Hofrat Univ.-Prof. Dr. Josef Bick

Josef Bick was born on May 22, 1880 at Wildeck Castle near Heilbronn, the son of a princely Löwenstein district forester. He graduated from grammar school in Bensheim (Hesse) in 1900 and then went to the German University in Prague and was accepted into the student fraternity Ferdinandea Prague in 1900. After studying Classical Philology, German Studies, Ancient History and Philosophy and a few semesters at the University of Giessen, he received his doctorate in Philosophy in 1905. In this year, he also co-founded the student fraternity Vandalia Prag.

In 1907, he applied for a position at the Imperial and Royal Court Library in Vienna. Court Library in Vienna, which he was granted after obtaining Austrian citizenship. In 1910, he habilitated in classical philology at the University of Vienna and became an associate professor in 1914.

After the First World War, he joined the masonic lodge Fortschritt on December 3, 1921 in the Grand Lodge of Vienna [today: Grand Lodge of Austria of the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons], he was appointed Director of the National Library in 1923 and in 1926 became its Director General and Consultant to the Federal Ministry of Education for the Austrian Libraries. In 1931 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna. From 1934 he was also director of the Albertina Collection of Prints and Drawings. From 1934, he was also politically active as President of the Federal Cultural Council and Vice President of the Bundestag.

After the Anschluss, the Austrian by choice was arrested by the Gestapo in his offices on March 16, 1938 and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938 on the so-called Prominent Transport. A short time later, on May 5, 1938, he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg near Berlin, where he was placed in solitary confinement in the so-called cell building. He was held in solitary confinement for months without interrogation. On May 30, 1938, he was transferred to the prison of the Security Main Office in Berlin for interrogation until July 5, 1938. Here he was accused of having given manuscripts from the National Library to Pope Pius XII (1939-1958). However, as the accusation proved to be unfounded - only reproductions had been exchanged - he was released from Sachsenhausen concentration camp on August 28, 1938. He was then dismissed with retroactive effect from June 1, 1938 through forced retirement. On May 1, 1939, he was also stripped of his pension entitlement. He is expelled from Vienna. He is now confined to Piesting, Lower Austria, where he owns a house, on condition that he reports to the Gestapo every one and a half months. He was not allowed to leave Piesting or receive visitors without permission from the Gestapo - which he was never given.

After the war, Josef Bick was reinstated as Director General of the National Library and the Palatina on October 30, 1945, and also became a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences on October 31, 1945. By decree of the Federal Minister of Education Dr. Felix Hurdes