Johann Georg Heinrich Tinius (1764-1846) was a pastor in Poserna, Prussia. He was also an ardent bibliophile, whose desire to increase his collection of some 60,000 works on theology and linguistics far exceeded his income, and in 1813 he was indicted on charges of murdering two wealthy citizens of Leipzig, ostensibly for their money. He was imprisoned in 1814 pending conviction, but, due to wartime and political upheavals in Saxony and Prussia, was not sentenced until 1823. He thereafter served another 12 years and was released from prison at the age of 71, much to popular alarm. Throughout his life he strenuously maintained his innocence. His case, an example of "bibliomania", has been of lasting interest to psychologists and other scholars, both in Germany and abroad.
The 20th-century German scholar and bibliographer Hans Kasten scoured local archives and spent considerable time and expense in reproducing what records on Tinius he could find. It is thought that many if not all of these archives were destroyed or lost during the Second World War; hence, Kasten's collection may be the most comprehensive documentation on the Tinius case in existence. Kasten published a bibliography of works about Tinius in 1943.
From the guide to the Hans Kasten papers on Johann Georg Heinrich Tinius, 1780-1953., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)
