Hans W. Debrunner Collection

The Debrunner Collection was acquired in 1998 after the death of the historian, theologian and African researcher Hans Werner Debrunner (1923–1998). It is curated as an independent collection and comprises a library and an archive that are thematically closely related.
 

6.3.78 HWD: Das Haus der BAB
6.3.78 HWD: Das Haus der BAB

Library

The library contains around 2,500 books and individual journal issues with a thematic focus on western Africa, mission history and the African diaspora. Countries in northern and eastern Africa as well as the southern region of the continent are also represented in the holdings. Most of the books were published in the first half and middle of the 20th century. A card catalogue is available for the library; only the works by Hans Debrunner himself and the books on southern Africa have been entered into the BAB's electronic catalogue.
 
The Debrunner library is superbly complemented by the smaller Harald Hintze Library with books on Ghana and West Africa.
 

Archive 

The archive documents Hans Werner Debrunner's scholarly work. It contains material collected and prepared by Debrunner during his long years of study and research on African history and ethnology, the history of Swiss/European-African relationships as well as mission history. The forms taken by this material are diverse: sources and secondary literature in the form of transcripts and copies are joined by Debrunner's own notes, excerpts and manuscripts produced during the preparation of his publications. A large part of the archive is catalogued in a manuscript inventory, which can be consulted in-house.
 
 
 
Contact
Sonia Abun-Nasr, san(at)baslerafrika.ch
 
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