On May 12, 1933, the works of writers who were unpopular with the National Socialist rulers were also burned in the university city of Erlangen as part of the "Action against the un-German spirit".
"So now go to hell! Away with you, Karl Marx and Kautzky, and with you damnation over class struggle and materialism! Let national community and an idealistic attitude to life be our slogan in an awakened Germany!" proclaimed the chairman of the Erlangen campaign committee "against the un-German spirit", law student Wilhelm Höfer, on May 12, 1933 in Erlangen's Schlossplatz. As a result, he threw the writings of Jewish, communist, socialist and pacifist authors as well as supposedly immoral writings or those of Jehovah's Witnesses onto a pyre.
From May 16 to June 13, 2023, the Erlangen City Archive is presenting an exhibition on the burning of books in 1933. At the heart of the show are some impressive and unusual documents from the holdings of the Erlangen City Archive: original remains of burned writings from the Autodafé on Erlangen's Schlossplatz. The exhibition shows these remains and places the events of May 12, 1933 in the context of the events in Erlangen after the National Socialist "seizure of power".
Location: Erlangen City Archive, Reading Room
Opening hours of the city archive: Mon 9.00-18.00, Tue 9.00-16.00, Wed 8.00-12.00, Thu 9.00-16.00, Fri closed
Free admission
Public guided tours on: June 21, 2023, 5 pm, June 25, 11 am and July 12, 2023, 5 pm - registration is not required.
The anthology will be published in conjunction with the exhibition
"So now go to hell!"
The book burning on May 12, 1933 in Erlangen
(Publications of the Erlangen City Archive, Special Series Issue 2)
edited by Andreas Jakob, Christina Link and Clemens Wachter
165 pages, approx. 90 illustrations, softcover.
Erlangen, 2023
Price: 19,90 €
The contributions:
Berndt Hamm
"Fire of judgment". University and religious dimensions of the book burning of 1933
Theodor Verweyen
The beacon of the book burning on May 12, 1933
Andreas Jakob
"As part of the boycott movement in Germany." The book burning in Erlangen on May 12, 1933 as part of a nationwide campaign
Clemens Wachter / Gisela Glaeser
New findings on the book burning in Erlangen
Christina Link
Paper witnesses to the Erlangen book burning in the city archives
Georg Simon Gerleigner
"Friday is the auto-da-fé..." - Notes on the Erlangen archaeology professor Georg Lippold during the National Socialist era
The book is available from the city archives or from bookshops