Provenienzforschung - NS-Raubgut in der SLUB

In 2004, items from a valuable collection of autographs were returned to the heirs of the publishing family of Henri Hinrichsen from Leipzig. The collection had been confiscated in 1938 and was sold to the Saxon State Library in 1943 by Hans Klemm, an antiquarian bookseller from Leizpig.

The Secret Councillor of Commerce, Dr. phil. h.c. Henri Hinrichsen, was a publisher and benefactor in Leipzig. He was born on 5th February 1868 in Hamburg to the Jewish manufacturer Robert Hinrichsen (1835-1917) and his wife Betty (née Abraham, 1840-1919). In Leipzig, Basel, Brussels and London, he learned the details of the profession of music dealer and publisher. On 15th May 1891, Hinrichsen joined his uncle Max Abraham’s music publishing company C. F. Peters in Leipzig. In 1894, he became a partner of the publishing house and, from 1900 onwards, he managed it alone. Hinrichsen married Martha Bendix (1879-1941) in 1898 and had two daughters and five sons with her. On 29th May 1929, the Faculty of Arts at the University of Leipzig awarded Henri Hinrichsen an honorary doctorate.

In 1939, Hinrichsen was expropriated due to the “aryanisation” of the music publishing company C. F. Peters. He emigrated to Belgium in 1940. He was arrested in Brussels, deported to Auschwitz and murdered there at the age of 74 on 17th September 1942.