THE "REINHART KOSELLECK" LIBRARY
at the West University of Timisoara
The donation
In 2013, the West University of Timisoara, the "Reinhart Koselleck" International Doctoral School of Conceptual History and the Center for Advanced Studies in History had the privilege to receive the personal library (around 5800 volumes) of the renowned historian and scholar Reinhart Koselleck. The books were hosted for a long period during the historian's life in his residence at LuisenstraBe, in Bielefeld.
Why a Reinhart Koselleck Library at West University of Timisoara? The relations between the academic milieu in Timisoara and Reinhart Koselleck were initiated by the Romanian historian Victor Neumann. The two scholars were engaged in a rich correspondence and had met several times before Reinhart Koselleck's visit to Timisoara. In 2005, in recognition of the historian's academic achievements, the West University of Timisoara awarded Reinhart Koselleck the title of Doctor Honoris Causa.
In Timisoara, Reinhart Koselleck showed interest in Victor Neumann's own interpretation of Begriffsgeschichte. He encouraged Victor Neumann's project of establishing a doctoral school and a research center of conceptual history in Timisoara. The two projects, the "Reinhart Koselleck" International Doctoral School of Conceptual History (2009) and the Center for Advanced Studies in History (2011) materialized through constant and fruitful cooperation between Victor Neumann and another researcher of the Romanian scholarly milieu, the historian Armin Heinen of Historisches Institut der RWTH, in Aachen.
The objective of the Center for Advanced Studies in History at West University of Timisoara is to advocate, appropriate and further develop Reinhart Koselleck's work and historical approach in resonance to the Eastern and South-Eastern cultural and historical context, to foster research and stimulate analytical thinking in the field of humanities. According to the historian's family, entrusting the library to the university in Timsoara, resembles the Professor's wish of developing an interdisciplinary and a transnational historical science beyond borders and national prejudices.
Our gratitude goes to Reinhart Koselleck's family - Felicitas Koselleck, Bettina, Felix, Ruprecht, Konrad und Katharina for honoring our research center with the scholar's library. We owe special thanks to Katharina Koselleck who was helpful in the legal matters and the library's relocation. She also attended the official inauguration of the "Reinhart Koselleck" Library in February 2014. Last but not least we are thankful to the great scholar Reinhart Koselleck (1923-2006).
The library
The structure and diversity of the book collection is suggestive for Reinhart Koselleck's interdisciplinary intellectual formation and relevant for the historian's wide range of interests. The library comprises several smaller book collections which earlier belonged to various personalities. One part is represented by the volumes gathered by Arno Koselleck, historian's father, himself a historian and professor. A second part belonged to his aunt, Hildegard Marchand, an art historian in Weimar, whereas a third substantial number of titles were inherited by Reinhart Koselleck from his godfather and Doktorvater [Ph.D. coordinator], the famous historian Johannes Kuhn.
According to Reinhart Koselleck's daughter, Katharina Koselleck, her father used to select and arrange his books in the library by the topic he was interested at a certain moment. He used to merge domains and approaches corresponding to his literary, artistic and interdisciplinary interests in small work units of titles. Such a selection unit e.g. was dedicated to the concept of time and the perception of time in various epochs and to different cultures. Many of the books reveal Reinhart Koselleck's handwriting, his markings, annotations, observations and comments. Within the pages of the books the savant used to insert cuts from contemporary newspapers or journals, both articles and pictures relating to the topics he was interested in. Among the articles he collected those on history are suggestive for his relentless search in finding the proper answer to the question himself once formulated about the role of history: "Wozu noch Historie?" Other articles however, show his awareness of the social-political reality of his time and his engagement to contemporary public debates on various thorny topics. They betoken Reinhart Koselleck's permanent plea for the essential role of the historian and of the historical science for the 21st century society.
However, in order to facilitate access and to easily locate the volumes in the library, the collection has been cataloged and arranged thematically, by domains and research fields. Where possible we tried to maintain the historian's original selections and work units.
The library contains a wide variety of books mainly relating to historical sciences. Numerous books concern many other disciplines relevant for explaining the evolution of concepts, languages and ideas. The main domains covered by the collection, bluntly defined and probably against Reinhart Koselleck's interdisciplinary credo, are: history, theology, arts, sociology, philosophy, political thought, literature, linguistics, law, psychology, and many others.
Many works concern national histories such as the history of Prussia, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, USA, Russia whereas others relate to wider cultural and geographical spaces such as Europe, Asia, and Australia or to the human civilization as a whole. An important tool for the Koselleckian conceptual history and thus an important part of the library available now in Timisoara are the numerous lexicons, dictionaries and encyclopedias mostly on the German cultural space. The great majority of Reinhart Koselleck's author books, articles, collective volumes he contributed to, and translations of his main oeuvre in many languages are also available.
The library is located in a pleasant and dedicated room within the Center for Advanced Studies in History, at the West University of Timisoara. Access is free to those interested in humanities and social-political studies in general and in Reinhart Koselleck's work in particular.
The catalogue
The library has three catalogs which contain:
- journals
- lexicons and
- books
