The papers of the renowned music antiquarian Otto Haas have recently been catalogued as part of the British Library's 'Hidden Collections' initiative. This post examines Haas's activities in England during and after World War II.
7 May 2026Blog series Music
Author Ruairidh Pattie, Music Manuscripts and Archives Cataloguer
Otto Haas’s autograph signature.
The first part of this blog discussed the activities of the antiquarian Otto Haas up until 1938. This second part will focus on his activities from 1939 until 1955.
The outbreak of war in 1939 had enormous implications for the running of businesses like Haas’s which dealt with imports and exports throughout Europe, which became impossible or highly restrictive. Difficulties for Haas’s business manifested in customs delays, or in a few cases in items being lost as the ship carrying them was sunk. On a related note, as the countries of Europe imposed various trade sanctions on each other, it became necessary for Haas to find ways of trading indirectly, through intermediary countries and currencies. This particularly curtailed his trade with clients in Germany and Austria.
On a more human level, Haas also received letters from several Jewish, would-be refugee families, seeking his help to escape Germany and Austria during this year. These letters detail the lives of the individuals, their hopes for a future in either Britain or the United States and their urgent need to leave their homes because of the worsening persecution. Haas was unable to help, as many of these letters came from people he had never met, but with whom he shared a last name. He was already working to help his own family and acquaintances escape to neutral or safe countries, as well as contributing financially to several Jewish aid groups. Haas’s replies do give detailed advice on how to contact Jewish aid groups within Germany, and how to navigate the British immigration system, although he does warn that it could be a lengthy and expensive process. Several of these letters contain pictures of the individuals who had sent them and their family members.
The final significant event of 1939 was the resolution of an unfortunate Schubertian mishap which had begun in 1938, and which are documented in file MS Mus. 2018/1/49. During the course of 1938, Haas had discovered that the manuscript for Schubert’s ‘Grand Duo’ Sonata for Four Hands on the Piano, op. 140/D812, was missing from his stock. What ensued was a rather frantic search, and letters sent to almost all of his clients from the previous year to ascertain whether then manuscript had been sent to them in error. When it became clear that this was not the case, Haas informed his insurance agent and the police that the manuscript was missing. However, as Haas relates in a letter to the police and his insurance agent in 1939 (also held in the above file), the manuscript was rediscovered. Haas had been packing for a holiday, and, given the value of the manuscript, had wanted to store it in a ‘safe place’. In this case this was between the shirts in his cupboard. However, this was such a safe location, that when Haas returned from holiday, he had forgotten the manuscript’s location. It only resurfaced when Haas once again came to pack for another holiday, almost a year after it had been lost, and discovered the manuscript safely stored among his clothes. Haas went on to sell the manuscript to English pianist Margaret Deneke of Oxford for £490 (£27,852 in 2025), bringing the affair to a financially satisfactory conclusion.
During the remainder of the war years Haas’s correspondence is, whilst still voluminous, notably less than in the years preceding. This seems to be driven by a desire to save paper, as rumours of its rationing continued to abound, as well as by the slowing of the antiquarian book trade in general. Despite the decreasing amount of correspondence in the Haas archive at this point, his letters with Paul Hirsch, Cecil Hopkinson and Percy Muir continue to provide an invaluable insight into the personal lives of the four men, their experiences of the war and the workings of the British antiquarian book trade as they saw it. Of the four men, Haas was the only one who remained in London, and he describes his experience of the Blitz to Percy Muir, who had already left the city. In a letter of 1941 to his landlord, Haas complains about his flat being hit by a bomb, and complains that the landlord was not living up to their side of the rental contract as the repairs were being made too slowly.
The war had an even greater impact on fellow antiquarian Cecil Hopkinson of the ‘First Edition Book Shop’, who was conscripted in 1940. Hopkinson and Haas clearly shared a very close friendship, as the two men and their wives visited each other several times, and their correspondence is exceedingly warm. Haas’s concern for his young friend’s welfare is evident throughout their wartime correspondence, as is Hopkinson’s for his older colleague, who he more than once calls an ‘old rascal’.
A final set of correspondence of interest to those researching the antiquarian book trade during World War II is that between Haas and Capt. A. E. Cave, who was part of the allied advance through Europe in 1945. As Cave marched through Europe, he wrote to Haas describing the devastation he saw, and in particular reported to Haas what had become of German antiquarian book sellers and their shops. Cave’s account is corroborated by letters from a Sgt. Ashbrook and J.E. Kite to Haas a year later in 1946. The two men were traveling independently across Germany and Austria respectively.
The final year of the war brought Haas into contact with a significant figure of English 20th century composition, Gerald Finzi. Finzi’s initial inquiry was looking to acquire particular editions for the Newbury String Players, an amateur chamber orchestra he had founded in Ashmansworth. From the tone of the letters, Haas does not seem to have known of Finzi, and responds in a polite but slightly cold manner that he could provide the editions Finzi was seeking. Haas and Finzi would go on to develop a friendlier relationship through several years of subsequent correspondence.
A year later, Haas received another letter from another famous name in English music, Imogen Holst. The contact was initiated by Haas writing to Dartington Hall in Totnes, to correct an order that had been made. However, when Imogen Holst’s signature was on the reply, Haas responded warmly, reminiscing about a visit the Holst’s had paid to Haas and his wife Kathleen in Berlin some years previously. The pair continued to correspond, largely in professional terms, and particularly when Haas’s work brought him into contact with Dartington Hall, Imogen Holst’s employer.
In the years following World War II, Haas continued to trade with many of the same antiquarians and libraries, with the volume of his correspondence noticeably expanding in the years following the war. Despite the post-war recovery Haas’s business experienced, a significant theme throughout the final five years of the correspondence is his complaint that advancing age was rendering the activities needed to carry out his business more difficult. Eventually this caught up to him, and he sold his business to Albi Rosenthal, of A. & M. Rosenthal in January 1955, before his death in May of the same year. Rosenthal was succeeded by his daughter Julia Rosenthal, who generously donated the archive to the British Library.
Despite Haas’s advancing age, the post-war correspondence continues to show a man with a keen eye for detail, encyclopaedic understanding of musical antiquarian materials and at times a man of great humour. Alongside letters to his insurance brokers and the printers of his catalogues, as well as many hundreds of enquiries for specific items, Haas continued his more extensive correspondence with other antiquarians who were his particular friends. Perhaps the correspondence that gives the most personal picture of Haas’s life is that which he shared with Dr. R. Salley-Scarlett of Brisbane. In their letters, the two men assume the voices of their pets, giving details of each other’s lives (as they might appear in the eyes of a dog or cat). This animal correspondence is interspersed between more serious business dealings between the two men. This correspondence shows the irreverence of the two men, their mutual enjoyment of silliness, as well as their very serious business acumen, and in depth understanding of their trade.
Taken as a whole, the Otto Haas archive offers an in-depth view into the antiquarian book trade in the late 19th and especially early 20th centuries. The archive has the potential to be extremely valuable for provenance research, as well as research into the mechanics of the book trade at this time, and the effect of World War II on such trade. The archive also offers a fascinating insight into the life of Otto Haas, how he navigated his identity as a Jewish-German immigrant to Britain in the 1930s, how this impacted on other’s treatment of him, and how he ultimately established a place at the pinnacle of his trade.
Typed note in German which reads ‘Im Voraus besten Dank. Ihr O.H.’, meaning ‘Thank you in advance. Sincerely O.H.’
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