Hans Jürgen von der Wense

The writer, composer and polymath Hans Jürgen von der Wense (1894-1966) published only a few short texts, essays and musical pieces throughout his life. However, he left an extensive estate with letters, translations, literary and musical sketches, small-format photographs, and collections of texts on the country and its people.

Since 2009, this estate has been kept in the manuscript department of Kassel University Library under the call number 2° Ms. Hass. 856 and was entered in the register of nationally valuable cultural assets in 2012.

Hans Jürgen von der Wense lived mainly in Kassel between 1932 and 1940, then (until his death) in Göttingen. From here he set out on numerous hikes, which he had meticulously prepared mostly with the help of maps and non-fiction books. He documented his impressions on these tours through photographs and in reports to his pen pals as well as in his diaries.

Wense's estate includes about 30,000 sheets of notations, translations, and his own literary texts. In addition, collections on countries, landscapes, peoples, family history and things. This material is arranged thematically in over 300 folders. In addition, there are thousands of photographs, letters and postcards, diaries, map material, notebooks, astrologica and horoscopes, and musical materials.

This collection also includes objects from his last apartment, such as stones and minerals, figurines, paintings, some jars and his metronome. Likewise, large parts of Wense's not very extensive private book collection are kept by the Special Collections Department.

The Wenses collections are catalogued in a finding aid. It is accessible in the reading room of the Special Collections. The letter collection is fully indexed and can be searched via KALLIOPE.