Book Burning May 30, 1933 / Exerzierplatz
The book burnings in May 1933 had been staged by the NS-led "German Student Union" in 22 German university towns as an "action against the un-German spirit". The "black list" of the NS-librarian Wolfgang Herrmann, which was decisive for this, comprised over 300 authors and works, including Remarque, Kästner, Tucholsky, Ossietzky, Marx or Heinrich Mann. Although not a university town at the time, the municipal library management, the municipal library committee, the municipal school board and the NS-"Kampfbund für Deutsche Kultur" nevertheless organised a corresponding book burning in Flensburg. On 30 May 1933, several hundredweight of confiscated literature as well as trade union, social democratic and communist flags and banners were piled up on the parade ground and burnt for three hours in front of a "large crowd". Afterwards, the local NS-press reported in words and pictures. No public protests are known. In the following weeks, the gaps in the shelves in the municipal and school libraries were filled with NS-literature.(1)
Broder Schwensen
(1) Stadtarchiv Flensburg XII Hs 03XXX wiss. Vortragsmanuskript „Bücherverbrennung in Flensburg, Mai 1933“ von Broder Schwensen mit Quellenverweisen. Erstmals gehalten in der Stadtbibliothek Flensburg am 29.05.2013. – Ludwig Hecker (Red.): Auf den Spuren von Verfolgung und Widerstand 1933-1945 in Flensburg. Eine Stadtwanderung. Flensburg 2020, S.56f. – Flensburger Nachrichten, 31.05.1933.
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