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08/10/2023 | Pressemitteilung

Milestone for Rosenzweig research - partial estate of the University Library is online

Almost 700 documents from the partial estate of the prominent religious philosopher Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) in Kassel have recently been made accessible via the digital repository of the Kassel University Library ORKA. This means that the original objects from the collection acquired by Kassel University Library in 2006, which has already been the subject of intensive research, are now available for the first time in their entirety digitally and under a free license (public domain mark 1.0) to Rosenzweig researchers worldwide and all interested parties.

The picture shows Franz Rosenzweig as a young man
Franz Rosenzweig as a young man. Photo: Kassel University Library

Despite his relatively small oeuvre, Franz Rosenzweig, who was born and grew up in Kassel, is undoubtedly one of the most important and influential philosophers of religion in the German language. In his extremely extensive correspondence with friends, relatives and colleagues, whose topics often went far beyond the private sphere, he also developed and formulated essential positions of his scientific-philosophical world of thought. The estate of letters, which is therefore of great value for Rosenzweig research, is essentially divided between the Leo Baeck Institute (Center for Jewish History) in New York, the Rosenstock-Huessy family archive at Dartmouth College in Hanover, USA, and the Kassel University Library.

The collection now in Kassel was acquired in 2006 from the estate of Rosenzweig's daughter-in-law Ursula with public and private financial support through the mediation of the Kassel-based Rosenzweig specialist Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik. These are a large number of letters, copies of letters, drafts of texts, photos and other documents from the period from 1901 to 1929, which had not been known to Rosenzweig researchers until then, or only in part. At the same time, Maria Ehrenberg, the daughter of Rosenzweig's cousin Rudolf Ehrenberg, handed over an extensive collection of original letters from the correspondence between her father and his cousin, as well as between the brothers Rudolf and Hans Ehrenberg, to the library.

With the digitization and electronic provision of Franz Rosenzweig's partial estate in Kassel under the free license public domain mark 1.0, which was carried out with the University Library's own funds, the library is providing contemporary and comprehensive access to this important research material.

The collection is also made accessible via the central estate database Kalliope as well as via the updated electronic short index by Barbara Dierichs (published in the repository KOBRA: https://doi.org/doi:10.17170/kobra-202308018546).

ORKA: https://orka.bibliothek.uni-kassel.de/viewer/search/-/-/1/-/DC%3Anachlaesse.franzrosenzweig/

 

Contact:

Dr. Brigitte Pfeil
Kassel University Library
Head of Department IV: State Library, Head of Special Collections
Phone +49 561 804-7344
pfeil@bibliothek.uni-kassel.de