Bequest Fritz Bauer

Since its establishment in 1995, the Fritz Bauer Institute is eager to gather documents regarding its eponym, the Hessian Attorney General Fritz Bauer (1903-1968). According to Bauer's wishes, his inheritance was dispensed among his relatives and friends after his death. Unfortunately, because of that a large part of the literary bequest — especially Bauer's private correspondence — was lost irretrievably. Exceptions to this are the records obtained by the executor of Bauer's last will and testament. They make up the core of the current collection at the Fritz Bauer Institute. In 1996, Bauer's executor offered the preserved records to the newly established study and documentation center as an endowment. Since then, the collection has been managed as a bequest and is constantly extended through research projects and specific acquisition. Around 2014, the collection gained an important addition: the executor of the estate of Thomas Harlan bequeathed Fritz Bauer's letters to Harlan to the Fritz Bauer Institute. Other material from Bauer's surroundings found its way into the bequest, for example, a comprehensive documentation of the contemporary press coverage at his workplaces Brunswick and Frankfurt (Main). In the autumn of 2017, Bauer's executor, and then in 2017, 2018 and 2021, his goddaughter transferred further material to the Fritz Bauer Institute. Because of these endowments, Bauer's precious private library — among other things — could partly be reconstructed. This is especially significant, as Bauer noted his thoughts immediately when reading the regarding works. Through those means, it is possible to comprehend the genesis of certain ideas. The Bequest Fritz Bauer contains after description, demetallization and filing, 147 archival units and objects with a total extent of 10.50 running meters. Due to its genesis, the holding did not initially have an internal structure. Therefore, the processor Johannes Beermann-Schön created a completely new structure during indexing in November and December 2016 and December 2017 and January 2018. It conceptually follows the "rules for the description of personal papers and autographs" (RNA, Regeln zur Erschließung von Nachlässen und Autographen), but deviates from it content-wise. For example, the category "personal documents" not only contains "material of the professional and private conduct" of Fritz Bauer, but also reproductions of such documents, that are collected from various archives. The holding is divided into five sections: "opus" ("Werk"), "correspondence" ("Korrespondenzen"), "personal documents" ("Lebensdokumente"), "collections" ("Sammlungen") and "realia" ("Realia"). The section "opus" ("Werk") covers handwritten notes of Fritz Bauer regarding the penal system of the future, typescripts regarding diverse topics, as well as a collection of selected publications. The section "correspondence" ("Korrespondenzen") contains first and foremost the letters of Bauer to Thomas Harlan from the years 1962 to 1968. All of the letters were edited by the Fritz Bauer Institute in 2015 (Werner Renz (Hrsg.): "Von Gott und der Welt verlassen". Fritz Bauers Briefe an Thomas Harlan (Wissenschaftliche Reihe des Fritz Bauer Instituts, Bd. 25), Frankfurt am Main, New York 2015.). In addition, the section covers correspondence from the records preserved by Bauer's executor. Some of these letters had been used as bookmarks [?] in different books of Bauer's working and private library. The section "personal documents" ("Lebensdokumente") comprises various certificates and primarily material regarding Bauer's work as a collaborator on the editing project "Justiz und NS-Verbrechen. Die deutschen Strafverfahren wegen NS-Tötungsverbrechen". Furthermore, there are reproductions of personal documents from several archives. Since they originate from different research projects of the Fritz Bauer Institute, they are not in a classified order. They are however organized either thematically, or by provenance. These records were archived for research purposes of the Fritz Bauer Institute only and are therefore only available for internal use. An access by external users is not allowed. The records are only and unexceptionally accessible at the respective original archives. The section "collections" ("Sammlungen") covers, on the one hand, Bauer's working library. It was part of the materials taken by the executor of the bequest in 1968. The holding is interesting not only due to the many personal dedications and greetings of several authors, but also because of the numerous hand-written notes that Bauer left on the publications' margins and plank pages. The second part of the section "collections" ("Sammlungen") is constituted by material compiled by the Fritz Bauer Institute during several research projects. It consists of an extensive collection of newspapers and newspaper clippings regarding Bauer's work, a thematic collection of material, and publications regarding various aspects of his life, as well as files concerning selected events of the Fritz Bauer Institute regarding its eponym. As for the section "personal documents" ("Lebensdokumente"), some archival units of the section "collections" ("Sammlungen") are not accessible for external users. The section "realia" ("Realia") contains various items from Bauer's bequest, for example, his death mask, his robe, an ashtray and a six-part tea set.