AARL

Paul Raabe honoured: a note

R L Cope

Among Germany's postwar research library heads none has had a higher national and international profile than Paul Raabe. He first rose to notice through outstanding work he did at the German Literature Archive at Marbach in South Germany where he was Director from 1958. From here he moved in 1968 to become Director of the famous Herzog August Library at Wolfenbüttel, a small town in North Germany near Braunschweig. It is in this post that his name became known to both the general and the academic communities in Germany. Raabe took over a celebrated library collection in an institution which had led a sleepy existence with few readers in an out-of-the-way location; he quickly changed all that by a series of programs and expansions which established his library as an eminent centre of research, culture and scholarship with scarcely a rival in Europe.

Drawing on the library's rich collections from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, he established annual research colloquia focusing on the history of the book and major issues in the humanities. Experts attended from many parts of the world, enticed by choice facilities for accommodation and outstanding resources for study and discussion. Conference proceedings were published in several on-going learned journals issued by the library and quickly became recognised as major contributions to scholarship. Success builds on success, and the name of Wolfenbüttel became a household name to American and British scholars.[1]

Raabe is an unusual blend of a scholar-librarian and a highly effective, energetic PR expert. He has been successful in attracting funds and sponsoring from foundations and government sources. He has given the library (and its Director) a strong media presence in Germany. Thanks to this support, he has added significantly to the buildings making up the Herzog August Library complex and has likewise considerably increased its staff of specialist librarians. Raabe has been also noteworthy in bringing the local community within the ambit of the library's programs. He has identified the library with local issues, such as environmental conservation and preservation of the historical architecture of the township of Wolfenbüttel. The grateful local community made him an honorary citizen to mark its appreciation. Raabe retired from this post in 1992. His autobiographical account of his years at the Herzog August Library is entitled Bibliosibirsk. The title alludes to the perception before re-unification that the library was located in a remote corner of Germany where it had little call on its collections or services. Since re-unification the Wolfenbüttel Library is more accurately seen as in the centre. Bibliosibirsk is an excellent account of a splendid career in the service of an institution catering magnificently for the cultivation of the values and traditions that great research libraries embody.

Even before retirement Raabe had taken a lively interest in the library scene in the former German Democratic Republic. After retirement he has devoted himself, in an honorary capacity, to rescuing the sadly decayed institution known as the Franckesche Stiftungen (The Franck Foundations) in Halle (East Germany). This institution dates back to the eighteenth century and is a combination of religious, charitable and educational undertakings, originally under the umbrella of the Evangelical Church. Raabe has succeeded in awakening interest in Germany in the library and buildings, which make up this complex religious foundation. He has started to create there a centre for research into the German Enlightenment and the influential religious movement known as Pietism.

On 10 May 2001, Dr Raabe was presented with the Max Herrmann Prize by the Friends of the State Library at Berlin. This prize, named after a Jewish scholar associated with the former Prussian State Library and murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp, is awarded to persons who have made significant contributions to libraries in Germany. Raabe is the second person to receive this Prize. This award is also partly to acknowledge his contribution to drawing up the 1997 report on the future development of the State Library at Berlin.[2] Raabe was one of the three-man team entrusted with the delicate and politically difficult task of proposing guidelines for the State Library facing economic and policy challenges from its amalgamation with what was the former Prussian State Library in East Berlin and its West Berlin counterpart.

The award ceremony in May 2001 is dealt with fully in the State Library's journal Mitteilungen.[3] Dr Raabe's own address, which deals largely with his experiences with famous Jewish scholars and library users, deserves wide notice for its succinct account of his professional credo.

1. For details of the history, collections and scholarly publications of the Herzog August Library see Lexikon zur Geschichte und Gegenwart der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, ed by G Ruppelt and Sabine Solf. Wiesbaden, In Kommission bei Harrassowitz, 1992 This publication was dedicated to Paul Raabe in the year of his retirement.
   Bibliosibirsk oder Mitten in Deutschland. Jahre in Wolfenbüttel, by Paul Raabe. Zurich, Arche, 1992. A comprehensive review of this work is contained in
   From the Periphery to the Centre. Paul Raabe's Years at Wolfenbüttel. A Review..., by R L Cope (Libraries and Librarianship, Studies and Reviews, 1993, No.3) Bullaburra, Bullaburra Press, 1993.
2. A review of the Report on the Future of the State Library at Berlin appeared in AARL in 1999: 'Pursuing library visions or chimeras in Berlin? A Review of The Future of the State Library in Berlin', by R L Cope in AARL, vol 30 no 1 (March 1999): 40-56.
3. Mitteilungen [der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin]: New series. No.10, 2001. See pages 7-21 (double columns) for text of addresses.