The Jewish art historian Aby Warburg was born on June 13, 1866 in Hamburg. Its "Cultural Science Library" is considered to be one of the most important book collections in Europe.
by Michael Marek
"Hamburger at heart, Hebrew by blood and Florentine at heart" - that's how he had repeatedly described himself to friends. To this day, Aby Warburg is one of the most important European art historians. Born in 1866 in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the son of a banker and merchant, it was the Warburg Cultural Science Library, or KBW for short, that made him internationally famous.
Warburg's library - an intellectual center
This is what the historical picture atlas "Mnemosyne" looked like in the Warburg Cultural Studies Library.On May 1, 1926, Warburg's life's work was inaugurated with a speech by the philosopher Ernst Cassierer. Even during Warburg's lifetime, the book collection and the library with the famous oval reading room were considered the intellectual center of the Weimar Republic. Scientists such as Ernst Cassirer and Erwin Panofsky frequented the Warburg House at Heilwigstrasse 116 in Eppendorf. The dominance of Jewish scholars was striking.
"None of the key Jewish institute members was a practicing Jew," recalls Charles Hope, art historian and former director of the Warburg Institute in London. "Their milieu instilled certain values in these scientists. No one would deny that. In my opinion, the Jewish scientists did not believe that being Jewish had a great influence on their learning."
A tender melancholic
Aby Warburg had financed his life's work through the bank of his family and his younger brother Max, who had emigrated to the USA. At the same time, Aby Warburg worked as a cultural historian, private scholar and researcher. Friends and contemporaries described him as a delicate melancholic and hypochondriac who occasionally sought psychotherapeutic treatment.
"Warburg himself was a complex character, but Warburg was a great scholar, with a sense of his mission," described the late art historian and Warburg biographer Ernst Gombrich:"Warburg tried to apply his system of cultural studies to the setting up of the library He always saw a transition, especially in science, a progression from the magical attitude to the rational attitude. And that's how the library is set up today."
Library moved to London
The Cultural Science Library retained its legendary reputation even after Warburg's death on October 26, 1929. Until the National Socialists' seizure of power endangered the continued existence of the KBW and forced its emigration to London. Today, under its new name "The Warburg Institute", the library continues to be one of the most important humanities book collections in Europe.