Download this summary catalogue (PDF) ›ADLER, Hans Gunther (1910-1988)

Identity statement

Reference code(s)

GB 100 K/PP147 Adler, H G

Title

Adler, Hans Gunther (1910-1988)

Date(s)

1807-1997

Level of description

Collection

Extent and medium of the unit of description (quantity, bulk, or size)

17 boxes

Context

Name of creator(s)

Adler | Hans Gunther | 1910-1988 | poet and novelist | known as H G Adler

Administrative / Biographical history

Born, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1910; studied musicology, literature and philosophy, Charles University, Prague; awarded PhD, 1935; sent to forced labour camp, Bohemia, 1941; deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp, Czechoslovakia, 1941; transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland, 1944; returned to Prague, 1945; involved in the creation of the Jewish Museum, Prague, 1945-1947; emigrated to London, 1947.  Wrote (in German) poetry, novels, plays and essays, notably relating to the history of the Holocaust, also on sociology, religion and philosophy.  Published a history of Theresienstadt concentration camp, Theresienstadt, 1941-1945: das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft, 1955; died, 1988.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Placed in the Archives by Prof Jeremy Adler (son), 2003

Content & structure

Scope and content

Papers of H G Adler, 1807-1997, including:

Notebooks containing manuscript poems by Adler, 1924, and undated.

Typescript texts of poems by Adler, 1927-1988.

File entitled 'Theresienstadt private erinnerungen' containing items relating to Theresienstadt concentration camp, including drafts of poems, sketches, and notes to his first wife.

Photocopies of Adler's correspondence, 1947-1987, including correspondence with novelists Hermann Broch and Heinrich Böll.

Corrected original typescript copy of Adler's Theresienstadt [1948], (beleived to be the second or third carbon copy).

Typescript copies of Adler's Schuldig und Unshuldig, 1954-1967, Die Anseidlung dargestellt als Roman, Die Prüfung and England: Eindrück Eines Ahnungslosen.

Photograph of Adler in old age.

Printed photocopies of the statements made in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, bound in 6 volumes, in German, (Israeli Police, 1961), and transcripts for the preliminary investigations for the trial.

Typescript copies of articles by Adler including 'Gerdenken an Prag', 1981, and 'Die Protokolle der weisen von zion'.

Photocopies of typescript books and articles by Adler, notably Der Mechanische Materialismus, Raoul Feuerstein and Die Orthodoxie des Herzens.

Manuscript sheet music by Viktor Ullmann, 'Der Mensch und sein Tag', based on poems by Adler.

Audio recordings, including an obituary of Adler broadcast on the BBC Czech Service, 1988.

Offprint articles by Adler and books edited and translated by Adler.

Catalogue of the literary estate of H G Adler by Jeremy Adler and Franz Hocheneder.

PhD dissertation by Franz Hocheneder, 'HG Adler: Werk und Nachlass - Eine Bibliographische Studie', 1997.

 

Conditions of access & use

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of a Reader's undertaking form and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only.  Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Senior Archives Manager, Archives Services.

Language/scripts of material

German, with some Czech and English

Finding aids

Box list available online and in hard copy in the Archives reading room.

Allied materials

Existence and location of originals

King's College London College Archives

Related units of description

KCL Foyle Special Collections Library holds H G Adler's personal library.  KCL Archives also holds papers of Professor Jeremy Adler (son).  Some published books, chiefly first editions of Adler's works, were transferred from the Archives H G Adler collection to join the Special Collections Adler holdings, Feb 2015.  One typescript volume of Leo Baeck's Die Entwicklung der Rechtsstellung der Juden in Europa was also transferred.

Deutsche Literaturarchiv in Marbach, Germany, hold the first carbon copy of the original typescript for Theresienstadt
 

Description control

Rules or conventions

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

This catalogue is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. This catalogue may be updated from time to time in order to reflect additional material and/or new understandings of the material.

Date(s) of descriptions

January 2008, updated January 2015 and 2016