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Austrian Collections

By Peter R. Frank, Curator Emeritus (1967-1990) of Germanic Collections at Stanford. From Americana-Austriaca, Bd. 3, Wien, Braumüller, 1974.

"A discourse about music is similar to a narrative on a good meal." This bon mot by the composer Hans Pfitzner is likely to raise doubts about the value of describing a book collection. One should see a library rather than read a description of it, feel the ambiance of the place and the books there, stroll along the shelves and pick out a book here and there This report is not intended to provide a substitute for such an experience. On the contrary, it is designed to be a temptation. It is intended to be only a brief program or a menu with a very small selection of what is actually available, and you are welcome to visit Stanford to see the Austrian and all other collections. As an additional attraction Stanford is close to San Francisco.

Compared with such old and venerable Institutions as the Harvard University Libraries (founded in 1638), Yale (f. in 1701), Princeton (f. m 1746), or Columbia (f. in 1754), the Stanford University Libraries founded in 1885, are young and cannot yet boast of having reached the century mark. Nevertheless, Stanford ranked in 1970/71 ninth among American and Canadian University. Libraries, with holdings now of about 3,6 million volumes. (In comparison, the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna has about 2 million volumes.)

Ten years after the founding of the Stanford University Libraries, the library of Rudolf Hildebrand, Leipzig, a long-time editor of Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch, was acquired. This laid the basis for a large and excellent German collection, which has constantly flown over the decades. This collection is especially strong in German language and literature and in German history, but also in religion and church history, e. g., the period of the Reformation, and in many other fields as well. An unusual collection German journals and newspapers mostly in rare original editions-from the Acta Eruditorum up to expressionistic magazines-should be mentioned, and also the large collection of German theses and Schulschriften. They represent an important body of secondary literature not normally available in large libraries.

Austrian literature and history was considered at Stanford, as usual, as part of the German collection, and there was no special and separate emphasis on Austriaca. Put briefly, there were the usual works one can expect to find within a German collection in any larger University Library. This situation changed dramatically, when an offer of an Austrian collection of about 4000 items reached Stanford in 1967. Fortunately, that offer came at a time when libraries were intended to buy and no restrictions on the budget were in sight, so that a transatlantic telephone call reserved the books for Stanford. Most of these books belonged originally to the famous collection of Max von Portheim, which was the best and largest private collection in this field. Portheim died in 1937 in Vienna, his library and the famous catalog were acquired by the Wiener Stadtbibliothek where it is still housed. The collection offered to Stanford consisted mainly of duplicates of the Portheim collection with the significant bookplate and often the private binding of the collector, but also of books by other collectors like Moritz Grolig, Erzherzog Rainer, Theodor von Karajan and others.

With the acquisition of this collections bought in two parts in 1968, including books, brochures, broadsheets and journals, Stanford laid the foundation of an Austrian collection which can now be considered one of the best in this country. Its holdings are especially rich in the period of Joseph II. and the Austrian Enlightenment with many very rare original editions. It is equally rich in materials from the 19th century up to the present. It covers such fields as national history, cultural and local history, literature, theater, music and arts, religion anal church history, and also military affairs, political science anal several other fields. This collection is supplemented by the holdings of the library in the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, that collects materials roughly from 1871 on. Hoover houses, for example, the library and manuscripts of the Austrian pacifist and Nobel Prize Winner Alfred A. Fried, materials by the Austrian Marxist Karl Kautsky and the papers of Karl B. Frank (,,Neues Beginnen", an exile group after 1933), a set of the Neue Freie Presse (1864-1938, some parts on film), and the original edition of Karl Kraus' famous magazine Die Fackel (1899-1936).

Within a few years, the Austriaca Collection in the Main l.ibrary was systematically supplemented by the acquisition of both old and current books. It is unusually rich in books, brochures and periodicals which are hard to find not only in USA but sometimes also even in Europe outside of Austria. (A considerable part is therefore kept in Special Collections or in Locked Stacks.) Even if there are still some awkward lacunae, Stanford houses now, on the whole, a well-balanced Austriaca collection, with some emphasis on material in German language. I shall deal here only with this German part of the collection.

One can expect to find at Stanford all important editions of a main author, at least the most important works of minor authors and a vast selection of secondary literature. In the case of Grillparzer, to cite a prominent example, Stanford has more than 10 different editions of his collected works, starting with the 4th edition of the Sämtliche Werke (1887), the 5th edition revised and enlarged by A. Sauer (1893), the Werke edited by St. Hock, with the rare register volume by R. Smekal (1911 - 1914), the voluminous historical critical edition by A. Sauer and R. Backmann (1909 ff) up to the new edition of the Sämtliche Werke by P. Frank and K. Pörnbacher (1960-1965) and the East German edition by C. Träger (1967). There is a complete set of the Jahrbuch der Grillparzer-Gesellschaftwith all newer series (1891 ff), the Grillparzer Forum Forchtenstein (1965 ff) available as well as the 6 original volumes of the Gespräche und Charakteristiken... (1904-1916), the bibliophile facsimile edition of the portraits in a portfolio, Grillparzer im Bilde edited by R. Payer von Thurn (1930) and the catalog of the Grillparzer-Zimmer im Wiener Rathause (o. J., 1905). Among many other old and current secondary literary works Stanford has the early studies by A. Farinelli, E. Kuh, H. Laube, E. Reich, J. Volkelt and by others, A. v. Littrow-Bischoff's Aus dem persönlichen Verkehre mit F.G. (1873), and also the booklet by A. Burckhart F.G. in England and America (1961) or N. Fuerst's Gr. auf der Biihne (1958).

As far as history is concerned (to give another example), Stanford has the revised and enlarged edition of Geschichte und Kulturleben Österreichs by F.M. Mayer, R.F. Kaindl and other (3 vols., 1958 to 1966), the new edition of K. Uhlirz' Handbuch der Geschichte Österreich-Ungarns (v.1-, 1966 ff) as well as A. Huber's Geschtchte Österreichs (6 vols., 1885-1921) and almost all relevant newer works, e. g., by H. Hantzsch, E. Zöllner and others. Available are the Archiv für Österreichische Geschichte (Jg.1 ff, 1848 ff), the Fontes Rerum Austriacarum (v. 1 ff, 1849 ff) and the Mitteilungen of the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung (v. 1ff, 1880 ff), with some parts lacking. One may take for granted that such standard works and series and almost all similarly important sources in the larger fields are available at Stanford.

Thus, I don't have to mention C.v. Wurzbach's well-known Biographisches Lexikon or Who's Who in Austria, but we have to deal with I. de Luca's Das gelehrte Österreich (vol. 1 in 2 parts, 1776-1778, no more published). Luca achieved for Austria what Hamberger and Meusel attained in Germany. His work contains about 4000 biographical entries, it was a kind of Kurschner's Gelehrtenkalenler of its time. Luca included in an appendix information about contemporary artists and actors, and he gives a chronology of arts and sciences in Austria from 1776 to 1778. Another useful tool is the Österreichi sche National-EncyklopÄdie by F. GrÄffer and J. Czikann (6 vols. with supplement,1835-1837). It contains articles on places and things as well as biographical articles and has several surveys and statistics. As Gräffer proudly stated, this work was one of the first German encyclopedias for a single German state. In addition to these and many other handbooks, important bibliographies are available, e.g. Gugitz's monumental Bibliographie zur Geschichte und Stadtkunde von Wien (5 vols., 1947 to 1962), also catalogs of libraries, bookdealers and auctions, and of expositions. Again, I can list only a few: catalog Nr. 118 Wien from the bookdealer A. Reichmann (1936), the famous catalog of the Sammlung Dr. Arthur Mayer (6 pts. in 1 v., 1942-1944), large parts of the voluminous Katalog der Bibliothek des k.k Österreichischen Kriegsarchivs (9 vols., 1896-1905) catalogs like the Katalog der historischen Ausstellung der Stadt Wien (1873), the Katalog der Wiener Congress Ausstellung (1896) and the Katalog der Erzherzog Carl-Ausstellung (1909).

To deal with Austrian literature is much harder than to list catalogs. First of all, there is the old question as to whether there exists an Austrian literature at all. For the benefit of further congresses and conferences I am avoiding this question and shall claim the label "Austrian literature" only for bibliographical purposes and for this short article. Secondly, many Austrian authors were ,,Zuagraste'', foreigners who happened to find Austria more tolerable than their own countries and chose to live there. And finally, most of the authors, especially at the time of the Enlightenment, but also later, were "hommes des lettres" or simply "Schlampiers", writers who did not care so much about form. They did not know what strict rules German professors were to impose on literature later. But these authors wrote blithely about religion and politics, about military affairs and travels, and to make things worse they wrote also poems, sometimes novels and stories. Let us therefore consider literature here in the old and broader sense of ,,Literargeschichte", to bring all these people together. That has always been the practice of editors of series and anthologists.

The Deutsch-Österreichische Klassikerbibliothek edited by 0. Rommel (48 vols., 1908-1916), in small, handsome volumes, houses not only famous authors like Lenau, Grillparzer, Stifter, but also Buerle, Gleich and Meisl and has even one volume ,,Politische Lyrik des Vor-märz". At Stanford are the old and the new series of the Wiener Neudrucke (11 vols. in 4, 1883-1886, edited by A. Sauer, and vol. 1 ff, 1970 ff, edited by H. Zeman), parts of the Bibliothek deutscher Schriftsteller aus Böhmen, Mhren und Schlesien (1894 ff). Here is also a complete set of the original edition of the Schriften des Literarischen Vereins in Wien (24 vols., 1904-1919), and almost all volumes of the series Denkwürdigkeiten aus Alt-Österreich (1912 ff), mostly memoirs and the volumes are well known for their excellent annotations. Many anthologies are here, from the Album . . . zum Besten der Verunglückten von Pesth und Ofen (1838) with the frontispiece by Schwind and the first print of Lenau's poem ,,Drey Zigeuner" up to the expressionistic anthology by E A. Reinhardt Die Botschaft (1920) and H. Weigel's collections. One can find first prints also in the almanacs which were fashionable in the 19th century: in the Alglaja edited by J. Sonnleithner and J. Schreyvogel (17 vols., 1815-1832, vols. 8 and 19 lacking), or in the Iris... für 1848 (1847) with the first prints of Grillparzer's ,,Armen Spielmann" and Stifter's ,,Prokopus".

One of the most interesting works of the Austrian Baroque era, the Georgica Curiosa Aucta by W. H. von Hohberg (3 vols., 1715/16), came by chance to Stanford, as did the Abraham a Santa Clara collection Reimb Dich... (1687). We luckily found both works in the estate of a Viennese architect who lived for decades in Palo Alto near Stanford. Hohberg's work is a manual for the baroque nobleman who lives in the countryside. It reflects the whole spectrum of life, the education of children as well as the breeding of horses, even a cookbook and a medical advisor are included, and it is richly illustrated by many copperplate-engravings. At the sundown of the Baroque, the Theresiade by F. Chr. von Scheyb (1746) was published. The text is rather dull reading today, but the book, with its splendid typography, its copperplate engravings and vignettes, is certainly one of the most beautiful volumes of this period. In addition to these and many other original editions, and later critical editions of works by Austrian writers of this period, there is also available a microfilm of the famous Faber du Faur Collection at Yale, German Baroque Literature.

The stimulating changes of the time of Maria Theresia and Joseph II., from absolutism to enlightenment, are reflected in literature. J. von Sonnenfels was a main figure, his rare Gesammelte Schriften (10 vols., 1783-1787) are at Stanford. It was he who wrote against capital punishment and torture, Maria Theresia abolished torture in 1776. His writings about theater were widely discussed. He was also well known as ,,Kameralist", as an economic and political writer, anal considered as one of the best orators. Friedrich von der Trenck published his Smmtliche Gedichte and Schriften (8 vols.) in 1786. He became famous for his alleged affair with a sister of Frederick II., and his spectacular escape from a Prussian prison. The Schrifiten do not offer his report about his escape, but contain his poems, essays and treatises and orations.

Many other names, other works should be named for this period: Michael Denis, today better known for his works on libraries and bibliography (which Stanford acquired recently), with Ossians and Sineds Lieder (6 vols., 1784), W. L. Werkhrlin's Denkwürdigkeiten von Wien (1 out of 3 vols., 1777) and his Pantalon-Phöbus und Haschka (1784) with the chapters ,,Unsinn aus Haschka" to "save Prof. Lichtenberg from reading it", and, about hundred years before K. Kraus' famous Harden-"Translation", a witty "Haschkaisches Wörterbuch". Furthermore writings by Blumauer, by J. Rautenstrauch, the "Eipeldauer"-Richter, J. Friedel with the Briefe aus Wien (2 vols., 1783) and J. Pezzl with his Marokkanische Briefe (1784). J. F. Ratschky's charming anacreontic poems are available in a collector's reprint, Der verpachtete Parnaß (l952), and in original edition we have his counter-revolutionary satiric epic poem Melchior Striegel (1799, 2nd edition with the copperplate-engravings by Ramberg).

The 19th century was Austria's "classical" period, but I will not deal here with famous authors like Grillparzer or Stifter whose works are of course available. Goethe's lVest-ostlicher Divan was greatly indebted to J. von Hammer-Purgstall's translation of Hafiz' Divan (2 vols., 1812/13), but it was also inspired by Marianne von Willemer, an Austrian lady who contributed some famous poems to this collection. Goethe had many Austrian friends and admirers, and the pertinent letters were collected by A. Sauer in the work Goethe und Österreich (2 vols., 1902-1904). In the 1830's and 40's epic poems were still en vogue: K. E. Ebert's Wlasta (1829), which Goethe reviewed favorably, L.A. Frankl's Habsb urglied (1832) and A. Meissner's Ziska (1846). Michael Enk von der Burg, monk and later prelate in the famous abbey of Melk, is one of the interesting figures of the ,,Vormärz". He was an expert on l.ope de Vega, wrote about many topics in his books Uber den Umgang mit uns selbst (1829), Briefe über Goethes Faust (1834) and Über Bildung und Selbstbildung (1842). The bohemian of this period was F. Sauter, whose Gedichte published posthumously (1855), are rare today. For political literature two examples will suffice: K. I. Beck with his Lieder von armen Mann (1846), which properly began with a foreword to the house of Rothschild . . ., and the novel Dissolving views by L. Wolfram (i. e. F. Prandtner, 3 vols., 1861). Prandtner was a ,,Hofrat" and a high official of the government who knew the Austrian bureaucracy well, too well. The novel disturbed the Austrian government all the way up to the emperor, Franz Joseph II., when it was published under a pseudonym. Two journalists also contributed substantially to Austrian literature, F. Kiirnberger and L. Speidel, mas-ters of the feuilleton and the essay. F. Kürnbergers novel Der Amerikamüde (1855) is probably his best known work, and it may even have some attraction today. Stanford has also his last novel, which was suppressed by censorship and published posthumously, Das Schloß der Frevel (1920, first complete edition), and collections of his novelletes and letters. L. Speidel's writings are available in his Schriften (3 vols. out of 4, 1910/11). As in most other cases, I mention only one or two titles while usually five, ten, or even more titles are available for each of these authors.

There is a large collection by authors of the turn of the century, modern "classical" authors like Hofmannsthal and Rilke, Kafka and K. Kraus, up to most recent writers like P. Handke, F. Jandl, G.F. Jonke and others - in rare first editions, collected works, selections and single titles. Again, titles such as F. Blei's Vermischte Schriften (6 vols., 1911-13) or O. Stoessl's Gesammelte Werke (5 vols. in 4, 1933-1938) may prove this.

It was only within the last decade that popular literature has come more and more into its own. Stanford has also a considerable collection in this field. Here are Chr. H. Spiess' Gesammelte Werke (2 vols., 1790), J. Richter's Die Frau Liesel (1795), ,,zum Lachen für die Noblesse und zum Nachdenken für den Bürger", one of the first German novels about a servant, novels by E. Breier and A. J. Gross-Hoffinger, and A. Langer's Der alte Naderer (1867), a story about a police agent out of the Metternich system, to select a few items.

Theater, in addition to concerts, the opera and football, has always been the heart of Austrian enjoyment. It was the Viennese Folk-theater which was characterized by O. Rommel as a kind of Elizabethan theater without a Shakespeare (instead they had to have Raimund, Grillparzer and Nestroy, which was not too bad either). There is a good collection of original plays: Sämmtliche Schriften by G. Stephanie d.J. (1792), with the text of Mozart's ,,Der Schauspieldirektor", J. A. Gleich's Komische Theaterstücke (1820), K. Meisel's Theatralisches Quodlibet (6 vols. in 3, 1820), but also plays by Ayrenhoff, Gewey, Hafner, Klemm (Der auf den Parnaß versetzte grüne Hut, 1767, which satirized Sonnenfels and his theater reforms), Perinet and many others. All the major histories of the Austrian theaters are available, from the theaters in Vienna, Prag, the Salzburg Festival and elsewhere, including studies about stage directors and actors. Next to theater is music: the Special Collect ions, for example, have the wonderful autograph of Schubert's Lied im Grünen, authographic sketches, scores and piano scores by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler and others. In addition to considerable holdings in the Music Library, there is also the rich "Archive of Recorded Sound", with many old and rare recordings.

It was an American scholar, Pitirim A. Sorokin, who found out that the Austrians fought more wars (and probably lost more) than did the Prussians or most of the other European nations. Austria was one a world power, and so it has a lively history. Before the rise of the modern national states in the 19th century, its history was closely interwoven with that of Germany, but also for a long time with its eastern, southern and western neighbors who belonged to the Austrian Empire before 1918. The Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, edited by the Crown Prince Archduke Rudolf (24 vols. 1886 to 1902) reflects therefore not only the history and cultural heritage of the German speaking Austrians, but also of now independent nations like Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

The holdings in Austrian history are nearly as strong as those in literature, again with many source materials, rare and sought after items. There is a small collection of broadsheets, daily reports and extras from the Tyrolean War of Liberation 1809/10 and a rather extensive collection of about 1300 similar items from the Austrian revolution of 1848/49. Stanford has the earliest scholarly collection of sources on Austrian history. H. Pez' Scriptorum Rerum Austriacarum (2 vols., 1721 to 1725) as well as the Regesta Habsburgica, edited by O. Redlich et al. (3 vols., 1905-1934), the still important Histori Leopoldi Magni Caesaris Augusti by F.R. Wagner (2 vols., 1719-1731) and the magnificent Vollständiges Diarium ... vor, bey und nach der Krönung Carls VII. (2 pts. in 1, 1743), with many copperplate-engravings). Available also are contemporary prints of several peace treaties and declarations: the Friedenstraktat ... geschlossen zu Teschen (1779) between Frederick the Great and Maria Theresia, the Friedens-Tractat zwischen . . . dem Kaiser der Franzosen (1809) between Franz I. and Napoleon, in German and French: the declarations by Archduke Carl Aufruf an Österreichs Völker (1809) and Aufruf an die Völker Österreichs bei dem Ausbruch des Krieges 1813. Among other writings by Archduke Carl, especially first printings on military affairs, Stanford has his Ausgewählte Schriften (6 vols. + 1 v. maps, 1893/94). And there is, together with many editions of letters and later collections, the rare first edition Ausgewählte Schriften by Friedrich von Gentz (5 vols. 1836-1838). A variety of material is available from the period of Metternich, the "Vormärz", especially for the Revolution of 1848/49 and for the time thereafter up to the present. Stanford was one of the few American university libraries participating in the microfilming of materials of the Haus-, Hof- and Staatsarchiv, mostly material dealing with Austro-Prussian relations, but also with other European powers in the second half of the 19th century. Hoover, moreover, has microfilmed material relating to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajewo, World War I, and the Slavic exile group activities.

I can mention for each period only a few items: the Historische Aktenstücke über das Ständewesen in Österreich (6 fasc., 1847/48), the Protokolle des Verfassungsausschusses im österr. Reichstag 1848/49 (1885), the Album der glorreichen Ereignisse der Woche vom 12. bis 18. März 1848 nebst einer Sa mmlung in dieser Zeit erschienenen Reden. Aufrufe und Gedichten, edited by S. Becher (2 pts., 1848), J. Fröbel's Briefe über die Wiener Oktoberrevolution (1849), material by and about W.C. Messenhauser, the commander of the Wiener Nationalgarde during the days of revolution, and many other related works. Two tragic figures of Austrian history were the general L. A. von Benedek, who lost the battle of Königgrätz in 1866 against Moltke and the Prussians, and Maximilian I., Emperor of Mexico, who was shot to death by Mexican insurgent troops in 1867-shown in a famous painting by E. Manet. Benedek's Nachgelassene Papiere (1901) are here as well as the report of the Austrian General Staff Österreichs Kämpfe im Jahre 1866 (5 vols. in 2 1867-1869). The reports of Maximilian's reign and his last days, written by the Prince zu Salm-Salm, Maximilian's physician and other persons, are available, also books by the emperor, his autobiography Aus meinem Leben (6 vols., 1867) and other works.

In addition to general studies, the still valuable Histoire de l' Empire d'Autriche (6 vols., 1844-1846) by Coeckelberghe de Dützele, J. Mailath's Geschichte des österreichischen Kaiserstaates (5 vols., 1834 to 1850), or the monumental volume An Ehren und an Siegen reich, edited by M. Herzig (1908)-historicism in a beautiful art noveau-edition-, to these works and others, mentioned before, there is a good collection of very detailed items on local history. I list only Nachrichtlen vom Zustande der Gegenden und Stadt Juvavia/Salzburg (1784), anonymous, by F. T. von Kleinmayern, J. v. Hormayrs famous Wien, seine Geschicke und seine Denkwürdigkeiten (7 vols. + 2 vols. documents, 1823 to 1825) with many beautiful copper engravings from Viennese castles, places and streets, works like A. Kerschbaumer's Geschichte der Stadt Krems (1885) or the numerous histories or descriptions of the Bezirke of Vienna. One may add here the several Ho{- und Staatsschematismus der Haupt- und Residenzstadt Wien (1802 et al.) and other manuals and genealogical works.

A few sketchy notes about some other fields will add to the picture. In religion and church history, Stanford has, for example one of the most important early books on the Protestants in Austria, B. Raupach's Evangelisches Österreich (1732) bound together with... Erläutertes Evangelisches Österreich ... (1738). In the period of enlightenment and Joseph II., religion was a very controversial topic, which was dealt with in a flood of pamphlets. Many or these booklets and brochures came to Stanford with the duplicates of the Portheim-Collection. Figures like Cl. Maria Hofbauer, with the rare Monumenta Hofbaueriana (14 vols., lacking v. 11, 1915-1951) among other works. S. Brunner and later C. Vogelsang are duly represented in the collection, also the discussions about the Jesuits or the Ligourians. And there are some rarities with early prints about the Salzburg Protestant emigrants, who were forced to leave their country on behalf of their faith and who settled later mostly in the Eastern part of Prussia, and in the new British colony of Georgia in North America. There is also a good selection of Judaica at Stanford, with many early and rare titles.

It has often been asserted that the culinary climate of Austria is totally alien to philosophy. I. e., an Austrian who is able to think philosophically must be a contradictio in adjecto. Nevertheless, there were in the 19th century and later at least some persons who received a reputation from the community of philosophers: B. Bolzano and F. Brentano and their disciple E. Husserl, for example, or later the Viennese circle with M. Schlick and L. Wittgenstein. Stanford has some lesser known works by Bolzano and Brentano, and a complete set of Lydia, Philosophisches Jahrbuch, edited by A. Günther and J. E. Veith (5 vols., 1849-1854). Philosophers believe, of course that each thinker is directly related to wisdom (to rephrase Ranke's well known sentence) that nationality does not matter in the clear air of abstraction, and they might be right. I included some names only to prove that also this part of the collection is adequately represented.

Much better know is the Austrian contribution to psychology, above all the works of S. Freud and his psychoanalytic school, and A. Adler's individual psychology. I should also mention Chr. von Ehrenfels, one of the founders of the Gestalt psychology, or O. Weininger, whose anti-feministic Geschlecht und Charakter (1907 edition) may be seen as the male antithesis of the voices of todays woman's liberation ...

Stanford has both in extent and in quality an unusual collection of periodicals. Scholars hesitate to use them because of the vast amount of time which must be dedicated to their study. Nevertheless many of these periodicals contain source materials, they reflect the atmosphere of a certain period or a movement (with all the transitory signs playing their role) much more distinctive than books singled out of the historical context. To list a few titles: available are the first two annual sets of the Gazette de Vienne (1757/58) and the Ephemerides Vindobonensis ad annum 1781, J. Richter's rare Die Kapuzinersuppe (Topf 1-3, 1787) and J. v. Sonnenfels well-known Der Mann ohne Vorurteil (3 vols., 1773), the Bibliothek der Österreichischen Literatur (v.1, 1769) or the Österreichischer Toleranz-Bote aus dem Jahr 1787 and ... für 1790. In the 19th and 20th century: the Wiener Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, edited by J. von Hormayr et al. (4 Jg. in 8 vols., 1813-1816), an almost complete set of the rare Österreichischer Beobachter, launched by F. von Gentz, edited first by F. Schlegel and later by J. A. von Pilat (1811-1840), the complete Jahrbücher der Literatur, edited by M. C. von Collin (v. 1 - 128, 1818-1849), which is important for its excellent reviews. Parts of the Sammler (v. 10-26, 1818-1834) and a set of the Österreichische Volksfreund (4 vols., 1830/31); rare periodicals of the revolution 1848/49 such as Die Geißel, edited by J. Ertl (1848) and die Politische Briefe, edited by A. Neustadt with the obviously rare cover-jackets (Nr. 1-8, 1849); following a long run of the Österreichisch-Ungarische Revue (5 vols., 1863-1867 and large parts of the N. F. 1886-1902), journals like Der Brenner (18 vols., partly in reprint, 1910-1954), O. Basil's avantgardistic Plan (2 vols., 1945 to 1948) up to the Protokolle (v. 1 ff, 1966 ff) or Profil, the Austrian "Spiegel" (v. 2 ff, 1971 ff). And here is, too, the pertinent secondary literature by Helfert, Zenker, Paupié and others which facilitates working with these periodicals.

Finally, we should touch on the Austro-American relations (and vice versa). Only a short period is treated in H. Schlitter's Die Beziehungen Österreichs zu Amerika. 1. Teil: Die Beziehungen zu den Vereinigten Staaten 1778-1787 (1885, no more published). Some relevant material can be found in Österreich und die angelsächsische Welt. Begegnungen und Vergleiche, edited by O. Hietsch (2 vols., 1961-1968) and in Austria externa; unser zehntes Bundesland (1968). The most comprehensive work up to now is E. W. Spaulding The quiet invaders, the story of the Austrian impact upon America (1968) . The author, an American, claims that a surprising number of important persons-like justice Felix Frankfurter, Hattie Carnegie, Drive-Yourself-Hertz, Kurt H. Adler, R Bing, E. I.einsdorf, Frederick Loewe, Billy Wilder, to mention only a few -were of Austrian descent and played a major part in American life.

Stanford's Austrian collection reflects almost all the important aspects of Austria and its heritage. One will find source materials here for detailed research and study on Austrian history, literature and cultural life. It depends on your preference: you can read here either the standard book on the Wiener Koffehaus by G. Gugitz (2 vols., 1940), which was really a social institution, or you may enjoy the Erinnerungen des letzten Scharfrichters im k.k. Österreich by J. Lang (1920). You can find a copy of F. Gonords famous Silhouetten aus dem Jahre 1781 (1922), a work to which Max von Portheim contributed so much, or you can get information about an inn-keeper who had "zu ebener Erde" an inn "und im ersten Stock" a famous library with about 16,000 books, consulted by scholars like Hammer-Purgstall, K. Gödeke,W. Scherer and others. M. M. Rabenlechner wrote about this typical Viennese ,,Original", F. Haydinger, der Wirt von Margarethen (1927).

It was by a fortunate circumstance that the Austriaca Collection came to California, to Stanford, whose campus is still bordered by the El Camino Real, the Street of the King, a reminder of the Spanish soldiers who discovered and occupied this country ad gloriam of Charles V, the Habsburg Emperor upon whose empire "the sun never set". It was an Austrian, too, who drew the first map of California, Pater Kühne (alias Pater Kino, if the Italians claim him). Perhaps it is one of the lesser ironies of history that a collection dealing with Austria, a country characterized by Karl Kraus as "a laboratory for the destruc-tion of the world", should come to the earthquake-country. Undoubtedly, California will survive, and with it, hopefully, the Austrian Collection.

Last modified: May 19, 2009