Die “Vorträge der Bibliothek Warburg.” Das intellektuelle Netzwerk der KBW, part II

Among the most interesting activities of the Warburg Library of Cultural Studies (Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg, KBW) are the more than fifty lectures held at the institute between 1921 and 1931. The disciplines of the lecturers (among them philosophers, historians, literary and linguistic scholars, art historians, ethnologists, as well as religious scholars and theologians) already vividly demonstrate what is today regarded as the interdisciplinary approach of the lecture series.

The first part of the workshop took place in November 2019. Part two follows up on this and, on the basis of the lecture series, examines the network of the KBW beyond the intellectuals known today and asks about the impact of the KBW’s scientific program on the various disciplines. After a biographical introduction to the respective scholars, each presentation will address the lectures themselves and analyse whether and how the KBW’s research objectives were considered in them, as they were set out, for example, in Fritz Saxl’s lecture “The Warburg Library and its aims” and summarized with the short formula of the “afterlife of antiquity.”

Fig. above: Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg at Heilwigstraße 116 in Hamburg, reading room. Photograph: Warburg-Haus / Thies Ibold