In the most extensive case to date of Nazi-looted property at the Goethe and Schiller Archive, manuscripts belonging to the collector Beno Kaufmann, who was killed by the National Socialists, have been handed over to his rightful heirs. A letter and an inlay folder from Kaufmann's collection were sent to the family living in the USA at their request, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar announced on Tuesday.
39 letters, a poetry manuscript and an inlay folder with handwritten notes by the collector were identified by the experts at the Klassik Stiftung in the Goethe and Schiller Archive's holdings. Other institutions also found manuscripts from Kaufmann's collection in their holdings: the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library (SLUB), the Freie Deutsche Hochstift in Frankfurt a. M. and the Thuringia State Archive - Weimar Main State Archive.
The SLUB announced that systematic research there had identified 23 autographs, i.e. manuscripts, from the collection, including a letter from the statesman and poet Eduard von Schenk to the writer Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853).
