Dr. Hans Adolf/ph Manfred Margolius (born on 12 September 1902 in Korotschin, Posen) was a writer, philosopher, and librarian. From 1929 until he was barred from his profession in 1933, he worked as a librarian in Berlin; from 1935 to 1937 he subsequently served as a lecturer at the Jewish Adult Education Center (Jüdisches Lehrhaus) in the same city. In 1939 he married the bookkeeper Edith Metzger (born 13 December 1915 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld), and the couple fled from National Socialist Germany to the United States.

There, Margolius initially found employment as a language instructor before later working as a librarian and university lecturer at the University of Miami. At the same time, he published a number of philosophical works, particularly on ethical issues. He died in Miami in 1984.

Archival research shows that Hans and Edith Margolius were forced to sell their library of approximately 2,800 volumes prior to their emigration, or that it was compulsorily auctioned after their flight.

In 1943, the Berlin bookseller and antiquarian Max Niederlechner appraised the collection’s “predominantly philosophical books” on behalf of the Asset Realization Office (Vermögensverwertungsstelle) of the Chief Finance President Berlin-Brandenburg and valued them at 500 Reichsmarks.

Text by Elena Brasiler (Freie Universität Berlin, University Library), as of 2012.
Supplement concerning Max Niederlechner added by Jenka Fuchs (Central and Regional Library Berlin), as of 13 January 2026.