7 figures
107 pages
Published on 2022-12-31
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Summary
Hans SACHTLEBEN (1893-1967), who had been deputy director of the German Entomological Institute (DEI) since 1933, took over as director of the institute after the death of Walther HORN (1871-1939) and led the DEI until his retirement in 1963. His time at the DEI was marked above all by the darkest chapter of German history – the end of the Weimar Republic with the seizure of power by the National Socialists, and the Second World War. As a result of the bombing of Berlin, Sachtleben evacuated the Institute together with its collection, library, archive and equipment to Blücherhof Palace in Mecklenburg. After the end of the Second World War, he organised the relocation to Berlin-Friedrichshagen and established the DEI as an institute of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences (DAL).
The present work combines earlier indexing work by Felicitas MARWINSKI undertaken in 1980 and Klaus ROHLFIEN in 1990 with a wealth of previously neglected correspondence to and from the Institute, as well as with archival records subsequently received as a donation. After completion of the indexing work in 2021, the Sachtleben correspondence now comprises 33,711 letters, postcards and telegrams exchanged with 2413 persons and institutions between 1918 and 1965. Additionally, independent correspondence of other staff of the Institute is now indexed separately in this data resource. Particularly Willi HENNIG (1913-1976) and Eberhard KÖNIGSMANN (1930-1980) maintained independent scientific correspondence. The Sachtleben correspondence represents an important resource for research in the history of science and general history, both because of its temporal scope and because of the internationally branched network of entomologists, research institutions and museums that becomes visible through this correspondence.
Keywords
History of science, entomology, archival finding aid, correspondence, biography
