Page content

Klostermann Slavic Collection

Robert Adolf Klostermann (1907-1983) was a researcher at Gothenburg University in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. His collection consists of Slavic literature, mainly from the 20th century.

About the collection

The collection amounts to some 600 volumes, and includes works in Russian, German, French and other languages, within theology and church history of the Slavic countries, mainly Russia. Other works in the collection concern philosophy, Slavic languages, history and philology, as well as fiction with various spiritual aspects. A great portion of the material deals with the history of the great schism of the Russian Church (Raskol), a conflict within the Orthodox church toward the end of the 17^th century. In addition, the Theology section of the collection has several antireligious Soviet propaganda pamphlets.

The book collection constitutes a smaller fragment of a much larger collection that previously belonged to German Byzantinologist and Slavicist Robert Adolf Klostermann (1907-1983). Originally, his books amounted to some 146 shelf metres, and was one of the largest private Slavic libraries in Sweden. Part of the collection was donated to the Slavic Faculty at the Gothenburg University, and part of it was sold through antiquarian booksellers in Münster, Germany. A small portion of the collection was donated to the Gothenburg University Library in 1984.

Despite its fragmentary character, the collection includes sone rare editions, which often bear the traces of previous owners and older, now-scattered book collections. In some of the books are notes made by R. A. Klostermann, e. g. in the Životnaja kniga duchoborcev - ’The book of life of the spiritual warriors.' This volume also includes a stamp and label from the library of Fritz Lieb as well as a dedication from the editor to the previous owner of the copy, famous Saint Petersburg bibliophile, librarian and publisher Aleksandr Evgenievič Burcev (1869–1938).

Acquisition history

Klostermann himself donated his collection to the Slavic faculty at the University of Gothenburg.

I. Juzov, Russkie dissidenty: Starověry i duchovnye christiane, S.-Peterburg, 1881.

Photo: Gunnar Jönsson

Liprandi, I. P., 1790-1880 (1883). Kratkoe obozrenie suščestvujuščich v Rossii raskolov, eresej i sekt: kak v religioznom tak i v političeskom ich značenii: ( Übersicht der in Russland bestehenden religiösen Sekten).

Photo: Gunnar Jönsson

Cvetnik (anthology on theology), printed in Počaev, [1891?].

Photo: Gunnar Jönsson

Biography on T. G. Ševčenko by V. I. Jakovenko, 1894. The copy displays a number of interesting library stamps from various European countries, as well as censorship stamps.

Photo: Gunnar Jönsson

Examples of atheist propaganda.

Photo: Gunnar Jönsson

Access the collection

The collection is held in the closed stacks at the Humanities library. It is available for reading room use only.

Catalogue
The collection awaits cataloguing. The database post denotes the collection as a whole.
In Libris
In Supersearch

Inventory
Klostermann’s slavic collection

Humanities library
Renströmsgatan 4
405 30 GOTHENBURG
Phone: 031-786 17 45

Contact us

Životnaja kniga duchoborcev ’The book of life of the spiritual warriors’, 1909.

Photo: Gunnar Jönsson

Boris Almasoff's Rasputin und Russland, 1924.

Photo: Gunnar Jönsson

Text:

Taissia Goriounova

Biography

Robert Adolf (Rolf) Klostermann was born on November 16^th 1907 in Kiel, to parents Melania Smugge and professor of theology Erich Klostermann. Klostermann studied at several universities, and presented his dissertation in Leipzig in 1932: Maxim Grek in der Legende: Ein Beitrag zur Russischen Hagiographie. He began his career as a researcher at the Thüringischen Landeshauptarchiv in Weimar, where he was given the opportunity to work with a long-sealed archive of the Grand Duchess of Russia and Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, Maria Pavlovna (1786–1859). The work continued until 1938 and resulted in a report. Unfortunately, no more extensive work on the archive was published. Between 1938 and 1945, Klostermann provided translation services as commissioned by several authorities, including the Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem at the Preußische Staatsbibliothek, and the national archives of Germany. In 1945 he was made a lecturer at the University of Göttingen and was employed by the university library. In the following year, he continued to teach at the university despite now having no position as a researcher there.

His connection to Sweden dates to the 1930s, when he met Ingeborg Dickson (1915-1984), daughter of Bell Gibson and bank manager George Dickson. Rolf and Ingeborg married in 1948, and he moved to Gothenburg. In Sweden, he continued his research. In 1949, Klostermann was invited to be a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Theology in Uppsala, and later to the Faculty of Philosophy at the Gothenburg College. In 1954 he was made honorary lecturer of Byzantine-Slavic cultural history at the University of Gothenburg, at the Department of Classical Studies and the Historical-Philosophical section.

During his time in Gothenburg, Klostermann published several scholarly works, including Die slavische Überlieferung der Makariusschriften, Gothenburg, 1950 (KVVS), Vigouroux in russischen Gewand (Rome, 1954), Probleme der Ostkirche. Untersuchungen zum Wesen und zur Geschichte der griechisch-orthodoxen Kirche. Gothenburg, 1955 (KVVS) and more, which constitute a fine acknowledgement of his research.

Ingeborg Klostermann, née Dickson (1915-1984)

Photo: GT