Fonds Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Abt. Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen, FAS DS 169 T 1 - Princely Hohenzollern Court Library, Museum and Collections

872 VE

History of preservation<br /><br />1. Library<br />The beginnings of the library probably go back much further than the "certified creation of an actual palace library" (FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 589), which is to be seen in connection with the rebuilding and new construction of the palace initiated by Prince Joseph of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and carried out between 1720 and 1764. At this point, reference should be made to the book register of Prince Maximilian of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1636-1689), probably written between 1681 and 1689 (FAS HS 1-80 T 1-6 R 23,1). However, according to current knowledge, it is not possible to say with certainty where this library may have been located in the 16th and 17th centuries.<br />In the first half of the 19th century, the library, which had been set up next to the family hall, was moved several times - first to the hunting room of the palace (1837), then to the second floor of the former government building (1846). In the middle of the 19th century, Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern saw a need for action and decided in 1861 to build a "worthy" place for the court library and make it accessible to the public as a "common property for scientific use". A building that had been used as a coach house since 1820 was demolished for this purpose. The new building was erected from April 1862 according to plans by Joseph Laur (Sigmaringen) and D. Krüger (Düsseldorf) above the Marstall. The newly appointed librarian, Hofrat Dr. Emil F. Rössler, was responsible for furnishing the new building. After Rössler's death, Prince Karl Anton put the new library building to a new use on December 23, 1863. While it was now to house the Princely Art Collections as a gallery building, the library was initially housed in the former armory. In 1864/65, the large hall on the first floor of the cavalier building was designated for the library and remodeled in 1865/66. The library now consisted of four adjoining rooms and a reading room. The palace fire of 1893 and the subsequent reconstruction led to fundamental architectural changes. In the Wilhelmsbau, built in 1907/08, the library, which is now one of the most important private libraries in Germany with its historical book collections from the 15th to 19th centuries, finally found premises worthy of it in the Wilhelmsbau.<br />Since Karl Anton's reign, the library has grown considerably through the merger with the princely private libraries in Krauchenwies and Inzigkofen, as well as through the integration of numerous private libraries of family members, book loans from princely authorities, purchases and donations. By 1894, the number of volumes had increased almost 25-fold from 1230 (at the end of the 18th century) to 30,382 (2017: approx. 200,000). The library plan developed by Friedrich August Lehner, which provided for a division into 32 subject areas, is still valid today - with a few additions. 2. museum and collections<br />The Princely Collections began long before the museum was established in 1867. An inventory from 1627 listed 35 paintings of sacred and secular content among other objects - with religious motifs predominating (FAS HS 1-80 T 1-6 R 72.1). The inventory of 1651 listed only 26 works, but at the same time did not note any new additions (FAS HS 1-80 T 1-6 R 72,1). The inventory of 1834 differentiated according to style (Old German, Italian, German [Dutch]) and for the first time also recorded wood inlays, copper engravings and other works of art in addition to paintings (FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 577). In 1835, Hoffourier Frick also included the country house in Krauchenwies in his inventory for the first time as a further place of transfer for paintings and works of art (FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 578 and no. 579).Frick's inventory from 1840, compiled with the participation of the art dealer Gaspard Manega, is once again a pure catalog of paintings and makes clear the extent to which the princes collected and where the works hung in Sigmaringen Palace and the country house in Krauchenwies (FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 310). Sacred art remained the main focus. New acquisitions, above all Dutch genre and landscape paintings, and not least old German works were incorporated into the collection, which thus grew to four times its size - as reflected in the inventory of 1842 (FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 580) and in 1845 resulted in a list of paintings from older schools in Sigmaringen Castle, which Carl Waagen had arranged and which "might be useful for a collection to be founded [...]" (FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 310). In 1846, Karl von Mayenfisch was entrusted with the overall supervision and management of the Princely Collections (library, painting and weapons collection). As Intendant, he not only managed the collection, but also added new fields to it, such as archaeology and prehistory and early history.<br />The main driving force behind the Princely Collections was Karl Anton von Hohenzollern. He cultivated a wide range of intellectual interests and was a member of numerous art and cultural associations. From 1852 he resided in Düsseldorf. As an honorary member of the Malkasten artists' association, he cultivated close patronage ties with the artists. In addition to the works of individual members of the association, he acquired, with the advice of the painter and restorer Andreas Müller, above all old art and - as already mentioned - "beautiful" found objects.<br />In 1855/56, the collections, which had previously been located mainly in the picture gallery, the Knights' Hall and the Majolica Room, were housed in what is now the "Old German Hall". On October 5, 1867, the Tudor-style gallery building was opened in the presence of Prussian King Wilhelm.<br />In 1886, Prince Leopold acquired several works from the auction of the Hohenzollern-Hechingian painting collection (FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 318) and in the following years, he primarily favored Italian Renaissance art. However, he also acquired important works by Lucas Cranach the Elder and high-quality Netherlandish painting. Prince Wilhelm, on the other hand, focused on art from the Upper Rhine, Ulm and Augsburg and thus sought to reorganize the collections. The reputation of the collection was immense after the First World War, but Prince Wilhelm was forced to sell the collection in 1927 due to the economic situation. Individual valuable pieces, such as the weapons collection, were excluded from the sale and Prince Friedrich negotiated the repurchase of individual works of art shortly afterwards - all of which ultimately formed the basis for the new "Upper Swabian Museum", which was quietly opened in 1929. As in his father's time, Prince Friedrich had works that had become uninteresting for the collection sold and acquired other works in exchange in order to expand the significance of the collection.<br />In 1930, the lost and found items were reorganized and rearranged in the former carriage house. The Second World War and the occupation of the palace "did not cause any damage to the museum, but the work and acquisitions came to a halt" - as Walter Kaufhold, head of art history at the Court Library and Collections since 1950, reports. In 1958, the museum was redesigned according to modern museum standards and the prehistoric and early history collection was reorganized in the 1960s. On the occasion of the 140th anniversary in 2007, the gallery building was thoroughly renovated and the collections were reorganized and rehung. Numerous temporary exhibitions were held in the following years. The museum is currently (2018) not open to the public. 3. Directors of the library, the collections and the museum<br />Karl Freiherr von Mayenfisch (1803-1877, term of office: 1846-1877), Emil Franz Rössler (1815-1863, term of office: 1862-1863), Friedrich August von Lehner (1824-1895, term of office: 1864-1894), Johann Walter Gröbbels (1853-1940, term of office: 1894-1926), Gustav Hebeisen (1875-1940, term of office: 1926-1940), Lothar Haug (1880-1951, term of office: 1940-1950), Walter Kaufhold (1908-1993, term of office: 1950-1981), Peter Kempf (1943-, term of office: 1981-2008)<br /><br />Contents and evaluation<br /><br />Contents and evaluation<br />This sub-collection consists of the old records of the Princely Hohenzollern Court Library, Museum and Collections from ca. 1807 to approx. 2018, whereby the majority of the documents are from the period between 1850 and 1950. Journals, invoices and correspondence on various matters make up the bulk of the content. Firstly, the correspondence provides information about offers, which were usually supplemented with photographs, drawings or similar and were purchased after being made available for viewing. In the case of rejections, the photographs and objects were returned, and the corresponding offers sometimes also contain the reason why they were not purchased: "too insignificant". At the same time, provenances can be determined in this way and - depending on the sender - information about the circumstances of the intended sale can be ascertained (financial concerns, estates, etc.). Last but not least, the correspondence provides an insight into the method of advertising an object and the collecting behavior of the Princes of Hohenzollern. It should be noted that although correspondence and correspondence were roughly assigned to individual categories, i.e. individual art genres, overlaps in content are possible, particularly in the area of pictorial genres, i.e. written material on prints (lithographs, woodcuts, engravings), for example, is also contained in the files under the heading "Paintings" (and vice versa, cf. e.g. FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 332). Content overlaps with other holdings are also possible. Due to the duality of Gustav Hebeisen's fields of activity - archives on the one hand and court library, museum and collections on the other - the "Official Correspondence of the Princely Archivist Dr. Gustav Hebeisen" (FAS DS 98 T 1 no. 34-53) also contains references to his second field of activity.<br />In addition, the present partial collection documents the relationship to associations, societies and museums, be it through memberships of the princes and their librarians or collection directors, through the provision of loans for exhibition projects on the national and international stage or the willingness to promote the publication of books and printed works by means of donations or subscriptions. At the same time, the princes, who were enthusiastic about early history, were interesting as sponsors of archaeological excavations from Gammertingen to Jerusalem by financially supporting the excavations and acquiring numerous archaeological finds in addition to modern works of art. Processing<br />The files were handed over to the Princely Hohenzollern House and Domain Archives in two deliveries in 2010, with an initial, shallow indexing of the files, which were obviously filed according to headings. However, this classification system did not correspond to that of the Hofkammer. A classification plan valid for the court library, the museum and the collection could not be found either in the transferred registry or in the court library.<br />From July 2015, the two deliveries were indexed in detail. The previously formed file packages were broken up, each file individually examined for its content, recorded and then packed. This meant that the provisionally assigned signatures were replaced by final order signatures. Pre-signature 1 therefore refers to these "provisional" signatures, pre-signature 2 to the heading numbers. It was found that the file management was not always strictly according to plan, which was reflected in the mixing of contents and thus in "incorrectly" assigned heading numbers (e.g. FAS DS 169 T 1 No. 332). When using the fonds, the neighboring headings must therefore also be taken into account when conducting research.<br />The second consignment in particular contained files that had been created without taking headings into account. As far as possible, these files were entered into the relevant headings of the reconstructed classification plan. Where this was not possible, additional classification points were created.<br />The fonds also contained inventories that had been taken over from the Princely Court Economic Administration in 1887 (FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 577-579). The fonds also contain files that were presumably created by Karl von Mayenfisch and Emil Franz Rössler as reference files and were handed in and taken over posthumously (according to the note on the files). As they only contained official matters, they were integrated into the fonds - albeit with their provenance stated in the title record or in the contains field (Karl von Mayenfisch: FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 361, 374, 627 and 708; Emil Franz Rössler: FAS DS 169 T 1 no. 557, 596-602).<br />In contrast, the estate of the library employee Friedrich Riedinger (FAS Sa A 10 T 1), which, in addition to private content, mainly contains documents about his former work as a court fisherman, was transferred. The bequest comprises 45 indexing units, the content of which can only possibly be linked to his work in the library and collection in isolated cases (nos. 31, 39, 43f.).<br />In addition, five maps (FAS K nos. 1798-1802) and various documents relating to members of the Princely Family or people close to them, which were transferred to the collection or the house archives.<br />The collection contains 872 indexing units.<br />Sigmaringen, February 2018<br />Christine Dölker M.A.

Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Abt. Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen (Archivtektonik) >> Fürstlich Hohenzollernsches Haus- und Domänenarchiv (Dep. 39) >> Domänenarchiv Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen >> Fürstlich-Hohenzollernsche Verwaltung >> Sonstige nachgeordnete Behörden

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Literatur:<br />Hohenzollern, Johann Georg Prinz von: Die Wiedereröffnung des Fürstlichen Museums in Sigmaringen. In: Zeitschrift für Hohenzollerische Geschichte 44 (2008), S. 9-18.<br />Kaufhold, Walter: Fürstenhaus und Kunstbesitz - Hundert Jahre Fürstlich Hohenzollernsches Museum in Sigmaringen. Erster Teil: Anfänge, Gründung und Aufbau unter Fürst Karl Anton. In: Zeitschrift für Hohenzollerische Geschichte 3 (1967), S. 133-222.<br />Ders.: Fürstenhaus und Kunstbesitz - Hundert Jahre Fürstlich Hohenzollernsches Museum in Sigmaringen. Zweiter Teil: Der weitere Ausbau des Museums. Sein Verkauf und Wiederaufbau. In: Zeitschrift für Hohenzollerische Geschichte 4 (1968), S. 69-148.<br />Kempf, Peter: Zur Geschichte der Fürstlichen Hofbibliothek Sigmaringen. In: Hofkammer-Mitteilungen 12, Sigmaringen 1995, S. 25.<br />Ders.: Zur Geschichte der Fürstlichen Waffensammlung. In: Hofkammer-Mitteilungen 13, Sigmaringen 1996, S. 28-30.<br />Lehner, Friedrich August: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Gemälde, Sigmaringen 1871 (2. Auflage: 1883).<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Schnitzwerke, Sigmaringen 1871.<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Thonarbeiten, Sigmaringen 1871.<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Emailwerke, Sigmaringen 1872.<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Gläser, Sigmaringen 1872.<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Handschriften, Sigmaringen 1872.<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der in dem Kleinodienschrank befindlichen Gegenstände, Sigmaringen 1872.<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Metallarbeiten, Sigmaringen 1872.<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss des Mobiliars aus Holz, Leder, Bein etc., Sigmaringen 1874.<br />Ders.: Fürstlich Hohenzollern'sches Museum zu Sigmaringen: Verzeichniss der Textilarbeiten, Sigmaringen 1874.

Original description: Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

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