widthWhen the two parties reached an agreement on Russia-Germany relations, the procedures could be completed unexpectedly and quickly. This is the case now in the case of 91 books returned from the collections of the Voronezh University Library. Second World War His son, 86-year-old Hans-Erich Frey from Neu-Isenburg, Hesse, robbed there. In a moving ceremony held at the House of Russian Culture and Science in Berlin, Frey handed these books to the library representative, who studied in Voronezh and served as the head of the German Association of University Graduates. Ince, some of these books still have traces of fire. University.
The action of “civil diplomacy” deliberately bypassed high-level politics. On the issue of the return of cultural products relocated due to the war, the front became tough, because Germany insisted on returning all confiscated cultural items, while Russia considered its “self”- “Compensation” for legal losses. The Russian ambassador only appears as an authorized informant. However, in this way, the real danger in Moscow withholding rare items from bundles and libraries is Academy of Sciences As emphasized by Dmitri Jendowitzki, the president of Voronezh University, it can be misappropriated. The books will now be shipped to their place of origin via Moscow, where they will be viewed, restored if necessary, and will be exhibited and included in the collection in October as part of the Russia-Europe project “Green Campus”.
Eastern European historian Wolfgang Eichwede (Wolfgang Eichwede) has organized countless times that the books, pictures and icons stolen by the Germans were returned to Russia, and these books have been stored in his apartment. In August, he talked about a “great moment”. The collection includes 58 Russian works, 30 French works and two Russian and French works; in addition, Byron’s English edition is also part of it. This includes early full versions of Nikolai Karamsin and Alexander Pushkin. The oldest part is that the first grammar of secular Russian is somewhat shabby. This is a unique sample, probably dating back to the 17th century. The most beautiful book is the catalogue of the early Saint Petersburg Hermitage Art Collection, published in 1805 by Tsar Alexander I. This book records in French the aristocratic language that prevailed at the time. Only after the war with Napoleon, the Russian language was accepted by society. Paintings by Leonardo, Veronese, Correggio, Rubens, and Rembrandt were copied as academic black and white paintings. Like many other books, this book contains the former collection of a noble family in the Voronezh region whose cultural treasures were nationalized after the October Revolution.
The son of engineer Erich Frey has returned the books. He speaks Russian and is a native of the Baltic countries. He was stationed in Voronezh, occupied by Germany in 1942, to restore water and electricity supplies there. Hans-Erich Frey said that his father had very good contact with the Russians. For example, after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty, he received metal from the Soviet Union. Senior Frey said that the fact that German fighter pilots illegally invaded Soviet airspace at the time was “very embarrassing” for him. He sent the books from Voronezh to Neu-Isenburg by mail from other places, and later he said that he had retrieved them from the destroyed house. Frey Junior was born in 1935, and he admitted that at some point he realized that this could not be true. When he talked about relocation is illegal under international law, Germany launched an annihilation war against the Soviet Union, he was ashamed of the crimes of his compatriots and bowed to millions of victims, Frey cried several times. He described his return as a gentle gesture of compensation.
Frey reported that his father often flipped through these books, but when his mother moved into a smaller apartment after his death, they came to the back row of the bookshelf. After her death in 2002, Frey began to find a way to compensate. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which the former Mayor of New Isenburg asked for help, did not want to take action without a comprehensive solution to the problem of looted artworks. The actors in the German town that paired with Voronezh also showed no interest. Finally, in the process of searching for a mediator, he found Eichwede, who had organized the return of books stolen from Voronezh University during World War II in 2006.
Voronezh University is a research university, ranked in the top ten in the country, has trained many foreign students and participated in the Erasmus program. Unfortunately, like other universities, teachers’ salaries are being cut every year. However, Gandovici guarantees that these books will be digitized as soon as possible and made available for free use for international research. The principal said that in the context of geopolitical confrontation, the citizen diplomacy initiative proved the willingness of Russia and Europe to cooperate peacefully.
