The spectacular Art trove Cornelius Gurlitt has reminded Germany almost 70 years after the end of the war, once again of its responsibility from the Nazi-time. Now the collection and its history in Berlin.
The Fund, which would become known as the Schwabing art Fund in history, was spectacular: More than 1500 works of art were seized in 2013 in the case of the loner, Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive Munich and Salzburg, the living son of Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt,.
The press head: A “multi-billion dollar Nazi treasure” has been suggested, of a “century Fund” was the speech. The images were suspected to be Nazi-looted art, on you the shadow of the Nazi past weighed.
“Inventory of the Gurlitt” in Berlin for the first time shows entire collection
Since then, international scientists are engaged in research in micro-work is the origin of all these objects. After years of examination by experts, the long-kept secret and works now in Berlin for the first time in the complete Overview.
After two single look in the Bern and Bonn to the Berlin Martin-Gropius-Bau from Friday (14.09.2018) offers both a look at the Nazi “degenerate art” as well as the perfidious history of the NS-Kunstraubs.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedDegenerate Art
As “degenerate art,” referred to Adolf Hitler and the national socialists, Modern works of art, their style, artist or Subject you were not happy with. The Nazis confiscated these works of art, from 1937, from German art museums. In a traveling exhibition of degenerate art was put “the” in front of an audience at the pillory. Here Goebbels and Hitler, a visit to the original exhibition in Munich.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedHitler and the art
Hitler liked the romance as well as painting of the 19th century. Century, preferably rural idylls. In his private collection, found, for example, works by Cranach, Tintoretto and Bordone. Hitler wanted to stand in his rest – analogous to his models of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Frederick the Great, even an art collection. They should be shown in Linz at the river Danube, in the “führer Museum”.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedThe Expropriations
The national socialists were not the First, the avant-garde artists, outcasts, but they went a step further, using their works from the art houses of exiles. Over 20,000 plants were the rulers in 1937, from 101 state-owned German museums. Everything appeared to the Nazis as not edifying for the German people, was removed.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedHitler’s National Style
Abstract art had lost in Hitler’s “national style,” nothing. The “Great German art exhibition,” made clear that at the 18.7.1937 in Munich, the traditional landscape, history and Aktmalereien & a from Fritz Erler, Hermann Gradl, or Franz Xaver steel. The closer the Subject, the real template came, the more beautiful it was in the eyes of the leader.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedWhat was considered degenerate
Even among his subordinates with a high uncertainty regarding accepted, what is the artist Hitler. Clarity brought the Great German art exhibition of 1937 and the same time as “degenerate art” exhibition in the Munich Hofgarten arcades. Were ostracized artists of the Modern period, including Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Pechstein.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedDegenerate art on tour
The “degenerate art” exhibition displayed 650 confiscated art has graced works from 32 German museums. You equated the exhibits with drawings of the mentally disabled and combined them with photos of crippled people, should attract the visitors of disgust and anxiety. Over two million visitors saw the Exhibition, which was shown in different cities.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedLegal bases
The “law on confiscation of Products degenerate art” by the 31.5.1938 retroactively legalized the compensation to the collection of works of art. After the war, the law retained its validity, it merely redistributed state-owned, decided on by the allies. Works that contributed to the Nazis as “degenerate art” from museums, can be traded as opposed to looted art until today.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedTrade in “degenerate art”
The confiscated works were in Depots in Berlin and in the castle Schönhausen. Many sales of expropriated works were carried out by the four art dealers from Hitler, Bernhard A. Böhmer, Karl Buchholz, Hildebrand Gurlitt and Ferdinand Möller. A stock of about 5000 unsold works of art was burned at the 20.3.1939 of the Berlin fire brigade in an Exercise referred to action.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedHub Switzerland
125 works were intended for an auction in Switzerland. One of Hermann Göring and other appointed Commission for the exploitation of products of degenerate art estimated the minimum bids and eventually chose the Galerie Fischer in Lucerne for the auction. This auction was held on 30.6.1939 and found great interest in the world.
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“Degenerate art”: Hitler and the Nazis, art defamedA lot of “degenerate art,” Gurlitt
Over 21,000 works of “degenerate art” had been confiscated. The number has been recycled since then, there is today disagreement. Depending on the source of the speech is from 6000 to 10,000 sold works. Else has been destroyed or disappeared. Hundreds of missing felt works have appeared in Cornelius gurlitt’s collection. And have reignited the discussion.
Once again, important works by Dürer to Monet, from Cranach to Kirchner, from Cézanne to Rodin. You make the bandwidth of the collection that could carry gurlitt’s father Hildebrand, one of the most important art dealer for the Nazis.
But even more important is the behind-the-Scenes. More than ever, the destinies of the mostly Jewish victims in the focus, as rein Wolfs, Director of the Federal art and exhibition hall and is the curator of the exhibition, before the opening said. His house has compiled the Exhibition in cooperation with the Kunstmuseum Bern, the official heir to the collection.
Only a few of the 1500 works of art identified as stolen art
The meticulous research for the Fund in 2013 show that Only six out of the 1500 plants could be clearly identified as Nazi-looted art. A prominent example in the exhibition, portrait of a young woman” (1850-1855, article image) of Thomas Couture, associated with the collection of the French statesman Georges Mandel is “. A small hole in the canvas on the track. Mandel’s wife had given after the war to log this with him the stolen painting had a small tear.
Hundreds of other works could be classified as harmless. Most headaches however are preparing the 327 images, the stolen art, according to the Bern Museum Director Nina room, still suspicious. All Parties were therefore in favour of the education work to continue.
The exhibition as a starting point for provenance research
The “inventory of the Gurlitt”, the title of the exhibition, should not be a closing point, said state Minister for Culture Monika Grütters. “On the contrary, it is a starting point from which more Research-based than before, with better tools than in the past the truth can go.”
In the exhibition, each of a total of around 200 images is accompanied by a Declaration, what was the result of the exploration of the origin story so far. In addition, there are a lot of documents, historical photographs, and historical Background on the European dimensions of the Nazi Kunstraubs.
To solve puzzles
In the case of the famous painting “Waterloo Bridge” by Claude Monet, about a statement by gurlitt’s mother, Marie of 1938 reproduced, which confirms the son is, he got this picture in 1923 from the parents to the wedding as a gift. Why it needed this confirmation, and why they came 15 years after the wedding, is one of the puzzles, which the researchers are still engaged in.
“Waterloo Bridge” by Claude Monet in the exhibition “inventory Gurlitt”
Recently deciphered, the researchers have included the origin of four other drawings, the Gurlitt originally Benita Renate Gurlitt, the sister of the 2014 deceased Munich art collector Cornelius Gurlitt, and daughter of a Nazi art dealer Hildebrand, The experts were able to classify this as a Nazi-looted art.
The current owner had let the German centre for lost Cultural goods in the framework of the project “provenance research Gurlitt” check and wants to give the works to the descendants of the former Jewish owner.
The drawings are also in the framework of the exhibition “inventory Gurlitt” in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau until 7. To see January 2019.
ld/bb (dpa, epd, kna)