Birthday anniversary of the Russian art historian, critic and bibliographer Erich Hollerbakh

“There is no other field of activity where one would breathe as easily as in the field of art”

E. Hollerbakh

On 11 (23) March, 1895 in Tsarskoye Selo was born the Russian art historian, art and literary critic, bibliographer and bibliophile, the author of hundreds of articles and dozens of books Erich Fedorovich Hollerbakh.

In 1911 Hollerbakh graduated from the non-classical secondary school of Tsarskoye Selo and entered the general faculty of St.-Petersburg Psychoneurological Institute. Later he studied at the physics and mathematics faculty and historical and philological faculty of St.-Petersburg University. Among his teachers were S. A. Vengerov, N. I. Kareev, E. V. De Roberty, etc.

Hollerbakh began his literary work being a student: he studied the issues of philosophy and visual art, theory and history of literature, wrote poems.

From 1918 Hollerbakh started working in artistic and historical Committee of Detskoye (Tsarskoye) Selo headed by the famous art historian G. K. Lukomskoy. In 1919-1921 he worked as a scientist of the Department on protection of relics of the past and art monuments of Petrosoviet. In 1921-1924 Hollerbakh was a scientist in the Russian museum.

From 1923 Hollerbakh was in charge of the artistic department of Petrograd division of the State Publishing House. He was also one of the founders of Leningrad society of bibliophiles and one of its first chairmen, a scientist of Leningrad Bibliology Institute and the Bibliology Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Science, a member of the Russian society of book friends, etc.

The protection of culture and its propaganda were the essential occupations of Hollerbakh. He was occupied with enlightening of public  - working in the Russian Museum and the Museum of Academy of Arts, giving lectures and publishing his articles.

The subject area of his works is wide range: these are philosophy, literary articles and notes, poems, lyric essays. He published his first work, the article called ‘The value of idividualization’, in 1915. Besides the poems and articles Hollerbakh left a rich literary heritage which includes works on A. Pushkin, V. Rozanov, A. Blok, A. Tolstoy, M. Kuzmin, D. Burlyuk, A. Volynsky, F. Sologub. In all within 25 years of activity Hollerbakh had written over 50 books and about 600 articles.

In 1927 the press started an accusatory campaign against Hollerbakh accusing him of idealism and bourgeois character. Following the campaign he was arrested in relation to the political case of R. V. Ivanov-Razumnik and the ‘Group of ideological populism’. After a short detention he was discharged.

On 4 March 1942 during the Great Patriotic War Erich Hollerbakh died in Vologda while being evacuated.

Lit.: Берков П. Н. История советского библиофильства. М., 1983; Голлербах Э. Ф. Город муз. Издание второе. Л., 1930. Репринт 1990; Мартынов П. Н. Полвека в мире книг. Л., 1969; Острой О. С., Юниверг Л. И. Эрих Фёдорович Голлербах как коллекционер и издатель. Л., 1990; Острой О. С. Э. Ф. Голлербах — библиограф // Библиография. 1995. № 5; Юниверг Л. И. Э. Голлербах как издатель и библиофил: (К 100-летию со дня рождения) // Новый журнал. 1996. Кн. 198/199.