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The Warburg Institute

  • The Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg in Hamburg achieved a new presence in London after 1933 under the name The Warburg Institute as a research institution with a library and photo archive.
  • The Warburg Institute
  • Research Institute
  • The Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg in Hamburg achieved a new presence in London after 1933 under the name The Warburg Institute as a research institution with a library and photo archive.

    Word Count: 29

  • The Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (K.B.W.), which was exiled from Hamburg at the end of 1933, achieved a new presence in London under the name The Warburg Institute and as a research institution with a library and photo archive. The emigration was organised by Gertrud Bing and Fritz Saxl, who had previously been employed at the K.B.W. in Hamburg alongside the founder Aby M. Warburg (Treml/Weigel 2018, 17f.). Warburg, an art and cultural historian, devoted his research to the afterlife of antiquity. In addition to an extensive research library, he also created an image archive, arranged by key words, which was used for lectures, courses and the conception of the Mnemosyne Picture Atlas. In the 1920s, the K.B.W. was an interdisciplinary research institution and a centre of attraction for scholars such as Ernst Cassirer, Erwin Panofsky, Hellmut Ritter and many others. Terms coined by Warburg such as “Bilderfahrzeuge”, “Bilderwanderung” and “Pathosformel” have themselves become enduring concepts that continue to preoccupy researchers to the present day.

    Aby M. Warburg died in 1929, having determined that the K.B.W. should remain together as a research instrument after his death (Wuttke 1986, 209). Fritz Saxl took over and held the position as director from 1934 to 1948, even after the library emigrated and was re-established as The Warburg Institute. Gertrud Bing also continued her work for the Institute in London exile and led the institution from 1955 to 1959. Other emigrants such as Hans Meier, Edgar Wind, Rudolf Wittkower and Ernst H. Gombrich were also associated with the Warburg Institute as staff members, some of them for decades. Gombrich headed the research institution as director from 1959 to 1976 and, in addition to his widely received works on cultural history such as The Story of Art (1950), also published the first comprehensive biography of the library’s founder: Aby Warburg. An Intellectual Biography.
    The Warburg Institute, Gertrud Bing and Fritz Saxl were important points of reference for emigrants. The slip box at the Warburg Institute archive contains numerous names of exiles who wrote to the institution, including the art dealer Gustav Delbanco, the physicist Albert Einstein, the art historian Carl Einstein, the artist Benno Elkan, the publisher Kurt Enoch, the photographer Lucia Moholy, the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, the orientalist Hellmut Ritter and the costume and stage designer Ernest (Ernst) Stern.
    Some of the emigrants turned to the Warburg Institute for help and work. The Hamburg art historian Rosa Schapire sent an SOS letter to the Warburg Institute after a personal meeting with Gertrud Bing, asking them to help her leave the country for the U.S. (Schapire 1939; Beiersdorf 1009). Although Schapire was unable to emigrate to the U.S., she managed to escape to London, where she lived as a freelance art historian. The photographer Helmut Gernsheim applied for a position as a photographer at the Warburg Institute and worked for the National Buildings Record from 1942; under the direction of the head of the photographic library, Rudolf Wittkower, Gernsheim photographed buildings and sculptures in and around London that were threatened with bombing during the war.

    The Warburg Institute was housed in Thames House from 1934, then moved to the Imperial Institute Buildings in South Kensington near the Victoria & Albert Museum for several years from 1937. In 1958, it moved to its current location in Woburn Square, Bloomsbury (McEwan 2005, 286; Anglo 2015). Publication series such as Studies of the Warburg Institute, the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute, as well as the lectures and exhibitions held there, were intended to underpin the scientific significance and raison d'être of the research institution, which was initially run as a private institution and then incorporated into the University of London in 1944 (Gramberg 1965, 294).
    Above all, the Warburg Institute attracted attention through its lively exhibition activities. The exhibitions drew on the Institute’s photographic collection and followed director Fritz Saxl’s premise that the image was more universal than the spoken word (see McEwan 2015, 97). The Warburg Institute’s exhibitions were didactic and designed as instruments of visual education (Mazzucco 2011, 3). The Visual Approach to the Classics – An Exhibition of Greek and Roman Art opened in 1939, followed by Indian Art in 1940, English Art and the Mediterranean in 1941, and Portrait and Character in 1943. These exhibitions presented photographic reproductions arranged in an explanatory manner.

    The English Art and the Mediterranean exhibition opened on 2 December 1941 with a lecture by Kenneth Clark, the director of the National Gallery, and was widely reviewed in the press, including a review by Herbert Read in The Listener and an article in the émigré newspaper Die Zeitung; both reviews appeared on 18 December 1941 (Anderson/Finch/von Müller 2019, 147–163).
    The fact that the exhibition took place in wartime brought it to the public’s attention and it received more than 10,000 visitors (Anderson 2019, 44). During the war years many museum collections were moved out of London to safer, often rural, locations. Institutions were sometimes closed and few exhibitions took place.
    The Warburg Institute co-organised the lectures on English Art and the Mediterrenean with the Courtauld Institute. Over just two months, from December 1941 onwards, 24 public lectures were held, covering the central themes of the exhibition – English art in the Baroque, the ‘discovery’ of Greece, the Pre-Raphaelites and Italy (Anderson/Finch/von Müller 2019, 168). The purpose of this series of lectures was to contextualize the exhibition theses and to act as a public relations tool. At the same time, local and emigrated scholars from within the Warburg Institute’s ambit gave lectures, including Frederick Antal, Emile Cammaerts, Kenneth Clark, Ernst H. Gombrich, Otto Paecht, Nikolaus Pevsner. It is thus clear that the Institute also contributed to the presence and recognition of emigrant scholars by giving them the opportunity to  participate in an ensemble of recognised and young British scholars.

    English Art and the Mediterranean went on tour after its London stint and was shown in more than 20 other British cities, such as Exeter, Liverpool, Leicester, Cambridge and Darlington between 1941 and 1944, organisationally supported by the Circulation Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum. The show had a political impact within the context of the ever-expanding war, encouraging the British to see themselves as an important part of a Europe threatened by fascism. It is worth noting that a second exhibition organised by emigrants with a political impetus was being held at the same time, namely the Allies Inside Germany exhibition which opened in 1942 and, via picture-text panels, made visible the resistance to the National Socialist regime. Organised by the emigrant association Free German League of Culture, the show toured a number of British cities.

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  • 3 Thames House, Millbank, London SW1 (since 1934); Imperial Institute Buildings, South Kensington, London SW7 (since 1937); Woburn Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1 (since 1958).

  • The Warburg Institute, Reading Room, Imperial Institute Building, London, c. 1952 (© The Warburg Institute).
  • The Warburg Institute, Reading Room, Thames House, London, c. 1934/36 (© The Warburg Institute).
    The Warburg Institute, Reading Room, Woburn Square, London, c. 1958 (© The Warburg Institute).
  • Anderson, Joanne W. “Cultural Life and Politics in Wartime London.” Image Journeys. The Warburg Institute and a British Art History (Veröffentlichungen des Zentralinstituts für Kunstgeschichte in München, 49), edited by Joanne Anderson et al., Dietmar Klinger Verlag, 2019, pp. 43–52.

    Anderson, Joanne, et al., editors. Image Journeys. The Warburg Institute and a British Art History (Veröffentlichungen des Zentralinstituts für Kunstgeschichte in München, 49). Dietmar Klinger Verlag, 2019.

    Anglo, Sydney. “From South Kensington to Bloomsbury and Beyond. The Intellectual Life of the Early Warburg Institute.” The Afterlife of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg. The Emigration and the Early Years of the Warburg Institute in London (Vorträge aus dem Warburg-Haus, 12), edited by Uwe Fleckner and Peter Mack, De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 65–70.

    Beiersdorf, Leonie. “‘Wieder Boden unter den Füssen’ – Rosa Schapire in England (1939–1954).” Rosa. Eigenartig grün. Rosa Schapire und die Expressionisten, edited by Sabine Schulze, exh. cat. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Hamburg, 2009, pp. 250–281.

    Fleckner, Uwe, and Peter Mack, editors. The Afterlife of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg. The Emigration and the Early Years of the Warburg Institute in London (Vorträge aus dem Warburg-Haus, 12). De Gruyter, 2015.

    Gombrich, Ernst H. Aby Warburg. An Intellectual Biography. Warburg Institute, 1970.

    Gramberg, Werner. “In Memoriam Gertrud Bing.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, vol. 11, no. 4, September 1965, pp. 293–295. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27652159. Accessed 11 April 2021.

    Hönes, Hans Christian. “‘A very specialized subject’: Art History in Britain.” Insiders Outsiders. Refugees from Nazi Europe and their Contribution to British Visual Culture, edited by Monica Bohm-Duchen, Lund Humphries, 2019, pp. 97–103.

    Mann, Nicholas. “Past, present and future.” Porträt aus Büchern. Bibliothek Warburg und Warburg Institute. Hamburg – 1933 – London, edited by Michael Diers, exh. cat. Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky, Hamburg, 1993, pp. 133–143.

    Mazzucco, Katia. “1941 English Art and the Mediterranean. A photographic exhibition by the Warburg Institute in London.” Journal of Art Historiography, no. 5, December 2011, https://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/mazzuccowi-k.pdf. Accessed 22 March 2021.

    McEwan, Dorothea. “Exhibitions as Morale Boosters. The Exhibition Programme of the Warburg Institute 1938–1945.” Arts in Exile in Britain 1933–1945. Politics and Cultural Identity (The Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, 6 (2004)), edited by Shulamith Behr and Marian Malet, Rodopi, 2005, pp. 267–300.

    McEwan, Dorothea. “Why Historiography? Fritz Saxl’s Thoughts on History and Writing History.” The Afterlife of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg. The Emigration and the Early Years of the Warburg Institute in London (Vorträge aus dem Warburg-Haus, 12), edited by Uwe Fleckner and Peter Mack, De Gruyter, 2015, pp. 97–115.

    Müller, Johannes von. “‘under the most difficult circumstances’. Exhibitions at the Warburg Institute, 1933–45.” Image Journeys. The Warburg Institute and a British Art History (Veröffentlichungen des Zentralinstituts für Kunstgeschichte in München, 49), edited by Joanne Anderson et al., Dietmar Klinger Verlag, 2019, pp. 29–42.

    Schapire, Rosa. Letter to Fritz Saxl (Archive of The Warburg Institute, London, 22 January 1939).

    Treml, Martin, and Sigrid Weigel. “Einleitung.” Aby Warburg. Werke in einem Band. Auf der Grundlage der Manuskripte und Handexemplare, edited by Martin Treml et al., Suhrkamp, 2010, pp. 9–27.

    Warburg, Eric M. “The Transfer of the Warburg Institute to England.” The Warburg Institute Annual Report 1952–1953, n.d. [1953], pp. 13–16.

    Wuttke, Dieter. “Die Emigration der Kulturwissenschaftlichen Bibliothek Warburg und die Anfänge des Universitätsfaches Kunstgeschichte in Großbritannien.” Kunst im Exil in Großbritannien 1933–1945, exh. cat. Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Berlin, 1986, pp. 209–215.

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  • The Warburg Institute, London.

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  • My deepest thanks go to Claudia Wedepohl (Warburg Institute) for giving me permission to reproduce the images of the Warburg Institute, London.

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  • Burcu Dogramaci
  • 1934
  • Gertrud Bing, Ernst H. Gombrich, Fritz Saxl, Rudolf Wittkower.

  • London
  • No
  • Burcu Dogramaci. "The Warburg Institute." METROMOD Archive, 2021, https://archive.metromod.net/viewer.p/69/1470/object/5145-11267218, last modified: 12-05-2021.
  • Rosa Schapire
    Art Historian
    London

    The art historian Rosa Schapire, a supporter of Expressionist art, contributed to the presence of Expressionist art in England with loans and donations from her art collections rescued to London.

    Word Count: 30

    Herbert Read
    Art HistorianArt CriticPoet
    London

    The British art historian Herbert Read established himself as a central figure in the London artistic scene in the 1930s and was one of the outstanding supporters of exiled artists.

    Word Count: 30

    Focus on Architecture and Sculpture
    Book
    London

    Focus on Architecture and Sculpture by émigré photographer Helmut Gernsheim brought together his work and experience as a photographer for the National Buildings Record (NBR).

    Word Count: 25

    The Story of Art
    Book
    London

    The Story of Art by the émigré art historian Ernst H. Gombrich was published in 1950 with Phaidon Press. The book is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to visual culture.

    Word Count: 29

    Die Zeitung
    Newspaper
    London

    From 1941 to 1945, the émigré German-language newspaper Die Zeitung was published in London, reporting on the war on the continent and on the situation in Germany.

    Word Count: 25

    My Life, My Stage
    Book
    London

    My Life, My Stage is the autobiography of costume and set designer Ernest Stern, looking back on his career with director Max Reinhardt, his escape to London and his internment.

    Word Count: 30

    Visual Pleasures from Everyday Things
    Booklet
    London

    Visual Pleasures from Everyday Things is a booklet written in 1946 by the emigrated architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner with the aim of aesthetic education and teacher training.

    Word Count: 26

    Allies inside Germany
    Exhibition
    London

    On 3 July 1942, the Allies inside Germany exhibition, organised by the Free German League of Culture, opened in London in an empty shop at 149 Regent Street.

    Word Count: 25

    Roland, Browse & Delbanco
    GalleryArt Dealer
    London

    Émigré art historians and art dealers, Henry Roland and Gustav Delbanco, along with Lillian Browse, opened their Mayfair gallery, Roland, Browse & Delbanco, in 1945.

    Word Count: 24