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

Abstract

This review article sums up the available data on the fate of archival and library materials which were transported to the Soviet Union after WW2 from German cities Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen. The main focus is on medieval manuscripts and documents. Despite the fact that these cities were in the British occupation zone, their archival and library fonds became Soviet war trophies since in 1942–1944 these documents had been evacuated to what would later comprise parts of the Soviet occupation zone. In August 1946, they were transported to Leningrad by train. Most medieval manuscripts and documents did not remain in Leningrad. In the early 1950s, part of the trophies was handed over to the German Democratic Republic, while a considerable amount of the Hanseatic material was returned to Germany in the 1980–1990s from the Soviet Union and from independent Georgia and Armenia; yet a large part of archival and library materials remained in the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, very little is known about the time and places of their subsequent movements as published documents cover only the period of 1945–1946. Thanks to recent discoveries some displacements can be traced down to the former Soviet cities Leningrad, Moscow, Tomsk, Tbilisi, Yerevan. The review lists German trophy medieval manuscripts and archival materials discovered and identified in Moscow (Moscow State University, Russian State Library, Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts), St. Petersburg (National Library of Russia) and Tomsk (Tomsk State University). Moreover, at least two medieval manuscripts are documented as being preserved in Yerevan.