Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1772

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

.2 linear feet (1 box (stored on site))

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Glenn H. Goodman memoir "Thoughts and Memories," 1986 May, Ms. Coll. 1772, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1986 May

Creator:

Goodman, Glenn H., 1911-1992

Form:

Memoirs

Abstract:

Glenn H. Goodman (1911-1992) was an American professor of German and served as director of the Commission of Looted Libraries and Archives. This unpublished typescript memoir documents Goodman's life from youth and education, to career, to living in Germany during World War II, to his work in restitution of looted library and archival material, and to his life after returning with his family to Ohio.

Glenn H. Goodman was born on February 7, 1911, in Middletown, Ohio, the son of Herbert William Goodman and Mary Knight. Goodman was educated in Ohio and spent time in Heidelberg, Germany during the 1930s, where he met his future wife, Felicitas Maria Johanna Daniels (1914-2005). Felicitas (known as Felix) was a Hungarian-born linguist and anthropologist.

The two married in New York in 1937 and Goodman taught German at the University of Illinois, Urbana. In 1938, Glenn and Felix moved to Germany, where they remained through World War II. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Goodman along with other Americans were imprisoned in the Alexanderplatz Prison and taken to Berlin before he was released. He worked at a university until the war was over; and then worked as director of the Commission of Looted Libraries and Archives, through which he was involved in locating the Prussian State Library (now the Berlin State Library) material that had been hidden throughout Germany in abandoned mines, castles, and monasteries.

The family finally moved to Columbus in 1947 where Glenn became a professor of German at Ohio State University and Felix taught German and English and worked as a translator of scientific articles. Glenn and Felix Goodman divorced in 1967. It appears that Goodman worked at Ohio State University for the remainder of his career.

Goodman had four children: Nicholas, Frederick, Susan, and Beatrice. He died on September 6, 1992, in Westerville, Ohio.

In this unpublished typescript memoir, Glenn H. Goodman describes his life in detail, stating in Apologia (page ii) "how often I wished my father and grandfather had written down their thoughts and a description of life as it was during their lifetime," (box 1, folder 1). Goodman divided the memoir into three volumes (although the memoir itself is a single volume). Volume 1 (February 1911 to September 1939) can be found in pages 1 to 203; Volume 2 (no dates assigned by Goodman; largely covers the period of World War II and just after the war) can be found in pages 204 to 436; and Volume 3 (again no dates assigned by Goodman; covers the time of Goodman's return to the United States in 1947 to 1986) can be found in pages 437 to 608.

Goodman describes his life narratively and in great detail. Researchers interested in Goodman's experience as an American living in Germany during World War II should focus on pages 204-436. Focus on his experiences at Alexanderplatz Prison begin around page 257; his reflections on the end of the war begin around page 335; and descriptions of his work with the Commission on Looted Libraries and Archives begin around page 373.