration that each individual teaching material forms part of an ensemble of educational materials that teachers could select from according to the situation at hand. The collection consists of about three thousand 16mm and six hundred 35mm prints; approximately thirty-four thousand slides, or one thousand series; 640 Polylux series amounting to about nine thousand slides (in plastic sleeves which exhibit deformations resulting from chemical changes), with a fair amount of duplication among the film prints; and approximately seventy titles duplicated in video transfers.22

Materiality, Processing and Preservation What challenges do we face when preserving these materials, both in (passive/preventative) conservation and/or when duplicating or digitising these materials for long-term preservation and when providing copies that can be accessed digitally? We generally choose an approach which is commensurate to the unusual variety of audiovisual materials (and, in turn, didactic approaches), current archival practice and discourse23 and specific aspects of the collection, and which builds on the

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results of previous and current work on the collections. This section will focus on the preservation of the mixed media collection. The accompanying booklets and videotapes, while numerous and historically important, will not be discussed, as the latter were produced after German reunification by the IFBT’s successor organisation and do not constitute part of the teaching collection. Principles of conventional library practice and paper conservation apply. Paper materials include administrative correspondence and scripts for media productions important to establishing the history of the institution beyond the media itself. The main part of the collection under consideration comprises motion picture films, most typically classroom projection prints in 16mm sound format (although the collection also contains negatives and 35mm materials). As negatives of the IFBT films are preserved in the German Federal Archives (Bundesfilmarchiv), a first step in evaluating a given title in the HTW collection is to ascertain whether the respective negatives are held in that archive. When evaluating the condition of an item, the various types of damage that typically affect such motion picture materials must be considered; these include wear and tear due to use (projection) and chemical decay.24

Illustration 6.1. Films, sound recordings and other teaching aids in the HTW collection. © Ulrich Ruedel.

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Other common types of damage include the fading of colour dyes leading to discoloration, as a result of which the more stable dyes predominate over the three primary colours, which fade unevenly. In addition, the transparent carrier of the film material itself can decompose. From the period of the materials’ production, it is safe to assume that the primary carrier is cellulose acetate, which is subject to the so-called vinegar syndrome (which involves a chemical reaction that produces a typical vinegar smell).25 Generally, in film preservation, it is the original negative (rather than the actual authentic projection prints) that is valued the most as a document for preservation and as a source element for duplication or digitisation, as it offers the highest photographic quality without the loss in definition which inevitably results from the process of analogue duplication towards a projection positive (for example, an increase in contrast and loss of colour separation). If the negative has not been preserved in the Federal Archives, the title’s HTW projection print holdings are deemed unique. In the work done so far, the two prints that were best preserved in terms of their material condition (base and emulsion scratches, splices indicating missing frames or sections, potential colour fading, vinegar syndrome) were given to the Federal Archives for storage and conservation. Yet negatives, while best in spatial and colour detail, do not contain all information determining the colour appearance of the classroom prints historically struck from them, as these are, in analogue film duplication, always subject to creative decisions such as colour grading (that is, setting the exposure and colour balance in duplication for each shot in the film). This information may only be gathered from positive prints, provided that their colour has been retained. If only a negative or faded positive is available, it is necessary to regrade the colours in duplication or digitisation, a process that depends considerably on aesthetic decisions and knowledge of contemporary styles and colours for which an original or preferable colour (skin tones, blue sky, foliage and so on) can reasonably be inferred. This might not be the case for classroom films which employ schematics or animation to elucidate abstract concepts (as opposed to depicting common, natural scenes devoid of any ‘natural reference colour’), meaning that for some films in the collection, wellpreserved positive projection prints must be considered a primary element for any process of duplication, digitisation or restoration in which original colour rendition is a goal and concern. Consequently, a case can be made for the preservation of projection prints for use in the restoration process (and for their use as reference elements in duplication or digitisation even when the original negative is available).

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Illustration 6.2. The HTW collection of audiovisual educational media. © Ulrich Ruedel.

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Generally, audio tapes based on cellulose triacetate can be equally, indeed even more affected by the vinegar syndrome, as metal compounds (such as the magnetic particles in the tape) tend to accelerate the phenomenon. Digitisation and long-term digital storage provide the best strategy for preservation and access, along with continued storage (passive conservation) of originals and playback equipment. Another common issue with magnetic tapes is the ‘sticky shed’ syndrome, a decomposition phenomenon attributed to binder hydrolysis and migration in the magnetic recording layer which leads to stickiness of the tape surface and clogging of magnetic heads in playback. This problem can often be temporarily solved by the controlled warming (‘tape baking’) of the tapes prior to playback. A recent collaborative ERASMUS student project between ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Potsdam Film Museum Collections and HTW26 has revealed that the composition of tapes produced by ORWO (Original Wolfen, as Agfa was known from 1964) during the 1960s (a transitional period in terms of the development of film and tape materials at the company) is unclear, and these tapes may possibly also include polyester and/or polyvinyl chloride. Further evaluation of the audio materials may thus require tests for plastic materials in order to evaluate the materials’ physical and chemical condition. Recent studies of these virtually unprocessed parts of the collection have revealed that the materials represented are not typical of conventional, amateur or professional slide photography (where the typical result is a single, unique reversal slide). Rather, the IFBT slides were geared towards multiple copying for distribution to local storage/dissemination centres and libraries. Collection processing revealed that slides were printed on motion picture film stocks, as these were indeed intended for the same goal of mass duplication, unlike conventional photographic slide materials. Also preserved are convolutes of master materials for these slides, such as large format reversal slides that were copied and reduced to a 35mm slide master negative. Consequently, the 35mm slides in the media archive also constitute a potentially valuable source of information about colour film materials and duplication chains in the GDR, in both moving and still imagery. It has been established that some slide materials had originally been combined with audio (narration) tapes to form audiovisual presentations, a format that could be easily reproduced by digitising and recombining the two sources. The timing of the slide changes could be ascertained from respective signals on tape or from written source materials, if available. The collection of overhead transparencies (‘Polylux’, as they were known in the GDR) is rather extensive and poses what is perhaps the

Illustration 6.3. The archive cabinet with 35mm slide sets in the HTW collection. © Ulrich Ruedel.

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most unusual challenge in the media archive in terms of audiovisual preservation. They are covered in what appear to be PVC sleeves that have become deformed due to plasticiser loss. Although apparently akin to photographic 35mm slides in their use and in their reliance on transparent plastic carriers, they usually come both in sets of sequential individual transparencies and in sets taped together in book or sandwich form, allowing for a gradual build-up of complex schematics on the overhead projector. Due to ageing, the adhesive tapes have become yellow and brittle. Removal would require the painstaking (and timeconsuming) removal of glue residue and would raise the question of how to preserve the arrangement of multiple combined transparencies. As re-taping would raise the same issue again a few decades from now, documentation and rehousing are likely to further raise the already high cost for new covers (for thousands of slide sets) even further, suggesting two extreme approaches. If it could be confirmed that tape (residues) and PVC covers provide no substantial long-term risk to the foils, keeping them in their original arrangement seems acceptable for the time being. On the other hand, it should be remembered that these transparencies are much less sophisticated than photographic and moving image materials in terms of their spatial resolution and colour quality and are more akin to a document than to a photographic image. Consequently, digitisation at a mediumlevel resolution such as is common for printed documents, combined with a solid long-term data storage strategy, may indeed be considered sufficient methods of preservation for these materials (but not for their higher resolution and colour quality slide and film counterparts).27

Uses of Media in the Classroom: Pedagogical Principles and Practices in a Totalitarian Regime Like other educational media, classroom films have certain aesthetic and didactic characteristics28 and are linked to specific educational conditions and practices that were prevalent in the political structure of the GDR. Historical audiovisual media visualise and document not only historically predominant images of science and self-interpretations of a society, but also the filmmakers’ conceptions of the target audience, the teachers and learners. Research on totalitarian regimes such as National Socialism and the GDR has also focused on their respective visual practices. For example, the organisers of the art history conference ‘Visual Cultures of Socialism’ (Hamburg, 18–20 March 2015) proceeded from the assumption that ‘socialist visual cultures generated social and cultural codes that

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went far beyond political iconographies [and] defined central places for the negotiation of political and social relationships’. The organisers of this conference presented socialism as ‘a central pathetic formula of the twentieth century’ and interrogated the practices of visual representation as well as the connections between image control, staging, consumption and mass culture.29 This expands upon Aby Warburg’s concept of the ‘pathetic formula’, which focuses on the formulaic pictorial representation of (ostensibly universal) emotional expressions or affects.30 In the GDR nearly every learner was confronted with a specific audiovisual culture, its rhetoric and its visual ‘pathos formula’ in school. Certain image patterns can be interpreted only by insiders; without further information they are incomprehensible. For example, the film ‘The Soviet Union’s Battle against the Counterrevolution’ (Der Kampf Sowjetrusslands gegen die Konterrevolution) shows a portrait of Lenin without mentioning his name and without further explanation, thereby demonstrating the affective weight of the ‘visual cultures of socialism’. The impact of such propaganda is described as ‘socialist visual agitation’ or ‘thought of leading image agitation’.31 This raises the question whether there is also a visual culture of capitalism or even democracy. The pedagogical concepts which had inspired the various technical teaching aids and the media technology of the GDR are now obsolete. The resulting media shift can nonetheless be seen as an opportunity.32 The foreignness of the outdated media enables a process of reflection on media production and its relevance for both historical and contemporary problem-oriented perspectives of media competence education.33 If used as teaching material in the training of teachers, the films serve not only as historical source material, but also as a visual aid to facilitate the demonstration of the use of media in the classroom, enabling teachers to consider how to deal critically and creatively with the (sometimes obsolete) teaching materials available in schools. The old educational films allow student teachers to engage with a variety of educational image practices and to practise evaluating them (that is, to train them in ‘media competence’34). The analysis of 16mm educational films and other audiovisual teaching aids as historical educational media thus serves the further development of media competence. In modern society, film (in this case meaning all audiovisual media) has become the leading information medium via internet distribution. This is why Müller characterises the development of film-media competence as a fourth ‘cultural technology’ alongside reading, writing and arithmetic.35 Media competence means the ability to recognise both the reality content and the symbolic subcontext of a given medium.

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The general goal should be a thorough survey of the collection and the development of a strategy for its safeguarding and preservation. One potential solution could be the digitisation of the audiovisual materials and their inclusion in an AV Portal such as those of the Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and the Hanover University Library. The creation of a database could be a first step towards a scientific approach and an interdisciplinary exchange about material and contentrelated questions. Kerrin v. Engelhardt studied fine arts at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and cultural history and folklore studies, art history and philosophy at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. She obtained a PhD in the history of natural sciences with a dissertation about mathematics education around 1800. She is currently carrying out a case study about ‘The Myth of Scientific Neutrality: The School Educational Film in the Cold War’ in the context of a collaborative project called ‘Educational Myths – A Dictatorship and Its Afterlife’ at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Ulrich Ruedel graduated in analytical chemistry from the University of Muenster and carried out research into historical film colours after studying at the George Eastman Museum in 2004 and 2005. He worked at Haghefilm and the British Film Institute before accepting a position as a professor of conservation and restoration at the University of Applied Sciences for Engineering and Economics (HTW) in Berlin, where he teaches and carries out research into the preservation of film, photos and video.

Notes  1.  2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.  9. 10. 11. 12.

Etmanski, ‘Der Film als historische Quelle’, 67. Ibid., 73. Schäffer and Ehrenspeck-Kolasa, Film- und Fotoanalyse, 9. Rogge, ‘Historische Kulturwissenschaften’, 365. Crivellari, ‘Zeitgeschichte und Unterrichtsfilm’. Kneile-Klenk, Der Nationalsozialismus in Unterrichtsfilmen (Deutscher Studien Verlag). Krauss, Der Unterrichtsfilm. Ibid., 9. Hochmuth, Unterrichtsfilm, 430. Mikat, Dramaturgie, 13. Kneile-Klenk, Der Nationalsozialismus in Unterrichtsfilmen (Beltz). See http://www.gei.de/abteilungen/mediale-transformationen/geschichte/lehrfilm. html (accessed 12 September 2019).

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13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

18. 19. 20. 21.

22. 23. 24. 25.

26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

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Saettler, The Evolution of American Educational Technology, 3–21. Orgeron, Learning with the Lights Off; Acland and Wasson, Useful Cinema. Alexander, Academic Films. Masson, Watch and Learn. As already noted, such a project is currently being undertaken at the Georg-Eckert Institute, under the title ‘Educational Film in the Interwar Period: Germany, France and Italy, a Comparison’. See also the assessment of West Germany by Sattelmacher, Schulze, and Waltenspül, ‘Reusing Research Film’. Masson, Watch and Learn, 198. Müller, Filmbildung. Korte, Einführung, 16. Ruedel and Koerber, ‘Materiality of Heritage’. See http://synoptique.ca/wp-content/ uploads/2018/07/12-ulrich-ruedel-martin-koerber-the-materiality-of-heritage-moving-image-preservation-training-at-htw-berlin.pdf (accessed 9 September 2019), based on Koerber, ‘Zum Studienschwerpunkt’. HTW media archives webpage, https://web.archive.org/web/20101206203440/http:// medienarchiv.htw-berlin.de:80/?page_id=873 (accessed 31 August 2018). For a list of relevant references, see https://www.fiafnet.org/pages/Training/SummerSchool-resources.html (accessed 31 August 2018). The Film Preservation Guide: The Basics for Archives, Libraries, and Museums (San Francisco: National Film Preservation Foundation, 2004). See also Read and Meyer, Restoration. Given that the collections also contain older materials, and that polyester began to be used in 8mm film in the 1960s, the composition of the film base material cannot be taken for granted. Image Permanence Institute, Acetate Film Base Deterioration: The Vinegar Syndrome, https://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/resources/newsletterarchive/v12/vinegar-syndrome (accessed 9 September 2019). Bosi et al., Research. Wellen, Lagerungskonzept. Masson, Watch and Learn, 191. The quotations were taken from the announcement of this conference in Hamburg 2015: https://arthist.net/archive/9511 (accessed 9 September 2019). Didi-Huberman, Das Nachleben der Bilder, 212–24. Klotz, Das politische Plakat, 1–19. Heesen, ‘in medias res’. Klinger, ‘Distanzieren’. Baacke, Medienpädagogik, 98–99. Müller, Filmbildung, 18.

Bibliography Acland, Charles, and Haidee Wasson (eds). Useful Cinema. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011. Alexander, Geoff. Academic Films for the Classroom: A History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co, 2010. Baacke, Dieter. Medienpädagogik. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1997. Bosi, Adele, Caroline Figueroa, Siobhan Piekarek, Elisabeth von Galen and Ulrich Rüdel. Research on Agfa and ORWO Magnetic Sound Materials in the Collection Stock of Potsdam Filmmuseum. Unpublished report of ‘Sapienza’ University

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of Rome and the Potsdam Film Museum Collection. Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, 2018. Crivellari, Fabio. ‘Zeitgeschichte und Unterrichtsfilm: Desiderate und Perspektiven’, in Susanne Popp et al. (eds), Zeitgeschichte – Medien – historische Bildung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010), 171–89. Didi-Huberman, Georges. Das Nachleben der Bilder: Kunstgeschichte und Phantomzeit nach Aby Warburg. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2019. Etmanski, Johannes. ‘Der Film als historische Quelle: Forschungsüberblick und Interpretationsansätze’, in Klaus Topitsch and Anke Brekerbohn (eds), Der Schuß aus dem Bild: Für Frank Kämpfer zum 65. Geburtstag (Munich, 2004), 67–77. https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/558/6/etmanski-film.pdf (accessed 31 August 2018). Heesen, Anke te. ‘in medias res’. NTM International Journal of History & Ethics of Natural Sciences Technology & Medicine 10 (2008), 485–90. Hochmuth, Kurtheinz. Unterrichtsfilm und Tonbildreihe im didaktischen Problemzusammenhang: Eine mediendidaktische Untersuchung über die Wirkung von Kongruenz und Dissonanz der über Bild und Ton gebotenen Information im Unterricht. Würzburg: Julius-Maximilians-Universität, 1976. Klinger, Kerrin. ‘Distanzieren: Eine Ansammlung von DDR-Schullehrfilmen’, in Babett Forster, Kerrin Klinger and Michael Markert (eds), Sammlungsdidaktik (Weimar: VDG, 2016), 27–38. Klotz, Katharina. Das politische Plakat der SBZ/DDR 1945–1963: Zur politischen Ikonographie der sozialistischen Sichtagitation. Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 2006. Kneile-Klenk, Karin. Der Nationalsozialismus in Unterrichtsfilmen und Schulfernsehsendungen der DDR. Weinheim: Deutscher Studien Verlag, 2001. Koerber, Martin. ‘Zum Studienschwerpunkt’, in Matthias Knaut and Martin Koerber (eds), Freigelegt: Zehn Jahre Studium Restaurierung/Grabungstechnik (Berlin: Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, 2003), 62–63. Korte, Helmut. Einführung in die systematische Filmanalyse: Ein Arbeitsbuch, 4. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 2010. Krauss, Hans. Der Unterrichtsfilm. Form, Funktion, Methode. Ein Beitrag zur Mediendidaktik. Donauwörth: Auer Verlag, 1972. Masson, Eef. Watch and Learn: Rhetorical Devices in Classroom Films after 1940. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012. Mikat, Claudia. Dramaturgie und Didaktik: Die Vorgaben für pädagogische Filme und Fernsehsendungen. Weinheim: Deutscher Studien-Verlag, 1992. Müller, Ines. Filmbildung in der Schule: Ein filmdidaktisches Konzept für den Unterricht und die Lehrerbildung. Munich: kopaed, 2012. Orgeron, Devin. Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Read, Paul, and Mark-Paul Meyer. Restoration of Motion Picture Film. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000. Rogge, Jörg. ‘Historische Kulturwissenschaften: Eine Zusammenfassung der Beiträge und konzeptionelle Überlegungen’, in Jan Kusber (ed.), Historische Kulturwissenschaften. Positionen, Praktiken und Perspektiven (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2010), 351–79.

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Ruedel, Ulrich, and Martin Koerber. ‘The Materiality of Heritage: Moving Image Preservation Training at HTW Berlin’. Synoptique 6(1) (2018), 91–96. Saettler, Paul. The Evolution of American Educational Technology. Englewood, NJ: Libraries Unlimited, 1990. Sattelmacher, Anja, Mario Schulze, and Sarine Waltenspül, ‘Introduction: Reusing Research Film and the Institute for Scientific Film’. Isis, 112(2) (2021), 291–98. Schäffer, Burkhard, and Yvonne Gabriele Ehrenspeck-Kolasa (eds). Film- und Fotoanalyse in der Erziehungswissenschaft: Ein Handbuch. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 2003. Wellen, Regina. Lagerungskonzept für die H-FR Polyluxfoliensammlung im Medienarchiv der HTW. Unpublished master’s thesis, Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft/University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, 2016.

Chapter 7

The Wall Chart Collection of the Danish National Museum of Education between Dissolution and Preservation Lea Cecilie Bennedsen and Anette Eklund Hansen

Introduction

T

his chapter traces the history and recent development of the wall chart collection of the Danish National Museum of Education and focuses on the ways in which history is reflected in the damage found on the wall charts today. In 1874, Emil Sauter and the Danish Teachers’ Union began working on establishing a Danish National Museum of Education. Sauter, himself a teacher, was committed to spreading knowledge about new teaching aids and contributed to the establishment of a School Supplies Committee in 1876. The Committee organised exhibitions (of school textbooks, wall charts and other teaching materials) and lectures for teachers throughout Denmark. In order to broaden Danish teachers’ knowledge of teaching aids with inspiration from abroad, Sauter and the Danish Teachers’ Union established a Danish National Museum of Education in Copenhagen.

The Collection and Its Search for a Home The Danish National Museum of Education opened in 1887 as a national institution under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Education and was directed by Sauter. The museum was housed in the school attic

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where Sauter taught, in the village of Gladsaxe outside Copenhagen. A few months later, the museum moved to a larger building on Gammel Kongevej in Copenhagen. The museum included an exhibition space and a library. On exhibit were international, ‘state of the art’ teaching materials and school furniture as well as inspirational drawings of school architecture. In the library, teachers could acquaint themselves with the latest in pedagogical literature. From the start, the museum collected historical teaching materials and documented the cultural history of schools, students, teachers and the educational system. These materials and documents formed the basis of the collection. In 1899, the Danish government passed new laws concerning primary school education. ‘Object lessons’ were introduced as a subject for the youngest pupils and educational wall charts were developed as teaching tools for the new subject. ‘Object lessons’ were designed to activate the pupils by showing a wall chart and start a class discussion about the topic depicted in the wall chart. Wall charts were educational charts developed to show different topics including ‘animals in the forest’ and ‘tools for farming’. Wall charts were used to teach upper year pupils in most subjects ranging from geography and history to biology and mathematics. Over the next three decades, many wall charts were produced by Danish artists or imported, primarily from Germany and Sweden, and numerous examples were collected by the museum. In 1901, Frederik Thomassen, a teacher at the college of education, became director of the museum. Thomassen organised annual exhibitions of wall charts and other teaching materials. In 1905, the museum took part in an international collaboration of educational museums which aimed to further the exchange of knowledge of teaching aids (including wall charts) and learning methods between different countries. Over the years, the museum received an increasing number of visitors (at least 15,500 in 1915). In response to public interest in the educational library, in 1920 the museum was divided into two independent departments: a library and an exhibition space, where the historical artefacts and wall charts were displayed. In 1934, the museum was moved again, with major consequences for the wall chart collection. To free up exhibition space for new teaching aids, wall charts not on display were moved to a poorly insulated attic, where they were exposed to rain and snow. Part of the collection was then transferred to the storage rooms of the Den Gamle By Museum in Aarhus, and the Danish National Museum of Education was renamed the ‘State Library of Pedagogics and Child Psychology’. The change of name and location underscored the significance of the library for the Ministry of Education and the latter’s policy of prioritising new teaching materials

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over historical collections. In the early 1960s, interest in educational history began to grow again, and archives and museums resumed collecting materials of educational historical interest, including wall charts. In 1973, the State Library of Pedagogics and Child Psychology moved to a new building on Lersøpark Allé in Copenhagen and the institution was renamed once again. Its new name, Danish National Library of Education, reflected a change in focus. While the library continued to receive occasional donations of historical artefacts, active collection was no longer a priority. The wall charts were placed in the library basement along with other historical items. Again, the premises were not designed specifically for storage of wall charts and artefacts. In 1977, the collection was catalogued and photographed on slides; at this point, it included approximately twelve thousand wall charts from Denmark and other countries from the 1850s to 1950. In 1982, part of the collection was destroyed by a flood. Luckily, many items could be salvaged and restored. In 1995, a new Danish Museum of Education opened in downtown Copenhagen. The library’s collection of wall charts was transferred to this new museum, where they were shown in various exhibitions until, in 2008, the museum closed due to a lack of funding. The collection was rescued at the last moment by the Danish minister of education; the collection’s story from this point on has been documented by the project’s current curators, Ning de Coninck-Smith and Jens Bennedsen.1 In 2009, the Danish National University and National Library of Education took an interest in the collection. As a result of their involvement, the National Library of Education assumed full custodianship of the collection and the museum catalogue and provided funding for its storage. While the main collection, including the wall chart, photograph and picture collections, was stored in the National Library, other parts of the collection were dispersed. Archival materials were sent to the Danish National Archive and the museum’s research library was lent out to the University Library of Southern Denmark. From this point begins the story of the museum’s revival, a process that was prolonged by a series of unfortunate circumstances. Chief among these was the 2008 financial crisis. In view of the lack of funding, it became clear that the Danish National Museum of Education could not reopen as an independent institution. As the National Library of Education could not house the museum, a project group was founded to secure the collection. This involved identifying and facilitating possible uses for the collection. To this end, the project group worked to raise awareness of Denmark’s educational heritage; among its initiatives was the high-resolution digitisation of the wall chart and photograph collections.

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In 2016, the collection became the focus of a research project on the cultural heritage of the welfare state initiated by the National Museum of Denmark. Together with the National Library of Education and the University of Aarhus, the National Museum received funding from the A. P. Møller Foundation to assess the collection. Aided by a panel of museology, pedagogy and educational history experts, the staff of the National Museum assessed and catalogued the artefacts according to their use and subject. The collection was shown to contain twenty thousand artefacts (not 125,000 as previously estimated), but information regarding origin or use was available for only a few items. In the end, the collection was dissolved, and 3,051 items were donated to thirty-five Danish museums, many of which already had educational materials in their collections and therefore accepted only the most valuable and unique items. The remaining artefacts were donated to teachers and to the Red Cross. The collection that had formerly belonged to the Danish National Museum of Education was now dispersed between thirty-five Danish museums, the Danish National Archive, the National Library of Education, the Danish Red Cross and several local schools. All donated artefacts were subsequently digitised and now form part of an educational heritage database which provides location information for each artefact and is administered by the National Library of Education, which also administers the wall chart and photograph databases. In 2017, the Danish National Library of Education created a new digital platform for educational history called ‘School History’ (Skolehistorie),2 a website containing databases of the digitised artefacts, wall charts and pictures from the former National Museum of Education as well as information about educational history and the museum’s history. The site, which addresses researchers, teachers, students and general interest groups, features articles and educational materials, offers access to the digital collections and will also host digital exhibitions. While the assessment of the collection of the former National Museum of Education is now complete, communication and maintenance (including improvement of storage facilities and maintenance of the Skolehistorie website) are ongoing.

Restoring Damaged Artefacts and Preserving Traces Wall charts are prints produced for educational purposes. Most wall charts are lithographs, either unmounted or glued to canvas, paper or cardboard. Most of the items in the collection were produced between 1860 and 1920, while the oldest date back to the 1830s; production continued throughout the twentieth century. Some of the wall charts had

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been donated to the Danish National Museum of Education by producers and publishers as a form of advertisement; others were collected by the museum from schools around the country, and since these wall charts had been in use in the school system, they are in a worse state of preservation. Today, the collection contains about twelve thousand wall charts. Of these, 10,300 are digitised, while 1,000 are inaccessible due to their poor state of preservation. The items bear traces of the collection’s turbulent history in the form of damage, signs of restoration and handwritten notes. A combination of conservation and historical research allows researchers to compare written texts about the collection with traces of damage on the artefacts, allowing them to better understand the collection and to formulate its ‘damage history’, thereby encouraging a holistic understanding of the artefacts’ history. The following section of this chapter highlights some examples of how damage to a given artefact can help us trace the history of that artefact, or of the collection as a whole, and describes how we can deal with damage in order to preserve the collection for posterity while respecting the history that damage represents.

Water Types of damage created by water include ink loss, stains, discoloration, loss of paper, mould, and internal tensions that create creases and tearing. Heavy flooding in 1982 caused extensive damage to the collection and many wall charts were destroyed beyond repair.3 Wall charts that could be saved were sent to a bookbinder for restoration. For unknown reasons, several wall charts and other documents were misplaced. They only resurfaced in 2017, when the conservator assessed the entire collection. The wall chart shown in Illustration 7.1 was damaged by the flooding of 1982. This emerges clearly from a note to the bookbinder describing the damages and desired repairs. The wall chart was probably stored rolled up on the floor. This is evident by the water damage visible on the left margin of the document. When the wall chart was rediscovered in 2017, it was in very bad condition. Had it been treated when it was first sent to the bookbinder, the damage probably could have been reduced. Today the wall chart is mouldy and is stored in a separate box to avoid the contamination of other items. When wall charts mounted on canvas are exposed to water, the glue can dissolve, causing the paper and canvas to disintegrate. When the paper is brittle, as in Illustration 7.1, it flakes off, especially during handling. To prevent this, the conservator reattaches the brittle paper to the canvas with wheat starch paste.

The Wall Chart Collection of the Danish National Museum of Education

Illustration 7.1. A wall chart damaged by flooding in 1982. © Lea Cecilie Bennedsen.

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Some wall charts exhibit small water stains which are likely the result of unsuitable storage in the 1930s. As mentioned above, after the collection, having been renamed the State Library of Pedagogics and Child Psychology, was moved to its new location in 1934, the wall charts were rolled up and stored in an attic directly below a tile roof. The water stains on the wall charts were possibly caused by snow which had fallen through the roof onto the wall charts and melted.4 During the 1970s or 1980s further flooding occurred following a burst water pipe, and many wall charts were damaged. Luckily, the charts were freeze-dried within the first twenty-four hours, a process which prevented mould, and the only damages sustained were water stains.

Repairs Another common problem is corner chipping due to extensive use in wall charts glued to cardboard (Illustration 7.2). This damage was repaired in the schools by cutting the damaged corners and replacing the canvas along the side of the artefact as shown in Illustration 7.2. The canvas was replaced with new canvas, duct or masking tape, or similar materials. To prevent this problem, some wall charts could be purchased with reinforced metal corners. The collection contains numerous examples of wall charts that had been repaired by teachers in local schools. In one curious example, a wall chart was penetrated by a white liquid which caused parts of a centrally located image to disintegrate. The image was retouched with coloured pencils, but the new colours did not match the original ones, and as a result the image was distorted. In order to cover up the mistake, the person doing the retouching attempted to blend the coloured pencil with the original image but thereby distorted the original image even more. In another example, a damaged wall chart was repaired with lined paper glued to the front of the image with glue that has since become discoloured. Since the Danish National Museum of Education received

Illustration 7.2. A damaged corner on a wall chart (left), a corner which has been cut and the tape replaced (middle) and a reinforced corner (right), 2018. © Lea Cecilie Bennedsen.

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this wall chart in 1904, the year of its production, the chart was probably never used in a school and the repairs must have been carried out by the museum. It thus provides a general illustration of early collection care at the museum. Until 1975, the museum’s primary focus was to exhibit the most advanced teaching aids and educational materials. Thus, the collection served a practical function and the artefacts were treated as utility objects. After 1975 (and especially between 1995 and 2008, when the new Danish Museum of Education assumed custody of the collection) the collections were treated as cultural heritage. In the above example, the repairs can be considered a part of the object’s heritage; for this reason, the lined paper has not been removed and this item is now handled with particular caution. The extent of the repairs made to the wall chart shown in Illustration 7.3 illustrates how valuable wall charts were at the time. This item was likely used in a school until it fell apart and a teacher repaired it with Sellotape. Today, the tape, originally transparent, has yellowed. Because

Illustration 7.3. A wall chart from 1902 mounted on canvas and roundwood (photograph from 2018). When the paper became brittle and started to flake off, it was repaired with Sellotape, presumably by a teacher. The enlarged detail illustrates the extent of the repairs. © Lea Cecilie Bennedsen.

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the collection includes a well-preserved duplicate of this wall chart, the Sellotaped sections were preserved as an indication of its history and value.

Mounting The collection also contains numerous creative mountings of wall charts (some in passe-partouts) from the collection of the new Danish Museum of Education, which closed in 2008. The items were mounted using various types of adhesive, including non-reversible glues, masking tape, Sellotape and ‘conservation’ tape. Conservators have taken care to remove any potentially damaging adhesive materials. Certain exceptional mountings have been judged to have historic value. The example shown in Illustration 7.4 was probably designed for an exhibition. The wall chart was given an octagonal shape and embellished with silver paint around its circumference (indicated by the way the paint overlaps the circle). Illustration 7.4 shows the wall chart after the disassembling of the passe-partout. The brown paper is acidic and thus sped up the

Illustration 7.4. A wall chart and passe-partout after disassembling. It was clear that the wall chart was cut to size, as the other charts in the series are rectangular in shape and feature silver colour as part of the mounting. © Lea Cecilie Bennedsen.

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deterioration process. This special mounting was recognised as integral to the object’s history. In order to preserve the mounting without damaging the wall chart, the chart was removed from its acidic paper mounting and remounted on non-acidic paper. The remounting was executed with hinges made of Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste, which are reversible materials that may be removed later if necessary. The mounted wall chart was then reinserted into the passe-partout, resulting in a mounting that is identical to the original but not damaging to the wall chart.

Storing and Managing the Wall Charts Today The collection, consisting mostly of paper and paper-based materials, is vulnerable to water, rough handling, incorrect storage, climatic changes and pests, all of which have plagued the collection in the past and continue to challenge the preservation effort. Most of the items in the collection were produced between the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth century. As paper production from traditional rag fibres could not keep up with the rising demand brought on by the Industrial Revolution, paper producers began experimenting with new straw, grass and wood fibres to mix with or replace the rag fibres.5 These fibres contain lignin, a complex polymer that gives plant fibres rigidity. Lignin acidifies during deterioration and is thus not desirable in paper for long-term storage. Paper containing lignin will discolour, become brittle and deteriorate faster than paper without lignin.6 The use of new fibres required experiments with new additives to the pulp, some of which were chemically unstable and released acid during deterioration. Many wall charts are mounted on paper, carton, cardboard or canvas. The dissimilarities between the base and paper combined with varying humidity levels caused internal stress to the materials, resulting in the creasing, tearing and deformation of the material.7 In January 2018, the National Library of Education and the wall chart collection became a part of the Royal Library of Denmark. The Royal Library is well known for its expertise in restoration and preservation of paper-based materials. Although there are no guidelines for the handling of wall charts at the library, wherever possible the collection is handled by suitably trained staff only. Internal tension and acidic and brittle paper make the wall charts especially sensitive. If mishandled, fragile wall charts are likely to tear or loosen from the mounting; some have pieces of tape on them which can easily stick to something and tear the chart. More than 60 per cent of the wall charts are of a size that requires two people to handle them safely.

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Storage and indexing are the highest priority in managing the collection today. The effects of the collection’s frequent moves due to changing custodianship are reflected in the records. The information regarding the wall charts varies in quality and only few records contain information about the origin and year of production. In addition, inconsistencies in indexing can make items difficult to find. In the past, the wall charts had been stored highly inadequately: they were hung vertically in acid-forming folders. This method of storage was doubly harmful. Not only did the acid act as a catalyst for chemical deterioration, but vertical storage put stress on the objects and required experienced staff to retrieve and reinsert them. In order to address these challenges, the library developed a combined approach to indexing and storage whereby the staff assess the collection in an ongoing process. The records are constantly checked and brought up to date, and wall charts are digitised if necessary. Carton or canvas materials are stored horizontally in acid-free boxes in order to improve storage of unmounted wall charts and wall charts mounted on paper. The wall charts are separated from each other by acid-free paper, which reduces the risk of chemical deterioration and damage resulting from incorrect storage or handling. It requires two people to handle these large and heavy boxes. The heaviest wall charts are mounted on cardboard. These are still stored in acidic hanging folders, which, due to their weight, pose a risk to the items during handling. The cardboard, being hygroscopic, distorts the paper in changing humidity. Many of these wall charts have already developed concave or convex forms, which makes horizontal storage challenging and impractical, as the folders take up much space. A new system for storing these wall charts must therefore be developed. Today, the collection is available as a digital resource for scholars, students and general interest groups. The Skolehistorie8 website contains digitised images of the artefacts along with educational history research material, which together provide a comprehensive overview that may contribute to a better understanding of the collection and make it easier to identify duplicates and indexing errors. As the collection is only available in digital form, digitisation continues to be a high priority. Items that have yet to be digitised include new additions since 2014, when most of the collection was digitised, as well as severely damaged items which were never digitised to begin with, and which must first be stabilised by a conservator. Lea Cecilie Bennedsen holds a BSc in paper conservation. She specialises in the conservation of oversized graphical materials and is currently writing an MA thesis about optical brighteners in modern paper and storage

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materials for cultural artefacts. Lea has worked in the conservation field in the cultural sector in Denmark, in institutions such as the Danish Workers’ Museum and for the collection of educational wall charts at the Royal Library. Anette Eklund Hansen (MA) is a historian and former archivist. As a historian, her focus has been on the history of the welfare state and workers’ history, and, more recently, on the history of pedagogy and of kindergartens. In 2017 and 2018 she was affiliated with a research project which documented the history of the Danish National Museum of Education and the wall chart collection of the National Library of Education and Aarhus University.

Notes  1.  2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.

Coninck-Smith and Bennedsen, ‘Dansk skolemuseum 2009–2017’. http://skolehistorie.au.dk/en/ (accessed 22 January 2020). Hellner, Dansk Skolemuseum, 18, 30–31. Indstilling, 2 (Appendix 7), 7–12. Hansen, ‘En sur udfordring’. Corrigan, ‘Constituent Materials of Paper’. Nielsen and Priest, ‘Dimensional Stability of Paper’. http://skolehistorie.au.dk/en/.

Bibliography Coninck-Smith, Ning de, and Jens Bennedsen. ‘Dansk skolemuseum 2009–2017: delvist genoplivet i erindringen’, in Mette Buchardt, Jesper Eckhardt Larsen and Karoline Baden Staffensen (eds), Uddannelseshistorie (Aarhus: WERKs Grafiske Hus A/S, 2017), 130–38. Corrigan, Caroline. ‘The Constituent Materials of Paper’, in Marjorie Cohn (ed.), Old Master Prints and Drawings (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1997), 225–30. Hansen, Birgit Vinther. ‘En sur udfordring for bevaring af Det Kongelige Biblioteks samlinger’. Nordisk Pappershistorisk Tidskrift 3 (2011), 11–14. Hellner, Robert. Dansk Skolemuseum 1887– 1.marts – 1987. Copenhagen: Danmarks Pædagogiske Bibliotek, 1987. Indstilling vedr. Den skolehistoriske samling på Danmarks Pædagogiske Bibliotek. Copenhagen: DPB, 1 April 1987. Nielsen, Ingelise, and Derek Priest. ‘Dimensional Stability of Paper in Relation to Lining and Drying Procedures’. The Paper Conservator 21 (1997), 26–36.

Chapter 8

Collecting and Accessing Curricula at the Georg Eckert Institute Adriana Madej-Stang

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he history of the curricula collection in the library of the Georg Eckert Institute – Leibniz Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) is closely linked to that of the institute. Before becoming part of a separate and systematic collection, the curricula were classified as additional materials which had been purchased or received in the process of and in connection with textbook analysis. Founded in 1951 as the International Institute for the Improvement of Textbooks (Internationales Institut für Schulbuchverbesserung),1 the institute’s work was inspired by the reeducation policy initiated by the Allied occupation powers in post-war Germany, the aims of which included revising German textbooks by ridding them of Nazi ideology. Special attention was given to subjects that were likely to influence pupils’ views, opinions and way of thinking.2 It was in this context that the German pedagogue and history teacher Georg Eckert started his work. Today, the institute, which was later renamed after its founder, collects history, geography and social science textbooks. Textbook revision often goes hand in hand with the revision of curricula. Hence, Georg Eckert collaborated with other scholars and history teachers3 on, among other things, the revision of history curricula. The minutes of their meetings, which are preserved in the GEI library, also contain annotated drafts of curricula. These documents represent the beginning of the institute’s curricula collection. In later years, the institute continued to combine textbook and curriculum studies. It was only with the advent of digital publication and the resulting increased availability of curricula that the library began to systematically develop an international curricula collection. This chapter demonstrates the challenges involved when defining curricula as collection items and

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examines the importance of considering the specifics of curricula when developing a database.

The Development of the Collection Georg Eckert’s guiding principle was the idea of education for peace. He applied this principle to the revision of textbooks in order to eliminate discriminating or xenophobic representations of other nationalities or ethnic minorities. To this end, Eckert initiated bilateral and multilateral talks with various European countries and the USA, which gave rise to a series of publications containing recommendations for textbook improvement.4 In addition, the talks also resulted in an influx of curricular documents to the institute, obtained by the GEI employees who participated in the meetings. As can be seen from the diagram in Figure 8.1, which illustrates the development of the collection over time, the late 1950s and 1960s (a period of intensive international cooperation initiated by Georg Eckert) saw the rapid expansion of the European curricula collection. As official documents which usually circulated mainly internally (within the frames of a school system), curricula were difficult to obtain on the international book market. For this reason, personal contacts and the involvement of the institute’s employees played an invaluable role in building up the collection. Official curricular publications were customarily accompanied by additional curricular materials, collected and published by textbook publishers or schools. Selecting the relevant resources was thus a challenge that required not only linguistic ability but also knowledge of each country’s education system, the forms of curricular publications accepted there and the manner of their publication and distribution. The curricular documents acquired between the 1950s and the 1970s (which were usually purchased or obtained as part of work

Figure 8.1. Numbers of curricula from European countries (excluding Germany) collected by the library of the Georg Eckert Institute from 1945 to 2017. © Adriana Madej-Stang.

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for textbook improvement committees or for research carried out at the institute) consisted mainly of regulations and provisions in force during that period. They thus allow scholars to examine the curricular provisions in force at a given place and time. As the institute became increasingly involved in textbook revision procedures in non-European countries and as its employees and researchers began initiating projects in Africa and Asia, the existing curricula collection acquired new resources from these areas. In this way, for example, the library acquired five Japanese curricula published between 1956 and 1972 and two South Korean curricula published in 1957, as well as curricula from India and Nepal from the 1950s and 1960s, which were linked to textbook revision projects. Curricula from African countries, including Kenya and Ethiopia, also entered the collection at that time. By responding to the increased scholarly interest in curricula as mediums and objects of scientific analysis, the library aimed to systematically collect curricula to complement the institute’s textbook collection, in order to address the close relationship between textbooks and curricula that had been emphasised by scholarship.5 In the 1980s, parallel to collecting textbooks, the library started to systematically collect history, geography, social studies, general studies (Sachkunde) and German lessons curricula from all states of the Federal Republic of Germany. This meant that whereas previous purchases had concentrated exclusively on resources necessary for research being carried out at the institute, the library now began to consider German curricula as one of the library’s core collection materials. The goal was to compile a complete corpus of German school curricula and to make it available to researchers. The obstacles to such an undertaking were numerous. Curricula are usually not published by publishers, and as grey literature are often difficult to find. Furthermore, curricula are available only as long as they remain in force. Once new curricular regulations are issued, the earlier documents are quickly withdrawn from circulation. In order to supplement its collection of historical German curricula, the library therefore had to rely on cooperation with other libraries and their readiness to share their collections. While during the 1980s the library team had been forced to revaluate its concept for German curricula collection, the 1990s brought a change to the curricula collection process itself. During that time, curricula, like other official documents issued by political authorities,6 began to be published on governmental and ministerial websites.7 While this increased their accessibility for users, it also meant that libraries needed to find new ways of incorporating online documents into their collections in order to ensure their long-term availability. As these documents were used for scholarly

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purposes and had to conform to scientific publication standards, they had to be permanently available to users in their original form. Unfortunately, at that time, curricula, which were usually published in PDF form, often disappeared from websites as quickly as they appeared. Once a newer version of a document was published, the older versions were no longer available. Likewise, newer editions were not always clearly titled and dated, making it impossible for users to identify the order in which the editions had been published. This further increased the urgency of collecting online documents. As more and more countries started to publish school curricula on ministerial websites, the GEI library saw an opportunity to further expand its collection and decided to collect European and non-European online curricula systematically, in line with its collection of European and nonEuropean textbooks. While the library comprehensively collected history, geography, social studies, moral education and religious studies textbooks from Germany, its European textbook collections were reviewed and brought up to date every three years. The institute also collected nonEuropean textbooks wherever the resources available for each research focus permitted this. While defining its curriculum collection profile, the library became aware of the need to revise its traditional methods of collecting curricula and rendering them accessible. The goal was not merely to digitise the analogue collection but to identify and explore new opportunities for collection offered by the digital age. This meant that the old collection had to be methodically analysed and revised with regard to the criteria governing the choice of curricula to be listed in the library’s international curricula catalogue.

Defining Collectable Curricula Beginning with its German curriculum collection, the library began to develop a systematic, international online collection based on an understanding of the curriculum as what is called in German a ‘teaching plan’ (Lehrplan). The ‘Handbook for Educational Science’ (Handwörterbuch Erziehungswissenschaft) specifies the standard parts of a ‘teaching plan’ in German-speaking areas as frameworks establishing the general goals of school education, specific study programmes, time allocation to individual subjects, implementation proposals and teaching methods, exam, evaluation and testing standards, the organisation of the school system, school types and school levels, the function and authority of curricula and proposals for school development.8

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Much if not all of this information can be found in the oldest German curriculum in the collection, which was published in Bavaria in 1811. After specifying the school type and level and the year of the curriculum’s coming into force, the authors outline the goals and topics of specific subjects to be covered and provide instructions for teachers. The second part of the document contains specific regulations and an outline of the benefits of classroom education and teaching regulations, followed by closing remarks.9 It is important to note that the curriculum consists of nothing more than textual provisions in the form of a legal document. Similar information, as stipulated in the definition of a ‘teaching plan’, can also be found in one of the most recent German curricula published in Lower Saxony in 2019.10 While this curriculum differs from the 1811 document in terms of the presentation, form and scope of the information (as can be seen, for example, from its numerous tables and graphic representations), it nevertheless retains certain similarities with the older document. It too begins by specifying the school type and educational level, continues by explaining the general goals of education and subject syllabi, and concludes with a closing statement. Both documents are official governmental publications which were meant to convey the decisions of the ministerial authority to the public, and both are legally binding. Although the above definition does not refer to non-Germanspeaking countries, a glance at the collection of international curricula shows that curricular publications from non-German-speaking countries often contain similar information. For example, the ‘Regulations and Syllabuses for the Certificate of Secondary Education’ published by the East Midland Regional Examinations Board11 in 1965 specifies the terms and conditions of examination as well as the required subjects and topics. Although its form, area of operation, legal status and publication mode differ from that of a German Lehrplan, this publication nevertheless provides important information about secondary education syllabi. Likewise, the syllabus ‘Geography: GCSE Subject Content’, published by the Department for Education of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2014, stipulates subject aims and subject content.12 Yet there are also clear differences between these documents and German syllabi. Scholars have attributed the differences between curricular documents from different countries to the existence of two main educational traditions. While the first of these, developed in continental Europe, is based on the idea of education in the sense of an ability to develop personally and cope with life (Bildung), the other, developed in English-speaking

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countries, is based on the idea of education in the sense of ‘formation’ or ‘teaching’ (Erziehung).13 The organisers of the international conference ‘Didaktik and/or Curriculum’ held at Oslo University in 1995 identified the latter tradition with the German concept of didactics and the former with the notion of ‘curriculum’ current in English-speaking countries. Ian Westbury has contrasted the curriculum theory triangle with the ‘didactics’ triangle and observed that, according to curriculum theory, the school system acts as an ‘agency for the institutionalised teaching of “content”’,14 while teachers are assigned the role of implementing the curriculum and are required to follow methods of instruction prescribed by the system. Curricular documents are thus more prescriptive and contain more information about the arrangement and realisation of actual classroom situations, including recommendations regarding the interaction between teacher and pupil as well as pupil assessment methods. Examples of curricular documents published in addition to subject syllabi in this tradition include assessment methods, lesson plans, examination standards, school profiles and methodological evaluations. On the other hand, as Westbury observes, ‘for Didaktik … it is the teacher – and of course the interaction between a particular teacher and his or her students – who nurtures the character formation which is at the center of education seen as Bildung’.15 Teachers thus enjoy greater independence within this system. Curricular documents published within this system are more descriptive; they specify general goals to be achieved in the educational process and outline subject syllabi without, however, describing their practical implementation in the classroom. In cooperation with research carried out at the Georg Eckert Institute and following the principles of curricula research established by scholars such as Bernd Schönemann16 and Wolfgang Hasberg,17 the library decided to concentrate its collection activity on the curricular documents most relevant for the institute’s textbook research, namely framework curricula, syllabi and subject catalogues (including drafts and temporary documents).18 Since, at that time, the library’s curricula collection also included other curricular documents (syllabi, examination and education standards, curriculum and textbook lists and curricular recommendations including methodological recommendations, alternative programmes, lesson plans, evaluations, future concepts, school profiles and educational programmes), the library decided to collect these documents as resources for curriculum research but not as curricula per se. Since it was often difficult to clearly distinguish between these various sources, the library approached the collection of curricula as a communicative process which also involves research, meaning that the collection

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profile was constantly re-examined and revised in order to conform to the most recent scholarly insights. The library was particularly conscious of the need to expand its area of expertise regarding non-European curricula in order to break down Eurocentric approaches to curricula and resulting collection policies.

Transferring Curricula into the Curricula Workstation Database Having sharpened its collection profile by specifying its collection preferences, the library embarked on the next phase of developing its database. The Curricula Workstation database,19 which was initiated in 2011 with the support of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), had two main goals. The first of these was to improve the accessibility of curricular documents and to allow the library to store and archive digitalised sources and born-digital materials as originally digital sources. The second objective was to establish a curriculum repository on Software DSpace, where all stored documents would be given a persistent identifier which would allow them to be accessed in the long term and to be cited as references. The main obstacle to rendering curricular documents accessible is their non-specificity. Since authorship of these documents is often anonymous, and since they are published by an official authority without clearly identified titles, it is sometimes difficult to establish which of them contain relevant information.20 Many curricula are official publications, and as such often do not have ISBN numbers or other formal identifiers. Traditional metadata standards used in library catalogues are often not sufficient to clearly differentiate between documents. In addition, documents often lack precisely that information which is of importance to researchers such as, for example, their date of entry into force, expiration date or education level. It was therefore necessary to invent a new metadata system which would allow for a content-oriented categorisation of documents. Following the standardised ‘collection descriptions’ (also called ‘finding aids’) used for its international textbook collection, the library categorised curricula with alphanumerical codes representing their ‘country/region’, ‘document type’, ‘school subject’, ‘education level’, ‘school type’ and ‘publication date’. Using these collection descriptions, users can search the curricula in the database by ‘country’ or ‘school type’. The Curricula Workstation involves the digitalisation of printed documents and the archiving of born-digital curricula. This allows

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the historical part of the collection to be used together with modern documents existing only in digital form. In order to make the curricula searchable, the library coded them with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and thereby made them accessible as full texts. An in-text search feature allows scholars to carry out a more targeted search. The project was implemented together with local and international partners who supported both the digitisation projects and the inclusion of the digitised documents in the Curricula Workstation. These partners include the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE); the International Research Association for History and Social Sciences Education (IRAHSSE); the Campus Library for Sciences, Cultural Studies, Education, Mathematics, Computer Science and Psychology (Campusbibliothek für Natur-, Kultur- und Bildungswissenschaften, Mathematik, Informatik und Psychologie) of the Free University of Berlin (FU); the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU); and the Research Library for the History of Education (Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung, BBF) of the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education. This cooperation made it possible to partially close the gaps in the GEI’s collection of German curricula (especially its collection of historical documents published before 1945) and religious studies lesson programmes. The oldest document in the collection, the Bavarian ‘teaching plan’ mentioned above, was donated to the library by the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.21 It is to be hoped that the library’s recent close cooperation with other international partners within the framework of the International TextbookCat22 will also allow it to further supplement its international curricula collection.

Illustration 8.1. Curricula Workstation with collection descriptions. https:// curricula-workstation.edumeres.net/lehrplaene/. Published with permission.

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Curricula in the Digital Age: The Future of the Collection The Curricula Workstation has become an extensive database containing over 6,500 digital and 3,700 printed curricular documents from around the world. The development of the Workstation (see Figure 8.1) was the primary factor behind the growth of the library’s curricula collection since the mid-1990s (and especially since the year 2000), and has allowed the library to save, archive and make available digital content. The next phase of the project involves developing the Curricula Workstation into a more personalised research tool supporting Digital Humanities. Features such as a user account, which will allow researchers to save their search results or create their own title lists, and application interfaces for the use of data will make the Workstation a basic tool for international curriculum research. At its core, the Curricula Workstation is perceived as a tool capable of changing and adapting to the needs and expectations of scholars and the curriculum market. The challenges it faces include the rapid pace at which the form of publication of born-digital curricular documents is changing. PDF publications have just entered the market but are already giving way to interactive online portals.23 In order to keep abreast of these developments, the library will develop new archiving strategies for websites and clarify corresponding copyright regulations. The development of these portals also reflects the rapidly changing meaning of the terms ‘digital literacy’ and ‘communication’. In comparison to traditional texts, new digital documents are structured differently, operate more frequently with hyperlinks and often rely on different presentation forms. Users of digital tools also search for more comprehensive tools which enable them to access all library resources at once, to use resources in a personalised and protected way and to integrate them into other personal collections. These new developments indicate further possibilities for the future development of the Curricula Workstation’s document collection. For example, Thomas Stäcker has postulated the use of XML formats as the preferred collection model. Advantages to using these formats would include the possibility to create a connection between different collections and collection items.24 Such a feature would link documents in the Curricula Workstation with materials from the institute’s textbook and research literature collections and allow users to include their individual suggestions and preferences or to create personal collections. Whatever direction the publication of curricula will take, the lasting importance of curricula for the school education system and for scholarly research is assured. This has been confirmed, for example, by recent

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developments in the textbook publishing process, in which the conformity of a certain textbook to the relevant curricula is cited by the publishers as sufficient ground for its approval and use.25 For this reason, the library is constantly working on new ways to collect curricula and to make them accessible, a process which involves exploration and the inclusion of new digital services and systems with the help of new technologies. The library thereby stays true to its goal to provide scholars with a complete corpus of German curricula and an extensive corpus of European and non-European curricula which is systematically constructed and therefore commensurate with the library’s textbook collection. Adriana Madej-Stang studied library and information science at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Her special subject is the influence of digital transformation on research libraries and on the development of new workflows and workplaces, including new ways of collecting, storing and making resources available to users. In 2020 she was responsible for the collection of international curricula at the research library of the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig in Germany.

Notes Fuchs, Henne and Sammler, Schulbuch als Mission, 30. Halbritter, Schulreformpolitik, 156. More information in Eckert, ‘Internationale Schulbuchrevision’, 405–6. Fuchs, Henne and Sammler, Schulbuch als Mission, 55–58. Fuchs, Niehaus and Stoletzki, Analysen und Empfehlungen, 11. Stanek, ‘Amtsdruckschriften’, 21–22. For example, that of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. See http:// www.msmt.cz/vzdelavani/zakladni-vzdelavani; https://www.dge.mec.pt/documentos-curriculares-em-vigor (accessed 25 February 2020).  8. Künzli, ‘Curriculum und Lehrmittel’, 139.  9. Döllinger, ‘Lehrplan’. 10. Kerncurriculum. 11. Regulations and Syllabuses. 12. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ file/301253/GCSE_geography.pdf (accessed 25 February 2020). 13. Robinsohn, Bildungsreform, 23–30. 14. Westbury, ‘Didaktik’, 62. 15. Ibid., 63. 16. Schönemann, ‘Richtlinien’. 17. Hasberg, ‘Kulturvergleichende Richtlinienanalyse’. 18. Schönemann, ‘Richtlinien’, 24. 19. https://curricula-workstation.edumeres.net/lehrplaene/ (accessed 25 February 2020). 20. Drechsler, Strötgen and Chen, ‘Entwicklung’, 154. 21. Döllinger, ‘Lehrplan’. 22. http://itbc.gei.de/ (accessed 25 February 2020).  1.  2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.

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23. For example, in Australia. See http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ (accessed 25 February 2020). 24. Stäcker, ‘Die Sammlung ist tot’, 306–7. 25. Sammler et al., ‘Textbook Production’, 22.

Bibliography Döllinger, G. ‘Lehrplan für die Volksschulen in Bayern vom 3.5.1811’, in Sammlung der im Gebiete der inneren Staatsverwaltung des Königreichs Bayern bestehenden Verordnungen, vol. 9 (Munich, 1811), 1344–97. http://www.comenius.gwi.unimuenchen.de/index.php/Bayern:_Lehrplan_ Alle_F%C3%A4cher_Volksschule _1811 (accessed 25 February 2020). Drechsler, Jessica, Robert Strötgen and Esther Chen. ‘Entwicklung eines Informationssystems für Lehrpläne – die Curricula Workstation’, in Informationsqualität und Wissensgenerierung. 3. DGI-Konferenz, 66. Jahrestagung (Frankfurt am Main: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Informationswissenschaft und Informationspraxis, 2014), 153–60. Eckert, Georg. ‘Internationale Schulbuchrevision’. International Review of Education 6(4) (1960), 399–415. Fuchs, Eckhardt, Inga Niehaus and Almut Stoletzki. Analysen und Empfehlungen für die Bildungspraxis. Göttingen: V&R, 2014. Fuchs, Eckhardt, Kathrin Henne and Steffen Sammler. Schulbuch als Mission: Die Geschichte des Georg-Eckert-Instituts. Vienna: Böhlau, 2018. Halbritter, Maria. Schulreformpolitik in der britischen Zone von 1945 bis 1949. Weinheim: Beltz, 1979. Handro, Saska, and Bernd Schönemann (eds). Geschichtsdidaktische Lehrplanforschung, Methoden – Analysen – Perspectiven. Münster: Lit, 2004. Hasberg, Wolfgang. ‘Kulturvergleichende Richtlinienanalyse: Triangulation als Notwendigkeit und Weg’, in Saska Handro and Bernd Schönemann (eds), Geschichtsdidaktische Lehrplanforschung, Methoden – Analysen – Perspectiven (Münster: Lit, 2004), 27–50. Kerncurriculum für den Förderschwerpunkt geistige Entwicklung. Sekunderbereich I. Schuljahrgänge 5-9. Hannover: Niedersächsische Kultusministerium, 2019. https://edumedia-depot.gei.de/bitstream/handle/11163/6027/1681956276. pdf?sequence=1 (accessed 25 February 2020). Künzli, Rudolf. ‘Curriculum und Lehrmittel’, in Sabine Andresen, Rita Casale, Thomas Gabriel, Rebekka Horlacher, Sabina Larcher Klee and Jürgen Oelkers (eds), Handwörterbuch Erziehungswissenschaft (Weinheim: Beltz, 2009), 134–48. Regulations and Syllabuses for the Certificate of Secondary Education 1965. Nottingham: East Midland Regional Examinations Board, 1965. Robinsohn, Saul B. Bildungsreform als Revision des Curriculums und ein Strukturkonzept für Curriculumentwicklung. Neuwied am Rhein: Luchterhand, 1971. Sammler, Steffen, Felicitas Macgilchrist, Lars Müller and Marcus Otto. ‘Textbook Production in a Hybrid Age: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on Producing Textbooks and Digital Educational Media’. Eckert Dossiers 6 (2016), 3–32.

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Schönemann, Bernd. ‘Richtlinien und Lehrpläne in der Geschichtslehrerausbildung’, in Saska Handro and Bernd Schönemann (eds), Geschichtsdidaktische Lehrplanforschung, Methoden – Analysen – Perspectiven (Münster: Lit, 2004), 15–26. Stäcker, Thomas. ‘Die Sammlung ist tot, es lebe die Sammlung!’ BibliothekForschung und Praxis 43(2) (2019), 304–10. Stanek, Ursula. ‘Amtsdruckschriften in der Staatsbibliothek – Tradition und Zukunft’. Bibliotheksmagazin. Mitteilungen aus der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin 3 (2006), 20–23. https://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/fileadmin/user_upload/ zentrale_Seiten/ueber_uns/pdf/Bibliotheksmagazin/bibliotheksmagazin_0603. pdf (accessed 25 February 2020). Westbury, Ian. ‘Didaktik and Curriculum Studies’, in Bjørg Gundem and Stefen Hopmann (eds), Didaktik and/or Curriculum: An International Dialogue (New York: Peter Lang, 1998), 47–78.

Part III

Access and Acquisition

Chapter 9

From the Critical Study of Jewish History and Culture to ‘Enemy Research’ and Provenance Research The Library of the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary Jenka Fuchs

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he Jewish Theological Seminary (Fraenckel Foundation), which opened in Breslau (Wrocław) in 1854 (referred to in the following simply as the Breslau Seminary), was one of the most important Jewish educational institutions until its forced closure by the National Socialists in November 1938. It was a pioneer of modern rabbinical training and one of the centres for the critical study of Jewish history and culture (Wissenschaft des Judentums) in Germany and Europe. An integral part of the seminary’s teaching and research activities, its library was home to one of the largest collections of Judaica and Orientalia in Europe. The seminary library was seized by the Gestapo in the wake of the November 1938 pogroms and taken to the ‘Central Library’ of the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) of the Reich Leader of the SS (Reichsführer-SS) in the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) in Berlin for antisemitic ‘enemy research’, or research on regime opponents. For a long time, little was known about the subsequent fate of the Breslau collection, and it was believed to have been largely destroyed. Recent provenance research now indicates that much of the seminary library, though widely scattered, has in fact survived. The history of the Breslau collection exemplifies the fate of Jewishowned cultural property looted by the National Socialists systematically and on a massive scale. In the period immediately following the war, the Western Allies and international Jewish organisations were instrumental in efforts to trace, secure and restitute such assets. But the artefacts returned at this time were largely items that had been discovered by the Allied forces after the end of the war in the German state and party

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institutions or their alternative storage facilities. By contrast, little is (or was) known about the looted assets that entered private households and the collections of public cultural and academic institutions and were passed on by them or sold (and to some extent continue to be sold) on the private art or antiquarian market. Despite this, the location and restitution of Nazi loot largely came to a standstill during the 1950s. This was due in part to the incipient Cold War, the lack of knowledge of many of those affected about the legal position on restitution (in West Germany), and a lack of interest on the part of the institutions that had received looted material. It was not until the transnational discussions in the 1990s about unresolved issues relating to the material ‘reparation’ of National Socialist injustice and, in particular, following the adoption of the Washington Principles1 at the international Holocaust conference in Washington DC in 1998, that a new awareness of the challenges surrounding the restitution of Nazi loot emerged.2 There has since been an increase in provenance research at institutions that collect objects of cultural value, primarily in Germany and Austria, but in other countries as well.3 Its task is to identify looted items in the holdings of the institution in question, to clarify the origin of the stolen objects, the circumstances surrounding their expropriation, and their changing ownership and contexts of use with respect to the looting up to the time of their location, and to return them to their former rightful owners or the latter’s legal successors. This chapter takes a closer look at the case of the Breslau Seminary library in its historical context through the lens of extensive provenance research. What were the aims and motives of the creators and rightful owners of the seminary library, and what were those of its looters and collectors? How did each of these groups use the library? What motives and aims have driven the search for the collection and the restitution of some rediscovered fragments from the end of the war to the present day? How are individual parts of the collection used today? And what scenarios are conceivable for a potential future reconstruction of the Breslau collection? To consider these questions, this chapter begins with an examination of the history of the library in the context of its original use as part of the Breslau Seminary’s teaching and research activities.4 This is followed by a reconstruction of the looting and exploitation of the collection for the purposes of National Socialist ‘enemy research’. A third section covers the history, from the years immediately following the war to the present day, of the search, partial recovery and restitution of Breslau books and of their changing hands in contexts other than that of restitution. This chapter is a revised version of three chapters of my unpublished MA

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thesis entitled ‘Looting and Restitution. On the Provenance History of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau’ (Raub und Restitution. Zur Provenienzgeschichte der Bibliothek des jüdisch-theologischen Seminars in Breslau). The thesis was submitted to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Potsdam in the field of Jewish Studies in February 2017.

The Collection in the Context of Its Creation and Use at the Breslau Seminary Founded under the will of the Breslau businessman and banker Jonas Fränckel, the Breslau Seminary played a pivotal role in modernising rabbinical training and the rabbinate. Alongside the liberal Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin (Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1872–1942) and the modern Orthodox Berlin Rabbinical Seminary (Rabbiner-Seminar zu Berlin, 1873–1938), it was also one of the key proponents of the critical study of Jewish history and culture5 in Germany and served as a model for several rabbinical training institutions established in the late nineteenth century in central and western Europe and in the United States.6 It broke with the traditional Jewish teaching system, taking instead a scientific approach to Jewish knowledge. By combining Jewish religious knowledge with general knowledge, it allowed students to professionalise and specialise in both Jewish and secular fields of scholarship.7 During the approximately eighty-five years of its existence, the institution had more than seven hundred graduates, 249 of whom were ordained as rabbis, and produced several generations of renowned rabbis and scholars.8 The history and development of the intellectual and religious profile of the seminary9 roughly coincided with the broad strokes of the history of the critical study of Jewish history and culture as a discipline in its own right. During the period of its establishment and consolidation from 1854 to around 1904, the institution was heavily influenced by the personalities and academic ethos of the founding director Zacharias Frankel and the longstanding professor of Jewish history, biblical exegesis and education Heinrich Graetz. Frankel subscribed to a concept of the critical study of Jewish history and culture as a ‘science of faith’.10 This sought a ‘positive historical’ approach to Judaism, grounded in religion, that was at once conservative and scientific. Thus, rather than taking a consistently modern, secular approach to the study of the traditional texts of Judaism, the Breslau Seminary’s research credo was religiously motivated. Post-biblical Jewish texts like the Talmud and the Mishnah were studied scientifically and with a critical evaluation of their

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reliability as sources, in keeping with the conservative, positive-historical understanding of Judaism. Historical-critical interpretation of the Bible, however, was rejected.11 After the end of the First World War in 1918 and coinciding with a new generation of teaching staff at the faculty, a ‘new era’12 began at the Breslau Seminary. Despite a certain stagnation at the institution (a concomitant of the world war and the economic crisis beginning in the 1920s, reflected in, among other things, declining student numbers), the seminary underwent a rejuvenation and renewal. Efforts were made to increase the number of students from eastern Europe, to strengthen connections to the local Jewish community, and to recruit younger teaching staff.13 Unlike the previous decades, during which all of the lecturers were graduates of the seminary and generally had a correspondingly conservative, religious attitude, the new senior lecturers had received their education at other institutions. Though the institution as a whole continued to subscribe to a conservative, positive-historical understanding of Judaism, the intellectual and religious profile of the seminary now became increasingly heterogeneous. Of arguably greater importance still than the religious and political orientation and academic background of the new lecturers, however, was the fact that the seminary staff were now members of a new generation of scholars who were seeking a fundamental shift within the critical study of Jewish history and culture. This realignment took place in the context of a discourse on knowledge within the Jewish community that had been undergoing change since the turn of the century and particularly after 1918.14 The central demand was that living Judaism be studied in the pursuit of scientific understanding. It was hoped that this would prevent the feared tendency of ‘life and teaching’ drifting apart, and yield answers to the political and social challenges of the day. Although the seminary officially steered clear of any political debate, against this backdrop Zionism grew in importance at the seminary from the early 1920s onwards, when the debate within the Jewish community was at its peak following the end of the First World War. It was in this connection that the institution added modern Hebrew to its curriculum as an optional subject in the winter term of 1921 to 1922.15 Despite the increasing repression, this process of reorientation continued after the National Socialists seized power. Even though the financial situation rapidly deteriorated and more and more students and lecturers decided to emigrate, teaching continued for the time being, and there were even new appointments to the teaching staff.16 From 1935, in cooperation with the Hebrew language school in Breslau, the seminary also offered preparation courses for admission to the teaching seminars in the

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then British Mandate of Palestine, thus enabling many young Jews to flee Germany.17 The seminary library was central to the semi-university teaching and research activities at the institution from the moment of its founding. Directed by a lecturer,18 the library provided the seminary with literature for the rabbinical training. By means of specific purchases as well as interlibrary loans and exchanges with various European and some American institutions,19 the library also provided both scholars working at the seminary and external Jewish scholars with access to relevant publications that were not readily available elsewhere due to the hostility of university academia towards the critical study of Jewish history and culture. In this way the seminary library made it easier for the various parties involved in the critical study of Jewish history and culture in Germany, Europe and the United States to be aware of one another’s research and encouraged transterritorial communication among the scholars.20 The most valuable nucleus and foundation stock of the library was the collection of manuscripts and incunabula belonging to the Trieste-born merchant and bibliophile Leon Vita Saraval.21 Over time the library’s holdings were systematically expanded, partly thanks to donations and rabbinical and academic collections received by bequest22 and partly as a result of specific purchases. It may generally be assumed that the acquisition of new literature and genres took its cue primarily from the lecturers’ research interests and teaching programmes. The library’s continuous shelf number system based on numbers assigned on receipt made it possible to preserve the coherence of single collections it acquired. Carsten Wilke has written that the seminary library thus preserved ‘in its structure the memory of its own history and that of the older private collections that were incorporated into it without losing their integrity’.23 As no complete catalogue24 can be found and most of the library’s registries of books received have been lost, the full extent of the collection can no longer be accurately quantified. Scattered information in the seminary’s annual reports25 and publications marking the institution’s anniversaries26 do, however, indicate that at the time of its forced dissolution in 1938, the holdings of the Breslau library comprised some forty thousand volumes as well as at least 212 manuscripts and 48 incunabula. Due to the patchy nature of the sources, it is impossible to reconstruct more than fragmentarily not only the size of the seminary library, but also the particular content of the collection. The new acquisitions listed in the annual reports from 1924 to 1937 and 1938 give us a certain impression of the profile of the Breslau holdings and some insight into the acquisition profile of the institution in its later phase.27

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The thematic categories under which the newly acquired literature is listed reflect the aforementioned heterogeneous intellectual climate prevailing at the seminary since the 1920s. Subjects of a traditional rabbinical education like the Bible or Torah, Talmud and Jewish law stand side by side with secular disciplines such as history, philology, philosophy, literature and science. These are accompanied by subjects that had long been excluded at the seminary, including mysticism and the history, culture and language of eastern European Jews. Likewise represented are disciplines such as Oriental studies, education, Jewish ethnology and sociology, and themes ranging from animal protection, art and Zionism to antisemitism and the fight against it. Just how directly the new acquisitions were geared towards the courses taught at the seminary can be seen in the case of the educationalist and philosopher of religion Albert Lewkowitz, who taught extensively at the Breslau Seminary from 1929 to 1938 on topics including the psychology of adolescence. His research and his teaching programme were reflected in the acquisition of several new publications on the subject, including Alfred Adler’s ‘The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology’ (Praxis und Theorie der Individualpsychologie, 1924), Eduard Spranger’s ‘The Psychology of Adolescence’ (Psychologie des Jugendalters, 1924) and Erich Stern’s ‘Recent Tendencies in Psychology in Terms of Their Significance for Modern Pastoral Care’ (Die neueren Strömungen in der Psychologie in ihrer Bedeutung für die heutige Seelsorge, 1930).28

The Seizure of the Seminary Library and ‘Enemy Research’ The pogrom of November 1938 marked the end of the Breslau Seminary and the beginning of the expropriation of the seminary library by the National Socialists. The local Breslau authorities prohibited teaching at the seminary and arrested several students and lecturers.29 In their handling of the seminary building and its contents, the local authorities clearly followed the order issued by urgent telex in the night of 9 November by the head of the Security Police and of the SD, Reinhard Heydrich. The much-cited document states, for example, that ‘archival material of greater historical value’ in all synagogues and business premises of the Jewish religious communities was to be protected from the violence of the ‘demonstrations’,30 that is of the pogrom, impounded by the police, and handed over to the relevant offices of the SD. Although the Breslau Seminary was a private, not a community institution, its premises in the centre of Breslau, where a synagogue and the seminary library were located, were evidently protected from

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depredations and pillaging in line with these instructions.31 After the pogrom the Gestapo sealed the building, which had sustained only minor damage, and confiscated its contents together with the library, though for the time being leaving everything where it was.32 In addition to Fritz Arlt, the director of the Office of Racial Policy (Rassenpolitisches Amt, RPA) in the administrative district of Silesia, who tried to appropriate the collection for a ‘Jewish research’ institution he planned to establish, though ultimately never realised,33 the SD also laid claim to the library. The SD had already begun creating a ‘Central Library’ of its own in 1934 and 1935 with books confiscated from forbidden political, ideological and religious organisations and from Jewish emigrants.34 The pogrom of November 1938 marked the beginning of the SD’s efforts to systematically appropriate the libraries and archives of Jewish communities, associations and other institutions like the rabbinical seminary as well. In May 1939, the public librarian and deputy director of the SD’s ‘Central Library’, SS Second Lieutenant (Untersturmführer) Günther Stein, wrote a report on the planned ‘centralisation of the Jewish libraries’. It named the Breslau Seminary library as one of fifteen particularly valuable collections in the Reich.35 As well as the material motives for looting the books, Stein also gives ideological and scientific reasons for appropriating them, writing that having ‘the Jewish libraries at its disposition in a central location’ was ‘of crucial importance’ for the SD ‘with regard to the scientific study of Judaism’.36 In July 1939, the entire seminary library was finally moved from Breslau to the SD headquarters in Berlin,37 where it was subsequently incorporated into the collection of the RSHA ‘Central Library’, Department II: ‘Enemy Research’, which later became Department VII: ‘Ideological Research and Evaluation’.

The Seminary Library in the SD’s ‘Central Library’ Under the direction of the scholar of journalism and later SS Brigadier General (Brigadeführer) Franz Alfred Six, the ‘Bureau for Enemy Research’ (Gegnerforschungsamt) II/VII was created as a centre of research for the ‘“scientification” of intelligence analysis’.38 The research sought to link the various groups and individuals defined as ‘racial’ and ideological ‘enemies’ ‘with an alleged global Jewish conspiracy’,39 and its findings were to serve directly as the basis for persecution by the police and intelligence services. In thus appropriating scholarship directly for this purpose, the RSHA Department II/VII, which was embedded institutionally

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in an executive state body, differed to some extent from other National Socialist institutions dealing with ‘enemy research’ or ‘Jewish research’. The ‘Bureau for Enemy Research’ and its library were divided into divisions dealing with Freemasonry, ‘political churches’, Marxism and Judaism, in line with the bureau’s research interests. The division responsible for Judaism was devoted primarily to studying Zionism, antisemitic legislations and ‘historical attempts to solve the Jewish question’.40 In addition, the staff organised internal academic conferences, offered guidance on specialist questions concerning Judaism, and provided ideological and tactical training for members of the SS and the police.41 The ‘enemy researchers’ also created wanted persons bulletins and ‘SD instructional booklets’ (Leithefte) for internal use containing ‘basic knowledge about Judaism’.42 Furthermore, there were plans to establish a central information centre at the RSHA for ‘all procedures concerning the Jewish question’, which could ‘report centrally on this to all relevant authorities’.43 In terms of the objectives and motives of the ‘enemy researchers’ for the use of the looted books, there initially appears to be a certain inconsistency with the National Socialist politics bent on the expulsion, persecution and murder of the European Jews. Contrary to what might be expected, those responsible were not concerned solely with destroying the books and other cultural assets of the ‘enemy’. Following a kind of ‘double logic’,44 the use of the stolen books for antisemitic research and teaching was also intended as a form of ‘ideological appropriation’,45 or the imposition of new values and meanings on the objects and, along with them, on the Jewish-European historical culture and the cultural memory of the Jews in the face of their physical annihilation. On the one hand, the ‘enemy researchers’ exploited the findings of the critical study of Jewish history and culture on the level of the content for their antisemitic teaching and research, reinterpreting them for their own ends. At the same time, they also appropriated the material basis of these findings in a manner which superimposed new values and meaning on them by placing the objects into a completely new context of use, co-opting and repurposing them for their antisemitic aims. As the case of the looting and exploitation of the Breslau library demonstrates, appropriation, utilisation and destruction were close bedfellows. Competing with other parties involved in and profiting from the looting of cultural assets, the confiscated archives, estate and libraries in the RSHA department were primarily gathered together from the property of groups and individuals defined as ‘racial’ or ideological ‘enemies’. The looted assets, some of which were confiscated by the Gestapo for the SD, some gathered personally by the ‘enemy researchers’ in the ‘slipstream

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of the murdering SD task forces’46 from all the territories of Europe and the Soviet Union occupied by the German armed forces, were to serve as sources for the ‘enemy research’ conducted in the RSHA. In total, some two47 to three48 million books, manuscripts and incunabula were amassed in the RSHA ‘Central Library’. In comparison with the collections of other recently founded non-university ‘enemy research’ and ‘Jewish research’ institutions, the RSHA collection was thus one of the largest, if not the largest.49 Work began on creating four ‘enemy libraries’ from the looted stock. These were housed in two expropriated Masonic lodges and a synagogue in the Berlin districts of Wilmersdorf and Schöneberg, and were dedicated to Freemasonry, ‘political churches’, Marxism and Judaism, in line with the department’s main research subjects mentioned above. The latter department, the so-called ‘Jewish library’, included – in addition to the libraries of numerous Jewish individuals and communities, of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith (Central-Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens, CV) and the B’nai B’rith Order – the Breslau Seminary collection.50 The sources are insufficient to reconstruct the specific details of how the ‘enemy researchers’ used the seminary library. There are, however, indications that particular significance was attached to the Breslau collection and that it received special treatment in the ‘Central Library’. According to an eyewitness account by the classicist and literary scholar Ernst Grumach, who was deployed in the ‘Central Library’ as a Jewish forced labourer,51 the seminary library formed a subsection of its own within the Judaica and Hebraica section. Unlike other collections, which Grumach said were ‘stacked away in piles of books’, the library was properly shelved and so was presumably also used by the ‘enemy researchers’ for their teaching and research. The ‘ideological appropriation’ of the material basis of the critical study of Jewish history and culture for the purposes of antisemitic ‘Jewish research’ thus took place very tangibly in the case of, and with, the Breslau collection. Though the Breslau library was not initially broken up for categorisation into the various subsections of the ‘Central Library’, it did become scattered over the course of its continued exploitation by the SD, as post-war discoveries of fragments of the collection have shown. The original coherence of the collection was broken up or destroyed when duplicates were discarded, when volumes were earmarked for pulping52 or transferred to other libraries, or in fires following Allied bombings of RSHA buildings and when RSHA offices were relocated on account of the war.53

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The Collection in the Crossfire of History and Politics from 1945 to the Present Day For several decades after the end of the war, the Breslau collection was believed to have been largely destroyed.54 The findings of provenance research since the 1990s, however, now suggest that much of the library, fragmented and widely scattered, has survived. We know today that part of the stock, amounting to some 11,400 Breslau books that had evidently been left behind in the RSHA buildings in Berlin, was taken into safekeeping by the American military authorities in the summer of 1945. These were handed over to Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (JCR), an organisation established in 1947 to collect and distribute ownerless Jewish property.55 The JCR divided up the Breslau books with which it had been entrusted. They were deemed ‘heirless’ and non-restitutable, as the Breslau Seminary no longer existed and the Breslau Jewish prewar community as a possible legal successor had been almost entirely eradicated by the National Socialists. In the early 1950s, the organisation gave some of the books to Swiss Jewish communities and the rest to Jewish academic, cultural and religious institutions in the United States, Mexico and the newly founded state of Israel. This allocation had been preceded by a heated debate among individual members of the JCR around the question of the ownership of Jewish-European cultural assets that became heirless as a result of the Holocaust. Related to this was the complex question of whether and how Jewish life and culture could be rebuilt in Germany and Europe after the Holocaust. The JCR member organisations generally agreed with the view that the persecution and murder of the European Jews made ‘following on from the previous circumstances’56 in central and eastern Europe impossible, and that centres of Jewish life and culture would therefore no longer be able to emerge there.57 The organisation’s central objective was therefore to protect the rescued heirless and unclaimed cultural assets from becoming damaged, lost or dispersed, and, by passing them on, to support the (re-)building of Jewish cultural, religious and academic life in the places where the Jews actually were – that is, with few exceptions, no longer in central and eastern Europe but above all in the United States and the Jewish community in the Land of Israel and in South America. Within the JCR, then, members had agreed on a regional allocation plan for the collections in its care, designating 40 per cent for Israel and the United States respectively, and 20 per cent for other (Western) countries.58 Concerning the Breslau collection, however, the Council for the Protection of Rights and Interests of Jews from Germany (CJG) had

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suggested transferring it in its entirety to Switzerland.59 For one thing, this would satisfy a request by the Swiss Jewish communities, who had expressed to the JCR their explicit interest in the ‘Breslau Collection’.60 Passing on such an important collection as a cohesive unit (though the 11,400 volumes under discussion were in fact only fragments of the original collection) would also have been a symbolic act of confidence in the possibility of a revival of Jewish life in central and western Europe after the Holocaust.61 In addition, in view of the precarious situation of the post-war Jewish communities in Germany, transferring the books to the Swiss communities (especially since they were German-speaking) seemed to represent a reasonable interim solution, allowing at least this one surviving fragment of the Breslau collection to remain in Europe undivided. On the other hand, the Israeli JCR members in particular were vehement in their criticism of this suggestion by the CJG. They demanded that the existing allocation plan be retained in the case of the Breslau collection, too,62 thus reinforcing the notion that Jewish life and Jewish scholarship was no longer conceivable in Europe following the catastrophe, and that a new beginning for Jewish existence and the preservation of the culture and knowledge of the past were possible only outside Europe. In the light of the above, the decision taken by the JCR regarding the transferral of the Breslau collection looks like a compromise. Some six thousand books were handed over to the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, which divided them among the Jewish communities of Geneva, Basel and Zurich, in breach of JCR provisions.63 Approximately one thousand volumes went to the Jewish Central Committee of Mexico City and are housed today in the Ashkenazi community centre.64 Some four thousand volumes were transferred to Israel, most of which ended up in the collections of the Jewish National and University Library (now the National Library of Israel, NLI) in Jerusalem.65 Several hundred Breslau books and manuscripts were transferred to the United States. Some of these are now found in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and others are privately owned.66 Other, larger sections of the Breslau collection made their way to eastern Europe via RSHA alternative storage facilities in Bohemia and Silesia. Several thousand Breslau books that were discovered in Lower Silesia in the late 1940s by staff of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (Centralny Komitet Żydow w Polsce, CKŻP) are now housed in the library of the Jewish Historical Institute (Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, ŻIH) in Warsaw.67 Part of the Breslau collection that was being safeguarded at the end of the war on Czechoslovakian territory was handed over to the National Administration of the Jewish Council of Elders (Národni

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Správa židovské Rady Starších) there. In this way, approximately 1,700 Breslau books made their way to the Jewish Museum in Prague (Židovské muzeum v Praze, ŽMP), where they are housed to this day.68 Other fragments of the Breslau library discovered in Czechoslovakia, including much of the above-mentioned Saraval collection, ended up in the National Library in Prague.69 Parts of the valuable collection were first identified there in the 1980s. But it was not until the end of 2004, given the steadily increasing interest in the issue of Nazi-looted assets since the 1990s, that it was restituted to the Jewish community in Wrocław.70 The Commission for Art Recovery (CAR) played a key role in the return of the books.71 The organisation also discovered further Breslau manuscripts and archives in Moscow – they had been found by a Red Army trophy commission on Polish territory and requisitioned as booty.72 As the Russian authorities continue to stall on the restitution of the objects as proposed by the CAR more than fifteen years ago, they are currently still held in the Russian State Military Archive (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv, RGVA) and the Russian State Library (Rossiiskaia gosudarstvennaia biblioteka, RGB).73 Further fragments of the Breslau collection have recently been identified during provenance research projects in German libraries. These include a total of thirty books in the Berlin Central and Regional Library (Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, ZLB) and in the New Synagogue Berlin – Centrum Judaicum Foundation (Centrum Judaicum – Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin). As the Jewish community in Wrocław failed to show any interest in the books, they were handed over in 2017 with the assistance of the Jewish Claims Conference and the Polish Academy of Sciences to the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (Fundacja Ochrony Dziedzictwa Żydowskiego w Plosce, FODŻ).74 In addition, as well as a number of volumes in the collection of the Jewish Community of Nuremberg (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Nürnberg, IKG), the former ‘Stürmer Library’ of Julius Streicher75 and in the libraries of the Free University of Berlin76 and the Hamburg Institute for the History of the German Jews (Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden),77 around seventy of the Breslau books have been tracked down in the Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz).78 There have as yet been no restitutions in these cases. Provenance research on the books found in Germany suggests that some of the volumes were given directly by the SD ‘Central Library’ to what was then the Prussian State Library (now the Berlin State Library) and the ‘Stürmer Library’ in the early 1940s. Other books are looted assets that found their way into the above institutions after 8 May 1945, for

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instance via the Recovery Point for Academic Libraries (Bergungsstelle für wissenschaftliche Bibliotheken) of the Berlin city council,79 obtained from the disbanded German Institute for Foreign Studies (Deutsches Auslandswissenschaftliches Institut, DAWI) or purchased second-hand decades after the war.

The Future of the Collection The geography of the dispersal and redistribution of the Breslau library indicates the ramifications of the National Socialist looting as well as the various new contexts in which the collection, or fragments thereof, have been used and interpreted from the end of the war to the present day. Regardless of whether the objects ended up in their current locations in the context of restitution or were passed on supposedly without being identified, they seem now to be being used in a manner most akin to their original purpose in educational and research institutions like the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and the Institute for the History of the German Jews in Hamburg, where they serve as the basis for rabbinical training and for Jewish Studies – grounded in the tradition of the critical study of Jewish history and culture. The failure to bring together in a single location those parts of the library’s holdings that have changed hands with a view to reparation, in order to at least prevent any further fragmentation of the collection, highlights the dilemmas involved in the attempt – which began in the initial post-war years and continues to the present day – to restitute heirless looted Jewish cultural assets like the Breslau Seminary library or find for them another ‘just and fair solution’ in accordance with the Washington Principles. The devastating consequences of the Holocaust mean that a restoration to the original condition (‘restitutio in integrum’),80 which would entail an actual return to the original legal situation as well as the return of the looted and recovered objects to their original location, is not possible.81 In the years immediately following the war, the JCR answered the question of the legal succession of the Breslau Seminary in favour of the Jewish people, in particular of Jewish communities that were rebuilding themselves outside Germany and mostly also outside Europe. The various institutions that received parts of the library had no direct connection to the Breslau Seminary or the Breslau Jewish community, but were in places where, unlike Germany and Europe, larger Jewish communities were established.

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Although it meant further fragmentation of the collection, this decision on the part of the JCR is understandable given the geopolitical conditions of the time, in the grip of the incipient Cold War, and the fact that the reconstitution of Jewish existence in Germany and (eastern) Europe was not foreseeable. From today’s perspective, however, it would seem that the fragments of the seminary library might better serve the Jewish communities, though still small, now newly emerging in central and eastern Europe. Unlike in Israel or the United States, in (eastern) European countries and especially in Poland, the books, as repositories of memories evoking a Jewish cultural and academic lifeworld that was destroyed by the National Socialists and directing attention to the history and aftermath of the Holocaust, could contribute to the development of a new Jewish-European identity.82 The return of the Saraval collection from Prague to Wrocław in 2004 created at least a geographical connection to the original location of the Breslau library and as such can be seen as a landmark decision. Nevertheless, given the lack of interest shown by the Jewish community in Wrocław in the restitution offer made in 2016 and 2017 by the Centrum Judaicum and the ZLB, it is doubtful whether this could in future become the location for further recovered fragments of the library, where the Breslau collection could be gradually reconstructed. Finally, the achievements of provenance research in hunting down the collection notwithstanding, over half of the originally approximately 40,000-volume seminary library has still not been located. Effective provenance research demands cross-institutional and transnational approaches and a transparent handling of information. To increase the efficiency of what is already mostly very laborious research work and clarify its focus and objectives, there is a need to work cross-institutionally, ensuring transparent documentation and the pooling of experience and research data. The cooperative provenance database Looted Cultural Assets (LCA), created in 2015 and currently involving nine libraries, is an example of such an approach.83 In terms of the Breslau Seminary library, the reconstruction of which is exceedingly challenging, the online database could be a viable solution in two respects. In the first place, a collaboration could identify further fragments of the Breslau collection that are currently presumed lost. Secondly, the database opens up the possibility of a virtual reconstruction of the Breslau library. Another, more costly option for virtual reconstruction would be the complete digitalisation of the parts of the Breslau collection in an online database.84 The various possibilities described here could create a new venue for the collection where it would be accessible once again and available

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for use as source material for research, unimpeded by institutional or national boundaries and regardless of the fraught questions of legal succession and restitution. Translation, Joy Titheridge Jenka Fuchs is a provenance researcher at the Hanover Public Library. She works on a project devoted to the identification of books looted by the National Socialists which are now held at the Hanover Public Library, and returns items to their rightful owners. She holds an MA in Jewish studies and contemporary history from the University of Potsdam. Her research interests include German-Jewish cultural history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the history of the Holocaust and its aftermath, with a focus on material aspects of memory.

Notes  1. The Washington Principles signed by the forty-four states participating in the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets defined principles for dealing with Nazi-confiscated art for the first time. They are available online at https://www.state. gov/washington-conference-principles-on-nazi-confiscated-art/ (accessed 31 December 2021).  2. Brunner et al., Die Globalisierung der Wiedergutmachung.  3. For a concise overview of the young field of provenance research on Nazi-looted assets, see Dehnel, ‘NS-Raubgut in Museen’.  4. To this day there exists neither a study of the history of the library nor a scholarly examination of the (overall) history of the seminary. The studies on individual aspects of the institution’s history consulted for the present article thus reflect the current state of research. Eyewitness accounts used as primary sources include Jospe, ‘Faculty and Students’ and Rothschild, ‘Geschichte’.  5. As the ‘scientific consequence’ of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala), the main concern of the critical study of Jewish history and culture, founded in the 1820s, was to adopt a methodological approach to Judaism, making it the ‘subject of modern scholarly … description’ and criticism. Scholars also sought to lend Judaism recognition and equal status in the public eye in the face of the prevailing antisemitism by promoting academic study. As this new branch of the humanities was precluded from becoming established at German universities until after the Holocaust, the modern rabbinical seminaries which emerged from the mid-nineteenth century onwards became its main venues. Cf. Kilcher, ‘Vier wissensgeschichtliche Thesen’.  6. Cf. Freimüller et al, Kommunikationsräume, 43–60, 55.  7. Cf. Albertini, ‘Das Judentum und die Wissenschaft’ and Schulte, ‘Religion in der Wissenschaft’, 429.  8. Cf. Jospe, ‘Faculty and Students’, 387 ff.  9. Cf. Rothschild, ‘Geschichte’, 124. 10. On Frankel and his understanding of scholarship, see Brämer, Rabbiner Zacharias Frankel, 255–75. 11. Thulin, ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’, 54 and Schulte, ‘Religion in der Wissenschaft’, 421.

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12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47.

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Rothschild, ‘Geschichte’, 135. Miron, ‘The Breslau Rabbinical Seminary’. Krone, ‘Jüdische Wissenschaft’, 138. Reports of the Jewish Theological Seminary (1921), 8. Rothschild, ‘Geschichte’, 158 ff. Reports of the Jewish Theological Seminary (1935), 11–12. Jospe, ‘Faculty and Students’, 400. For the seminary library business records concerning literature acquisitions and the like, see the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute (Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, ŻIH) in Warsaw, 105/1060–73. Thulin, ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’. For a detailed description of the Saraval collection, see Sixtová and Stankiewicz, Saraval Legacy. Loewinger and Weinryb, Catalogue, vii; Wilke, ‘Von Breslau nach Mexiko’, 316. Wilke, ‘Von Breslau nach Mexiko’, 316. The only extant catalogues are Loewinger and Weinryb, Jiddische Handschriften; Loewinger and Weinryb, Catalogue; and Zuckermann, Katalog. Reports of the Jewish Theological Seminary. For example, Curatorium der Commerzienrath, Das jüdisch-theologische Seminar, 56. Reports of the Jewish Theological Seminary (1924–38). Ibid. (1927–38). Jospe, ‘Faculty and Students’, 383. Urgent telex by the head of the Security Police (Munich 47767, 10 November 1938, 1:20 am), sgd Heydrich, to all state police and state police headquarters and all local and regional offices of the Security Service on 10 November 1938, cited in Heim, Verfolgung und Ermordung, 367 f. (Doc. 126). Cf. also Wilke, ‘Von Breslau nach Mexiko’, 317 f. Cf. Report by a woman from Breslau regarding the situation of the Jewish population in Germany, undated [after 1 January 1939], https://www.pogromnovember1938. co.uk/viewer/fulltext/94018/de/ (accessed 31 December 2021). Brilling, ‘Das Archiv der Breslauer jüdischen Gemeinde’, 272 f. On Fritz Arlt’s biography and activities, see Aly and Heim, Vordenker der Vernichtung. Schroeder, ‘Strukturen’, 316–19. ‘Jewish libraries registered by 6 May 1939’, Bundesarchiv, German Federal Archives (hereafter BArch) R 58/6424 (part 2 of 2), 392–93. Report concerning centralisation of the Jewish libraries, ibid., 395–97. Memorandum concerning concentration of the extensive Jewish libraries dated 27 July 1939, ibid., 405. Botsch, ‘Raub’, 94. Ibid., 93 f. Cf. Paul Dittel, notes on the seminar with Prof. Franz at VII C on 10 and 11 April 1942, BArch R 58/7298, 12–19, cited in Matthäus, ‘Weltanschauliche Forschung’, 309–12; Paul Dittel, notes on the seminar with Prof. Franz at VII C on 21 and 22 January 1943, BArch R 58/7298, 21–27, cited in Matthäus, ‘Weltanschauliche Forschung’, 321–24. Matthäus, ‘Weltanschauliche Forschung’, 289. Work schedule VII B 1 b – Judaism, undated [late 1941 and early 1942], BArch R 58/7400, 90–96, cited in Matthäus, ‘Weltanschauliche Forschung’, 301–6 (303). Cf. work schedule VII B 1 b – Judaism, undated [late 1941 and early 1942], ibid. Gallas, ‘Leichenhaus der Bücher’, 12. Ibid. Schreiber, ‘Generalstab’, 344. Friedman, ‘The Fate of the Jewish Book’, 97.

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48. Schroeder, ‘Strukturen’, 322. 49. Rudolph, ‘Sämtliche Sendungen’, 205; Rupnow, ‘Judenforschung’, 117. 50. Cf. Ernst Grumach, report on the confiscation and treatment of the former Jewish library holdings by the offices of the state police in the years 1933–45, cited in Schidorsky, ‘Confiscation’, 358. 51. Cf. certified copy no. 45 from 1954 of the register of deeds, 23 February 1954, statutory declaration by Ernst Grumach, Max Schwarzwälder and others, cited in ibid., 374–82; Rudolph, ‘Sämtliche Sendungen’, 228–35. 52. One ‘Central Library’ activity report from autumn 1942 suggests that a large number of books were discarded and presumably destroyed. Cf. activity report for the month of September 1942 of Department VII dated 14 October 1942, BArch R 58/1040, 34–44 (38 f.). 53. Rudolph, ‘Sämtliche Sendungen’, 235 f.; Grimsted et al., Returned from Russia, 55–59; Schidorsky, ‘Library’, 29. 54. Rothschild, ‘Geschichte’, 165, fn 44; Yvonne Domhardt, ‘Bibliotheken in Exil. Stationen der Wanderschaft der Bibliothek des Breslauer Rabbinerseminars. Ein Werkstattbericht aus Zürich’, in Dehnel, NS-Raubgut in Museen, 147–62; Friedla, Juden in Breslau, 197. 55. On the history of the JCR see Herman, Hashavat Aveda and Gallas, ‘Leichenhaus der Bücher’. 56. David Heredia, ‘Zur Geschichte von Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc.’, in Knott, Hannah Arendt/Gershom Scholem, 534–52 (548). 57. Sznaider, ‘Rettung der Bücher’, 75. 58. Gallas, ‘Leichenhaus der Bücher’, 174. 59. Cf. Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors, 17 October 1949, Wiener Library document collections, JCR Records, MF Doc 54/Reel 26, Folder 561, Frames 1–42. 60. Domhardt, ‘Von Breslau nach Genf’, 157–65. 61. Kawałko, ‘From Breslau to Wrocław’, 60. 62. Gershom Scholem to Salo W. Baron, letter dated 30 October 1949, National Library of Israel (NLI), Arc 4° 793/288, n.  pag., cited in Knott, Hannah Arendt/Gershom Scholem, 216, fn 2. 63. The Basel community handed its part of the collection over to Zurich in 2006. Domhardt, ‘Von Breslau nach Genf’, 162. 64. Wilke, ‘Von Breslau nach Mexiko’. 65. Domhardt, ‘Bibliotheken im Exil’, 155 f.; Wilke, ‘Von Breslau nach Mexiko’, 321 ff. 66. Benjamin Richler, ‘Breslau, Jüdisch-theologisches Seminar’, in Richler, Guide, 24–26 and 213–17; Domhardt, ‘Bibliotheken im Exil’, 156. 67. Bergman, ‘The Jewish Historical Institute’, 189. 68. Grimsted, ‘Silesian Crossroads’, 165. 69. Ibid. 70. Nawojka Cieślińska-Lobkowicz, ‘Raub und Rückführung der Leon Vita Saraval Sammlung der Bibliothek des Jüdisch-Theologischen Seminars in Breslau’, in Dehnel, Jüdischer Buchbesitz, 366–78. 71. The CAR was founded in 1997 by Ronald S. Lauder and was part of the World Jewish Congress. Cf. www.commartrecovery.org/about (accessed 31 December 2021). 72. Dmitrieva et al., Catalogue. 73. Grimsted, ‘Twice Plundered’, 211 ff. 74. Cf. https://www.timesofisrael.com/books-stolen-from-polish-jewry-during-wwii-donatedto-foundation/ (accessed 31 December 2021); Stephan M. Kummer (Centrum Judaicum), verbal communication to the author, 10 March 2016; Sebastian Finsterwalder (Berlin Central and Regional Library), email to the author, 18 December 2018. The FODŻ was founded in

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75. 76. 77. 78.

79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84.

2002 by the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland and the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). Cf. http://fodz.pl/?d=3&l=en (accessed 31 December 2021). Leibl Rosenberg (City of Nuremberg-appointed commissioner for the IKG Collection), email to the author, 5 July 2016. Cf. https://db.lootedculturalassets.de/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/237734 (accessed 31 December 2021). Cf. https://db.lootedculturalassets.de/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/242297 (accessed 31 December 2021). Jörn Kreuzer (library of the Institute for the History of the German Jews), telephone conversation with the author, 3 February 2016. The books were identified in the course of the project ‘Creating Transparency’ (‘Transparenz schaffen’): https://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/die-staatsbibliothek/abteilungen/historische-drucke/aufgaben-profil/projekte/transparenz-schaffen/ (accessed 31 December 2021). The Recovery Point for Academic Libraries had recovered ‘unclaimed’ holdings in 1945 and 1946, including from a Berlin RSHA storage facility, and passed them on to Berlin libraries. Cf. Finsterwalder and Prölß, ‘Raubgut’, 348 ff. Cited in Assmann, ‘Das Gedächtnis der Dinge’, 146. On this dilemma, see Sznaider, ‘Culture and Memory’, 231. See Lipman, ‘Jewish Cultural Reconstruction’, 93. https://www.lootedculturalassets.de/. For further information about the LCA database, see Finsterwalder and Latza, ‘Viel zu tun, wenig Zeit’. See the online platforms Manuscriptorium (http://www.manuscriptorium.com) and Ktiv (https://web.nli.org.il/sites/nlis/en/manuscript)' with access to the Saraval collection. See also the databank of the ŻIH library, the Central Jewish Library (Centralna Biblioteka Judaistyczna, https://cbj.jhi.pl). Plans for digitalisation (cf. Bergman, ‘The Jewish Historical Institute’, 198) have yet to be implemented; the ŻIH indicated that there is no immediate prospect of this happening (Andrzej Kamiński, Director Representative for the ŻIH collection, email to the author, 11 December 2019).

Bibliography Albertini, Francesca Y. ‘Das Judentum und die Wissenschaft: zum 150. Gründungsjahr des Jüdisch-theologischen Seminars in Breslau’. JUDAICA 60 (2004), 141–58. Aly, Götz, and Susanne Heim. Vordenker der Vernichtung: Auschwitz und die deutschen Pläne für eine neue europäische Ordnung. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2013. Assmann, Aleida. ‘Das Gedächtnis der Dinge’, in Alexandra Reininghaus (ed.), Recollecting: Raub und Restitution (Vienna: Passagen-Verlag, 2009), 143–50. Bergman, Eleonora. ‘The Jewish Historical Institute, Its Building and Collections’, in Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek and Julie-Marthe Cohen (eds), Neglected Witnesses: The Fate of Ceremonial Objects during the Second World War and After (Crickadarn: Institute of Art and Law, 2011), 183–98. Botsch, Gideon. ‘Raub zum Zweck der Gegnerforschung’, in Inka Bertz and Michael Dorrmann (eds), Raub und Restitution: Kulturgut aus jüdischem Besitz von 1933 bis heute (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2008), 91–97. Brämer, Andreas. Rabbiner Zacharias Frankel: Wissenschaft des Judentums und konservative Reform im 19. Jahrhundert. Hildesheim: Olms, 2000.

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Brilling, Bernhard. ‘Das Archiv der Breslauer jüdischen Gemeinde: Seine Geschichte und seine Bestände’. Jahrbuch der Schlesischen Friedrich-WilhelmsUniversität zu Breslau 18 (1973), 258–85. Brunner, José, et al. (eds). Die Globalisierung der Wiedergutmachung: Politik, Moral, Moralpolitik. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2013. Cieślińska-Lobkowicz, Nawojka. ‘Raub und Rückführung der Leon Vita Saraval Sammlung der Bibliothek des Jüdisch-Theologischen Seminars in Breslau’, in Regine Dehnel (ed.), Jüdischer Buchbesitz als Raubgut (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 2006), 366–78. Curatorium der Commerzienrath Fränckelschen Stiftungen. Das jüdisch-theologische Seminar Fränckelsche Stiftung zu Breslau am Tage seines fünfundzwanzigjährigen Bestehens, den 10. August 1879. Breslau: Grass, Barth & Co., 1879. Dehnel, Regine (ed.). Jüdischer Buchbesitz als Raubgut. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 2006. Dehnel, Regine (ed.). NS-Raubgut in Museen, Bibliotheken und Archiven. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 2012. Dehnel, Regine. ‘NS-Raubgut in Museen, Bibliotheken und Archiven. Restitution, universitäre Forschung und Provenienzrecherche’. zeitgeschichte-online.de, May 2014, http://zeitgeschichte-online.de/thema/ns-raubgut-museen-bibliotheken-und-archiven (accessed 31 December 2021). Dmitrieva, Karina, et al. (eds). Catalogue of Manuscripts and Archival Materials of Juedisch-Theologisches Seminar in Breslau Held in Russian Depositories. Moscow: Rudomino, 2003. http://www.commartrecovery.org/docs/catalog1_1. pdf (accessed 31 December 2021). Domhardt, Yvonne. ‘Von Breslau nach Genf: Hannah Arendt als Vermittlerin bei der Überführung von Teilen der Bibliothek des Breslauer Rabbinerseminars in die Schweiz’, in Claus-Dieter Krohn (ed.), Bibliotheken und Sammlungen im Exil (Munich: edition text + kritik, 2011), 154–65. Domhardt, Yvonne. ‘Bibliotheken im Exil: Stationen der Wanderschaft der Bibliothek des Breslauer Rabbinerseminars. Ein Werkstattbericht aus Zürich’, in Regine Dehnel (ed.), NS-Raubgut in Museen, Bibliotheken und Archiven (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 2012), 147–62. Finsterwalder, Sebastian, and Sina Latza. ‘Viel zu tun, wenig Zeit. Looted Cultural Assets – kooperative Provenienzforschung’. Bibliotheksdienst 50 (2016), 712–24. Finsterwalder, Sebastian, and Peter Prölß. ‘Raubgut für den Wiederaufbau: Die Bergungsstelle für wissenschaftliche Bibliotheken in Berlin’, in Pia Schölnberger and Sabine Loitfellner (eds), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus: Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (Vienna: Böhlau, 2016), 331–57. Freimüller, Tobias, et al. (eds). Kommunikationsräume des Europäischen: Jüdische Wissenskulturen jenseits des Nationalen. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2014. Friedla, Katharina. Juden in Breslau/Wrocław 1933–1949: Überlebensstrategien, Selbstbehauptung und Verfolgungserfahrungen. Cologne: Böhlau, 2015. Friedman, Philip. ‘The Fate of the Jewish Book during the Nazi Era’, in Ada June Friedman (ed.), Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust (New York: Conference on Jewish Social Studies, 1980), 88–99. Gallas, Elisabeth. ‘Das Leichenhaus der Bücher’: Kulturrestitution und jüdisches Geschichtsdenken nach 1945. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013.

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Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. ‘A Silesian Crossroads for Europe’s Displaced Books: Compensation or Prisoners of War?’, in Mečislav Borák (ed.), The Future of Lost Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Identification and Restitution of the Cultural Assets of World War II Victims (Prague: Tilia Publishers, 2006), 133–69. Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. ‘Twice Plundered, and Still Far from Home: Tracing Nazi-Looted Books in Minsk and Moscow’, in Jane C. Milosch and Nick Pense (eds), Collecting and Provenance: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), 205–26. Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy, et al. Returned from Russia: Nazi Archival Plunder in Western Europe and Recent Restitution Issues. Crickadarn: Institute of Art and Law, 2013. Heim, Susanne (ed.). Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945. Vol. 2, ‘Deutsches Reich 1938– August 1939’. Munich: Oldenbourg, 2009. Herman, Dana. Hashavat Aveda: A History of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, inc. McGill University, 2008. Jospe, Alfred. ‘Faculty and Students 1904–1938: Biographies and Bibliographies’, in Guido Kisch (ed.), Das Breslauer Seminar: Jüdisch-Theologisches Seminar in Breslau 1854–1938 – Gedächtnisschrift (Tübingen: Mohr, 1963), 381–442. Kawałko, Anna. ‘From Breslau to Wrocław: Transfer of the Saraval Collection to Poland and the Restitution of Jewish Cultural Property after WWII’. Naharaim 9 (2015), 48–72. Kilcher, Andreas. ‘Vier wissensgeschichtliche Thesen zur Wissenschaft des Judentums’, in Andreas Kilcher and Thomas Meyer (eds), Die ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’: Eine Bestandsaufnahme (Paderborn: Fink, 2015), 17–25. Kilcher, Andreas, and Thomas Meyer (eds). Die ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’: Eine Bestandsaufnahme. Paderborn: Fink, 2015. Kisch, Guido (ed.). Das Breslauer Seminar: Jüdisch-Theologisches Seminar in Breslau 1854–1938 – Gedächtnisschrift. Tübingen: Mohr, 1963. Knott, Marie Luise (ed.). Hannah Arendt/Gershom Scholem: Der Briefwechsel. Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag, 2010. Krone, Kerstin von der. ‘Jüdische Wissenschaft und modernes Judentum: Eine Dogmendebatte’, in Andreas Kilcher and Thomas Meyer (eds), Die ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’: Eine Bestandsaufnahme (Paderborn: Fink, 2015), 115–38. Lipman, Rena. ‘Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Reconsidered: Should the Jewish Religious Objects Distributed around the World after WWII be Returned to Europe?’ Kunst und Recht: KUR: Journal für Kunstrecht, Urheberrecht und Kulturpolitik 8 (2006), 89–93. Loewinger, David, and Bernard Weinryb (eds). Jiddische Handschriften in Breslau. Budapest, 1936. Loewinger, David, and Bernard Weinryb (eds). Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts of the Juedisch-Theologisches Seminar in Breslau. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1965. Matthäus, Jürgen. ‘Weltanschauliche Forschung und Auswertung’. Aus den Akten des Amtes VII im Reichssicherheitshauptamt. Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 5 (1996), 287–330. Miron, Guy. ‘The Breslau Rabbinical Seminary: The Last Generation’, in Guy Miron (ed.), Mi-Breslau li-Yerushalayim: bate midrash la-rabanim: pirḳe meḥḳar

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va-hagut; From Breslau to Jerusalem: Rabbinical Seminaries: Past, Present and Future (Jerusalem: Schechter Institute, 2009), 86–99. Reports of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Breslau: Fraenckel Foundation, 1919–38. Richler, Benjamin (ed.). Guide to Hebrew Manuscript Collections. Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994. Rothschild, Lothar. ‘Die Geschichte des Seminars von 1904 bis 1938’, in Guido Kisch (ed.), Das Breslauer Seminar: Jüdisch-Theologisches Seminar in Breslau 1854– 1938 – Gedächtnisschrift (Tübingen: Mohr, 1963), 121–66. Rudolph, Jörg. ‘“Sämtliche Sendungen sind zu richten an… ”. Das RSHA-Amt VII “Weltanschauliche Forschung und Auswertung” als Sammelstelle erbeuteter Archive und Bibliotheken’, in Michael Wildt (ed.), Nachrichtendienst, politische Elite und Mordeinheit: Der Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2003), 204–40. Rupnow, Dirk. ‘Judenforschung’ im ‘Dritten Reich’: Wissenschaft zwischen Politik, Propaganda und Ideologie. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2011. Schidorsky, Dov. ‘Confiscation of Libraries and Assignments to Forced Labour: Two Documents of the Holocaust’. Libraries & Culture 33(4) (1998), 347–88. Schidorsky, Dov. ‘The Library of the Reich Security Main Office and Its Looted Jewish Book Collections’. Libraries & the Cultural Record 12(1) (2007), 21–47. Schreiber, Carsten. ‘Generalstab des Holocaust oder akademischer Elfenbeinturm? Die “Gegnerforschung” des Sicherheitsdienstes der SS’. Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 5 (2006), 327–52. Schroeder, Werner. ‘Strukturen des Bücherraubs: Die Bibliotheken des Reichssicherheitshauptamtes (RSHA), ihr Aufbau und ihr Verbleib’. Zeitschrift für Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 51 (2004), 316–24. Schulte, Christoph. ‘Religion in der Wissenschaft des Judentums: Ein historischer Abriß in methodologischer Absicht’. Revue des études juives 161 (2002), 3–4, 411–29. Sixtová, Olga, and Jerzy Stankiewicz. Saravalův odkaz / Saraval Legacy. Prague: Národní knihovna České republiky, 2004. [CD-ROM] Sznaider, Natan. ‘Die Rettung der Bücher: Hannah Arendt in München (1949/50)’. Mittelweg 36 18(2) (2009), 61–76. Sznaider, Natan. ‘Culture and Memory: The Role of Jewish Cultural Property’. Kwartalnik Historii Żydów/Jewish History Quarterly (2013), 227–35. Thulin, Mirjam. ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums und Institution: Die modernen Rabbinerseminare als gelehrte Netzwerke’, in Tobias Freimüller et al. (eds), Kommunikationsräume des Europäischen: Jüdische Wissenskulturen jenseits des Nationalen (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2014), 43–60. Wilke, Carsten. ‘Von Breslau nach Mexiko: Die Zerstreuung der Bibliothek des Jüdisch-theologischen Seminars’, in Birgit E. Klein and Christiane E. Müller (eds), Memoria – Wege jüdischen Erinnerns (Berlin: Metropol, 2005), 315–38. Zuckermann, Benedict. Katalog der Seminar-Bibliothek. 1. Theil: Vorwort; Handschriften; Druckwerke: Bibel. Breslau, 1876.

Chapter 10

Collecting Data towards Writing the History of China’s Socialist Education Zhipeng Gao

F

ollowing the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) systematically purged traditional Chinese and American educational ideas from the national curriculum and adopted the Soviet pedagogical model. In the wake of the Sino-Soviet split in the late 1950s, the CCP began exploring its own revolutionary model of education. With the utopian goal of creating a ‘new socialist human’ [shehui zhuyi xinren] in a classless society, this model assuaged the distinction between school and society by integrating academic training with manual labour. After the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution (from 1966 to 1976), China introduced a market economy and phased out this revolutionary model. This chapter examines the impact of China’s sociopolitical transformations on ways in which contemporary historians of education collect research materials. It showcases three data collection resources commonly available to historians of education in China. These include archives (at national, regional and school levels); online databases (including China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Duxiu); and Confucius Used Books Web, an online vendor network. Each of these resources contains a distinctive body of collections and uses different mechanisms to create and preserve collections and render them accessible. Although China’s postsocialist shift and the advent of digital technology have enabled historians to obtain more information about the past, these collections bear the mark of past and current ideological struggles, necessitating special methodological and interpretive strategies when navigating the complex and often elusive data on the history of socialist education in China.

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Introduction At the turn of the twentieth century, China began to replace its centuriesold civil service examination system with modern education imported from the West,1 in particular from America and some European countries.2 This process was frequently interrupted by social conflicts, notably the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945 and the civil wars from 1927 to 1937 and from 1946 to 1950, during which education was reconfigured to meet military ends.3 In 1949, the CCP gained the upper hand over the Nationalist Party and founded the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The new regime massively expanded the school system but also placed it under tight political control.4 Under pressure, Chinese educators rejected traditional Chinese and Western pedagogies, claiming that they spread conservative or capitalist ideas, and adopted the Soviet pedagogical model. Beginning in 1958, when Sino-Soviet relations entered a downturn, Maoist educators gradually departed from the Soviet model and created what Theodore Hsi-en Chen calls a ‘revolutionary model of education’, which incorporated intensive manual labour into curricula with the aim of transforming the pupils’ ideology.5 The objective was to create a ‘new socialist human’ who would be utterly selfless, obedient to the party, passionately committed to ideological study, resolutely critical of class enemies.6 The development of this revolutionary model of education culminated during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), when pupils left school to participate in political protests as ‘red guards’ before undergoing ‘rustication’ in the countryside. After the Cultural Revolution, as China began to open up to the world by implementing economic reforms, Chinese education gradually reverted to a conventional academic model and established more and more international contacts.7 Research into China is facilitated by a considerable body of reference literature, ranging from works of general historiography (including, for example, introductions to China’s libraries8 and archives9) to works more specifically related to the history of education (such as the annotated bibliographies of China’s ancient civil service examination system10) and to more recent developments in education.11 Drawing on this literature and the present author’s own experience with data collection and analysis, this chapter addresses the ways in which China’s sociopolitical transformations have affected the methods used by contemporary historians of education in China to collect research materials. While its primary focus is on the period after 1949, some of the collections mentioned can also be applied to the study of other periods. Although, as a result of China’s international exchanges since the late nineteenth century,12 a considerable

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number of relevant collections can be found in North America, Japan and Europe,13 this chapter focuses on collections located in China (some of which can also be accessed digitally from abroad). These collections fall into three categories, including archives, digital databases and a used book vendor network, each of which includes a distinctive body of collections and applies different mechanisms to preserve collections and render them accessible. Following a description of each of these categories with regard to their content, maintenance mechanisms and accessibility, this chapter will address interpretative strategies required to use the collections. Although China’s postsocialist shift and the advent of digital technology have broadened historians’ access to the past, all these collections bear marks of past and current ideological struggles.

Archival Materials China has a massive archive system owned or directed by the state. In 2008, this system included 3,987 archives with 253 million volumes of documents. The State Archives Administration plays an important role in developing China’s archival policies and directly administers three national history archives. These are the First Historical Archive, which conserves bureaucratic documents of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911);14 the Second Historical Archive, containing the central archives of Republican China (1912–49);15 and the Third Historical Archive, sometimes called Central Archive [zhongyang danganguan]. While the first two archives allow public access, the Central Archive generally does not.16 Therefore, historians of the PRC period must often resort to other regional archives,17 most prominently the Beijing Municipal Archives18 and the Shanghai Municipal Archives.19 Regional archives are directed by corresponding government councils. Provincial and municipal councils contain departments which hold documents from branches of local government councils (jiaoyu ting or jiaoyu ju) that are responsible for educational affairs. In addition to the archives administered by the government, various institutions often keep their own historical records. Among these depositories, the most relevant for historians of education are school archives. Universities tend to have independent archive centres that collect documents from various departments. Elementary and secondary schools may also have archival collections, though access to these is often limited. National and provincial archives are generally well conserved, categorised and digitalised. They apply a standard procedure when dealing with guest users. Smaller archives often lack funding, storage space

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and skilled personnel; documents are sometimes sold to flea markets or thrown away without authorisation. By 2008, only 73 million out of 253 million volumes of documents in Chinese archives were accessible to the public. According to the PRC Archives Law, archival materials should be made accessible to the public after thirty years, except for documents considered confidential for security reasons. In practice, each archive has considerable authority in determining the accessibility of its holdings. Decisions in this regard are often flexible and at times seemingly random. At the archives of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for example, I requested to view a document listed in the library’s catalogue relating to Hu Qiaomu, a leader in China’s Department of Culture, Education and Propaganda, only to be informed, half an hour later, that the document had just been classified. Accessibility also depends on the visitor’s identity. While most ordinary visitors are allowed to take notes by computer or by hand, government or affiliated institutions may request copies to be delivered to them in person. Given this limited access, historians working at Chinese archives must be aware that a portion of the collection may be made unavailable for political reasons. Visiting an archive usually requires proof of identity, a brief description of the research project and, most importantly, a reference letter from a recognised authority such as a university or other public institution.20 Beyond these standard requirements, archives may differ greatly, with varying opening hours, daily request limits, photocopy policies and so forth. The Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for instance, centralises documents from the Academy’s various institutes and requires dual authorisation from the Information Center itself and from the institute which originally produced the documents. To further complicate matters, certain archival materials may stay in their institute of origin, which may or may not grant access requests.

Digital Databases The two most popular Chinese digital databases are the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Duxiu, both of which contain knowledge produced primarily since the twentieth century, in particular during the PRC period. CNKI21 was spearheaded by Tsinghua University and the Tsinghua Tongfang Company under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Publicity, the

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General Administration of Press and Publication, the National Copyright Administration and the National Development and Reform Commission. Its emergence in 1995 represented an early attempt to digitise paperbased knowledge. In 1999, with the advent of internet technology, CNKI uploaded its information to the internet. Since then, CNKI has developed into a massive digital database comprising numerous types of publications including journals, theses, conference abstracts, newspapers and annual publications. CNKI’s social science sections, which integrate resources pertaining to various aspects and levels of education, are of particular interest to historians of education. Equipped with a powerful search engine, CNKI could be described as an advanced, Chinese version of Google Scholar which supports downloading. CNKI is the top subscription choice for every Chinese university, research institute and library, as well as for foreign universities with a focus on China. Duxiu,22 created by Chaoxing Company in 2006, contains over a billion pages of information and is still rapidly growing. Although CNKI and Duxiu are both comprehensive databases with a wide range of collections, there are significant differences between them, and users often use both. While Duxiu’s search engine is less powerful than that of CNKI (meaning that it is sometimes harder to locate requested information), its book collection, which includes both academic and non-academic publications, is invaluable. Duxiu also features a fine collection of over half a million education documents, including policies, theories, textbooks and writings by educators, organised under three dozen categories for easy browsing. Duxiu offers three categories of access for authorised users. While some books allow immediate full online access, others support only a partial online preview but can be downloaded (since a given portion of a book can only be downloaded within a certain time period, acquiring the full text of a book of this category may take several weeks). Over half of Duxiu’s collection has been digitised and falls into these two categories.23 A third category includes books that have not yet been digitised; for these, only bibliographical and location information is available.

The Used Book Vendor Network: Confucius Used Books Web China’s economic reform has fostered the commercialisation of academic collections. Although CNKI and Duxiu are usually available to universities and research institutes via subscription, access to them can also be purchased cheaply on e-commercial websites.

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Another phenomenon is the rise of the online vendor platform Confucius Used Books Web [Kongfuzi jiushu wang], which has revolutionised the Chinese used book market. Used books used to be sold at flea markets in many Chinese cities; antique markets such as the Panjiayuan market in Beijing and the Chaotiangong market in Nanjing attracted historians from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. With the rise of e-commerce around the year 2000, the used book markets shrank considerably. The creation of Confucius Used Books Web in 2002 greatly facilitated contact between vendors and customers. Thousands of vendors from all over the country joined the platform, which allowed them to expand their business in exchange for a commission while allowing researchers to quickly search and order research materials.24 Confucius Used Books Web also sells a wide range of artefacts including antiques, paintings, ceramics and coins. Its attraction to historians of education lies primarily in its collection of rare books, newspapers, diaries, letters and even leaked archival materials25 – items that would be unavailable at an officially recognised market or library. These categories contain a wide range of materials related to education, which have been collected by vendors across the country from various sources including households and libraries, where valuable research materials are often left to rot or are dumped as waste. Archival and library collections are sometimes sold illegally for profit. The effects of the commercialisation of used books on a nationwide platform are contradictory. On the one hand, commercialisation has significantly broadened scholars’ access to research materials. On the other hand, academic research now requires additional capital investment at the expense of junior or poorly funded academics. By nature, the used book business does not operate on a fixed-price basis. Prices are usually determined by the vendors and are sometimes negotiable. Whereas in the past scholars were often able to obtain valuable research materials at low prices, now, with the influx of private collectors and vendors’ increased awareness of the academic value of their products, materials are becoming less and less affordable. Auctions held by Confucius Used Books Web sometimes lead to fierce last-minute competition, to the advantage of wealthy private collectors. Once a rare copy is secured by a private collector, it usually becomes inaccessible to scholars.

Accessibility Historiographical practice suggests that the best way to fully exploit the unique features of each type of knowledge collection is to employ a combination of research strategies. Highly accessible and economical, CNKI

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and Duxiu offer a good starting point for research projects. Archival research, by contrast, involves more time and higher travel expenses, but often yields unpublished information from policymakers and school administrators. Since finding an item on Confucius Used Books Web’s collection is often a question of serendipity, patience is required while the inventories are updated. The distinction between the three sources of collections is not entirely clear-cut. Some archival materials end up on Confucius Used Books Web. Moreover, some of the most important archival materials of the Ministry of Education have been published. The Essential Educational Documents of the People’s Republic of China series, for instance, is a massive programme consisting of over eight thousand pages of key documents from 1949 to the present. There are also published collections focusing on particular provinces, municipalities and institutions, as well as on specific topics such as higher education, special education, preschool education, teacher training and vocational education. When dealing with each collection, historians of education frequently encounter the problem of scarcity. The label ‘comprehensive database’ is misleading, since no collection can possibly contain all the material about a given subject. Scarcity also has historical roots in the socialist movement. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), the State Archives Administration and numerous archives were shut down, and many of their holdings were damaged.26 Many private collections were destroyed because they contained what were considered to be reactionary materials. On other occasions, documents were lost following neglect or mishandling. For example, neither CNKI nor Duxiu possesses a full collection of People’s Education, the most important PRC journal dedicated to teacher training. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, many archives are inaccessible for security or ideological reasons. The problem of scarcity influences the assessment of the feasibility of a research proposal and requires historians to gather materials from various sources.

Strategies of Historiographical Interpretation Having accessed knowledge collections, the next challenge a historian of education faces is that of interpretation. When reading materials produced in China, scholars must be aware of how they might have been edited, either by so-called historians of party history [dang shi] or by ordinary scholars who skilfully evade censorship. Historians of education use a range of analytic techniques when approaching censored texts. One strategy is to identify counternarratives amid popular celebratory

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accounts. Another is to look for references to controversies, which usually signal sensitive political issues. The prevalent ‘criticism and self-criticism’ campaigns are often indicative of what ideas or types of behaviour were deemed undesirable. The way in which documents were created and circulated is also revealing. Journal articles and newspapers, for instance, were published for a wide readership beyond the small circle of policymakers; their content was thus closely monitored and adjusted to ensure conformity to official ideology. After operating for one year, China’s leading educational journal, People’s Education, was criticised by the Ministry of Education for not having sufficiently popularised or implemented the official ideology. In an open confession, the journal’s editors vowed to follow the Ministry’s directive more closely and to improve their performance.27 Historians of education must also bear in mind that many such exchanges might have taken place before the final texts were released to the public. In the early 1950s, the PRC Ministry of Education required each pupil to achieve all-round development, which consisted in the simultaneous development of intellectual, moral, aesthetic, physical and labour qualities. Although this initiative was ostensibly meant as a step towards a classless society, the academic and physical workload it imposed took a severe toll on pupils’ performance and health. In the following years, dozens of articles were published debating the appropriateness of this all-round education. A straightforward approach to these articles would be to decode information within the text and then use that information to summarise the various points of view on all-round education. Such an approach, however, would deprive the articles of their historicity. A more effective method would be to reconstruct the backstage processes that had taken place prior to the articles’ publication. This approach would reveal, for example, that Zhang Lingguang took advantage of his position as vice editor of People’s Education to voice dissenting opinions on all-round education, a bold move that was blocked by a number of officials at the Ministry of Education as well as their followers in schools.28 Although the editorial board of People’s Education initially permitted Zhang’s publication, it eventually turned against him. Only half a year later, in the wake of China’s liberalising Hundred Flowers Campaign and de-Stalinisation, did Zhang’s opinion gain recognition. In a second round of debates, many school teachers used their observations of the negative outcomes of all-round education to challenge educational theorists and administrators, who tended to base their arguments on Marxist doctrine. Archival materials typically include educational policy papers, school administration records, annual plans or reports, meeting minutes,

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curricula and registration documents (materials that were mostly circulated within a given institution or network, and thus tend to address issues inside the organisation). To a certain degree, archival materials are more likely to record the obscure aspects of historical events and can serve as an antidote to the celebratory accounts dominant in published documents. Archival materials are particularly valuable insofar as they shed light on the process of educational policymaking (the reasoning and circumstances that lead to a decision, or the strategies and interests involved in enacting a plan). For instance, in a widely circulated speech, a Soviet advisor sharply criticised pupils’ requests to reduce their workload, and exhorted them to follow the example of Soviet pupils who, according to him, attended lectures eight hours a day and still found time to participate in research, political studies and voluntary social service.29 Yet a document from a university archive reveals that another Soviet advisor soon admitted that the Soviet Union had been reducing its curricular content because Soviet pupils had similarly suffered from excessive school pressure.30 However, it would be a mistake to think that archival materials tell truths or provide ultimate answers. While they might have been inaccessible to outsiders, these documents were nevertheless created by individuals and addressed to particular audiences. Each document has its own history and circumstance and was meant to perform certain actions. As Gao Hua argues, Mao Zedong frequently wrote ostensibly philosophical analyses to guide the inner party struggle.31 The draft of a welcome speech for a scientific conference held in the wake of the Hundred Flowers Campaign warned that ‘misapplications of [Marxist] principles to scientific problems – namely, violent, arbitrary attitudes and acts of condemnation and labeling – do not help solve scientific problems … We oppose any interpersonal animosity and the confusion of scientific problems with individual moral consciousness’.32 These lines reveal the organisers’ anxiety regarding the repression of dissenting opinions by previous ideological campaigns. Their concern was not unwarranted. Indeed, after reviewing the draft, the university’s local CCP committee objected that the draft attenuated the significance of ideological struggle. This contestation prompts historians to further examine the power relations between different groups at the same university. Confucius Used Books Web also provides a wide range of rare or unpublished material of interest for education history research. Its collection of personal documents (for example, the diaries and notebooks of teachers and pupils) constitutes another important source of information from the grassroots. These materials supply valuable information about individual life narratives and everyday experiences which rarely appear

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in official documents. As MacFarquhar and Schoenhals note, these materials ‘document private and uniquely human aspects of the Cultural Revolution not dealt with in other, more conventional, sources’.33 One should be aware, however, that documents from Confucius Used Books Web are also often unsystematic and their origins difficult to trace. To interpret such individual documents reliably, historians must relate them to a broader range of materials or historical contexts.34

Power Dynamics, Intellectual Climate and Legitimacy Maintenance When situating Chinese educational documents in their historical context, several issues must be considered. First, one must bear in mind that, in 1949, the CCP had just emerged from over two decades of war in rural areas and was experimenting with new technological, industrial and economic developments which frequently involved trial and error, resulting in drastic policy shifts. Furthermore, the central CCP leadership was divided.35 The radicals, led by Mao, favoured class struggle, while the moderates placed more emphasis on economic development. In education, class struggle took the form of ideological and political education [sixiang zhengzhi jiaoyu] and various ideological campaigns. Economic development, by contrast, required pupils to acquire scientific knowledge and professional expertise. The antagonism between these goals led to persistent clashes between these two pedagogical approaches, reflected in the debates over the question of whether political consciousness or professional expertise should constitute the top priority of education.36 Communication between the central and local bureaucracy of the CCP was often problematic. Upon hearing that pupils’ health was being jeopardised by their excessive workload, Mao warned about this problem and recommended placing ‘good health’ (achieved primarily via rest) before ‘good study’ and ‘good work’. However, many schools adopted the ‘three goods’ message without regard to its context and pressured students to take part in physical exercise and contests in addition to academic tasks.37 Examples such as this help us to explain the fragmentation and incongruity which characterise the history of socialist China. It is also necessary to consider the intellectual climate in which educational documents were produced. The relationship between the CCP and the country’s intellectuals was often strained. The CCP’s policy towards intellectuals oscillated between repression (when the party felt the need to exert control) and tolerance (when it needed their expertise and cooperation).38 Although many teachers and pupils embraced

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communism, some remained aloof from the official ideology. In the earliest years of the PRC, much suspicion and apathy existed towards the new regime. During the liberalising Hundred Flowers Campaign, teachers and pupils harshly criticised the CCP’s policies. Researchers must also consider how a historical actor’s sociopolitical positions might influence their textual records. For example, while in 1940 editor Zhang Tengxiao emphasised that textbooks must be tailored to the capabilities of the pupils’ age group, under the new regime, the same person championed a revolutionary approach to pedagogy that required pupils to carry out difficult tasks and engage in class struggle from an early age.39 In his autobiography, written in 2016, the 102-year-old Zhang emphasised his earlier milder arguments.40 Shortly before his death in 2017, Zhang announced that he did not wish to be buried in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, thereby refuting a major honour reserved exclusively for top-level CCP officials. In its efforts to maintain its legitimacy, the CCP often employed abstract, eulogising vocabulary when addressing practical problems. For example, it presented labour education, which incorporated productive activities into the school curriculum, as a vehicle for the cultivation of future generations unconstrained by the division between mental and manual labour. This idealistic description disclosed only part of the underlying impetus of labour education. In reality, student labour was valued more for its economic value than for its pedagogical purpose. Labour education provided an excuse for imposing extravagant productive demands on pupils which would otherwise be deemed beyond the legitimate bounds of education. In the 1950s, the CCP rapidly expanded elementary and secondary school enrolment. Pupils commonly aspired to a brighter future through education, and those who could not continue their education often refused to accept centralised job assignments. Labour education was thus utilised to persuade pupils that working in a factory or in the fields was as honourable as studying at college. At the same time, official propaganda continued to depict labour education in a utopian light, as a step towards eliminating the gap between mental and physical labour.41 In such cases, historians must be able to decode how such idealistic discourse was employed to overcome practical problems.

Conclusions and Future Challenges This chapter has addressed three data collection resources commonly available to historians of education in China. These resources include national, regional and school archives; online databases (including CNKI

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and Duxiu); and the Confucius Used Books Web online vendor network. Each resource features distinctive collections and various mechanisms for developing and preserving them. The accessibility of Chinese knowledge collections has been influenced by China’s social transformations since the late 1970s. Online databases were only made available thanks to the advent of digital technology. The success of Confucius Used Books Web was also indebted to the rise of a market economy. China’s reforms since the late 1970s have played a central role in the opening of its archives to the public. In the 1990s and 2000s, many Chinese archives became accessible, leading to a wave of historical discoveries. Yet over the last decade, restrictions on freedom of information and control over archives have increased, and many Chinese archives have reduced accessibility by reclassifying documents, complicating visit requirements and changing photocopy policies in the name of protecting state secrets and upholding ‘party history’.42 These are not the only challenges facing historians of Chinese education. Although Confucius Used Books Web has created new channels for the preservation and circulation of knowledge collections, it has also made academic research increasingly dependent on capital. Private collections obtained via Confucius Used Books Web are likely to curb the sharing of knowledge. While digital databases are more effective in promoting public knowledge, the question of whether their operation fully complies with copyright law remains controversial. This chapter has also discussed several strategies for collecting and interpreting materials regarding the history of education in China. The preservation of textual records is an endless process, and in China the issue of scarcity has particular historical and ideological roots. In order to substantiate a research topic, historians of education need to combine materials from various sources, each of which requires a unique interpretive strategy. Texts from digital databases tend to be more censored and can be highly elusive. Archival materials, though more likely to disclose historical events in the making, should not be treated as representing unequivocal truths; it is important to remember that these documents fulfilled specific goals in particular contexts. Materials from Confucius Used Books Web tend to be of a more local or personal nature and may reveal information absent from official documents. Regardless of the materials they use, historians of Chinese education must be mindful of the multivocality of their sources. A given document is often the result of a complex interplay of intention and historical circumstances. The incongruity between socialist China’s revolutionary and economic objectives, for instance, sparked pedagogical debates over the prioritisation of pupils’ qualities. Poor communication between

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policymakers and local bureaucracy, as well as the strained relationship between the CCP and the intelligentsia, generated uncertainty and created a power dynamic that fuelled the radicalisation of education. The legitimatising function of the CCP’s theoretical and policy rhetoric becomes particularly apparent when viewed in the context of the concrete challenges encountered by China’s leadership at that time. Writing the history of Chinese socialist education thus requires the ability to navigate with sensitivity between multiple layers of networks, voices and meanings. Zhipeng Gao received doctoral training in the history of psychology at York University in Canada. He is currently an assistant professor at the American University of Paris in France. He specialises in the history of education, psychology, and mental health in socialist China. His work has been published in History of Education, History of Psychology, History of Science and in several edited volumes published by Springer, Brill and Palgrave Macmillan.

Glossary of Mandarin Terms Used in This Chapter Chaotiangong 朝天宫 China National Knowledge Infrastructure 中国知网 dang shi 党史 Duxiu 读秀 Essential Educational Documents of People’s Republic of China 中华人民 共和国重要教育文献 Jiaoyu ting 教育厅 Jiaoyu ju 教育局 Kongfuzi jiushu wang 孔夫子旧书网 Panjiayuan 潘家园 shehui zhuyi xinren 社会主义新人 sixiang zhengzhi jiaoyu 思想政治教育 Zhongyang danganguan 中央档案馆

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Notes  1.  2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.  9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

29. 30. 31.

Elman, Civil Examinations; Lee, Education in Traditional China. Curran, Educational Reform. Lee, Education in Wartime Beijing. Price, Education in Communist China. Hsi-en Chen, Chinese Education since 1949. Cheng, Creating the New Man; Munro, ‘The Malleability of Man’. Guo and Guo, Spotlight on China; Hannum and Park, Education and Reform in China. Fang, Chinese Librarianship in the Digital Era; Lian, Zhu and Ye, Academic Library Development and Administration; Chien Lin, Libraries and Librarianship. Kirby, ‘Archives and Histories’; Kraus, ‘Researching the History’; Mei, ‘The Role of Archives’; Moss, ‘The Archives Law’; Moss, Archives; Moss, ‘Dang’an’; Ye and Esherick, Chinese Archives. Wang, The Chinese Imperial Examination System. Parker and Parker, Education. Kallgren, Educational Exchanges. Ghosh and Urbansky, ‘China from Without’; Wang and Chen, Archival Resources. Keliher, ‘First Historical Archives’; Menegon and Zhang, ‘First Historical Archives’. Tillman, ‘Historical Archives in Nanjing’. Ye and Esherick, Chinese Archives. ‘Archives’, Resources for Historical Research on the People’s Republic of China, 2018, http:// www.prchistoryresources.org/doku.php?id=archives (accessed 15 August 2018). Ghosh, ‘Beijing Municipal Archives’. Pieragastini, ‘Shanghai Municipal Archives’. See Kraus, ‘Researching the History’, 7. Foreigners face greater difficulties in accessing archives: not only is it harder for them to acquire reference letters from Chinese institutions, but they must often contend with stricter admission standards. CNKI can be accessed at http://www.cnki.com.cn. Duxiu can be accessed at http://duxiu.com. Duxiu obtains its digital copies from libraries around the country. While this practice may appear legally problematic, the few legal disputes that have arisen so far have involved the company, not its users. Purchasing on Confucius Used Books Web from abroad is inconvenient due to payment and mailing restrictions. The sale of archival material is against Chinese law, and purchasing such material is risky. Ye and Esherick, Chinese Archives. ‘Nuli Ban Hao Jiaoyu Qikan shi Women de Zhongda Renwu’ [To diligently run an educational journal is our paramount task], People’s Education 5 (1951), 10–11. ‘Tantan Zhongxue Jiaoyu de Mudi’ [On the goal of secondary education], People’s Education 7 (1954), 18–20; ‘Shixing Quanmian Fazhan Jiaoyu Zhong Ruogan Wenti de Shangque’ [Discussion on a few questions in the implementation of all-round development education], People’s Education 2 (1955), 44–49. Beijing Shifan Daxue de Renwu He Jiaoyanshi de Gongzuo [The tasks of Beijing Normal University and the job of the teaching and research unit], Beijing Normal University Archive, 1952(53). Fumin Zhuanjia Dui Shifan Xueyuan Jiaoxue Jihua Wenti Dawen Zhaiyao, 2 [Selected recording of Soviet advisor Fumin’s answers to the teaching plan of Normal Schools, 2], Beijing Normal University Archive, Academic Affairs Office, 1953(9). Hua, How the Red Sun Rose.

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32. Anonymous, Huanying Shouci de Kexue Taolun Hui [Welcome to the inaugural meeting for scientific discussions], Beijing Normal University Archive, Academic Affairs Office, 1956(7), 5–6. 33. MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, Mao’s Last Revolution, 481. 34. Brown, ‘Finding and Using Grassroots Historical Sources’; Kraus, ‘Researching the History’, 17. 35. Tsang, ‘Education and National Development’. 36. Kent, ‘Red and Expert’; Ray, ‘“Red and Expert”’. 37. Guanyu Quanmian Fazhan Wenti Yilun Laigao Zhaiyao [Summary of letters on the problem of all-round development], People’s Education 11 (1956), 19–22. 38. Fairbank and MacFarquhar, The Cambridge History of China, xiv. 39. Zhang, Ping ‘Liaojie Haizi’. 40. Song and Zhang, Zhang Tengxiao. 41. Chen, Laodong Jiaoyu. 42. Cunningham, ‘Denying Historians’.

Bibliography Brown, Jeremy. ‘Finding and Using Grassroots Historical Sources from the Mao Era’. Dissertation Reviews 2010. http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/310 (accessed 19 August 2018). Chen, Wanli (ed.). Laodong Jiaoyu Zhu Wenti [A number of questions on labour education]. Wuhan: Zhongann renmin wenxue yishu chubanshe, 1954. Cheng, Yinghong. Creating the New Man: From Enlightenment Ideals to Socialist Realities. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2009. Chien Lin, Sharon. Libraries and Librarianship in China. London: Greenwood Press, 1998. Cunningham, Maura. ‘Denying Historians: China’s Archives Increasingly Off-Bounds’. The Wall Street Journal, 19 August 2014. https://blogs.wsj.com/ chinarealtime/2014/08/19/denying-historians-chinas-archives-increasingly-offbounds/ (accessed 15 August 2018). Curran, Thomas D. Educational Reform in Republican China: The Failure of Educators to Create a Modern Nation. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2005. Elman, Benjamin A. Civil Examinations and Meritocracy in Late Imperial China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Fairbank, John King, and Roderick MacFarquhar (eds). The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 14: The People’s Republic, Part 1: The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1949–1965. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Fang, Conghui. Chinese Librarianship in the Digital Era. Cambridge: Elsevier, 2013. Ghosh, Arunabh. ‘Beijing Municipal Archives’. Dissertation Reviews 2011. http:// dissertationreviews.org/archives/643 (accessed 19 August 2018). Ghosh, Arunabh, and Sören Urbansky. ‘China from Without: Doing PRC History in Foreign Archives’. The PRC History Review 2(3) (2017), 1–3. Guo, Shibao, and Yan Guo. Spotlight on China: Chinese Education in the Globalized World. Boston: Sense Publishers, 2016. Hannum, Emily, and Albert Park. Education and Reform in China. New York: Routledge, 2012.

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Hsi-en Chen, Theodore. Chinese Education since 1949: Academic and Revolutionary Models. New York: Pergamon Press, 1981. Hua, Gao. How the Red Sun Rose: The Origin and Development of the Yanan Rectification Movement, 1930–1945. Translated by Stacey Mosher and Guo Jian. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2019. Kallgren, Joyce. Educational Exchanges: Essays on the Sino-American Experience. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1987. Keliher, Macabe. ‘First Historical Archives & Qing History Project Library’. Dissertation Reviews, 2013. http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2836 (accessed 15 August 2018). Kent, Ann. ‘Red and Expert: The Revolution in Education at Shanghai Teachers’ University, 1975–76’. The China Quarterly 86 (1981), 304–21. Kirby, William C. ‘Archives and Histories in Twentieth-Century China’, in Francis X. Blouin and William G. Rosenberg (eds), Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory: Essays from the Sawyer Seminar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007), 436–42. Kraus, Charles. ‘Researching the History of the People’s Republic of China’, in Christian F. Ostermann (ed.), Cold War International History Project Working Paper Series (Washington, DC: Wilson Center, 2016), 1–28. https://www.wilsoncenter. org/publication/researching-the-history-the-peoples-republic-china (accessed 13 August 2018). Lee, Sophia. Education in Wartime Beijing, 1937–1945. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1996. Lee, Thomas H.C. Education in Traditional China: A History. Leiden: Brill, 2000. Lian Ruan, Qiang Zhu and Ying Ye (eds). Academic Library Development and Administration in China. Hershey: IGI Global, 2017. MacFarquhar, Roderick, and Michael Schoenhals. Mao’s Last Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. Mei, Du. ‘The Role of Archives in Chinese Society: An Examination from the Perspective of Access’, in Francis X. Blouin and William G. Rosenberg (eds), Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory: Essays from the Sawyer Seminar (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007), 427–35. Menegon, Eugenio, and Xianqing Zhang. ‘First Historical Archives of China [Zhongguo Di Yi Lishi Dang’an Guan]’. Eugenio Menegon’s blog, 2012. http:// blogs.bu.edu/emenegon/files/2012/01/Menegon-First-Historical-ArchivesChina-Introduction.pdf (accessed 15 August 2018). Moss, William. ‘The Archives Law of the People’s Republic of China: A Summary and Commentary’. The American Archivist 54(2) (1991), 216–19. Moss, William. Archives in the People’s Republic of China: A Brief Introduction for American Scholars and Archivists. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Archives, 1993. Moss, William. ‘Dang’an: Contemporary Chinese Archives’. The China Quarterly 145 (1996), 112–29. Munro, Donald J. ‘The Malleability of Man in Chinese Marxism’. The China Quarterly 48 (1971), 609–40. Parker, Franklin, and Betty June Parker. Education in the People’s Republic of China, Past and Present: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Routledge, 1986.

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Pieragastini, Steven. ‘Shanghai Municipal Archives’, Dissertation Reviews (2013). http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2471 (accessed 19 August 2018). Price, Ronald Francis. Education in Communist China. London: Routledge, 2005. Ray, Dennis. ‘“Red and Expert” and China’s Cultural Revolution’. Pacific Affairs 43(1) (1970), 22–33. Song, Jiange, and Tengxiao Zhang. Zhang Tengxiao de Jiaoyu Shijian He Jiaoyu Sixiang [Zhang Tengxiao’s educational practices and thoughts], in Jiange Song and Tengxiao Zhang (eds), Jianming Zhongguo Geming Genjudi Jiaoyushi [A brief history of education in China’s revolutionary base areas] (Beijing: Zhongguo wenshi chubanshe, 2016), 551–54. Tillman, Margaret Mih. ‘Historical Archives in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China’. Dissertation Reviews (2015). http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/13163 (accessed 15 August 2018). Tsang, Mun C. ‘Education and National Development in China since 1949: Oscillating Policies and Enduring Dilemmas’. China Review (2000), 579–618. Wang, Chengzhi, and Su Chen. Archival Resources of Republican China in North America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. Wang, Rui. The Chinese Imperial Examination System: An Annotated Bibliography. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. Ye, Wa, and Joseph Esherick. Chinese Archives: An Introductory Guide. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1996. Zhang, Tengxiao. Ping ‘Liaojie Haizi Shi Zuo Ge Hao Xiansheng de Zhongyao Tiaojian’ [Commentary on ‘Understanding children is an important prerequisite for being a good teacher’]. People’s Education 1 (1950), 53–56.

Chapter 11

Accessing and Acquiring Textbooks for Research Heather Sharp

T

he mass production of curriculum materials such as textbooks has existed only since the introduction of compulsory, secular schooling. This is a relatively new phenomenon. In Australia, compulsory schooling was introduced in the 1870s. While the first Australian textbooks were initially written, published and disseminated by departments of education (whether governmental or church-run), textbook production was increasingly left to private commercial enterprise. And whereas in the 1920s there was one main publisher (the government department responsible for education) and one or two private publishing companies producing high school textbooks, by the beginning of the twentyfirst century this number had increased to at least ten, including highly regarded publishing houses like Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, whose appearance on the Australian school textbook publishing market was arguably encouraged by the first nationwide curriculum introduced in 2011. While this chapter addresses the specific case of Australian textbooks, the issues it raises (which include the challenges faced by researchers when accessing and acquiring textbooks) are applicable to research contexts internationally. While some established research institutions (for example, the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig) manage textbooks well, they remain exceptions in terms of textbook archiving, storage and research. The failure of most research institutions to efficiently manage their textbook collections significantly impairs researchers’ ability to conduct research in different geographical locations and education jurisdictions. Research in the social sciences has changed dramatically over the past two decades, as can be seen from the increasing digitisation of historical

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records by government agencies, archives, libraries, museums and similar institutions. More and more, documents that were once available in only one location (for example, in an archive, perhaps on a difficult to use, frequently unwieldy microfiche machine) are now readily accessible online. School textbooks, by contrast, are still predominately available only in their original, hard copy form in select libraries, archives or other special collections.1 Decollecting is a major issue in the area of textbook research. Curriculum changes in terms of syllabi, textbooks and other curricular materials were historically not well archived; old editions were often discarded upon the release of new editions, and only ‘very few people and organisations … had the foresight to keep their collections’.2 In addition, ‘textbooks were usually destroyed after use’, with the result that ‘little of them has [sic] survived to reach today’s historians, who are thus denied important clues’3 regarding curriculum content in past eras. This makes work more difficult than it would be if schooling were treated with more importance by historians, archivists and institutions in general, and may impede researchers in locating required texts for research purposes. As textbooks continue to be used as an educational medium and as more publishers enter the market offering both print and online versions of curriculum resources, archiving practices need to be reconsidered and in some cases changed so that important knowledge from schooling is not permanently lost to public institutions. Due to the incomplete nature of the collections of many libraries and other cultural institutions, sources for historical textbook research can be difficult to locate, and it is sometimes necessary to visit various locations to gather sufficient data. Textbook historians must undertake the same data collection processes as researchers in fields traditionally more associated with the discipline of history. When following historical research processes, it is important to keep in mind that primary sources, numbingly copious in some areas, are scarce and fragmentary in others. Much has to be garnered indirectly and by inference. Historians do not rely on single sources, but are always seeking corroboration, qualification, correction; the production of history is very much a matter of accumulating details, refining nuances.4

While it is considered natural or common sense for researchers to access state-based or national archives for written text collections, textbook researchers must carefully consider whether to visit such sites, taking into account that these collections may not contain textbooks. Although libraries or national archives are generally a logical starting point for researchers, this is not necessarily the case when it comes to textbook

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research, as not all such collections contain textbooks. While most libraries are easily accessible (although in some cases distance can prove to be a barrier), researchers must look for other research sites in order to locate and access a comprehensive range of materials (a necessary precondition for a thorough research process). This chapter examines some of the challenges researchers face in accessing textbooks in traditional institutions such as libraries and offers alternative avenues for the sourcing of required texts.

Textbooks as Primary and Secondary Sources of Knowledge Michael Apple’s work on textbook production and official knowledge5 serves as a theoretical basis to demonstrate the importance and power of textbooks as a curriculum resource and their importance for curriculum research. Difficulties are encountered by researchers when accessing historical school textbooks in a jurisdiction without a formalised approach to acquisition. In Australia, no single depository for school textbooks exists; rather, the national, state and territory libraries as well as certain universities each collect historical textbooks in their own way. As a result, school history in Australia is under-represented, while available sources are fragmentary and inadequately preserved or archived in comparison with other non-school documents such as newspapers or political papers. Although in each state and territory texts are protected by a legal depository aimed at ensuring that collections are as complete as possible, this legislation has not always been consistently enforced. For this to change, libraries would need to consider collecting key schooling texts from the past such as textbooks and syllabi, but given limits on funding and the low status of school history as a research subject, it is unlikely that the political will to engage in such a process will materialise. This situation points to a mismatch between the priorities of researchers and those responsible for collections of historical texts. Certain aspects of collections reflect the interests of the collectors rather than those of the researchers and align more closely with the individual interests of those working in the collecting institutions than with a more holistic approach to data collection. Because school history is not a priority, historical education texts are excluded from national history collections, despite their historical and sociopolitical value. Textbooks are an important medium for the dissemination of official knowledge of school curricula in the classroom. In his work about official knowledge construction, Alan Luke notes the influence and impact

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particular forms of knowledge construction have had, and how this impact is in turn influenced by ‘curriculum texts prepared by academics and teachers, and corporate publishers’.6 Textbooks are written with the conviction that the content contained within them is ‘what counts as knowledge’ and that ‘by default, alternative claims on the same knowledge arena or alternative lines of exploration are cast as irrelevant’.7 Although many education researchers (and frequently also teachers in the classroom) view textbooks as secondary or even tertiary sources of information, textbooks can be legitimately considered primary sources for history education research in the sense that they reflect the historical and ideological content directed at learners. When writing about the messiness of texts that can be considered both primary and secondary sources, depending on their usage, Brian Hoepper remarks that students should learn about the categorization of sources into ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ and discuss the relative merits of each. … Hopefully they’ll also be comfortable if the distinction between ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ becomes blurred; for example, a 2007 history textbook about Ned Kelly may be a secondary source about Kelly but a primary source of evidence about printing techniques in 2007.8

Following Hoepper, textbooks can be considered secondary sources in that they provide learners with an account of history that is not an original source, but rather an interpretation based on a selection of (often unreferenced) primary sources. However, they can also be viewed as primary sources for research purposes,9 as each textbook is a historical artefact, an example of the national history content taught to learners in the past (what Richard Venezky describes as a ‘cultural artifact’).10 It is useful to look at the way textbooks are defined by their genre. One such definition, offered by Keith Hoskin, involves ‘two driving principles that distinguish books as a form of textuality: normalization and expansionism’. Hoskin argues that textbooks as a genre are ‘driven by normalization, as they shape their message according to normalizing constraints’.11 In another study, Donald Hamilton notes that ‘textbooks visibly reflect pedagogic considerations. That is, a textbook is not just a book used in schools. Rather, it is a book that has been consciously designed and organised to serve … schooling’.12 By and large, textbooks structure content and treat readers as ‘textual subjects’ rather than ‘agents’,13 promoting a passive uncritical reading as opposed to an active engagement with and critiquing of the information presented. This in turn influences the style of writing and structure of

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textbooks, which are generally passive and authoritative, and present what Henry Giroux refers to as a ‘“reified view of knowledge” … that erases the fact that it was produced by humans operating in a particular context with a specific set of values’.14 Maria Grever and Tina van der Vlies have demonstrated the close link between textbooks and the origin of education systems,15 while Eckhardt Fuchs has observed that ‘as nation states emerged, and modern education systems with them, school subjects considered to be crucial for forming pupils’ consciousness and viewpoints gained key significance in the self-legitimation sought and practised by the authorities of these states’.16 Libraries, which usually house textbook collections, are also part of the politics of collection as related to nation building. The concept ‘politics of collection’ is applied to the mobilisation of national history to develop a collective consciousness (public memory) and a common national historical narrative about the past that all citizens can relate to. It also embodies the qualities that governments and political leaders deem honourable and appropriate for their citizens. In democratic societies, an idea of national identity must gain popular consensus in order to be viable. This can be achieved in several ways, for example via libraries, schools, the media, the promotion of national holidays or the funding of special projects, museums and other cultural institutions. A library collection can relate to nation building via its collection protocols, its degree of accessibility to the public and the importance attributed to it as a national, state or local institution.17 In Australia, this has generally not been a major concern for recent governments, which have tended to prioritise other areas of cultural collection deemed more conducive to the formation and sustaining of national identity (for example, via nation building approaches involving the funding of institutions relating to the nation’s past such as the Australian War Memorial, which seeks to promote a sense of national identity linked to the nation’s participation in the First World War). The funding for this one institution has caused concern for the future viability of other cultural institutions such as the National Library of Australia, the National Archives of Australia and the Museum of Australian Democracy, which have faced increased funding cuts.18 In Australia, a relatively young nation in terms of its federation,19 the value of school materials is usually seen as limited to their direct utility in the classroom, an approach which does nothing to facilitate the work of researchers who are well aware of the significant role schooling plays in the shaping of learners’ understanding of the nation’s history.20

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Conducting Research beyond Customary Collecting Habits Researchers of textbooks can face difficulties in locating relevant material. While the fact that their ‘research subjects’ are textbooks means that they do not need to follow the human research ethics compliance guidelines required by many research institutions, the sparsity of many textbook collections (exceptions include the Alfred Deakin Prime Ministerial Library, the Centre for Research Libraries, the Gutman Library at Harvard and the Georg Eckert Institute) can make textbook collection difficult. As the required textbooks are typically housed in disparate collections in various (often far-flung) locations, researchers must demonstrate flexibility in locating textbooks outside of standard institutions, resourcefulness in thinking outside of traditional research structures and a willingness to travel significant distances to access source material (for the case study research, distances typically ranged from 35 kilometres in the case of local libraries to over 1,100 kilometres in the case of the National Library of Australia).

Locating Textbooks Obstacles to sourcing textbooks and other official school documents that are no longer used in classrooms21 and which, in many cases, have been obsolete for decades or even a century, can only be resolved via inventive textbook collection strategies. As it was not possible to limit research to any one collection, the textbooks and other curricular documents were acquired from various sources, including the library of the Department of Education; personal collections (often located via newspaper ads seeking personal collections to purchase or to borrow, a method particularly successful in rural areas); borrowed from known personal collections, second-hand bookshops and book dealers; book fairs; online auction sites and other online sources (in cases where texts had been scanned and made available for public download); and the special collections of the Richard Fryer Library at the University of Queensland and the State Library of Queensland (specifically, the John Oxley collection) in Brisbane and the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

Libraries Data collection in libraries posed various difficulties at different stages, particularly at the John Oxley Library, where textbooks were not

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systematically acquired or catalogued, despite state government legislation requiring all material published in the state to be deposited in the Library.22 Textbooks were not considered important enough to be systematically included and catalogued in the collection; in addition, there was miscommunication between the libraries regarding possession of the collection, despite the clarity of the legislation on this point. This fits with Issitt’s statement that ‘because of the definitional issues surrounding textbooks, there has been no obvious category to be used by librarians under which they could classify such works’.23 A search of library catalogues indicated the special collections of several university and public libraries as locations of relevant primary source materials. These libraries included the John Oxley Library at the State Library of Queensland, the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland and the Australian National Library in Canberra. While certain institutions (most prominently the National Library) provided relatively easy access to source materials, others lacked a clear public access policy, significantly hampering the data collection process. For example, accessing primary source documents at the Department of Education Queensland library required conditional permission from the librarian, which was granted with caveats. A further difficulty was posed by the collection itself, which was in a state of neglect compared to the library’s other collections and had not been catalogued since the early 1980s. Many of the catalogued items were no longer in their original locations, having been moved several times; some had been lost and others were difficult to locate. Efforts to locate these documents were further hampered by strict visiting and access rules not experienced elsewhere, suggesting that researchers must consider possible flexibility in visiting regulations when negotiating access to libraries and other collections.

Private Advertisements One non-traditional approach to obtaining source material was via advertising in local and rural newspapers. While it is common for researchers, especially in the field of medicine, to issue public calls for volunteer research participants, such calls are not generally made for objects such as textbooks. A call for old textbooks to be sold or donated for research purposes was perceived as a novelty by readers of rural newspapers, and numerous textbooks were donated to the project as a result of this advertising.

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Contact with Publishers Publishing companies were contacted directly for access to out-of-print school textbooks. In the case of Jacaranda, the largest school textbook publisher in Queensland, permission to access their textbook archives was denied, as the collection is not publicly accessible. Attempts to contact other major publishers that had been active in earlier periods of the twentieth century were likewise unsuccessful, since many (like William Brooks Publishers, a publishing house prominent in the mid-twentieth century) are no longer operational and have no parent company. While in some cases accessing facsimile copies of historic textbooks was easy (for example, in the case of the 1948 edition of the Queensland School Readers, popular books used in classrooms since 1913, having undergone numerous reprints and new editions throughout the twentieth century), in other jurisdictions, contacting publishers regarding textbook access was effective. Access is highly dependent on the visitation and access policies of the individual publishers.

Private Collections Additional source material was provided by former teachers, teacher educators and parents of former schoolchildren who had kept their own copies of school textbooks. Contact with these sources was established through mutual colleagues, by word of mouth or via personal recommendation. This approach met with considerable success and personal collections were made available for extended periods of time, usually for the duration of the research project.

Purchasing Texts Of all the types of textbooks available in the state, the Queensland School Readers are the best-preserved. There is a certain aura of nostalgia surrounding these books, which contain numerous extracts from the literary canon, including poems, short stories, scenes from plays and sonnets, extracts (for example, from Shakespeare) and reproductions of famous works of art. The Queensland School Readers have experienced a surge in popularity in recent years, and many antique stores now stock them. Due to their popularity, they are becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to locate. A price scan revealed that books that fifteen years ago would have sold for one Australian dollar or would have been discarded now sell for fifty Australian dollars or more. In 1999, the eminent Australian author David Malouf fondly recalled (and even quoted) the

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stories he had learnt from these readers some fifty years earlier.24 In the 1980s, the readers were so popular that, in 1989, the Queensland Government Printing Office made the unusual decision to reprint for public sale facsimile versions of the 1948 series (the sole recorded example of a government-sponsored reprinting of obsolete school textbooks for non-educational purposes). These reprints proved to be very popular, especially among members of the generations that had attended school between 1940 and 1970. Additionally, several texts were purchased through the online auction site eBay. Although eBay is not generally considered a legitimate platform for collecting primary sources, it has proven extremely useful in locating school textbooks, particularly those published in the early to mid-twentieth century, which could not have been sourced otherwise.25

Representativity in the Face of Data Paucity When abundant sources are available, it is important to select a representative sample of textbooks for analysis in order to emphasise that the texts selected are typical texts. Many studies ignore the statistical or theoretical representativeness of the material they analyse.26 The categorisation of the textbooks in a database allows for an evidence-based selection process.27 One disadvantage of textbook research is the absence of explicit criteria for the selection of primary sources. As Chris Husbands notes in a study of history didactics published in 1996, relics ‘can provide information on the perspectives of only an unrepresentative sample of the historical actors [in the case of this project, textbooks]’, while in other cases, it is ‘the significance which may be attributed to one piece of evidence set against another, or, more intriguingly, the significance of what survives set against what may or may not have survived’ that may become a source of dispute.28 Custodians of collections, whether large or small, are responsible for knowledge construction via texts. They must, therefore, consider the model of evidence selection provided by Husbands29 in order to ensure the continued representation of the multiple perspectives that existed in the past, even if the remaining primary sources provide only scant information about these perspectives. Researchers must carefully weigh these possibilities in order to ensure the trustworthiness of their analysis, taking care not to neglect perspectives that may have been lost or which are currently unavailable in favour of existing perspectives that are accessible. In other words, it is just as important to consider the knowledge gaps created by currently unavailable texts as it is to analyse available knowledge.

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Table 11.1. Categories determining the relative representativity of a textbook collection. Category

Purpose (contextualised for this study)

Year of publication

The sample included textbooks published over a period of several years (as opposed to just one or two), in order to ensure a broader historical perspective.

Number of copies

The existence of multiple copies of the same textbook from different sources may indicate that the textbook was widely used.

Source (library, private collection, purchase)

This criterion was noted, but not used in the selection process.

School age group

In order to ensure a representative sample, textbooks from all year levels were selected for each historical period.

Official mandate (for example, Department of Education) (Y/N)

The sample included departmentmandated textbooks such as school readers and social studies textbooks, as these were used in most (if not all) government schools.

Purpose (written for a syllabus or on official request) (Y/N)

Textbooks written either to fit a particular syllabus or on request of the Department of Education were widely used and reflect the translation of official knowledge into classroom practice.

Broad subject range (Y/N)

Preference was given to textbooks with a broad subject range, as schools generally preferred these to single-subject textbooks. Single-subject textbooks were more likely to have been used for individual research projects than in the classroom and usually focus on a single topic from the syllabus (for example, Apartheid in South Africa).

Local authorship (Y/N)

The sample included textbooks by Queensland-based authors, who were often teachers, teacher educators, or (historically) former school inspectors well-known in the local education system, and whose works were therefore more likely to have been used by local schools.

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Local publication (Y/N)

Since the Australian education system is state-based, Queensland schools were more likely to have used locally published textbooks. In the early twentieth century, it was not uncommon for Queensland schools to use textbooks that had been published in the UK (often for a UK audience) and later incorporated into the Queensland school system (which lacked locally produced textbooks). The 1913 Queensland School Reader (distributed for use in 1915) was the first textbook published specially for Queensland schools. Thereafter, local textbook publication steadily increased.

Evidence of local use

Evidence may include school stamps, store stamps, student names and class information handwritten on the inside cover, margin notes, library borrowing cards, coloured-in or cut-out pictures. Such evidence is important in establishing whether a textbook (or sections of it) had been used.

Likelihood of being used in a ‘class-set’ arrangement

Textbooks mass produced by the Department of Education before the 1970s were generally used as class sets, whereby each pupil in each school year was given a copy of a textbook for their year level, which he or she returned at the end of the year so it could be passed on to the next class. In some cases, pupils purchased their textbooks, which could then be reused by their younger siblings. This is evidenced by the multiple names from the same family written on the inside cover of some books, and by private collectors who were able to identify the former owners.

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Researchers must call readers’ attention to data that had been available in the past, so that they can judge the analysis objectively. For this project, explicit criteria were provided in the form of a representative sample of textbooks, selected according to a consistent and balanced method. Each textbook was entered into a database, enabling an evidence-based process of selection. Categories defined in the textbook database are listed in Table 1. Despite expectations to the contrary, numerous textbooks from the periods selected for analysis (the early twentieth century and interwar period; the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s; and the years around the Australian Bicentenary in 1988) were found to support the research project that forms the basis for this chapter. While locating First World War-era school documents proved difficult, sources for the 1960s and 1980s were easier to find, especially when the search was performed with a degree of flexibility. Locating sources for the 1980s posed no difficulties, since many of these textbooks are still to be found on the shelves of larger university libraries. Unlike schools, which face greater space constraints and other practical considerations, libraries generally have the space to retain obsolete textbooks and tend to adopt an archive-focused approach to their collections. With a surplus of textbooks available for two of the three historical periods, sources had to be carefully selected in order to ensure that the samples included would be representative of the respective period (an important consideration, especially in cases in which significant sociopolitical changes had occurred within the period under consideration). In order to facilitate the selection process, clear categories acting as criteria for textbook selection were established. Heather Sharp is an associate professor in education at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is a founding member of the HERMES research group, co-convenor of Tertiary History Educators’ Australia group (THEA), and a member of the Historical and Moral Encounters research group. Heather’s research investigates the history curriculum, and historical representations in the school curriculum particularly around topics of significance to a nation’s history. She is currently working on a research project funded by the Swedish Research Council that investigates intersections of historical consciousness and moral consciousness with a focus on secondary schools.

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Notes  1. An exception to this is the Georg Eckert Institute’s digitised collection, GEI-Digital (http://gei-digital.gei.de/viewer/). Such digitisation of archived school textbooks is, however, not commonplace on an international scale. The State Library of Victoria possesses a comprehensive collection of school textbooks and readers which, however, are not digitised and can only be viewed in the Heritage Collections Reading Room or via arranged delivery. Other books in the collection are in closed storage and thus less convenient than digitised textbooks. Other Australian states (for example, Queensland) lack such a complete textbook collection due to different collection priorities. The special collection of Australian school textbooks at Deakin University contains over twenty thousand titles. However, as in the State Library of Victoria, these are hard copy versions accessible only in the Alfred Deakin Prime Ministerial Library.  2. Issitt, ‘Reflection’, 692.  3. Fuchs, ‘(Hi)story’, 72.  4. Marwick, New Nature of History, 27.  5. Apple, Official Knowledge.  6. Luke, ‘Text and Discourse’.  7. Issitt, ‘Reflection’, 689.  8. Hoepper, ‘Historical Literacy’, 35.  9. Black and MacRaild, Studying History. 10. Pinar et al., Understanding Curriculum, 775. 11. Hoskin, ‘The Textbook’, 2. 12. Hamilton, ‘What Is a Textbook?’, 1. 13. Pink, Doing Visual Ethnography, 5. 14. Steinberg and Kincheloe, Students as Researchers, 5. 15. Grever and Vlies, ‘National Narratives’. 16. Fuchs, ‘(Hi)story’, 67. 17. Lor, ‘National Library’. 18. Daley, ‘A $500m Expansion’. 19. Although Australia is a young nation, the continent is home to the world’s oldest existing cultures, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 20. See, for example, Sharp, Donnelly and Parkes, ‘Competing Discourses’. 21. See Issitt, ‘Reflection’ and Fuchs, ‘(Hi)story’. 22. Specifically, the various incarnations of the Libraries Act of 1988 (Qld), beginning with the Act of 1943, Section 68, which states that any person ‘who publishes in Queensland to the general public … must, at the person’s own expense, give a copy of the material to the board, and to the librarian of the Parliamentary Library, within one month after publication’. 23. Issitt, ‘Reflection’, 692. 24. Kitson, First Encounters. 25. These books now form part of my own personal collection, which comprises over three hundred books. As libraries often discard their collections once they become obsolete, donating to libraries, even ones dealing with this type of text, is difficult. One cultural collection library to which I wished to donate informed me that my donations may or may not be retained, and that this would only be decided after the donation had been made. 26. Meyer, ‘Between Theory, Method, and Politics’, 25. 27. Cullip, ‘Making History’. 28. Husbands, What Is History Teaching, 14–15. 29. Ibid., 15.

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Bibliography Apple, Michael. Official Knowledge: Democratic Education in a Conservative Age. New York: Routledge, 2014. Black, Jeremy, and Donald MacRaild. Studying History. Hampshire: Palgrave, 2000. Cullip, Peter. ‘Making History in Malaysian Schools: How the Pedagogic Discourse of History Functions in Malaysian Classrooms’. Journal of Curriculum Studies 39 (2007), 195–218. Daley, Paul. ‘A $500m Expansion of the War Memorial is a Reckless Waste of Money’. The Guardian, 9 April 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/ australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2018/apr/09/a-500m-expansion-of-the-warmemorial-is-a-reckless-waste-of-money (accessed 25 October 2018). Fuchs, Eckhardt. ‘The (Hi)story of Textbooks: Research Trends in a Field of Textbook-Related Research’. Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal for the Historiography of Education 1 (2014), 63–80. Grever, Maria, and Tina van der Vlies. ‘Why National Narratives are Perpetuated: A Literature Review on New Insights from History Textbook Research’. London Review of Education 15 (2017), 286–301. Hamilton, Donald. ‘What Is a Textbook?’ Paradigm 1 (1990), 1–3. http://faculty. ed.uiuc.edu/westbury/Paradigm/hamilton.html (accessed 24 February 2007). Hoepper, Brian. ‘Historical Literacy’. QHistory: The Journal of the Queensland History Teachers’ Association 1 (2007), 33–37. Hoskin, Keith. ‘The Textbook: Further Moves Towards a Definition’. Paradigm 1 (1990), 1–4. http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/westbury/Paradigm/hoskin2.html (accessed 24 February 2007). Husbands, Chris. What Is History Teaching: Language Ideas and Meaning in Learning about the Past. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1996. Issitt, John. ‘Reflection on the Study of Textbooks’. History of Education 33 (2004), 683–96. Kitson, Jill. First Encounters with Wolves, online radio transcript, ABC Radio, 10 April 1999. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/ linguafranca/david-malouf---first-encounters-with-wolves/3565834 (accessed 14 July 2021). Lor, Peter Johan. ‘National Library in the 21st Century: Dinosaur or Dynamo’. South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science 66 (1998), 131–38. Luke, Alan. ‘Text and Discourse in Education: An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis’. Review of Research in Education 21 (1995–96), 3–48. Marwick, Arthur. The New Nature of History: Knowledge, Evidence, Language. Hampshire: Palgrave, 2001. Meyer, Michael. ‘Between Theory, Method, and Politics: Positioning of the Approaches to CDA’, in Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer (eds), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (London: Sage, 2001), 14–31. Pinar, William, William Reynolds, Patrick Slattery and Peter Taubman. Understanding Curriculum. New York: Peter Lang, 2002.

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Pink, Sarah. Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media, and Representation in Research. London: Sage, 2001. Sharp, Heather, Debra Donnelly and Robert Parkes. ‘Competing Discourses of National Identity: History Teacher Education Students’ Perspectives of the Kokoda and Gallipoli Campaigns’. International Journal of Research on History Didactics, History Education and History Culture 38 (2017), 73–94. Steinberg, Shirley R., and Joe L. Kincheloe. Students as Researchers: Creating Classrooms that Matter. London: Falmer Press, 1998.

Chapter 12

Locating the History Textbooks of the Late Ottoman Empire Ömür Şans-Yıldırım

F

or historians of education in the late Ottoman Empire (nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), textbooks constitute an important source for research. This chapter locates collections of history textbooks published in the late Ottoman Empire and presents a guide for researchers working on the history of education during that period.1 It also provides information about relevant public and private libraries and digital collections.

The Ottoman Textbooks and History as a School Subject The emergence of the textbook in the Ottoman context is a modern phenomenon related to the modernisation process launched by Sultan Selim III in the early nineteenth century. The nineteenth century brought sociopolitical and economic turmoil to the Ottoman Empire, which found itself locked in a struggle for survival, faced with a combination of domestic and international issues including ongoing sociopolitical and economic problems, separatist movements and European interference. In order to cope with this situation, the ruling elite transformed the Ottoman Empire into an ‘educator state’ with a systematic education programme, the aim of which was to mould its subjects into citizens – more precisely, to create an educated core in the populace that would be loyal to state authority and internalise the state’s values as its own.2 The Education Act of 1869 (Maârif-i Umûmiyye Nizâmnâmesi) systematised the Ottoman educational framework and initiated a centralised and compulsory education system. It also institutionalised the teaching of

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history in all tiers of education as one of the core disciplines of civic formation. Until this point, history had never appeared as a separate discipline in Ottoman public education. The first history course, the ‘History of War’ (Tarih-i Harb), was introduced in the third-year curriculum of the Imperial School of Military Engineering (Mühendishane-i Berrî-i Humayûn).3 The regulations issued by the School of Law (Mekteb-i Maârif-i Adliyye) prescribed, among other directives, the use of French-language history, geography, geometry and politics textbooks;4 this decision, however, was not implemented. Institutions of higher education above the secondary level (rüşdiye mektebi) such as the School for Civil Officials (Mahrec-i Eklâm) and the School of Civil Administration (Mekteb-i Mülkiye), which were established for training future officials and bureaucrats, taught ‘world history’ (tarih-i umûmi) courses.5 At primary and secondary levels, however, history did not exist as a separate discipline. The politician and educator Nafi Atuf Kansu (1890–1949) demonstrated that secondary school curricula lacked history and geography courses by referring to a regulation dating back to 1846.6 Likewise, neither the ‘Course Plans for Secondary Schools’ (Tertibat-ı Dersiye li-Mekâtib-i Rüşdiye), Turkey’s oldest civil school programme introduced in 1858,7 nor the curriculum of the Teachers Seminary (Darülmuallimin) included history courses.8 History was only introduced into the curriculum of primary schools (sıbyan mektepleri) with the Education Act of 1869.9 The emergence of textbooks specifically designed for public education in the modern sense occurred in this same period, in which the Ottoman state took several initiatives in the field of education for rejuvenating the state and the society. Until then, Quranic schools (the sole option for public primary education) had used traditional primer texts (elifbâ cüzü), such as the one by Birgivî Mehmed Efendi (1520 –73) to teach the Arabic alphabet.10 From 1870 onwards, in coordination with developments in public education, the compilation and translation of textbooks for public education gradually increased, and a standard textbook for all government schools was adopted during the Hamidian period (1876–1909).11 In addition to didactic goals, these newly published textbooks served a political purpose. They were designed to encourage allegiance to the Ottoman state by instilling sentiments of patriotism in their readers.12 In order to understand the intent behind the course and the bureaucratic expectations of it, it is important to consider the specifications regarding the composition of the Ottoman history textbook of the time. These were prescribed in the Publication and Translation Regulation (Te’lif ve Tercüme Nizamnamesi), published by the Ottoman state in 1870, as follows.

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The Ottoman history book will include an introduction explaining the circumstances of the emergence of the Ottoman Empire and the conditions of the contemporary countries of the period; all important events occurring from the emergence of the Ottoman Empire up to this time; a table presenting the dates of birth, reign and death of all Ottoman sultans; a chronological table showing the significant events explained in this book and a map displaying the lands of the Ottoman Empire in the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. [In addition,] the reign of each Ottoman sultan to grace the throne up to now will be narrated in a chapter; events will be narrated impartially, but the issues associated with affection for the homeland (muhabbet-i vataniye) will be praised and eulogised.13

The first Ottoman history textbooks were Ahmed Vefik Pasha’s Concise Ottoman History14 (Fezleke-i Tarih-i Osmânî) for secondary schools and Selim Sabit’s Abridged Ottoman History15 (Muhtasar Tarih-i Osmânî) for the primary level.16 During the following decade, history textbooks were diversified both in their educational level and subject matter, and new textbooks were introduced in subtopics of the field such as Islamic history and world history.17 This increase in the quantity and variety of history textbooks seems to have continued until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Textbook Collections No institution or organisation dedicated specifically to history textbook collection and preservation exists in Turkey. Several prominent public and private institutions and libraries in the field of history at large do, however, provide opportunities for researchers to access textbooks. These include the Turkish Historical Society (Türk Tarih Kurumu) and the Turkish History Foundation (Türk Tarih Vakfı). The Turkish Historical Society is a state institution established in the early 1930s to aid the nation-building process of the young Turkish Republic and foster national identity formation via history research. The institution’s library contains history textbooks published during the late Ottoman and Turkish Republican eras. The History Foundation is a nongovernmental organisation dealing with the field of history, which carries out voluntary projects to improve textbook writing in collaboration with governmental or non-governmental associations such as the Centre for Sociology and Education Studies at Bilgi University (Sosyoloji ve Eğitim Çalışmaları Merkezi, SEÇBİR).18 The foundation has its own library, which is open to researchers. While the bulk of its collection consists of documents from the Republican period, it also contains publications relating to late Ottoman social and economic history.19

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While various Turkish organisations, governmental as well as nongovernmental, have initiated projects in the field of history education, these projects have not led to the establishment of centres specialising in Ottoman-era textbook collection. Therefore, Ottoman textbooks from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are randomly scattered between various public and private libraries, a fact which poses a challenge to researchers, as no comprehensive guide for locating these books exists.20 This chapter hopes to fill this gap by introducing the libraries that hold late Ottoman-era textbooks in their collections. The libraries mentioned in this chapter vary in terms of their cataloguing practices. Some have both published and online catalogues, whereas others rely on online catalogues only. The descriptions in the online catalogues provide information on the physical characteristics of the textbooks (size, number of pages, script type and binding). Two categories of libraries are discussed: book and digital source collections and book collections with on-site access. The libraries are listed according to the size of their history book collections, in decreasing order.

Book and Digital Source Collections Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) – Taksim Atatürk Library (Atatürk Kitaplığı) The IMM Atatürk Library, one of ten libraries belonging to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, contains numerous history textbooks. Founded as a municipal library in 1924, it was one of the first libraries of the Republican period. It moved to its present location on Taksim Avenue in 1973 in order to accommodate its growing collections, which had been acquired through extensive purchasing and donations. With its approximately five hundred thousand volumes, the Atatürk Library is one of the most important repositories of rare books and manuscripts in Turkey today. Besides books and manuscripts, the library contains collections of maps, atlases, periodicals, calendars, yearbooks, postcards, newspapers and special collections, including collections relating to Atatürk and the city of Istanbul. These holdings, including the textbook collection, have been digitised and are accessible to researchers in PDF form.

Seyfettin Özege Rare Sources Collection, Atatürk University (Seyfettin Özege Nadir Eserler Koleksiyonu – Atatürk Üniversitesi) The Seyfettin Özege Rare Sources Collection contains numerous Ottoman history textbooks, most of which were donated to the Atatürk University

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Library by the prominent Turkish bibliographer Seyfettin Özege (1901–81) in the second half of the twentieth century. Thousands of these books were published during the Ottoman Empire and the Early Turkish Republic in the Arabic alphabet over a period of two hundred years, from 1728 to 1928.21 As the collection lacks a separate online public access catalogue (OPAC), it can only be accessed via the online catalogue of the Atatürk University Library. Thanks to the ongoing digitalisation of sources since 2006, many of its holdings can be accessed and downloaded as e-sources.

The Prime Minister’s Archive (Istanbul) – Ottoman Section (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri) The Ottoman Archive is undoubtedly the largest collection of Ottoman source material in the world. Researchers can access materials via a keyword search. The Education (mâarif) Section is especially valuable for scholars of the history of education. In addition to textbooks, the archive also contains various other types of educational media such as maps, photographs and syllabi, as well as other related documents (reports related to school infrastructure, attendance lists, inventories and lists of teachers). The Education Section is subdivided into nineteen collections, most of which hold unclassified documents.22 Due to their disorderly nature, these collections pose a particular challenge to researchers, who often prefer to start their research in classified subdivisions such as the archive of the Correspondence Bureau (Mektubi Kalemi),23 which has a catalogue of document abstracts. The cataloguing of the Education Section has recently gained momentum, which will hopefully facilitate research in the future. The Prime Minister’s Archive is only accessible via on-site or online registration. While it is possible to request and purchase classified documents off-site, unclassified documents (most of the files in the collection of the Education Division) may only be accessed and purchased on-site. While in the past these texts could only be accessed at the main archive building in Istanbul, they are now also accessible at the archive’s Ankara branch, thanks to the digitisation of the documents.

The Library of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Ankara (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Kütüphanesi) The Library of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey is one of the oldest libraries in Turkey and houses thousands of valuable sources relating to

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Turkish history. The library’s collection includes a wide range of parliamentary documents and rare books, as well as many e-documents, including textbooks.

Directorate of Religious Affairs – Centre for Islamic Studies, Istanbul (Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı – İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi) Another important Ottoman textbook collection is located in the library of the Centre for Islamic Studies (İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi, ISAM), which was founded in 1988 and has since developed into one of the world’s leading institutions on Turkish and Islamic history, culture and civilisation. In addition to its extensive Islamic collection, the library features the Treatise Database in Ottoman Language, a special database that provides important e-resources for textbook researchers, including several digitised Ottoman history textbooks that can be accessed and downloaded.

Book Collections with On-site Access The National Library of Turkey, Ankara (Milli Kütüphane) The National Library, located in the Turkish capital, was established in 1946 and moved to its present location in 1982. Its rich collection of books, manuscripts, rare books, periodicals and non-book materials is accessible on-site only. While the library contains digital collections of periodicals, manuscripts, perishable sources and other non-book materials, its textbook collection has yet to be digitised. The Old Script Turkish Printed Book Collection (Eski Harfli Türkçe Basma Eserler) contains almost eighty thousand rare books, including several Ottoman-era textbooks.

The Library of the Turkish Historical Association, Ankara (Türk Tarih Kurumu Kütüphanesi) The Turkish Historical Association was one of the products of the nation-building process of the Early Turkish Republic and has retained its influential place in Turkish history research. In accordance with the institution’s strong commitment to researching Turkish history and supporting scholarly works in the field, the library offers a rich collection of books, periodicals, maps and manuscripts, including several lateOttoman era textbooks.

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Istanbul University Library – Rare Works Library (İstanbul Üniversitesi Nadir Eserler Kütüphanesi) The Istanbul University Library was officially established in 1934, a year after the foundation of Istanbul University in the wake of the University Reform, which regulated higher education institutions and replaced the Ottoman House of Sciences (Dârülfünun) with Istanbul University. The University Reform reflected the ideological and cultural dimension of Early Republican efforts to inspire confidence in and loyalty to the system. Although the establishment of the library is linked to this modern historical process, the institution traces its history back to the Fatih Madrasa, a religious school founded in 1470 by Sultan Mehmed II. As a successor to such an old and venerable establishment, the central library possesses a vast collection, which is today divided between various sub-libraries such as the IU Virtual Library, the IU CL Disability Information Centre, the IU CL Rare Works Library, the Faculty Libraries and the Institute Libraries. The Rare Works Library of Turkey is the oldest and largest university library containing invaluable history textbooks from the late Ottoman era.

Koç University Suna Kıraç Library, Istanbul (Koç Üniversitesi Suna Kıraç Kütüphanesi) The Suna Kıraç Library houses an extensive collection of printed and digital material as well as media and archival materials. Its Rare Book and Manuscript collection contains some two thousand rare volumes including several history textbooks written in Ottoman Turkish. This collection can be accessed by appointment only.

Bilkent University Library: Halil İnalcık Collection, Special Collection and Hasan Âli Yücel Collection, Ankara (Bilkent Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi: Halil İnalcık Kolleksiyonu, Özel Kolleksiyon ve Hasan Âli Yücel Kolleksiyonu) Bilkent University Library has three non-circulating collections containing history textbooks. The first of these, the personal collection of the prominent historian Halil İnalcık (1916–2016), which was donated to Bilkent University Library in 1993, contains numerous valuable books, journals and reference works as well as priceless offprints on Ottoman history in various languages (including Ottoman and Modern Turkish, Persian, Arabic, English, French, Italian and German). The second collection, the Special Collection, contains rare and valuable books, journals, facsimiles and maps as well as the collection of

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the Turkish literary critic Hüseyin Cöntürk (1918–2003), including his handwritten notes on the items. The third collection is the personal collection of Hasan Âli Yücel (1897–1961), a Turkish politician, writer and teacher who served as minister of education in the 1940s. Yücel’s collection contains 8,086 items, including photo albums, facsimiles, magazines and books. While the collection consists mostly of books on language and literature, it also includes some history textbooks in Ottoman Turkish. Of these three collections, only the Hasan Âli Yücel Collection has its own published catalogue. Since these collections are non-circulating, they offer on-site access only.

Middle East Technical University Library Kasım Gülek Collection, Ankara (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi Kasım Gülek Kolleksiyonu) The Kasım Gülek Collection of the Middle East Technical University Library is another valuable personal collection containing history textbooks. The collection, which was donated to the library by the family of the prominent Turkish statesman Kasım Gülek (1905–96), contains a collection of rare books written in Ottoman Turkish, including history, chemistry, geometry and literature textbooks.

Textbook Collection and Use No systematic effort to collect textbooks was made during Ottoman times. It was only in the first few decades of the Republican Era after 1923 that textbooks became collector’s items, usually acquired via donation or purchasing. Ottoman-era textbooks, which were found mostly in the home libraries of the graduates of schools using modern textbooks, were increasingly sold or donated to bibliophiles, private collectors or libraries. The Alphabet Reform of 1928, in which the Latin script replaced the Arabic script, led to a situation in which few could read the Arabic script. As a result, books written in Ottoman Turkish were frequently sold by their owners or donated by the owners’ families following the owners’ death, further reinforcing this pattern. Textbooks were also sold or donated to several prominent Early Republican institutions including the National Library, the Library of the Turkish Historical Association and the Taksim Atatürk Library. Several Ottoman educational institutions that had survived the passage to the Republican Era, such as the Imperial School (Mekteb-i Sultânî) and the House of Sciences, also kept copies of late Ottoman textbooks. While the

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successors of the Ottoman-era publishing houses that had printed the books may also retain copies, this possibility has yet to be verified. Many of these textbooks have survived and are now available thanks to the efforts of private and public collectors. The fact that so many late Ottoman and early Republican textbooks are available prompts the question, to what extent have these books been used as sources by historians of education and what conclusions can be drawn from them? Although much research has been carried out on history education in the late Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, textbook analysis has received far less attention. In addition, existing studies of this neglected topic tend to emphasise the Republican period, although significant research has been carried out on the Ottoman context as well.24 The work of Mehmet Ö. Alkan, Selçuk Akşin Somel, Nuri Doğan, Benjamin Fortna and Betül Başaran Alpagun examines the value-content aspect of late Ottoman school textbooks within the historical framework of late Ottoman history. Mehmet Ö. Alkan, in his ‘Modernisation from Empire to Republic and Education in Process of Nationalism’, analyses history and other civic studies textbooks published during the reign of Abdülhamid II with regard to the authoritarianism and official ideology of the era as reflected in school texts.25 Selçuk Akşin Somel has thematically analysed several history textbooks published during the Hamidian era.26 Somel’s analysis was later complemented by Betül Başaran Alpagun’s comparative study of history textbooks published during the Second Constitutional Era (1908–18).27 Nuri Doğan has analysed the socialisation processes reflected in school textbooks of the late Ottoman era and portrayed the change in the state’s perceptions of the ‘ideal citizen’.28 Finally, Benjamin Fortna has analysed history textbooks of the Hamidian period and demonstrated that the Ottoman state used history textbooks as a tool to influence young audiences.29 In addition to providing illuminating insights into late Ottoman history textbooks, these studies also demonstrate how school textbooks mirror the official ideology of their era and the agenda of the political system that produced them.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank my academic advisor, Şefika Akile Zorlu Durukan, for her invaluable help in reviewing and revising this text, and Bahar Gürsel for encouraging me to write this chapter.

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Ömür Şans-Yıldırım is a doctoral candidate and research assistant in the History Department of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara in Turkey, and previously obtained an MA in history from the same university with a thesis entitled ‘History Education Guiding Subjects to Loyalty. History Education in the Ottoman Primary and Secondary Schools in the Late Tanzimat Era (1869–1876)’. Şans-Yıldırım’s main area of expertise is Ottoman history, with a focus on the history of education in the late Ottoman Empire. Her PhD thesis is about the controlling and supervision of education in the late Ottoman Empire’s state schools from 1869 to 1908.

Register of Libraries and Their Online Catalogues Bilkent University Library: Halil İnalcık Collection, Special Collection and Hasan Âli Yücel Collection, Ankara (Bilkent Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi: Halil İnalcık Kolleksiyonu, Özel Kolleksiyon ve Hasan Âli Yücel Kolleksiyonu), https://librarycatalog.bilkent.edu.tr/client/en_US/ default/?lm=UNIVERSITY. Directorate of Religious Affairs – Centre for Islamic Studies (Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı – İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi), http://ktp.isam.org.tr/risaleosm/index.php Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) – Taksim Atatürk Library (Atatürk Kitaplığı), http://ataturkkitapligi.ibb.gov.tr/ataturkkitapligi/ index.php Istanbul University Library – Rare Works Library, Istanbul (İstanbul Üniversitesi Nadir Eserler Kütüphanesi), http://katalog.istanbul.edu.tr/ client/tr_TR/default_tr/ Koç University Suna Kıraç Library, Istanbul (Koç Üniversitesi Suna Kıraç Kütüphanesi), https://library.ku.edu.tr/en/ Library of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Kütüphanesi), https://acikerisim.tbmm.gov.tr/xmlui Library of the Turkish Historical Association (Türk Tarih Kurumu Kütüphanesi), http://kutuphane.ttk.gov.tr/ Middle East Technical University Library Kasım Gülek Collection, Ankara (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi Kasım Gülek Kolleksiyonu), http://lib.metu.edu.tr/. National Library of Turkey (Milli Kütüphane), https://kasif.mkutup.gov. tr/SonucDetay.aspx?MakId=675885

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Prime Minister’s Archive – Ottoman Section (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri), https://www.devletarsivleri.gov.tr. Seyfettin Özege Rare Sources Collection, Atatürk University (Seyfettin Özege Nadir Eserler Koleksiyonu – Atatürk Üniversitesi), https://atauni. edu.tr/dijital-nadir-eserler-koleksiyonu.

Notes  1. This focus was inspired by Suraiya Faroqhi’s chapter ‘Locating Ottoman Sources’, in her Approaching Ottoman History, 46–82.  2. Deringil, Well-Protected Domains, 93.  3. Akyüz, Türk Eğitim Tarihi, 134.  4. Sungu, ‘Mekteb-i Maârif’, 221.  5. Ergin, İstanbul Mektepleri, 400.  6. Atuf, Türkiye Maârif Tarihi, 106.  7. Sakaoglu, ‘İlkokul Tarih Programları’, 136.  8. Somel, Modernisation, 244.  9. Baymur, Tarih Eğitimi, 13. 10. Somel, Modernisation, 188. 11. Ibid. 12. Düstur, 241. 13. Ibid. 14. Vefik, Fezleke-i Tarihi Osmânî. 15. Sabit, Muhtasar Tarih-i Osmânî. 16. Somel, Modernisation, 194. These books are now accessible in various library collections, discussed below. 17. Ibid. 18. For further information about the History Foundation’s projects, see https://tarihvakfi. org.tr/proje/egitim-alani-projeleri/ and https://secbir.org/projelerimiz/ (accessed 22 November 2021). 19. Faroqhi, Approaching Ottoman History, 48. 20. A step in this direction is represented by BiblioPera: Beyoglu Research Centers Network (https://bibliopera.org/), a joint project of nine international research centres in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul that allows researchers to search their libraries via a single catalogue. 21. Odabaş, ‘İki Yüz Yıllık’, 100. 22. Each of these collections contains documents pertaining to a different governmental department, including the Bureau of Primary Education (Tedrisât-ı İbtidâiye Kalemi); the Department for Secondary Education (Tedrisât-ı Tâliye Dâiresi); the Department for Higher Education (Tedrisât-ı Âliye Dâiresi); the Orphanage Directorate (Dârüleytâm Müdüriyeti); the School Hygiene Inspectorate (Hıfzıssıha-ı Mekâtib); the Bureau of Private Education (Tedrisat-ı Hususiye Kalemi); the Imperial Printing House Directorate (Matbaa-i Âmire Müdüriyeti); the General Library (Kütüphâne-i Umumî); the Writing and Translation Department (Telif ve Tercüme Dâiresi); and the Accounts Office of the Ministry of Public Education (Maarif Muhâsebe Kalemi). 23. The Mektubi Kalemi was responsible for the correspondence between the Ministry of Public Education and other ministries and provincial administrations.

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24. These works share a common approach to content analysis of history education within the framework of the nation-state building process, with a particular emphasis on ideology. Examples include: Ersanlı, İktidar ve Tarih; Copeaux, Tarih Ders Kitaplarında; Swartz, Textbooks and National Ideology; Eskicumalı, Ideology and Education; ZorluDurukan, Ideological Pillars; and Öbzbaran, Tarih Öğretimi. 25. Alkan, ‘Modernisation’; ‘Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Modernleşme’. 26. Somel puts particular emphasis on history textbooks, noting that the ‘historical outlook of a country’s past might provide clues regarding the political attitude of the period in question’. Somel, Modernisation, 18. 27. Alpagun, ‘Geç Dönem’. 28. Doğan, Ders Kitapları. 29. Fortna, Imperial Classroom; Learning to Read.

Bibliography Akyüz, Yahya. Türk Eğitim Tarihi. Ankara: Pegem Akademi, 2010. Alkan, Mehmet Ö. ‘Modernisation from Empire to Republic and Education in Process of Nationalism’, in Kemal H. Karpat (ed.), Ottoman Past and Today’s Turkey (Boston: Brill, 2000), 47–132. Alpagun, Betül Basaran. ‘Geç Dönem Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Tarih Yazıcılıgı ve Tarih Kitapları’, in Güler Eren (ed.), Osmanlı VIII (Ankara: Yeni Türkiye Yayınları, 2001), 262–68. Atuf, Nafi. Türkiye Maârif Tarihi (Bir Deneme). Muallim Ahmet Halit Kitaphanesi, 1931. Baymur, Fuad. Tarih Eğitimi. Ankara: Recep Ulusoğlu Basımevi, 1941. Copeaux, Etienne. Tarih Ders Kitaplarında (1931–1993) Türk Tarih Tezinden Türkİslam Sentezine. Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2000. Deringil, Selim. The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire 1876–1909. London: I.B. Tauris, 1999. Doğan, Nuri. Ders Kitapları ve Sosyalleşme (1876–1918). Istanbul: Bağlam Yayınları, 1994. Düstur, Tertib-i Evvel, Cüz-i Sani. Istanbul: Matbaa-i Âmire, 1289 (1872). Ergin, Osman. İstanbul Mektepleri ve İlim, Terbiye ve San’at Müesseseleri Dolayısile Türkiye Maârif Tarihi, Vol. I–II. Istanbul: Osman Bey Matbaası, 1939. Ersanlı, Büşra. İktidar ve Tarih: Türkiye’de Resmi Tarih Tezinin Oluşumu (1929–1937). Istanbul: AFA Yayınları, 1992. Eskicumalı, Ahmet. Ideology and Education: Reconstructing the Turkish Curriculum for Social and Cultural Change, 1923–1946. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994. Faroqhi, Suraiya. Approaching Ottoman History: An Introduction to the Sources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Fortna, Benjamin C. Imperial Classroom, Islam, the State, and Education in the Late Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Fortna, Benjamin C. Learning to Read in the Late Ottoman Empire and the Early Turkish Republic. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Öbzbaran, Salih (ed.). Tarih Öğretimi ve Ders Kitapları Buca Sempozyumu. Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 1995.

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Odabaş, Hüseyin. ‘İki Yüz Yıllık Emeğin Mükafatı: Seyfettin Özege Nadir Eserler Kolleksiyonu’, in Rıfat N. Bali (ed.), Büyük Bir Kitabiyat Alimi ve Bibliografyacı: M. Seyfettin Özege (Istanbul: Libra Kitapçılık ve Yayıncılık, 2014), 97–109. ‘Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Modernleşme ve Eğitim’. Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi 6(12) (2008), 74–242. Sabit, Selim. Muhtasar Tarih-i Osmânî (Sıbyan Mekteblerine Mahsustur). Istanbul, 1874. Sakaoglu, Necdet. ‘İlkokul Tarih Programları ve Ders Kitapları’, in Salih Özbaran (ed.), Tarih Ögretimi ve Ders Kitapları (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 1995), 135–44. Somel, Selçuk Akşin. The Modernisation of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire 1839–1908: Islamisation, Autocracy and Discipline. Leiden: Brill, 2001. Sungu, İhsan. ‘Mekteb-i Maârif-i Adliyye’nin Tesisi’. Tarih Vesikaları 1(3) (1941), 212–25. Swartz, Avonna Deanne. Textbooks and National Ideology: A Content Analysis of the Secondary Turkish History Textbooks Used in the Republic of Turkey since 1929. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Texas, 1997. Vefik, Ahmed. Fezleke-i Tarihi Osmânî. Istanbul: 1872. Zorlu-Durukan, Şefika Akile. The Ideological Pillars of Turkish Education: Emergent Kemalism and the Zenith of Single-Party Rule. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006.

Conclusion

Collecting Literacy when Gathering, Storing and Disseminating Educational Media Peter Carrier

T

his collection of essays set out to show how collections of educational media have a history of their own, and how they have been subject to political and social systems and changing material technologies leading, most recently, to dematerialisation brought about by digitalisation. By exploring situations in which school textbooks, wall charts, slides, tape recordings, films, but also teachers’ notebooks and pupils’ drawings, have been gathered, stored and disseminated, the authors demonstrate how collections are both products of their times and producers of knowledge over time. They explain not only why and how materials have been collected by states, institutions and individuals worldwide in order to store and maintain knowledge for expedient reasons such as the professionalisation of teaching, social control and the revision of ethical and epistemological norms, but also how collections of educational materials influence what, and ways in which, people have become accustomed to learn. In which ways do the essays in this volume help us to take stock of the development of collections of educational media and the state of scholarship about them? While acknowledging limits of this collection on account of its largely European and German-speaking bias, the essays nonetheless collectively testify to large varieties of types of educational materials (including books, glass slides, wall charts and films), types of collection (private, public, museums and libraries) and types of collectors (persons, institutions, officers, teachers and states). At the same time, they testify to a limited variety of the geographical and political scope of (largely local and national) collections, and of methodological

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approaches, most of which comprise historical accounts of the origins and evolution of collections and their makers. Two threads in particular run through almost all of the essays. One thread brings into focus the materiality of educational media. Engelhardt and Ruedel, for example, grapple with chemical and epistemological challenges posed by colour separation and fading in archival film materials, which make it almost impossible to retrieve original colours, while Sharp outlines some of the hurdles to be crossed when searching for or accessing antiquarian textbooks. In these studies, educational materials operate not as mere medial supports of politically expedient narratives or images; rather, their physical and aesthetic qualities are inseparable from, and in some cases the very condition of, the authors’ analysis of them. Hence the authors of the essays in this volume share a materialistic understanding of educational technologies in which collections fulfil a specific function in an extended chain of production, organisation and distribution of knowledge. Another thread running through these essays is their historical approach. By dealing with the social and institutional situations in which knowledge has been materially embodied and collected, and thereby underscoring the notion that knowledge is both socially and historically contingent if not ‘constructed’,1 the essays make a contribution to the field of the sociology of knowledge. One of the overarching findings of this book is that it shows that our understanding of collections of educational media and of the knowledge they contain can be adequately understood only in relation to, and as an extension and adaptation of, the historically and socially contingent conditions in which they emerged. This is why the editors’ introduction appeals for the development of ‘collecting literacy’ among makers and users of educational media collections in order to ensure that users do not take for granted the origins of the documents with which they work, but take into account the authority of the collector(s) and forms of educational materials alongside the more habitually acknowledged authority of publishing bodies responsible for the collected books or objects, national or regional authorities under whose jurisdiction textbooks are approved, and the sociopolitical context of the (primarily national) convictions of the authors and users of educational media. What, then, is the significance of literacy as a condition for gathering, storing and disseminating educational media via collections? One way of approaching literacy in this field is to understand it as what Marshall Maposa and Johan Wassermann call ‘procedural literacy’.2 In a similar way to the distinction made in the introduction to this book between ‘a society’s knowledge of itself’ and people’s ‘knowledge of knowledge and how this has been passed on to successive generations’, Maposa and

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Wassermann invite us to focus not on knowledge itself, but on the means by which present and past societies manage knowledge. Whereas historical literacy, by analogy, entails the interpretation of a system of encoded knowledge about time and causality (learning about events, protagonists, causes and effects), collecting literacy entails the interpretation of a system of encoded knowledge in relation to the people, institutions and forms via which knowledge is mediated. Collecting literacy, in this respect, involves learning about knowledge via learning about our relations with the modes of gathering, storing and disseminating educational media. The usefulness of the essays contained in this book is that they provide a number of categorisations of educational media which form a heuristic basis for further research. They provide not only concepts with which to conceive of and read or write about these media (in the functional sense ascribed to literacy by Jack Goody) but rather categories in the sense outlined by Alfred Lindesmith and Anselm Strauss; not conceptual labels used to name things, but cognitive categories enabling us to group things in such a way that they can be compared.3 Hence we will conclude this postface by indicating not categories of types of collectors, types of collected objects and types of collections (which is the principle underlying the organisation of this book in three sections dealing with collectors, objects and access), but procedural categories of collecting literacy which draw on the origins of the sociology of knowledge. According to Karl Mannheim, knowledge is ‘situationally determined’.4 By this he means that knowledge of society, history and politics is directly related to (rather than detached from) subjective experience and to changing social and historical situations. Hence ‘the situational determination of knowledge … operates in the relationship between specific types of personalities and specific forms of knowledge’ such that ‘domains of knowledge’ are accessible via ‘certain definite historical and social preconditions’.5 The promise of such critical literacy is no less emancipatory than that of conventional linguistic literacy, which aspires, via the provision of people’s ability to read and write, to enable people to participate in civic life. In Mannheim’s terms, the emancipatory potential of ‘scientific critical self-awareness’ arises ‘when the unconscious motivations which formerly existed behind our backs suddenly come into our field of vision and thereby become accessible to conscious control’. Hence Mannheim concludes that ‘the opportunity for relative emancipation from social determination, increases proportionately with insight into this determination’.6 Following Mannheim’s theory of situationally determined knowledge, what ‘types of personalities’, ‘forms of knowledge’ and ‘historical and social preconditions’ underpin the literacy of collecting outlined by the

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authors of chapters in this book, and to what extent could the topics and concerns of these authors provide a starting point for future enquiries by scholars of educational collections and collecting?

Personalities and Institutions Almost all of the chapters in this book reaffirm the need to approach educational media collections not only as cultural and historical products, but also as expressions of the ideas and interests of collectors. Both private and public collections emerge under the influence of a collecting subject in the form of a person or collective body, and differ by degree but not in kind. Kissling, Chorherr and Treinen’s study of printed matter kept by the Austrian Ministry of Education represents a case in which multiple actors and their varying motives combined over time in tandem with the interests of the ministry. By contrast, individual commitment often plays a dominant role in the creation, maintenance and innovation of collections. Adolph Rebhuhn’s personal commitment to the development of primary school teaching strongly influenced the evolution of the German School Museum, as presented by Mattes, and thus provided a vehicle for the development of new pedagogical knowledge which, by challenging traditional educational norms, contributed to new techniques of knowledge transfer and thus to the development of civil society as a whole. The disappearance of such committed individuals as Heinrich Sahrhage likewise led to the neglect of the collection of materials from German rural residential schools in the 1970s, as demonstrated by the essay by Reimers. In spite of these insights and of Sroka’s appeal to pay closer attention to the personalities who have been responsible for collections, scholars of educational collections would do well to pay greater attention to the inherent functionality and expediency of collections, including their usage (see Sharp). Most collections, in particular in the nineteenth century, were developed for practical reasons such as to help primary school teachers or children with special needs (Mattes); others appear to be designed as stores of materials with little consideration for the archival needs of users, as the essay by Sharp in this volume illustrates.

Forms and Objects Another theme running through this book is the sheer variety of educational media. Conventional notions of educational media or materials comprise state-approved textbooks or teachers’ guidelines and official

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curricula. By contrast, a glance at the range of media dealt with by the authors of this book reveals that collectors have generally not been guided by convention but by personal curiosity and immediate needs. As editors, we were surprised to discover that collections count among their objects not only materials which served the purpose of learning, but also materials used to facilitate or organise teaching, including correspondence, pupils’ reports, self-published regional and associational brochures, school regulations and reports about the running of school gardens or even about measures taken to help children with impaired hearing. Such a body of raw materials offers insight into educational practices from unfamiliar places and times by facilitating archival work about everyday learning processes. Moreover, by broadening the scope of educational media to include documentation of the teaching and learning process as a whole, the authors of these essays invite readers to nourish critical procedural literacy via awareness of the historical and social conditions in which learning took and takes place. More specifically, collections of audio, visual and audiovisual materials inevitably pose a challenge to conservators who strive to restore and conserve materials such as magnetic tape, wall charts, glass slides, paper and celluloid film. Their task is both technical and hermeneutic as they guide interpretation by restoring faded forms or colours, and secure future interpretation by preventing further decay of materials with what Engelhardt and Ruedel call ‘passive or preventative conservation’. Conservators, like librarians, similarly strive, drawing on their own interpretations, to respect the intentions underlying the arrangements of materials in series and contexts which may be unfamiliar to us today, including relations between written and visual materials.

Historical and Social Preconditions Perhaps the most effective prerequisite for collecting literacy is provided by insights into the historical and social preconditions of collections. Studies devoted to European and German-speaking countries, which are numerically dominant in this book, link the emergence of collections to national movements of the nineteenth century between the 1840s and 1880s. The Polish School Museum was characteristically charged with the mission of preserving Polish-language teaching materials and documenting the achievements of Polish schooling in territories occupied by Russia and Prussia in the late nineteenth century (Harbig). Significant here are not only the national preconditions of the collections, but the extent to which their political expediency continues to impinge upon

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the content and structure of the media emerging from these collections today. The nationalistic convictions of Jaxa-Bykowski, the director of the Lemberg School Museum during the Second World War (Harbig), and of the administrators of the state archives in China during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 (Gao), are still evident in the collections and catalogues of these collections today, which are therefore not comprehensive but contingent. Collections are not exclusively expansive, but often also reductive. The Cultural Revolution in China, for example, constituted a radical form of what Sharp calls ‘decollecting’. And the private acquisition of rare books can effectively curb, rather than fostering the sharing of knowledge, literacy and educational science, while neglect of collections leads to their dispersal or destruction. In some cases, collectors conceive of their collections not in terms of a store preserving educational artefacts from the past for all educators and learners alike, but as providers of specific services for present-day and future scholarship or research. Dematerialised or digital conservation not only makes it possible to reduce the physical space required to hold large quantities of media, but also to conceive of placeless collections, in particular in cases where it has become impossible to physically recollect dispersed collections such as items from the library of the Rabbinical Seminary in Breslau, which are now brought together only virtually (Fuchs). The task of deciphering the impact of historical origins and social contexts on the content and organisation of a collection and their relation to the present day is compounded by aesthetic concerns. As Engelhardt and Ruedel point out, audiovisual educational aids handed down from the German Democratic Republic convey not only information, but also habits of seeing and thinking such that ‘certain image patterns can be interpreted only by insiders’ which, moreover, are ‘incomprehensible’ and therefore unreadable if not accompanied by expert explanation and contextualisation!

The Shifting Balance of Power between Collecting and Scholarship The above remarks suggest that collecting literacy is more than the ‘media competence’ advocated by Engelhardt and Ruedel in this volume as a fundamental cultural asset with a pedagogical status akin to reading, writing and arithmetic. By fostering awareness of educational collections and restoring links between contemporary and historical pedagogical methods, we may acknowledge how past techniques of knowledge

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transfer and of pedagogical practices may feed into new techniques as they develop and thus underpin critically the science of education with respect to tradition and change. Although we agree that study of historic educational media in this way is beneficial, such that ‘the foreignness of the outdated media enables a process of reflection on media production and its relevance’ (Engelhardt and Ruedel), we argue that collections should also be contextualised in relation to personalities, to forms and objects of transmission, and to historical and social preconditions. A fundamental insight provided by these essays is that the division of labour between educational collectors and scholars familiar to us today should not be taken for granted. Many educational collections in central Europe emerged at a time when scholars were independent and collected their own media, prior to the establishment of university departments of educational science and to the institutionalisation of collections. In the nineteenth century, for example, passionate collectors such as Rebhuhn and Emil Sauter (not unlike Georg Eckert and Wendelin Sroka in the twentieth century) were driven to collect educational media as tools for their own research interests and pedagogical commitments. There was, in such cases, no clear distinction between the creators of collections and the creators of pedagogical ideas, aids and recommendations. By contrast, institutionalised collections have since become conceived largely as providers of services for research, if not as technical managers of information rather than as creative curators of knowledge, as indicated in the introduction to this book. This trend is illustrated architecturally by some examples of contemporary library architecture, among them the new library of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig (built in 2021), whose detached building spatially symbolises a division of labour between collectors and their users while managing the tenuous relationship between the two symbolically and pragmatically with the aid of bridges between buildings housing collections, collection managers or librarians and people employed to work with materials from the collections. Bridging the gap between educational research and collection development is, we argue, a key task for future collectors and users of collections. For today, after a period in which scholarship and collecting have been subject to a hierarchical relationship, we are witnessing a readjustment of the balance of power between scholarship and collecting in which scholars are summoned to pay closer attention to the material, social and historical origins of their objects of study, and in which collectors are involved more closely in the production of scholarship insofar as their knowledge as creators, storers and organisers of materials helps to guarantee the plausibility of findings.

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We should be vigilant of how this relationship develops in the years to come. Collecting, and the tools we use to compile, store and manage content are, as the essays in this book demonstrate, means to an end determined by makers and users of collections, but not an end in themselves. As purveyors of digital humanities grapple with software capable of digesting and collating colossal quantities of information from educational media, we should recall Mannheim’s programmatic appeal to self-criticism, social-historical contextualisation and the revision of epistemologies as means to counteract what he calls ‘mechanistic knowledge’.7 Hence the purpose of literacy as a condition for gathering, storing and disseminating educational media via collections is to assure not only that historic media are understood in their specific contexts, but also that new media are applied critically in relation to them, and thereby to bridge the gap between the historical, social and epistemological conditions in which collections and the media they contain were created, and the subsequent uses and development of old and new educational media. Peter Carrier’s research focuses on the historiography and education of the Holocaust and national identities. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society and National Identities, and has recently published School and Nation (Peter Lang, 2013) and The International Status of Education about the Holocaust (UNESCO, 2015).

Notes Berger and Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality, 19, 27. Maposa and Wassermann, ‘Conceptualising Historical Literacy’, 45. Lindesmith and Strauss, Symbolische Bedingungen, 73–75. Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, 49. For an assessment of Mannheim’s indebtedness to Max Scheler’s notion of ‘relationism’ and Wilhelm Dilthey’s recognition of the ‘situational determination’ of knowledge, see Berger and Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality, 19–22.  5. Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, 169–70.  6. Ibid., 47–48.  7. Ibid., 49f.  1.  2.  3.  4.

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Bibliography Berger, Peter, and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Penguin, 1967. Lindesmith, Alfred, and Anselm Strauss. Symbolische Bedingungen der Sozialisation. Vol. I. Translated by Waltraud Loch. Frankfurt: Ullstein, 1983. Mannheim, Karl. Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. Translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils. New York: Harvest Books, 1936. Maposa, Marshall, and Johan Wassermann. ‘Conceptualising Historical Literacy’. Yesterday and Today 4 (2009), 41–65.

Index

A access, 6–8, 140f., 144, 176–78, 179–81, 185, 192–93, 196–99, 221 acquisition, 9, 13, 21, 24–25, 32, 37–40, 60f., 69–70, 82f., 85–86, 157f., 193, 213, 224 Africa, 10, 68, 140, 200 archiving, 2f., 38, 88, 90, 102–4, 114, 144, 146, 176f., 180, 181f., 185, 192f., 202 Asia, 6, 48, 72, 140, 174–86 auctions, 8, 179, 196, 199 audio materials, 114, 118, 223 audiovisual materials, 2, 111f., 114, 117–22, 223, 224 authors, 4, 63, 64, 66, 87, 90, 106, 144, 200, 220 B Baranowski, Mieczysław Tytus, 20f. biology, materials for, 26, 65, 106, 127 booklets and pamphlets, 27, 32, 36, 44–46, 48–49, 64, 115, 160 C cataloguing, 10, 24, 26–27, 36, 61, 67, 72, 79, 83, 85, 90, 106, 129, 143, 157, 177, 197, 209–10, 215f. chemistry, materials for, 213 civic education, materials for, 26, 65, 86, 90, 214

classification, 10f., 13, 54n50, 85, 106, 185, 197, 210 collaboration between collections and collectors, 70, 118, 127, 138, 166 commercial book market, 8, 11, 39f., 52n19, 54n51, 57, 60, 69, 178f., 139, 146, 154, 191f., 199 curricula, 3, 4, 23, 25, 44, 46f., 99, 138–47, 182, 191f., 196, 207 D damage, 106, 115f., 126, 129–35, 136, 162, 180 databases, 10, 32, 51n7, 122, 129, 144–46, 166, 174, 177f., 180, 185, 199, 200ff., 211 decollecting, 192, 224 digitisation and born digital, 73, 106f., 114, 116–20, 128–30, 136, 141, 144– 45, 146, 178, 191f., 203n1., 211 dissolution and dispersal, 10, 33–34, 41, 101, 128, 129, 157, 162, 165, 224 donations, 8, 25–26, 39, 43f., 60, 66, 70, 72, 83, 86, 90, 129, 197, 203n25, 213 E Eckert, Georg, 138f., 225 educational concepts, 10, 22, (26), (43), 80, (100), (108), (121), 140, (143), 195, 221

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educational (pedagogical) literature, 2, 11 21, 32–34, 39–40, 47f., 85–86, 127, 157 European scope, 3, 139, 141–42, 153, 160, 163, 166, 175, 223, 225 exchange and sharing, 39, 60, 84, 140, 157, 224 exhibitions and displays, 20–22, 26, 58, 62, 67, 72, 80f., 127, 129, 134 F films, 111–22, 220 funding and finance, 24f., 39, 49, 100, 128f., 176f., 196 G geography, materials for, 90, 105f., 127, 138, 142, 207 geometry, materials for, 207 governmental collections, 31–49, 176–77, 191f., 195, 208–9, 216n22 H handouts, 24 history education, materials for, 24, 31–32, 41, 194–94, 198, 206–9 hobby collecting, 57, 61–63 Höfler, Ingrid, 41, 35 J Jaxa-Bykowski, Ludwik, 26f, 224 K Karbowiak, Antoni, 19f. knowledge, 1–4, 9, 12f., 58, 61, 79, 90, 111f., 155–56, 177–78, 185, 193–95, 199, 219–22, 226 knowledge gaps and selection, 3–4, 38, 49, 79–80, 139, 194, 199, 202 L literacy, collecting, 11–13, 220–24, 226 lithographs, 129 M manuscripts, 24, 27, 33, 79, 85–86, 89–90, 157, 161, 164, 170n84, 209, 211

Index

mass production, 70, 78, 114, 118, 191, 201 materials and materiality, 5, 11, 12f., 68, 70, 80, 106f., 116, 135, 219 mathematics, materials for, 33, 82, 87, 127 musealisation, 14n21, 23, 69, 72, 219 N nations, nationalism, nationalisation, 6, 9–12, 19–28, 60f., 73, 101, 194f., 207f., 214, 223f. P passion for collecting, 7f., 11, 48, 68, 73f., 83, 225 pathos formula (Warburg), 121 pedagogical guidebooks or manuals, 86, 89f., 121, 157, 180 photographs, 24, 36, 103, 104–8, 114, 118, 128f., 210, 213 Pötzl, Wilhelm, 36, 39 primary vs. secondary sources, 2f., 69, 193–97 primers, 57–74, 79, 86, 207 professionalisation, 6, 19–23, 36–38, 63–66, 68, 78f., 83–88, 219 provenance research, 89, 103, 153–55, 162–67 public vs. private collections, 7f., 57–74, 157, 179f., 222 publishers, 8f., 32f., 35f., 39, 43–48, 52n19, 63–65, 70, 83, 85, 139–41, 147, 191f., 198, 214 private collections and collecting, 7f., 57–74, 157, 179f., 185, 198, 222, 224 R readers, 11, 72, 181, 194, 197, 207 reforms, educational and pedagocical, 6, 22, 38–43, 100, 213 Rebhuhn, Adolf, 5, 7, 78–91, 222, 225 religious education, materials for, 26, 86, 89, 141, 155f., 211 reports, school, 24f., 34f., 89 restitution, 154f., 164–67

Index

restoration or preservation, 13, 106f., 114–20, 130–36, 185, 223f. S Sahrhage, Heinrich, 102f., 105, 222 Sauter, Emil, 126f., 225 scholars as collectors, 57–74, 85–91, 138–40, 158, 225 school museums, 19–28, 78–91 school libraries, 39f. searching, digital and engines, 1f., 10f., 12, 144–47, 178–83, 197, 199–202, 209–12 second hand materials, 39, 165, 196 slides, 99–108, 114, 118–20 storage techniques, 6, 13, 46, 73, 106, 116–20, 128–36, 144, 224 systematics, 4, 33, 51n9, 79, 84, 90, 138, 140f., 183 T teachers (pedagogues), 19–28, 35f., 39, 43–45, 49, 64, 66f., 78–91, 99–102, 106f., 121, 126f., 132, 138, 143, 183f., 198, 200, 210

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teaching plans, 103, 141–43, 145, 181, 187n30, 207 textbook collections, 2f., 9, 19–28, 34f., 72, 89, 138–42, 191–202, 206–14 Timoščenko, Ludmila, 61, 72 U university collections, 25–28, 72, 113, 128f., 196, 209f., 212f. V virtual collections, 10–12, 166, 144–47, 129f., 178–80, 209–12 visual materials, 12f., 100, 104–6, 120f., 223 W wall charts, 126–36