The National Socialism and the Potential of the Public Library. The Example of the State Circular Office for Library of Bautzen

Former state advisory services for public libraries were among the oldest institutions of the local library system. The National Socialists quickly realised their potential and made targeted use of them as a means of exerting political influence. The history of the Staatliche Kreisfachstelle fur Volksbuchereiwesen Bautzen reflects the political events of the first half of the 20th century at the regional level because Germany had a double border in Upper Lusatia an external border to Czechoslovakia and an internal one to the Wends region, the part of Lusatia which remains bilingual to this day. During the Nazi period the director of the Kreisfachstelle, Kurt Marx, ensured that all Sorbian/Wendish literature disappeared from the school and local libraries in addition to those included in the book elimination process ordered by the state. For him, "Volksbildung" (national education) meant educating people to become members of the German Volk. He used state funds to establish libraries and contacts to the Amtshauptmannschaft as a means of implementing the official goals. Kurt Marx thus turned the battle for the German book into a battle against the Wendish language.