Wiener, Alfred, 1885-1964

Alfred Wiener, the founder of this collection, was a prominent member of the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (C. V.) (= Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith) from 1919 on. As early as 1925, he described the National Socialist Party as the most dangerous threat for Jews in Germany. In 1928, he took a lead role in establishing the “Büro Wilhelmstraße” of the C. V. to document all Nazi activities and publish anti-Nazi material in order to alert the world to the magnitude of the threat. In 1933, Wiener fled for Amsterdam and, with Prof. David Cohen, set up the Jewish Central Information Office to collect and disseminate information about events in Nazi Germany. In 1939, Wiener emigrated to London, transferring the collection to Manchester Square and making it available to British government intelligence departments. The library soon became known as "Dr. Wiener’s Library" and the name was adopted. After the war, the Library’s academic reputation increased and its collecting policies were broadened. Today, the Wiener Library holds one of the largest specialized collections on the subject of modern Jewish history with special reference to Nazism, Fascism, and anti-Semitism. In 1979-1980, the holdings of the Wiener Library were microfilmed and these microfilm reels were apportioned between the Leo Baeck Institute New York and the New York Public Library.