WORMANN, CURT

WORMANN, CURT (1900–1991), librarian. Born in Berlin, he served from 1923 as assistant head and, later, head of the department for Adult Education of the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, as well as teaching at the Berlin Library School. In 1933 he settled in Palestine and became academic librarian at the Tel Aviv Municipal Library (1937–47). He then became director of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem (1947–68). When the library on Mount Scopus became inaccessible (1948), Wormann showed great resourcefulness in providing books for faculty and students. Under his direction, hundreds of thousands of books looted by the Nazis were salvaged after the war and acquired for the University Library. The library collection tripled and the collection of manuscripts grew to 25,000 items. Many valuable collections of printed books and manuscripts were acquired during this period.

In 1956 Wormann founded, with the aid of unesco, a graduate library school in Jerusalem, which significantly improved library standards in Israel. He served as president of the Israel Library Association from its establishment in 1952 and represented Israel at unesco and International Federation of Libraries conferences.

Wormann's published works include: Der deutsche Bauernroman (1923); Die russische Literatur der Gegenwart (1931); and Autoritaet und Familie in der deutschen Belletristik nach dem Weltkrieg (1936).

bibliography:

Davar (Dec. 2, 1960); Haaretz (Oct. 6, 1968); News from the Hebrew University (Oct. 1968); mb (Jan. 2, 1970).

[Shlomo Shunami]