Susanne Hehenberger

Adelhart, Michaela Thekla

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:01 +0000

Adelhart, Michaela Thekla Leonhard Weidinger Tue, 02/09/2021 - 21:08

Michaela Adelhart

27 August 1916 Vienna – 19 January 2002 Bochum

née Michaela Sirucek

After graduating from the Bundeslehranstalt für Frauengewerbe (Federal Teaching Institute for Women's Crafts) in Vienna and working for some years from home, the 22-year-old Michaela Sirucek applied in September 1938 for a position as "embroiderer" (textile restorer) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Apart from her skill and the fact that in summer 1938 two married textile restorers whose husbands worked in the public sector had to take early retirement as a late consequence of the Austrofascist Double Earner Regulation, her membership of the NSDAP was in her favour. She had been an illegal member of the Nazi Party before March 1938 and had the low membership number 6,126.899. In August 1939 she married the technician and later criminal police employee Herbert Adelhart. In June 1943, after the birth of her daughter, she left the position at the museum.

Keywords

Museum employee

NSDAP membership

Susanne Hehenberger

18 May 2021

Publications about the person / institution

Susanne Hehenberger/Monika Löscher, Akteurinnen und Akteure im Kunsthistorischen Museum Wien. Personelle Kontinuitäten und Brüche 1933/34 – 1938 – 1945, in: Tanja Baensch/Kristina Kratz-Kessemeier/Dorothee Wimmer (Hg.), Museen im Nationalsozialismus: Akteure – Orte – Politik, Köln-Weimar-Wien 2016, 129–146.

Archives

DAW, Geburts- und Taufbuch Landstraße-St. Rochus 1915–1916, fol. 27, Geburts- und Taufeintrag Michaela Thekla Johanna Siruček, 27.8.1916 und 3.9.1916, URL: data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/wien/03-landstrasse-st-rochus/01-86/?pg=76 (19.5.2021).

KHM-Archiv, III 8, PA Michaela Adelhart.

WStLA, Gauakten, A1-'Gauakten', Personalakten des Gaues Wien, 73.742 Michaela Adelhart.
WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Herbert Adelhart.

Wikidata: Q106889180

Benda, Gustav

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:40:58 +0000

Benda, Gustav

Leonhard Weidinger Tue, 02/09/2021 - 21:12

Gustav (von) Benda

16 August 1846 Prague – 7 February 1932 Vienna

Gustav Benda was born in 1846, the second of four children of Samuel and Julie Benda, in Prague, where his parents managed the Wiener leather goods company. In 1869 he became a partner and retail commissioner and forwarding agent in the newly founded company Waldek, Wagner und Benda, which specialized in the distribution of technical equipment. While the co‑founders Franz Waldek and Justus Friedrich Julius Wagner worked in Prague, Benda managed the office at Opernring 10 in Vienna's 1st district. From the 1880s at the latest, the successful industrialist, who never married, collected art. He preferred Italian Renaissance sculptures and bronzes but also acquired paintings, miniatures, furniture and historical weapons, which he kept in his apartment at Opernring 8. He had good connections in the art world and was acquainted with Gustav Glück, director of the Painting Gallery of the k. k. Kunsthistorisches Hofmuseum, and the collector Albert Figdor, and also corresponded for almost two decades with the Berlin museum director Wilhelm von Bode. He occasionally loaned objects for exhibitions and from 1886 to 1910 was an active member of the Gesellschaft bildender Künstler Österreichs, Künstlerhaus. Between 1905 and 1911 he gave twelve artworks to the k. k. Kunsthistorisches Hofmuseum, including a stately cabinet owned by Prince Eugene, statuettes by Georg Raphael Donner and several paintings. At the request of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Benda was appointed in 1911 to the Denkmalrat (monument council), the advisory committee of the Zentralkommission für Denkmalpflege (Central Commission for Monument Protection), ennobled in the same year, and in 1914 appointed to the board of the k. k. Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie (Imperial Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry). On 13 November 1919 members of the Staatsdenkmalamt (State Monuments Authority) visited his apartment at Opernring 8 and confirmed the "enduring public interest in the art treasures there". The report stated that Benda's art collection included paintings by Lorenzo Lotto, Francesco Guardi, Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, Pieter de Hooch and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, and sculptures by Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Luca della Robbia, Agostino di Duccio and Andrea del Verrocchio. Benda died on 7 February 1932, leaving behind a will written in 1930 in which he bequeathed his collection to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) in Vienna with the instruction that it be arranged as it was in his apartment and if possible displayed in its own room. The art objects from the lobby and dining room and the porcelain were bequeathed to the Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie. The objects in the KHM were displayed that year in the Ringstraße wing of the Neue Burg. The Benda collection had its own inventory and was attached "as an independent annex to the sculpture and applied art collection". A guide, Führer durch die Sammlung Gustav Benda, was published to accompany the exhibition in 1932, and in 1937 the collection was transferred for reasons of space to the second floor of the main KHM building.

Although Benda himself was no longer alive to experience persecution by the Nazi regime, his nieces and nephews, who, like him, were of Jewish origin, were not always as fortunate. Hans Kauders, who lived in Munich, managed to escape with his family to Switzerland in 1933. Gertrud Kauders from Prague was deported on 12 May 1942 to Theresienstadt and five days later to Lublin, where she perished. Irma and her husband Maximilian Monter lived in Vienna. They had converted to Catholicism and had attempted unsuccessfully, with reference to the generous donation by their uncle, to avoid deportation. They were deported to Theresienstadt on 20 June 1942, where Maximilian died on 2 October of that year. Irma was transferred on 15 May 1944 to Auschwitz and murdered there. Irma's sister Hedwig had married the Sudeten German doctor Franz Luksch, who was a Catholic. It is unclear whether this protected her from persecution, nor are the time and place of her death known. Although Gustav Benda left the Jewish Community in 1895 and probably did not consider himself to be Jewish, and although the Nazi laws did not explicitly demand it, Fritz Dworschak, provisional director of the KHM, dismantled Benda's legacy in 1939, distributed the works among various KHM collections and transferred them to the Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum (State Arts and Crafts Museum), the Albertina, the Österreichische Galerie and the Volkskundemuseum (Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art). According to an essay published in 2014 as part of the systematic provenance research, there are still 187 art objects from Benda's collection in the KHM, 62 in the MAK, eleven in the Albertina, eight in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere and two in the Österreichisches Volkskundemuseum.

Keywords

Art collector

Entrepreneur

Susanne Hehenberger

3 March 2020

Publications about the person / institution

Amtsblatt der Wiener Zeitung, 23.2.1869, Firmeneintrag Waldek, Wagner und Benda, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=wrz&datum=18690223&seite=17 (3.12.2020).

Herbert Haupt, Das Kunsthistorische Museum. Die Geschichte des Hauses am Ring. Hundert Jahre im Spiegel historischer Ereignisse, Wien 1991.

Susanne Hehenberger/Monika Löscher, Die Sammlung Gustav Benda, in: Eva Blimlinger/Heinz Schödl (Hg.), Die Praxis des Sammelns. Personen und Institutionen im Fokus der Provenienzforschung (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 5) Wien-Köln-Weimar 2014, 13–29, URL: doi.org/10.7767/boehlau.9783205793564.13.

N. N., Führer durch die Sammlung Gustav Benda, Wien 1932.

N. N., Gustav Bendas Hinterlassenschaft, in: Internationale Sammler-Zeitung 24 (1932) 4, 29–30.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Zl. 2691/1919.

KHM-Archiv, 12/ED/1932, 51/ED/1932, 239/KL/1939, 256/KL/1941.

MAK-Archiv, Zl. 140/1908, 1011/1911, 818/1914, 84/1932, 94/1932, 133/1932, 308/1932.

OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, FLD, Zl. 166641, Irma und Max Monter.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, VA 38447 (früher VA 38489) Maximilian Monter, 12.7.1938
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, VA 38489 (früher VA 38447), Irma Monter, 12.7.1938

ONB, Autografensammlung, Nachlass Gustav Glück, Mappe 1074/25 und 1074/26.

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Zentralarchiv, IV NL Bode, Nr. 743.

StA München, Meldekarte Johann Kauders.

WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Gustav Benda.
WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Maximilian Monter.

GND: 127411194

VIAF: 52710780

Wikidata: Q1298767

Berger, Josefine

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:37:59 +0000

Berger, Josefine

Leonhard Weidinger Tue, 02/09/2021 - 21:40

Josefine Berger

27 April 1903 Purkersdorf (Stössing) – 10 February 1980 Tulln an der Donau

After several years of professional experience in wage accounting, Josefine Berger was employed in early 1939 in the administration office of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, where she remained, with a brief interruption, until her retirement in 1963. Museum director Fritz Dworschak had applied to the Ministry of Interior and Cultural Affairs for her recruitment to replace the "sick" Christine Raab, later dismissed for political reasons. He described Berger as an "illegal employee of the NSDAP", who "worked tirelessly for the National Socialist idea during the entire prohibition period through the provision of forbidden National Socialist literature, propaganda and donations". As a politically reliable employee in the eyes of the Nazi regime (NSDAP membership number 6,330.955, date of admission May 1938), she was responsible for the personnel files. In autumn and winter 1939/1940 she worked in the "Schloss" (Kartause Gaming) depot. Siegfried Troll, who at the time was a leading official in Gaming, praised Josefine Berger's great enthusiasm for the work and her skill and experience in practical matters. In 1945 she was dismissed as a lesser offender because of her membership of the NSDAP but was able to return to the museum in mid-1946. In 1963 she was awarded the Goldene Medaille für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich (Gold Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria).

Keywords

6 January 2019

Archives

KHM-Archiv, III 107, PA Josefine Berger; I 31, Fritz Dworschak an das Ministerium für innere und kulturelle Angelegenheiten, 21.12.1938.

OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 92.568, Josefine Berger.

Pfarre Purkersdorf, 01-13, Taufbuch 1.1.1903–31.12.1908, fol. 14, URL: data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/wien/purkersdorf/01-13/?pg=17 (20.6.2022).

WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Josefine Berger.

Wikidata: Q106889876

Brunner, Maria

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:14 +0000

Brunner, Maria Leonhard Weidinger Tue, 02/09/2021 - 21:44

Maria Brunner

28 May 1908 Zwettl – 1995 Zwettl

née Maria Six

Maria Brunner, who joined the NSDAP in 1941, worked from January 1944 as an assistant for the "Sonderauftrag coins". She was posted to Kremsmünster under Liselotte Seutter von Loetzen, who was responsible for the coin library. Her employment terminated with the closure of the "Sonderauftrag" at the end of June 1945.

Keywords

"Sonderauftrag Linz"

"Sonderauftrag Münzen"

Library

NSDAP membership

Susanne Hehenberger

6 January 2019

Archives

KHM-Archiv, III 186, PA Maria Brunner; 18/VK/1944, Aufnahme in den Kanzleidienst.

WStLA, Gauakten, A1-'Gauakten', Personalakten des Gaues Wien, 62.651 Maria Brunner.

Buchwieser, Helene Elisabeth Leopoldine

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:40:39 +0000

Buchwieser, Helene Elisabeth Leopoldine

Leonhard Weidinger Tue, 02/09/2021 - 21:46

Helene Buchwieser

26 November 1912 Vienna – 13 March 2008 Hinterbrühl

from 23 December 1939 Helene Kitschelt-Buchwieser, from 1947 Helene Koller-Buchwieser

Helene Buchwieser, daughter of the architect and master builder Bruno Buchwieser, studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna from 1932. During her studies she gained practical experience as a mason, building engineer and supervisor on her father's building sites. She graduated in April 1937 and went on a study trip to Britain, where she prepared a dissertation on the development of universities in the Middle Ages, which she hoped to write under the supervision of building historian and cathedral master builder Karl Holey, but was unable to complete it following Holey's resignation as rector of the Technische Hochschule in 1938. After Fritz Dworschak, temporary director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) in Vienna applied successfully to department III of the Reichsstatthalterei in Austria for the recruitment of an assistant for architecture, building and interior design questions, Helene Buchwieser was appointed head of the new building department in the KHM. In this position, she organized the restoration and redesign of the Secular and Ecclesiastical Treasury, the interior design of the Neue Burg and the work required to install the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments in Palais Pallavicini in the centre of Vienna. She planned the installation of the busts of Hitler by Edwin Grienauer and Wilhelm Fraß in the vestibule of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Neue Burg and was responsible for the decorations in preparation for the visit by the "Führer" in March 1939. She never applied for or was accepted as a member of the NSDAP. She worked freelance on payment of a half-salary, but already by November 1939 war economies forced Dworschak to close down the building department and terminate Buchwieser's position in the museum. She remained in contact privately with the KHM after marrying the art historian and Treasury assistant Lothar Kitschelt in December 1939. In 1940 she took over temporary management of her father's company and passed the master builder examination. Kitschelt was conscripted into the army and reported missing in November 1944. Thereafter Helene Kitschelt-Buchwieser's name still turned up occasionally in the museum files, having provided her signature in the place of her absent husband.

In 1945 she deputized for the cathedral master builder Karl Holey, supervising the securing and reconstruction of the burned-out St Stephen's Cathedral. In September 1945 the Staatsamt für öffentliche Bauten, Übergangswirtschaft und Wiederaufbau (State Office for Public Buildings, Transitional Economy and Reconstruction) awarded her the title of Zivilingenieurin für Hochbau (civil engineer for building construction). In 1946/47 she received a six-month bursary from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to study new building materials and methods and residential building and housing development in the USA. In 1947 she married Josef Koller, who worked at the Bundesministerium für Volksernährung (Federal Ministry of Popular Nutrition). In subsequent years, under the name Helene Koller-Buchwieser, she was responsible for a number of public buildings and churches in Austria, including the Jungarbeiterdorf Hochleiten in Mödling, the Viktring-Klagenfurt estate, the estate An den langen Lüssen in Vienna's 19th district, the Töchter des göttlichen Heilands (Daughters of the Divine Saviour) boarding school in the 7th district, the Pfarrkirche zur Kreuzerhöhung (Exaltation of the Cross parish church) in Kittsee and the Evangelical-Catholic twin church in Giesshübl-Hinterbrühl. The Archbishop of Ouagadougou in Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, commissioned her around 1970 to build a juvenile training centre in Ouahigouya and a centre for disabled persons in Ouagadougou as well as St Pierre's church in Ouagadougou. She received numerous awards as an architect and member of the International Union of Women Architects and examiner of subsidized building projects in the Vienna provincial government. She remained active until 1995.

Keywords

Architecture

Museum employee

Susanne Hehenberger

29 July 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Ute Georgeacopol-Winischhofer, Koller-Buchwieser, Helene, geb. Buchwieser, in: Brigitta Keintzel/Ilse Korotin (Hg.), Wissenschafterinnen aus und in Österreich. Leben, Wer, Wirken, Wien-Köln-Weimar 2002, 396–399.

Herbert Haupt, Das Kunsthistorische Museum. Die Geschichte des Hauses am Ring. Hundert Jahre im Spiegel historischer Ereignisse, Wien 1991.

N. N., Eintrag zu Koller-Buchwieser, in: International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA), Biographical Database, URL: iawadb.lib.vt.edu/view_all.php?person_pk=26 (3.12.2020).

Archives

KHM-Archiv, III 196, PA Helene Buchwieser; Direktionsakten: I 27, I 28 (Sonderbestand Bauwesen/Architektur); 327/KL/1938, 68/KL/1939, 94 /KL/1939, 111/KL/1939.

OeStA/AdR, Bundesministerium für Handel und Wiederaufbau, Zl. 30486/45, 31062/45, 31244/45 und Zl. 35391/48.

GND: 106912771X

VIAF: 315115175

Wikidata: Q20752131

Dworschak, Fritz

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:37:58 +0000

Dworschak, Fritz

Susanne Hehenberger Fri, 11/13/2020 - 08:18

Fritz Dworschak

27 February 1890 Krems – 10 September 1974 Krems

also Friedrich Dworschak

The numismatist Fritz Dworschak took advantage of the Nazi era to assume central functions in the Vienna museum scene. After obtaining his doctorate in 1913 from the University of Vienna and passing the State Examination the same year at the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung (Institute of Austrian Historical Research), he worked as an intern at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and was employed there from 1915. Apart from being a curator at the museum, he was also the Dorotheum's expert in coins and medals from 1924 to 1939. In March 1938 he became provisional director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and was its First Director from 1941 until he was removed from office on 26 April 1945. In July 1938, referring to his "pan-German attitude" and because he had "always felt associated with the Hitler movement", he applied for membership of the NSDAP. This was initially rejected, but in October 1940 he became member number 9,020.874. Supported by the weapons expert Leopold Ruprecht, who had been an active member of the NSDAP since 1932, he managed the Zentraldepot für beschlagnahmte Sammlungen (Central Depot for Seized Collections) in the Neue Burg, which was set up in autumn 1938. From summer 1939, he coordinated the storage of items from Viennese state museums, which was supervised from summer 1942 by Ludwig Berg from the Generalreferat für Kunstförderung, Staatstheater, Museen und Volksbildung (General Office for the Advancement of Art, State Theatre, Museums and Culture). Apart from these functions, in August 1941 Dworschak became an assessor for the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste (Reich Chamber of Fine Arts) art and culture purchasing department. From August 1942 he also headed the "Sonderauftrag Münzen" (special coin project) and played a central role in the acquisition of coins and medals for the planned "Führer Museum" in Linz. In October 1943 he married Elfriede Höbarth, recruited for this special project in June 1943 as a coin specialist. At his trial by the Volksgericht in 1946 he denied his NSDAP membership. He was retired from the civil service in March 1947 but a few months later was recruited as a consultant for the city of Krems, where he remained until he retired in 1958. He was awarded the title "Hofrat" in 1960 for his "exceptional service".

Keywords

"Sonderauftrag Linz"

"Sonderauftrag Münzen"

Nazi art and culture policy

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

N. N., Dworschak, Fritz, in: aeiou, Österreich-Lexikon, URL: www.aeiou.at/aeiou.encyclop.d/d997647.htm (3.12.2020).

Lee Sorensen, Dworschak, Fritz, in: Dictionary of Art Historians, URL: arthistorians.info/dworschakf (3.12.2020).

Jüdisches Museum Berlin, Raub und Restitution, Glossar, Fritz Dwoschark, URL: jmberlin.de/raub-und-restitution/de/glossar_d.php (3.12.2020).

Harry Kühnel, Dr. Fritz Dworschak. Versuch einer Würdigung, in: Mitteilungen des Kremser Stadtarchivs 23/24/25 (1985), 265-281.

Emanuele Sbardella, Die dritte Seite der Medaille. Dworschak als Sonderbeauftragter Hitlers für den Aufbau eines Münzkabinettes im sog. Führermuseum. Masterarbeit, TU Berlin, eingereicht am 30. April 2015.

Publications by the person / institution

zahlreiche numismatische Publikationen

Führer durch das Erzbischöfliche Dom- und Diözesanmuseum in Wien, bearbeitet von Fritz Dworschak und Justus Schmidt, Wien 1933 (mehrere Auflagen).

Fritz Dworschak (Hg.), Kataloge der stiftlichen Kunstsammlungen in Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg 1937–1943.
Fritz Dworschak, Der Maler Martin Johann Schmidt, genannt "Der Kremser Schmidt", 1718-1801, Wien 1955.
Fritz Dworschak, Krems und Stein, Wachau: Niederösterreich (= Kleine Kunstführer 652), München 1957.
Fritz Dworschak, Wachau und Nibelungengau (= Große Kunstführer 34), München 1961.

Ludwig Baldass, Fritz Dworschak, Die Gotik in Niederösterreich. Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte eines Landes im Spätmittelalter, Wien 1963.

Archives

DASP, Trauungsbuch Dürnstein 1891–1924, fol. 115, Trauung von Friedrich Dworschak und Maria Dum, 19.9.1916, URL: data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/st-poelten/duernstein/02-04/?pg=132 (3.12.2020).

KHM-Archiv, IV 95, NL Fritz Dworschak; 1/KL/1938 (Ernennung zum Kommissarischen Leiter, Anmeldung bei Reichskammer); 3/KL/1938, 93/KL/1939 (Bezüge und Aufwandsentschädigungen); 119/KL/1939 (Ausstellungseröffnung Berlin); 130/KL/1939 (Studienreisen); 149/KL/1939 (Dienstreise Böhmen, Schlesien); 53/KL/1941 (KHM Eigentum in den verschiedenen Gauen, Korrespondenz); 63/KL/1941 (Korrespondenzen, Anstellung Gassauer); 138/KL/1941 (Vortrag in Rom); 144/KL/1941 (Urlaub pro 1941); 205/KL/1941 (Dienstreise nach Linz); 206/KL/1941 (Ernennung zum Sachverständigen der Reichskammer der bildenden Künste); 259/KL/1941 (Ernennung zum ersten Direktor des KHM); 52/ED/1942 (Betrauung mit der Leitung des Münzkabinetts); 124/ED/1942 (Berufung in den Fachbeirat); 153/ED/1942 (Urlaub); 9/ED/1943 (UK-Stellung); 25/ED/1943 (Urlaub); 44/ED/1943 (Dienstreise mit Höbarth nach München); 72/ED/1943 (Erkrankung); 18/ED/1944 (Reisen und Abwesenheiten); 2/ED/1945 (Bericht über Bergungsmaßnahmen); 16/ED/1945 (Reisen u.a.); 46/ED/1945 (Maßnahmen gg. NationalsozialistInnen auf Grund des Verfassungsgesetzes v. 8.5.1945); 33/ED/1945 (Sonderauftrag); I 31, Dworschak an Dorotheum, 19.12.1939 (Niederlegung der Expertentätigkeit); 248/VK/43, Verehelichung mit Elfriede Höbarth.

OeStA/AdR, UWK, BMU, Personalakten, K. 3/28, Friedrich Dworschak.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 562, Fritz Dworschak.

WStLA, LG für Strafsachen, A11, Vr-Strafakten, VgVr 1929/46 Ludwig Berg, Fritz Dworschak.
WStLA, Gauakten, A1-'Gauakten', Personalakten des Gaues Wien, 315.283, Fritz Dworschak.
WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Fritz Dworschak.

GND: 136589162

VIAF: 80907734

Wikidata: Q17417910

Eichler, Fritz (Friedrich)

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:14 +0000

Eichler, Fritz (Friedrich)

Leonhard Weidinger Tue, 02/09/2021 - 21:53

Fritz Eichler

12 October 1887 Graz – 16 January 1971 Vienna

Fritz Eichler, who had a doctorate in archaeology from the University of Graz, began his career in 1913 as an unpaid assistant at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. In subsequent years he undertook short study trips to Germany, France, Italy, the Balkan states and Turkey. He was also promoted to become an assistant and auxiliary curator and then curator II and I, in 1933 head of the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities and in 1935 its director. He remained in this position throughout the Austrofascist and Nazi regimes until his retirement in 1952. Eichler was not a member of the NSDAP but he was not an opponent of the regime. On the occasion of a promotion, the Vienna Gau headquarters described him in 1941 as "nationalist, antisemitic and anti-clerical". Along with the archaeologist Rudolf Noll, he took part in the compulsory air raid drills in the museum. After Noll's conscription into the Wehrmacht, he was promoted from deputy to chief air raid warden and in this function kept a record from August 1942 to April 1945. With a view to his succession as director of the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Eichler managed successfully to have Noll reinstated after he had been dismissed on account of his NSDAP membership. In 1951 and 1952, Eichler was also administrative director in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Apart from his museum career, he lectured at the University of Vienna, was awarded an extraordinary professorship in 1937 and in 1953 became Ordinarius for Classical Archaeology. In 1959 he was granted an honorary year at the university on the occasion of his retirement. In 1962, at the age of seventy-four, he became director of the Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut (Austrian Archaeological Institute) and held this position until 1969. In 1966, he was awarded the Silbernes Ehrenzeichen der Republik Österreich (Silver Medal of Honour of the Republic of Austria) and in 1967 the Goldene Ehrenmedaille der Stadt Wien (Gold Medal of Honour of the City of Vienna).

Keywords

16 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Felix Czeike, Historisches Lexikon Wien, 2, Wien 1993.

Felix Czeike u. a., Fritz Eichler, in: Wien Geschichte Wiki, URL: www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Fritz_Eichler (3.12.2020).

Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie, hg. v. Walter Killy, 3, 1996.

Rudolf Noll, Fritz Eichler. Nachruf. Sonderabdruck aus dem Almanach der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 121 (1971), Wien 1972.

Publications by the person / institution

Fritz Eichler, Zwei Athletenstatuen (= Meisterwerke in Wien 3), Wien 1922.
Fritz Eichler, Führer durch die Antikensammlung (= Führer durch die kunsthistorischen Sammlungen 2), Wien 1926.
Fritz Eichler, Die Reliefs des Heroon von Gjölbaschi-Trysa (= Kunstdenkmäler 8), Wien 1950.
Fritz Eichler, Die rotfigurigen attischen Trinkgefäße und Pyxiden (= Corpus vasorum antiquorum I), Wien 1951.

Die Kameen im Kunsthistorischen Museum, bearbeitet von Fritz Eichler und Ernst Kris, Wien 1927.

Fritz Eichler, Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Rotfigurige attische Vorratsgefäße (= Corpus vasorum antiquorum II), Wien 1959.

Archives

KHM-Achiv, IV 29, NL Fritz Eichler; III 2291, Selbst-Biografie; 223/KL/1941 (Ernennung zum Direktor); 76/ED/1943 (Einweisung); 9/ED/1944 (UK-Stellung); 9/ED/1945 (UK-Stellung)
KHM-Archiv, III 1212, PA Rudolf Noll.

OeStA/AdR, UWK, BMU, Personalakten, K. 03/30, Fritz Eichler.
OeStA/AdR, UWK, BMU, Personalakten, K. 12/10, Fritz Eichler.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 233.409, Fritz Eichler.

WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Fritz Eichler.

GND: 130144681

VIAF: 7548148269785905230006

Wikidata: Q89217

Gaming

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:40:16 +0000

Gaming

Susanne Hehenberger Fri, 11/13/2020 - 08:04

Bergungsstelle Gaming

Depot Gaming

Kartause 1, Gaming

other name: Bergungsstelle Schloss

On 13 September 1939 Department III of the Reichsstatthalterei in Vienna, which was responsible for the arts, allocated the former charterhouse in Gaming to the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs, Department IV (Education, Culture and Popular Education) for salvaging purposes. The legal basis for use of the property, owned by Melk Abbey and containing a church, refectory, administrative wing, library, garden and grounds, was the Law on Premises for Public Offices adopted on 27 July 1938, which allowed the requisitioning if necessary of both built-up and undeveloped sites. Gaming had in fact already become a salvage depot two weeks before it was requisitioned. At 6 a.m. on 31 August 1939, twenty-eight crates with the most important paintings from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (including all works by Peter Bruegel the Elder) had been transported there. Numerous other transports followed. Under the code name "Schloss", Gaming was to become one of the major salvage depots for state museums outside Vienna. Art objects were stored there from various collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Egyptian and Near Eastern, Greek and Roman Antiquities, Coins, Historic Musical Instruments, Sculptures, Arts and Crafts and the Imperial Treasury), the Albertina (until 1940), the State Arts and Crafts Museum in Vienna , the Liechtensteingalerie, the Museum of Ethnology and the Österreichische Galerie. The Städtische Sammlungen Wien and Post and Telegraph Museum in Vienna also transported items for salvage to Gaming. After September 1939, apart from the collection managers and curators of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Fritz Dworschak, Rudolf Noll, Hans Demel, Gert Adriani, Ludwig Baldass, Richard Nadler and Karl Ortner, access to the "Jagd" (Steinbach bei Göstling) and "Schloss" depots was available to researchers from other museums: director Richard Ernst and curator Siegfried Troll from the State Arts and Crafts Museum, director Bruno Grimschitz and curators Kurt Blauensteiner and Fritz Novotny from the Österreichische Galerie, and director Anton Reichel and curator Georg Saiko from the Albertina. The other local staff came exclusively from the Kunsthistorisches Museum: the restorers Wilhelm Kainz and Eduard Kneisel, who were in Gaming permanently, the secretaries Anna Schöpf and Josefine Berger, and some guards and cleaning staff. The local mayors and two Lower Austrian provincial and forestry officials had permission to enter the depots in the monastery building and church. From 1940, a separate agricultural school for girls was housed in the street-facing and connecting tracts of the former charterhouse, along with housing and a kindergarten. During the war the staffing was gradually cut, and in September 1944 the depot was to be cleared because of the increasing fear of air raids on the iron works in Kienberg just 2 km away and on the car park planned by the Wehrmacht for air force supply vehicles in Gaming park. Because of the lack of space, however, only the most important items were moved, mainly to various depots in Vienna. In January 1945 a basement had to be ceded to Armaments Inspectorate XVII for a research laboratory. In the last weeks of the war, a field hospital and refugee accommodation took up additional space. Items were salvaged in Gaming until the end of the war, without any bomb damage. In April 1945 paintings were transferred from there to Salzbergwerk Lauffen, and the depot office worked until 5 May 1945.

On 23 May 1945, the Red Army reached Gaming. With the aid of the Soviet military government, work began in August 1945 on the return of museum objects to Vienna, and the transports were extensively concluded by the following month. A few items from the State Arts and Crafts Museum, the Städtische Sammlungen and some private collections remained in the abbey church until 1946. Only a few pieces of furniture went missing.

Keywords

Salvaging

War-related losses

Susanne Hehenberger

29 May 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Theodor Brückler, Schutz und Bergung. Die wichtigsten Maßnahmen zur Rettung von Kulturgut, in: 50 Jahre danach. Kulturgut nach dem Krieg (= Denkmalpflege in Niederösterreich 15), Wien 1995, 6–8.

Herbert Haupt, Jahre der Gefährdung. Das Kunsthistorische Museum 1938–1945. Wien 1995.
Herbert Haupt, Getroffen, doch nicht vernichtet. Das Kunsthistorische Museum im Kriegjahr 1945. Eine Chronologie der Ereignisse in Bildern. Wien 2005.
Herbert Haupt, Die Rolle des Kunsthistorischen Museums bei der Beschlagnahme, Bergung und Rückführung von Kunstgut in den Jahren 1938–1945, in: Theodor Brückler (Hg.), Kunstraub, Kunstbergung und Restitution in Österreich. 1938 bis heute. Wien 1999, 53–75.

Susanne Hehenberger/Monika Löscher, "Geheime" Bergungsgorte. Das Rothschildsche Jagdschloss Steinbach bei Göstling (Jagd), die Kartause Gaming (Schloss), das aufgelassene Stift Klosterneuburg (Stift) und das Salzbergwerk Lauffen bei Bad Ischl (Berg). Arbeitsalltag – Sicherheitsvorkehrungen – Rückbergungen, in: Pia Schölnberger/Sabine Loitfellner (Hg.), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus. Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 6), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2016, 35–68, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201564-004.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, K. 1, K. 4/1.

KHM-Archiv, Bergungsunterlagen: XIII 11, XIII 12, XIII 13, XIII 14, XIII 21, XIII 23, XIIII 24; Direktionsakten: 124/KL/1940, 171/KL/1940, 173/KL/1940, 194/KL/1940, 208/KL/40, 248/KL/40, 264/KL/1941 78/ED/1942, 108/ED/1942, 5/ED/1944, 10/ED/1944, 2/III/ED/1945;
KHM-Archiv, Typoskript: Mathilde Pfannl, Das Kunsthistorische Museum im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Erinnerungen aus meiner Dienstzeit, Wien 1981.

GND: 3011144-4

VIAF: 155471057

Wikidata: Q668023

Grósz, August Joseph Benedict

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:37:59 +0000

Grósz, August Joseph Benedict

Leonhard Weidinger Wed, 02/10/2021 - 07:53

August Grósz

21 March 1889 Mauer near Vienna – 1 October 1943 Vienna

also August Groß

The son of the academic painter August Ignatz Grósz and Henriette, née Countess Attems, studied art history, history and classical archaeology at the University of Vienna. At the same time he attended the 29th course at the Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung (Institute of Austrian Historical Research) from 1911 to 1913. He obtained his doctorate in July 1914 with a thesis on ceremonial armour. During the First World War he was classed as fit for limited duties and worked in the administration of the Heeresmuseum (Army Museum) in Vienna. In 1921 he was recruited as a curator in the Weapons Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. In subsequent years he compiled bibliographies on weaponry, wrote studies on the history of helmets and armaments, and conducted research on tournaments and hunting and on armouries in Austrian Bohemia. Many of his works remained only in manuscript form, however. From 1934 to 1936 he headed the restructured Weapons Collection in the bel étage of the Neue Burg. In early 1938 he became director of the Weapons Collection but had to leave the museum in the second half of March 1938 for political reasons, since his wife Elvira was deemed in Nazi terminology to be a "first-degree Mischling". His father-in-law, the antiques dealer and publishing bookseller Josef Kende was arrested immediately after the annexation and deported in April 1938 to Dachau and in September to Buchenwald, where he perished in October 1938. Grósz subsequently found work with the Hammerl company at Piaristengasse 7 in Vienna's 8th district. In order, presumably, to work again as an art historian, he applied in February 1943 for admission to the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste (Reich Chamber of Fine Arts). The application was turned down, the Gau headquarters in Vienna judging him to be "politically indifferent", "sympathetic to Jews" and "related to Jews". He died a few months later in Vienna.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Susanne Hehenberger/Monika Löscher, "… das Schmerzenskind der letzten Jahre…". Ein Arbeitsbericht zur Provenienzforschung in der Bibliothek des Kunsthistorischen Museums, in: Bruno Bauer/Christina Köstner/Markus Stumpf (Hg.), NS-Provenienzforschung an Bibliotheken in Österreich, Wien 2011, 441–458.

Publications by the person / institution

August Grósz, Der Harnisch (= Sammlungen des kunsthistorischen Museums 4), Wien 1925.
August Grósz, Führer durch die Wagenburg in Schönbrunn (Führer durch die kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 12), Wien 1931.

August Grósz/Bruno Thomas, Katalog der Waffensammlung in der Neuen Burg. Schausammlung (Führer durch die kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 28), Wien 1936.

Archives

KHM-Archiv, 323/PP/1950, Restnachlass nach Direktor Dr. August Grósz, undatiert; III 515, PA August Grósz; IV 31, NL August Grósz.

KHM-Bibliothek, Inventarbuch, 2395–2448.

OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 136709, August Grósz.

WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft August Grósz; Meldeauskunft Elvira Grósz.

GND: 130167711

VIAF: 60181903

Wikidata: Q112524118

Hohenfurth (Vyšší Brod)

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:41:00 +0000

Hohenfurth (Vyšší Brod)

Leonhard Weidinger Wed, 02/10/2021 - 08:28

Stift Hohenfurth (Klášter Vyšší Brod)

Hohenfurth Abbey

Hohenfurth / Vyšší Brod, until 1938 Czechoslovakia, 1938–1945 Upper Danube, 1945–1992 Czechoslovakia, since 1993 Czech Republic

other names: Zisterzienserstift Hohenfurth, Cisterciácký klášter Vyšší Brod

Following the Munich Agreement of 29 September 1938, German troops invaded the Sudetenland, until then part of Czechoslovakia, on 2 October 1938. On 20 November 1938, the southern Bohemian districts of Kaplitz (Kaplice) and Krumau (Český Krumlov) came under the civil administration of the Upper Danube Gau. Within the district of Kaplitz was the Hohenfurth Cistercian Abbey (Klášter Vyšší Brod) founded in 1259. A day after the invasion, on 21 November 1938, the Gestapo arrested the abbot Tečelin Jaksch. His loyalty to the Czechoslovakian state and the fact that he had stored the abbey's most important artworks, nine panels by the Hohenfurth Master painted around 1350, in the State Gallery in Prague brought him a six-month prison sentence. In early 1939 a government commissar from the Upper Danube Gau took over administration of the abbey. In 1940, the Holy See made Hohenfurth, until then part of the Bishopric of Budweis (České Budějovice), subject to the Diocese of Linz. On 17 April 1941, the abbey was dissolved by the Linz Gestapo and its art collection seized. That year as well, August Eigruber, Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Upper Danube, reported to the "Führerbau" in Munich that Hohenfurth was suitable alongside the dissolved Benedictine abbey Kremsmünster for storing artworks. Four large and twenty medium-sized rooms were available. Initially, however, the artworks for the "Sonderauftrag Linz" were stored at the Reichskunstdepot Kremsmünster.

On 10 February 1943, Heinrich Klapsia, provisional director of the Collection of Sculpture, Arts and Crafts in the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) in Vienna took over the Mannheimer collection from Berlin earmarked for the Kunstmuseum Linz and had it stored in Hohenfurth. In autumn 1943, applied art items from the expropriated collections of Alphonse and Louis Rothschild and Rudolf Gutmann were added, along with "Gau-owned" paintings. In early 1944 a three-headed delegation visited Hohenfurth Abbey to investigate its suitability for storing the Linz coin collection. Gottfried Reimer, deputy head of the "Sonderauftrag Linz", and (Heinrich) Justus Schmidt, responsible for culture in the Upper Danube Gau and also head of the art and cultural history department of the Landesmuseum in Linz approved the transport of the coins from Kremsmünster to Hohenfurth. Fritz Dworschak, First Director of the KHM and responsible for the "Sonderauftrag Coins", who had been represented during the inspection by his colleague Günther Probszt, proposed that the coins and medals be moved within the Reichskunstdepot from the second floor to the ground floor, but Reimer disagreed. In June 1944, Spedition Bartz, formerly E. Bäuml, was charged with transporting the entire collection, including the Linz collection, to Hohenfurth. The move was completed at the end of July 1944. Required furniture and other installations for the offices in Hohenfurth were purchased from the Dorotheum to enable Günther Probszt and Leo Schindler from the "Sonderauftrag Coins" to catalogue the numismatic acquisitions for Linzer Kunstmuseum at the depot. Some objects (including the Mannheimer collection) were moved for conservation reasons to Salzbergwerk Altaussee. In autumn 1944, the evacuation of the coins and medals had to be arranged within just five weeks. Probszt and Schindler packed the objects, which were stored in coin trays in thirty-one special crates, and deposited them in the abbey cloister. The establishment of a Wehrmacht field hospital in the upper floor meant that space was extremely limited. There were also staffing problems, and from the beginning of 1945 there was no guard on site. On 28 February 1945, there were still 15,018 coins and 7,878 silver and non-precious-metal medals earmarked for the Linz coin collection in Hohenfurth. The gold coins – a report dated 3 January 1945 mentioned 1,491 "diverse" medieval and modern gold coins – appear to have already been moved at this time. Twenty-seven of the thirty-one crates, a box with books and two coin trays from St Florian Abbey were transported to Altaussee by 10 April 1945. Nine days later, thirty-four crates of books and on 28 April 1945 the remaining coins and books, along with two newly purchased coin trays, were collected from Hohenfurth.

On 6 May 1945, the US army reached Hohenfurth and erected a guardroom to protect the artworks stored in the abbey. After the war, Hohenfurth became part of Czechoslovakia again. In June and July 1945, the 3rd US Army transported over one thousand objects to the Central Collecting Point in Munich. Leo Schindler had left Hohenfurth with the last transports. Günther Probszt remained there until the end of the war and was entrusted with the return of the coins to Austria. In June 1945 he was still able to travel to Linz for a meeting, but thereafter the Czechoslovak authorities forbade it, and he was not granted an exit visa until September 1947. The abbot Jaksch, who returned in June 1945, was only able to revive the abbey's activities for a short time. After the Communist Party came to power in 1948, he left Czechoslovakia for good, and in 1950 the abbey was dissolved for a second time. Recent provenance research indicates that only part of the Hohenfurth art and coin collection has been restituted. After the war, the Austrian Bundesdenkmalamt (Federal Monuments Authority) was given over 3,300 coins and medals, as well as archival documents, books and a painting, in trust. Only three inventories and one book were returned, and the vast majority of the items, including a portrait of the abbot of Hohenfurth Quirin Mickl, were auctioned in the "Mauerbach auction" in 1996.

Keywords

"Sonderauftrag Linz"

"Sonderauftrag Münzen"

Salvaging

Seizure

Susanne Hehenberger

1 April 2020

Publications about the person / institution

Caroline Damianová, Die Kunstsammlung Adolf Hitlers in Tschechien, Bachelor-Arbeit Karlsuniversität Prag 2013.

Jiři Franc, Vyšši Brod / Hohenfurth. Das bewegte Schicksal der Kunst im Zentrum der Peripherie, in: Alte Spuren, neue Wege. Landesausstellung Oberösterreich & Südböhmen, Linz 2013, 347–360.

Otto Fritscher, Kontroversen um den "Mauerbach-Schatz". Die Restitutionsverfahren von 1969 bis 1986, Wien 2012.

Johann Großruck, Vermögensentzug und Restitution betreffend die oberösterreichischen Stifte mit den inkorporierten Pfarren (= Veröffentlichungen der Österreichischen Historikerkommission. Vermögensentzug während der NS-Zeit sowie Rückstellungen und Entschädigungen seit 1945 in Österreich 22/4), Wien-München 2004, URL: hiko.univie.ac.at/PDF/22-4.pdf (3.12.2020).

Josef Hüttl, Das Generalvikariat Hohenfurth als Verwaltungsbereich der Diözese Linz (1940–1946), in: 73. Jahresbericht des Bischöflichen Gymnasiums Kollegium Petrinum in Urfahr-Linz an der Donau, Schuljahr 1976/77, 3–38.

Birgit Kirchmayr/Friedrich Buchmayr/Michael John, Geraubte Kunst in Oberdonau (Oberösterreich in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus 6), Linz 2007.

P. Canisius L. Noschitzka (OCist), Das Zisterzienserstift Hohenfurth in Böhmen, in: Stift Rein 1179–1979. 850 Jahre Kultur und Glaube, Festschrift zum Jubiläum. Herausgegeben von Abt Paulus Rappold unter Mitarbeit von Karl Amon, Helmut Mezler-Andelberg, Norbert Müller, Ileane Schwazkogler, Rein 1979, 293–307.

N. N., Geschichte, in: Website Zisterzienserkloster Hohenfurth, URL: www.klastervyssibrod.cz/Geschichte[de] (3.12.2020).

Hans Rödhammer, Das Generalvikariat Hohenfurth 1940–1946, in: Oberösterreichische Heimatblätter (1974) 1/2, 57–74.

Leonhard Weidinger, The Mauerbach Stock – Where did the So-Called Ownerless Objects Come From?, in: Olivia Kaiser/Christina Köstner-Pemsel/Markus Stumpf (Hg.), Treuhänderische Übernahme und Verwahrung. International und interdisziplinär betrachtet (= Bibliothek im Kontext 3), Göttingen 2018, 71–83, URL: www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/pdf/10.14220/9783737007832.

Archives

BArch Koblenz, B 323/7, 323/11, 323/123, 323/164, 323/491, 323/572.

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, K. 13/2, M. 4

KHM-Archiv, Bergungsakten: XIII 14; Direktionsakten: 75/ED/1943, 95/ED/1943, 2/XVI/ED/1945, 54/ED/1946; I 97, I 100, I 102, I 103, I 456.

GND: 7541042-4

VIAF: 145888051

Wikidata: Q675724