Max Nettlau Papers

Period (1817-) 1870-1944 (-1945)
Total size  42 m.
Consultation Not restricted
User restriction  Only microfilms can be consulted

Biography

Born in Neuwaldegg, Austria 1865, died in Amsterdam 1944; anarchist historian, collector and scholar; studied philology and Celtic (dissertation `Beiträge zur cymrischen Grammatik', 1887); lived partly in Vienna, partly in London and travelled all over Europe to collect and to save historical documents on anarchism and socialism and for his studies; member of the Socialist League 1885-1890, active in the Torch and Freedom group; wrote historical works on anarchism with invaluable information and theoretical studies; printed by autocopyist his biography of Michail Bakunin, 3 vols. 1896-1900, and published `Bibliographie de l'anarchie' 1897; lost during the inflation after the First World War the money he had inherited, and lived in poverty in Vienna; continued to collect and to publish e.g. biographies of Errico Malatesta and Elisée Reclus, and a history of anarchism in 7 vols.; sold his immense collection (books, periodicals, archives, documents) to the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in 1935 and lived in Amsterdam after the `Anschluss'.

Content

Personal documents; correspondence with his fiancée Therese Bognar 1901-1907, after her death in 1907 continued in the form of letters to her with the character of a diary 1907-1921; diaries, handwritten memoirs and notes until 1944; correspondence with many persons and organizations, including Diego Abad de Santillán 1922-1937, Annie Adama van Scheltema 1935-1944, Marussia Bakunin 1901-1940, Alexander Berkman 1908-1936, Luigi Bertoni 1900-1939, Gustave Brocher 1923-1931, Fritz Brupbacher 1912-1940, Varlaam and Frida Čerkezov 1892-1934, Lilly and Christiaan Cornelissen 1897-1938, Victor Dave 1887-1922, A. Davies 1898-1912, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis 1896-1913, Stephanus Fabijanović 1896-1933, Raphael Friedeberg 1933-1939, Emma Goldman 1899-1939, Jean Grave 1888-1934, Jacques Gross 1893-1928, Lucien and Louise Guérineau 1897-1938, James Guillaume 1891-1915, Gertrud Guillaume-Schack 1887-1903, Charles Hotz 1921-1937, Thomas H. Keell 1904-1938, Harry M. Kelly 1899-1940, Petr Kropotkin 1892-1913, Gustav Landauer 1893-1919, Arthur Lehning 1924-1936, Errico Malatesta 1889-1932, Alfred Marsh 1895-1911, Theodor Mauthner 1897-1921, Elena Malatesta-Melli 1932-1937, Vero Merlino 1920-1938, Saverio Merlino 1892-1921, Jacques Mesnil 1897-1940, Louise Michel 1895-1898, Federica Montseny 1927-1940, Siegfried Nacht (Stephen Naft) 1907-1937, Boris Nikolaevskij 1925-1940, Joseph Presburg (Perry) 1896-1900, Pierre Ramus 1904-1933, Elisée Reclus 1892-1904, Paul Reclus 1895-1939, Rudolf Rocker 1895-1941, Alfred Sanftleben 1895-1938, Alexander Schapiro 1906-1936, Augustin Souchy 1923-1937, Paraškev Stojanov 1891-1939, Max Winkler 1922-1933 and Albert Zibelin 1892-1914; manuscripts of his books and many articles, and of unpublished studies; bibliographical and other notes of his studies; files on Kropotkin, consisting of some manuscripts and printer's proofs of Kropotkin's `Memoirs of a revolutionist', `Mutual aid' and of a study on Russian literature, transcripts of letters from Kropotkin to James Guillaume, Luigi Bertoni, Victor Dave, Paul Robin and others, letters from Fritz Brupbacher, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, Saverio Merlino, James Guillaume, Alfred Marsh, Marie Goldsmith, Čerkezov and others to Max Nettlau, concerning Peter Kropotkin 1912, notes, manuscripts; files on Ernest Coeurderoy, Errico Malatesta, Elisée Reclus and others; documentation on anarchist and socialist persons and organizations in Great Britain (Socialist League, Freedom, Fabians), France, Russia, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, International Socialist Congresses 1889-1907, etc.; leaflets, press clippings, etc.

Processing information

Inventory made by Tiny de Boer, Atie van der Horst and Ursula Balzer in 2007

Alternate Form of Material

Security microfilms (2007)
325 microfilms of invno. 1-3910