War-related losses

Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:51 +0000

Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien

Konstantin Ferihumer Wed, 11/18/2020 - 11:17

Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien

Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna

other names: Academia von der Mallerey, Bildthauer, Fortification, Prospectiv und Architectur-Khunst (from 1692), Kaiserl. Hof-Academie der Mahler-Bild-Hauer und anderer freyen Künste (from 1725/26), k. k. Akademie der vereinigten bildenden Künste (from 1772), k. k. Akademie der bildenden Künste (from 1800), k. k. Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien (from 1865), Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien (from 1918), Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (from 1998)

The Academy of Fine Arts was founded on the private initiative of the imperial court painter Peter Strudel (1660–1714) and was officially approved by the imperial household in 1692. After Strudel's death, it was re-established in 1726 as the Public Imperial Court Academy headed by Jacob van Schuppen (1670–1751). The establishment in 1766 of an independent engravers' academy under Jakob Mathias Schmutzer (1733–1811) laid the foundations for the present-day Graphic Collection. Schmutzer's engravers' academy was incorporated in 1772 into the k. k. Akademie der vereinigten bildenden Künste (Imperial Royal Academy of Consolidated Fine Arts), merging the existing art academies in Vienna into a single institution, thereby enabling the collections to be systematically enlarged. A further painting collection, compiled without a specific strategy and intended originally for teaching purposes, was considerably upgraded to become an independent gallery of international standing through the acquisition in 1822 of a legacy from Anton Franz de Paula Graf von Lamberg-Sprinzenstein (1740–1822)—including Hieronymus Bosch's Last Judgment triptych, and works by Rubens, Van Dyck and other seventeenth-century Dutch painters. After moving a number of times within today's 1st district and as a result of the increasing shortage of space, a new building was constructed in 1871 on Schillerplatz, which was officially opened in 1877. After the First World War, the Academy collections became the property of the Republic of Austria.

Already in the years of the Austrofascist regime, the Academy was open to the ideas of National Socialism, and it was rapidly "aligned" after the annexation of Austria in 1938. On 12 March 1938, the Vienna NSDAP appointed a management board consisting of Ferdinand Andri, Wilhelm Dachauer and Alexander Popp, which immediately dismissed thirteen members of staff and remained in place until Popp was appointed rector in summer 1941. The Academy was now answerable to Department IV of the Ministry of Internal and Cultural Affairs headed by Kajetan Mühlmann, and from 1940 the Department for Promotion of the Arts of the Reichsstatthalter in Vienna. Regular courses were suspended from winter semester 1944/45, and the Academy was closed completely at the latest in January 1945 along with all art academies.

In 1938, the Paintings Gallery had around 1,900 works. To enlarge the collection, the provisional board and gallery director Robert Eigenberger, proposed in 1939 to participate in the distribution of art objects from expropriated collections, although no allocations of this type have been identified to date. In August of that year, Eigenberger was instructed to divide the works into categories A, B and C and, in view of the impending war, to arrange for the storage of category A works. In the four storage operations in 1939, 1942, 1944 and 1945, over 600 works, mainly from categories A and B, were stored at Stift Heiligenkreuz, Creditanstalt–Bankverein in Vienna 1, Schottengasse 6-8, Schloss Schönborn in Lower Austria, and Bergwerk Lauffen near Bad Ischl. Eigenberger categorized almost 1,700 works in 1939 as third-class, around 1,300 of which remained in the Academy building. Following an air raid 12 March 1945, 520 works were destroyed or have disappeared. In addition, 120 of the works stored elsewhere were lost through theft or for other war-related reasons. A start was made at the end of 1942 on the storage of works in the library and present-day Graphic Collection. The most valuable objects were stored in a safe in Rockhgasse, Vienna, and less valuable ones in a basement within the Academy, while the least valuable ones were left in place. With few exceptions, surviving source material does not provide any detailed information as to which objects in the present-day Graphic Collection were stored or lost during the war.

On 19 April 1945, when the fighting in Vienna came to an end, Herbert Boeckl took over as temporary rector, and courses started up again a few days later. In the denazification proceedings immediately after the war, thirty-seven members of staff were dismissed, although most were rehabilitated at the latest after the adoption of the 1947 National Socialist Act.

In 1988, the Paintings Gallery was merged with the Glyptothek at the Academy. Under the Art College Organization Act, the Academy was recognized as a university in 1998, retaining the name Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In 2003, the Graphic Collection became a separate organization unit from the library. Systematic provenance research in the Academy collections began in 2013. Based on its research findings, the Art Restitution Advisory Board recommended on 11 January 2019 the return of three prints from its Graphic Collection originally owned by Moriz Grünebaum and restituted to his heirs in February 2021. In November 2021 the Art Restitution Advisory Board also recommended the restitution of 33 prints from the Sigmund Stiassny collection and 319 drawings from Rudolf and Maria Perlberger, which had been acquired by the Graphic Collection as a result of a donation in the 1980s.

Keywords

Salvaging

War-related losses

Konstantin Ferihumer

8 November 2021

Publications about the person / institution

Beatrix Bastl, "Herrschaft des Abschaums". Universitätsbibliothek und Universitätsarchiv der Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien von 1933 bis 1948, in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Buchforschung in Österreich (2012) 2, 7–28.

Beatrix Bastl/Paul Köpf, Universitätsbibliothek der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien in der Zeit zwischen 1933 und 1948, in: Bruno Bauer/Christina Köstner-Pemsel/Markus Stumpf (Hg.), NS-Provenienzforschung an österreichischen Bibliotheken. Anspruch und Wirklichkeit, Graz-Feldkirch 2011, 273–288, URL: fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/objects/o:290050/methods/bdef:Content/download (3.12.2020).

Martin Bilek, Die Akademie der bildenden Künste 1967/68 bis 1991/92. Statistik der Meisterschulen und Institute, Wien 1992.

Heribert Hutter, Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien. Akademie heute. Schenkungen d. Professoren u. andere Widmungen, Wien 1977.

Elisabeth Klamper, Zur politischen Geschichte der Akademie der bildenden Künste 1918 bis 1948. Eine Bestandsaufnahme, in: Hans Seiger/Michael Lunardi/Peter Josef Populorum (Hg.), Im Reich der Kunst. Die Wiener Akademie der bildenden Künste und die faschistische Kunstpolitik, Wien 1990, 5–64.

Monika Knofler, 1688, 1692, 1726, 1772. Die ersten 100 wechselvollen Gründungsjahre der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, in: DERDIEDAS, Akademiezeitung Sondernummer zum 325 Jahre Jubiläum, Wien 2017, 28–33.

Carl Friedrich Arnold von Lützow, Geschichte der k. k. Akademie der bildenden Künste. Festschrift zur Eröffnung des neuen Akademie-Gebäudes, Wien 1877.

Irene Nierhaus, Adoration und Selbstverherrlichung. Künstlerische und kunstpolitische Schwerpunkte an der Akademie der bildenden Künste von den dreißiger bis Ende der vierziger Jahre, in: Hans Seiger/Michael Lunardi/Peter Josef Populorum (Hg.), Im Reich der Kunst. Die Wiener Akademie der bildenden Künste und die faschistische Kunstpolitik, Wien 1990, 65–158.

Verena Pawlowsky, Die Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien im Nationalsozialismus. Lehrende, Studierende und Verwaltungspersonal, Wien-Köln-Weimar 2015.

Margatethe Poch-Kalous, Die Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien, Wien 1968.

René Schober, "...da ihre Beschädigung keinen Verlust von unersetzlichen Kulturwerten darstellen würde". Bergungen und Kriegsverluste der Akademischen Gemäldegalerie im Zweiten Weltkrieg, in: Pia Schölnberger/Sabine Loitfellner (Hg.), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus. Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 6), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2016, 149–174, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201564-009.

Renate Trnek, Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. Illsutriertes Bestandsverzeichnis, Wien 1989.

Walter Wagner, Die Geschichte der Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien, Wien 1967.

Publications by the person / institution

Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Die K. K. Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Wien in den Jahren 1892–1917. Zum Gedächtnis des zweihundertfünfundzwanzigjährigen Bestandes der Akademie, Wien 1917.
Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien, Die Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Jahrbuch 1940, Wien 1940.
Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien, Jubiläumsausstellung, 25.10.1942–3.1.1943, Wien 1942.

Kupferstichkabinett der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Wien (Hg.), Meisterzeichnungen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts aus dem Kupferstichkabinett der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. Ausgewählt und bearbeitet von Erwin Pokorny, Wien 1998.

Archives

UAAbKW, Verwaltungsakten.

GND: 2003761-2

VIAF: 159216717

Wikidata: Q414219

Augustinerkeller, Wien

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:39:08 +0000

Augustinerkeller, Wien Susanne Hehenberger Thu, 11/19/2020 - 11:09

Augustinerkeller, Wien

Augustinerstraße 1, Vienna 1

The Augustinerkeller in the centre of Vienna was used as a depot to house the art collection belonging to Count Karl Lanckoronski (1848–1939), which had been seized in autumn 1939 from his son Anton in accordance with the Regulation on Management of the Assets of Members of the Former Polish State. Although they came under the responsibility of Hermann Göring's Haupttreuhandstelle Ost (HTO), Hitler claimed a pre-emptive right to the collection, which he intended to distribute among Austrian museums after the war. While the paintings were stored initially in Immendorf Castle in 1942 and then in Thürnthal Castle in 1943, a site had to be found for the sculptures. The City of Vienna recalled the Augustinerkeller basement underneath the Albertina, which was the location of a restaurant. Ludwig Berg, salvage director in the Reichsstatthalterei, noted in 1943 that the 1,000 square metres there would be ideal because the site was "well aired, heatable, easy to access, in a prestigious building and considered bombproof because it was integrated in the old Augustinerbastei fortifications with their multiple vaults." After Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach agreed to its use as a depot, under the supervision of the Albertina as depot administrator, the stone statues from the Lanckoronski collection and some of the antiques collection from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, including the Ephesus reliefs, the statues of St Stephen from the Wiener Städtische Sammlungen, statues from the Österreichische Galerie, such as Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's famous character heads, Georg Raphael Donner's statues and the marble Habsburg statues by Paul and Peter Strudel from the National Library Stateroom were transferred to the Augustinerkeller. The Institute for Monument Preservation also arranged the salvaging of statues from private buildings and public squares, including Johann Martin Fischer's statue of Hygieia from the front courtyard of the Josephinum. Some marble blocks belonging to the Administration of Palaces (Schlösserverwaltung) intended for a "Führer" relief were also stored there. Probably because of the high air humidity, Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, which was originally to have been stored underneath the Albertina as well, was eventually moved to Thürnthal Castle. Although the theft of some objects by members of the Reichsstatthalterei was reported after the war, the artworks remained intact. Together with other collection objects, the statues from the Lanckoronski collection were restituted after the war to Anton Lanckoronski. Plans to open a lapidarium after the war in the former depot were not followed up. The Augustinerkeller was cleared in October 1947 and the restaurant reopened.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Pia Schölnberger, "Hier feiert der Luftschutz Orgien". Die Bergungsmaßnahmen der Graphischen Sammlung Albertina unter George Saiko, in: Pia Schölnberger/Sabine Loitfellner (Hg.), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus. Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 6), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2016, 129–148, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201564-008.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, K. 6, M. 6, Augustinerkeller.

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

Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien

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

Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien Susanne Hehenberger Thu, 11/19/2020 - 15:58

Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien

Historical museum of the city of Vienna

Other names: Städtische Sammlungen Wien, Wien Museum

The beginnings of the present-day Wien Museum date back to the 1860s, when the city council established a commission for municipal collections responsible for the acquisition and financing of objects for a future city museum. The museum was to collect "all valuable mementos of the history and cultural life of Vienna" and to make them accessible to the public. During the World's Fair in Vienna in 1873, the Städtisches Waffenmuseum (Municipal Weapons Museum), successor to the Bürgerliches Zeughaus, opened a historical collection in the city centre and at the Städtisches Pädagogium in Hegelgasse 12. Both undertakings attracted a large number of visitors and were a financial success, prompting the municipal council to approve the founding of a historical museum of the city of Vienna. In 1874, the Weapons Museum was merged with the Vienna municipal and provincial archive. It took until 1887, however, for a formal decision to be adopted by the council. In 1888, the Historisches Museum finally opened on premises in Vienna town hall. It included the Vienna city library and municipal archive (today Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv), which became a separate institution the following year, on 25 June 1889. On 12 July 1904, the Historisches Museum and Stadtbibliothek (today Wienbibliothek im Rathaus) were merged in a department also known as the Städtische Sammlungen. During the First World War, the museum was closed and some of the premises used by departments deemed necessary for the war effort, with the objects being stored together in a few rooms. In July 1917, the museum reopened in the premises available to it. Between the wars no real changes took place.

After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938, the museum was taken over by the Nazi authorities and the staff checked for their political reliability and "race" categorization. They were obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. As Oskar Katann, director since 1936, was deemed politically unreliable, he was retired in November 1938 and replaced by his former deputy Karl Wagner. At the same time, the municipal library became a separate entity headed by Ferdinand Müller. With the restructuring of the city administration, deputy mayor Hanns Blaschke became head on 22 September 1938 of the newly established Group VIII responsible for culture, and hence the direct supervisor of the museum and library directors. Thereafter, both Blaschke and Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach, who wished to be informed in advance of new acquisitions by the Städtische Sammlungen, intervened directly in the museum's affairs. As a classic general museum, municipal department and museum in the Reichsgau of Vienna, it played an important role in the expropriation of art works belonging to Jewish inhabitants. It was well endowed financially and could therefore participate actively in the many auctions of property expropriated by the Nazis. Moreover, as the only museum on the mailing list of Municipal Department 50, which issued securing orders, it was well informed about artworks belonging to Jewish collectors. The Städtische Sammlungen issued "wish lists", which were passed on to the Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz (Central Monument Protection Authority), for consideration when looted artworks were distributed.

The air raids on Wiener Neustadt in August 1943 made it clear that Vienna was now also in great danger. The museum was closed for the duration of the war. The storage of objects in sixteen locations in Lower Austria (Schloss Glaswein, Grusbach, Kartause Gaming, Kirchstetten, Pfarrhof Klein-Engersdorf, Schloss Laudon, Kartause Mauerbach, Schloss Niederleis, Pfarrhof Pulkau, Schloss Purgstall, Schloss Schönborn, Schloss Seefeld, Burg Stixenstein, Schloss Thalheim, Schloss Waidhofen and Schloss Wald) and some depots in Vienna (Hofburg, Teinfaltstraße, Augustinerkeller and Augustinerkirche), which had been planned since 1941, now began. The removals were completed in early 1944. In January 1944, the Clock Museum at Schulhof 2 in the 1st district was closed. The Roman Museum at Rainergasse 15 in the 4th district was destroyed in an air raid in February 1945. At the end of the war, some of the depots were plundered by Red Army soldiers, retreating German troops and civilians, and a considerable number of objects were lost.

Seven restitution laws were passed in post-war Austria. Of the twenty-nine restitution applications during this time, twenty had a positive outcome, and the applicants recovered most of their possessions, although in some cases only on condition that they bought them back at the price paid at the time, even though the Historisches Museum at the time had paid the Dorotheum rather than to the original owners. This was the case with Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, whose descendants were only given back a porcelain object acquired by the museum in an auction at the Dorotheum after they had paid back the purchase price at the time.

Systematic and active provenance research commenced in 1998 at the instigation of Peter Marboe, municipal councillor for cultural affairs. The decision of the Vienna city council of 29 April 1999, modelled on the Federal Law on the Restitution of Art Objects from Austrian Federal Museums of 4 December 1998 (Art Restitution Act, BGBl I 181/1998), obliged the Museen der Stadt Wien to return artworks and cultural objects to their original owners or legal successors. An amendment to the decision on 29 April 2011 extended the validity to legal transactions according to Section 1 of the Federal Law of 15 May 1946 (BGBl. 106/1946) concluded between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945 in the territory governed by the German Reich outside the Republic of Austria. In the second instance, the word "without payment" was deleted to cover the restitution of eligible artworks and cultural objects that had been purchased by the city of Vienna under the Export Prohibition Act after 8 May 1945, insofar as there was a demonstrable close connection between the restitution proceedings, export prohibition and purchase. By 2017 over 3,000 objects from 50 collections had be restituted to the following collectors: Bernhard Altmann, Stefan Auspitz-Artenegg, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Josef und Auguste Blauhorn, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, Viktor Blum, Oscar Bondy, Karoline Broch, Laura Broch, Adele Duschnitz, Ernst Egger, Hanns Epstein, Friedrich Fischl, Hanns Fischl, Josef Isidor Fleischner, Siegfried Fuchs, David Goldmann, Alexander Grosz, Moriz Grünebaum, Herbert M. Gutmann, Leo and Helene Hecht, Alfred Hofmann, Josef Hupka, Jewish Institute for the Blind on Hohe Warte, Bruno Jellinek, Hans Klinkhoff, Wilhelm Viktor Krausz, Ernst Moriz Kronfeld, Lederer family, Mautner family, Ignaz Pick, Emil Politzer, Gisela and Ernst Pollack, Max Pollak, Franz and Melanie Popper, Adolf Guido Redlich (Adolphus Redley), Oskar Reichel, Heinrich Rieger, Heinrich Rothberger, Alphonse and Louis Nathaniel Rothschild, Franz Ruhmann, Ignaz and Clothilde Schachter, Paul Schwarzstein, Josef Simon, Strauß-Meyszner, Strauß-Simon, Josef Thenen, Josef Ungar, Charles Weinberger, Leopold Weinstein, Marianne Wengraf and Ella Zirner.

Keywords

Nazi asset expropriation

Gerhard Milchram

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Dritter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek vom 21. November 2002 (Restitutionsbericht 2002), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2002.pdf (3.12.2020).
Vierter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek vom 10. November 2003 (Restitutionsbericht 2003), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2003.pdf (3.12.2020).
Fünfter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek vom 22. November 2004 (Restitutionsbericht 2004), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2004.pdf (3.12.2020).
Sechster Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek (Restitutionsbericht 2005), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2005.pdf (3.12.2020).
Siebenter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek vom 1. Dezember 2006 (Restitutionsbericht 2006), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2006.pdf (3.12.2020).
Achter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wienbibliothek im Rathaus vom 1. Februar 2008 (Restitutionsbericht 2007), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2007.pdf (3.12.2020).
Neunter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wienbibliothek im Rathaus vom 1. Februar 2009 (Restitutionsbericht 2008), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2008.pdf (3.12.2020).
Zehnter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wienbibliothek im Rathaus vom 1. Februar 2010 (Restitutionsbericht 2009), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2009.pdf (3.12.2020).
Elfter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wienbibliothek im Rathaus vom 31. März 2011 (Restitutionsbericht 2010), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_Wien_Museum_2010.pdf (3.12.2020).
Zwölfter Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 in der Fassung vom 29. April 2011 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien sowie der Wienbibliothek im Rathaus vom 2. April 2013 (Restitutionsbericht 2011), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2011.pdf (3.12.2020).
13. und 14. Bericht des amtsführenden Stadtrates für Kultur und Wissenschaft über die gemäß dem Gemeinderatsbeschluss vom 29. April 1999 in der Fassung vom 29. April 2011 erfolgte Übereignung von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus den Sammlungen der Museen der Stadt Wien, der Wienbibliothek im Rathaus sowie dem Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien vom 17. April 2015 Restitutionsberichte 2012 und 2013), URL: www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/PDFs/Restitutionsbericht_2012_und_2013.pdf (3.12.2020).

Sándor Békési, Das Rathaus als Museums- und Ausstellungsort. Über Formen und Funktionen städtischer Repräsentation in Wien 1886–1958, in: Susanne Pils/Martin Scheutz/Christoph Sonnlechner/Stefan Spevak (Hg.), Rathäuser als multifunktionale Räume der Repräsentation, der Parteiungen und des Geheimnisses (= Forschungen und Beiträge zur Wiener Stadtgeschichte 55), Wien 2012, 339–370.

Wilhelm Deutschmann, Ein Überblick zur Geschichte des Historischen Museums der Stadt Wien, in: Hundert Jahre Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien. Ausstellungskatalog zur 106. Sonderausstellung des Historischen Museum der Stadt Wien vom 21. Mai bis 30. August 1987, Wien 1987, 15–31.

Peter Eppel, Kein "Schlussstrich", sondern viele späte Restitutionen. Provenienzforschung, Erbensuche und Restitution der Museen der Stadt Wien, in: Verena Pawlowsky/Harald Wendelin (Hg.), Enteignete Kunst. Raub und Rückgabe – Österreich von 1938 bis heute, Wien 2006, 200–208.

N. N., Wien Museum, in: Wien Geschichte Wiki, URL: www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Wien_Museum (3.12.2020).

Hermann Reuther, Das historische Museum der Stadt Wien, in: Das neue Wien. Städtewerk 2, hg. unter offizieller Mitwirkung der Gemeinde Wien, Wien 1927, 113–130.

Michael Wladika, Zehn Jahre Provenienzforschung, Erbensuche und Restitution in den Museen der Stadt Wien – eine vorläufige Bilanz, in: Gabriele Anderl/Christoph Bazil/Eva Blimlinger/Oliver Kühschelm/Monika Mayer/Anita Stelzl-Gallian/Leonhard Weidinger (Hg.), ... wesentlich mehr Fälle als angenommen. 10 Jahre Kommission für Provenienzforschung (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 1), Wien 2009, 263–280, URL: doi.org/10.7767/boehlau.9783205118862.263.

Publications by the person / institution

Museen der Stadt Wien/Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek (Hg.), Die Restitution von Kunst- und Kulturgegenständen aus dem Besitz der Stadt Wien 1998–2001, Wien 2002.

GND: 2012197-0

VIAF: 128603098

Wikidata: Q505873

Immendorf, Schloss

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

Immendorf, Schloss Leonhard Weidinger Thu, 10/08/2020 - 18:27

Schloss Immendorf

Immendorf Castle

Wullersdorf

Immendorf Castle in the northern Weinviertel, mentioned for the first time in records in the thirteenth century, was originally a two-storey complex around a rectangular courtyard with square towers. It was restored and modified in the late nineteenth century. In 1942 Rudolf Freudenthal, the owner of the castle at the time, made rooms available to the Reichsstatthalter in Vienna for salvage. That same year, some of the Lanckoronski collection was stored there before being moved to Thürnthal Castle in 1943. From March 1943, paintings, statues and applied art objects from the Lederer collection and the Österreichische Galerie, including the Faculty pictures and other paintings by Gustav Klimt, were transported to Immendorf. In November and December 1943 the Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum in Wien (State Arts and Crafts Museum in Vienna, now the MAK) stored the Laxenburg Room, various East Asian and Islamic objects, early modern handicrafts, over fifty pieces of furniture, leather wallpaper, twelve carpets and the Möchlinger Grab, a fifteenth-century wooden shrine carved in the form of a Gothic church. Privately owned objects were also stored here. In late March 1945, as the Red Army was approaching Vienna, Richard Ernst, director of the Arts and Crafts Museum, tried unsuccessfully to transport forty crates and three leather wallpaper items back to Vienna. In the second half of April 1945, the front approached Immendorf. In early May German units were stationed in the castle, moving off around lunchtime on 8 May 1945. A few hours later the Red Army arrived in Immendorf with a large number of trucks and began to occupy the castle and annexes. A fire broke out around 6 p.m. in the southwest tower and quickly spread. The Soviet troops escaped from the burning building. In the morning of 9 May 1945, the first day after the end of the Second World War in Europe, the fire appeared to have been extinguished. The second floor of the castle caught fire in the early morning of 10 May, however, and the fire spread to the rooms on the first floor and parterre. By the following day, the entire building had been burned to the ground. Only the walls remained with just a high pile of rubble in the interior. Attempts to put out the fire and rescue the art objects had been in vain. Only two carpets from the Arts and Crafts Museum were salvaged. All of the other stored objects burned. In the 1950s, most of the castle ruins were demolished.

Many reports of the fire suggest that the depot was deliberately destroyed by German troops, probably SS units, to prevent the objects stored there falling into the hands of the Red Army. This supposition cannot be definitively confirmed, however. There are no indications that Soviet troops started the fire. There is also the suspicion that not all of the artworks were destroyed but that some objects were rescued before or during the fire. No single object from the list of items stored in Immendorf has turned up until now.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler in der Ostmark, Band 1, Wien und Niederdonau, Wien-Berlin 1941.

Christina Gschiel, "Transport der Teile ohne zu schneiden". Die Bergung des Beethoven-Frieses aus der Sammlung Lederer in Schloss Thürnthal, in: Pia Schölnberger/Sabine Loitfellner (Hg.), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus. Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 6), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2016, 359–382, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201564-018.

Leonhard Weidinger, "hiebei muß die Möglichkeit eines Luftangriffes und die Konservierungsfrage in gleicher Weise die Wahl bestimmen". Die Bergungsmaßnahmen des Staatlichen Kunstgewerbemuseums in Wien, in: Pia Schölnberger/Sabine Loitfellner (Hg.), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus. Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 6), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2016, 197–218, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201564-011.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, K. 1, Immendorf.

GND: 1073623262

VIAF: 316533433

Wikidata: Q28533228

Klein-Engersdorf, Pfarrhof

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:39:12 +0000

Klein-Engersdorf, Pfarrhof Leonhard Weidinger Tue, 03/09/2021 - 21:00

Pfarrhof Klein-Engersdorf

Klein-Engersdorf parsonage

Enzersfeld

The parsonage in Klein-Engersdorf am Bisamberg was one of sixteen storage sites of the Wiener Städtische Sammlungen in Lower Austria, where museum objects were deposited from 1943 to protect them from air raids. As the parsonage was on the outskirts of the town and was inhabited only by the parson and his sister, the museum authorities considered the first floor of the house to be an ideal place to store some of the clock and watch collection. In the last days of April 1945, Soviet troops looted the parsonage and destroyed the interior in their search for watches. When the contents of the depot were restored in November 1945, only five of the original eight crates were recovered.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Gerhard Milchram/Michael Wladika, "Es konnte festgestellt werden, dass tatsächlich Verwüstungen und Plünderungen sowohl durch SS-Truppen als auch durch Russen und Landbewohner stattfanden". Bergungen und Rückbergungen der Städtischen Sammlungen (Museen der Stadt Wien), in: Pia Schölnberger/Sabine Loitfellner (Hg.), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus. Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 6), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2016, 219–248, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201564-012.

Heinz Schöny, Erinnerungen an die Rückbergungen nach dem Krieg, in: Hundert Jahre Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, Katalog der 106. Sonderausstellung des Historischen Museums der Stadt Wien, 21. Mai bis 30. August 1987, Wien 1987, 87.

Archives

Chronik der Pfarre Enzersfeld, Jänner bis 31. Mai 1945, S. 475–476.

Museen der Stadt Wien (Städtische Sammlungen, MA 10), Bestand Bergungen, K. 2, Bergungsorte, I. u. II. Kistenverzeichnis.
Museen der Stadt Wien (Städtische Sammlungen, MA 10), Bestand Bergungen, K. 3, Kriegsverluste 1.

GND: 1052086284

VIAF: 313418282

Wikidata: Q37874618

Pulkau, Pfarrhof

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:39:05 +0000

Pulkau, Pfarrhof

Leonhard Weidinger Mon, 04/26/2021 - 16:04

Pfarrhof Pulkau

Pulkau parsonage

The parsonage on the outskirts of Pulkau was originally built in the sixteenth/seventeenth century and was converted after a fire in 1709 into an imposing two-storey building with Baroque façade. Because of its remote location, it was selected by the Wiener Städtische Sammlungen in 1943 as one of sixteen sites in Lower Austria for the storage of collection items. Pictures, carpets and some of the Strauss-Meyszner collection, including the estate of Johann Strauss the Younger, were stored in the granary on the first floor. In April 1945 the parsonage housed refugees from Silesia and wounded patients from abandoned German Wehrmacht field hospitals. After the withdrawal of the Wehrmacht without a fight on 7 May 1945, Soviet troops took over the site and billeted soldiers in the parsonage. Looting by the Soviet soldiers and the local population occurred, but of the stored museum objects, only Johann Strauss's violin is still missing today.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Wikidata: Q37879772

Purgstall an der Erlauf, Schloss

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:39:05 +0000

Purgstall an der Erlauf, Schloss Leonhard Weidinger Mon, 04/26/2021 - 16:06

Schloss Purgstall an der Erlauf

Purgstall an der Erlauf castle

Schloss Purgstall was owned after 1933 by the Prague bank director Florian Klement. Because of its remote location on the outskirts of Purgstall an der Erlauf, it was selected by the Wiener Städtische Sammlungen in 1943 as a storage site. From August 1943, furniture, weapons and armour were stored in a room on the ground floor and four rooms on the first floor. There were only minimal losses as a result of war damage or theft.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Archives

Museen der Stadt Wien (Städtische Sammlungen, MA 10), Bestand Bergungen, K. 2, Bergungsorte I. u. II. Kistenverzeichnis.
Museen der Stadt Wien (Städtische Sammlungen, MA 10), Bestand Bergungen, K. 3, Kriegsverluste 1.

GND: 1068411317

VIAF: 315099161

Wikidata: Q37857774

Sonnberg, Schloss

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:39:01 +0000

Sonnberg, Schloss

Leonhard Weidinger Thu, 10/08/2020 - 18:38

Schloss Sonnberg

Sonnberg castle

Sonnberg, Kreis / Bezirk Hollabrunn

Sonnberg Castle, mentioned in records for the first time in the twelfth century, was rebuilt in 1596 in the Renaissance style as a three-storey building with a gate tower and rectangular courtyard. It was owned from 1934 by Anton Habsburg-Lothringen (1901–1987) and his wife Ileana, née Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1909–1991), daughter of the Romanian king Ferdinand I (1865–1927). In August 1942 Ludwig Berg visited the castle with members of the Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum in Wien (State Arts and Crafts Museum in Vienna, now the MAK) to determine whether it was suitable as an art depot. The owners made available four rooms, in which sixty objects from the Arts and Crafts Museum, particularly furniture, were stored. In early 1943 a field hospital was installed in the castle. In the last days of the war, German troops removed some objects from the Arts and Crafts Museum. Seven of them turned up later in Maissau and were returned from there to the museum in September 1945. The castle remained unscathed during the war and was not occupied by Soviet troops until after the end of the fighting. Some of the art objects stored there were damaged and destroyed when the troops were being billeted there. There was also apparently a certain amount of looting by the local population. The objects were returned to the Arts and Crafts Museum in 1945 and 1946. Some items were severely damaged, including the cradle belonging to the empress Maria Theresa, only fragments of which have survived. The thirty objects from Sonnberg that had disappeared were written off as war losses.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Ileana, Princess of Romania, I Live Again, New York 1952.

Olga Kronsteiner, Erhebliche Mängel einer Expertisierung, in: Der Standard, 13./14.7.2013, URL: derstandard.at/1373512479741/Erhebliche-Maengel-einer-Expertisierung (3.12.2020).
Olga Kronsteiner, Mak-Kriegsverluste: Verwahrt und doch verloren, in: Der Standard, 19.7.2013, URL: derstandard.at/1373513120038/Mak-Kriegsverluste-Verwahrt-und-doch-verloren (3.12.2020).

Leonhard Weidinger, "hiebei muß die Möglichkeit eines Luftangriffes und die Konservierungsfrage in gleicher Weise die Wahl bestimmen" – Die Bergungsmaßnahmen des Staatlichen Kunstgewerbemuseums in Wien, in: Pia Schölnberger/Sabine Loitfellner (Hg.), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus. Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 6), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2016, 197–217, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201564-011.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, K. 2, M. 72, Sonnberg.

MAK-Archiv, Hauptakt Zl. 1-1944, Zl. 386-1944, Zl. 432-1944, Zl. 671-1944, Zl. 680-1944, Zl. 687-1944; Hauptakt Zl. 4-1945: Zl. 363-1945, Zl. 364-1945, Zl. 649-1945, Zl. 687-1945, Zl. 727-1945, Zl. 761-1945, Zl. 771-1945, Zl. 772-1945, Zl. 783-1945.

GND: 4800015-2

VIAF: 242760019

Wikidata: Q2243535

Stams, Stift

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:59 +0000

Stams, Stift

Susanne Hehenberger Wed, 11/18/2020 - 16:32

Stift Stams

Stams abbey

The Cistercian abbey at Stams in Tiroler Oberland was founded in 1273 by Count Meinhard II of Görz-Tirol and his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria as a place of burial for Tyrolean rulers. The baroque and rococo interior dates from 1650 and 1750. The abbey was dissolved in 1807 during the period of Bavarian occupation and did not function again as an abbey until 1816 when Tyrol became part of Austria again under Emperor Francis I. The Nazi authorities seized the abbey in 1938 and dissolved it a year later. Significant art objects, including coins, ex libris, musical scores, instruments and manuscripts were incorporated between 1941 and 1943 in the collections of the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum and remained there until the end of the war. The most valuable objects from the Ferdinandeum were transported at the end of 1942 to Ambras Castle. In March 1944 the Reichsstatthalter of Tyrol and Vorarlberg ordered the castle to be cleared within three days, after the rerouting of the Brenner railway took it close to the village of Amras, thereby increasing the danger of bombardment. Most of the contents were to be moved to Stams Abbey and its collegiate church. A small selection of the objects from the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum were stored there as well. The abbey also housed people who had been resettled from South Tyrol ("Optants") and also refugees towards the end of the war. The Cistercian monks returned to the building in 1945 after the war.

According to a report from the director of the Tyrolean Folk Art Museum Karl Moeser and the supervisor of the Ferdinandeum Franz Staud, the depot was broken into on 3 May 1945 and various crates opened. The looting did not cause major damage to the museum objects, however, and only a few items (books and some pieces of furniture) were stolen. In summer 1945 the salvaged objects were returned to the museums in Innsbruck.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Gert Ammann, Stift Stams, München-Zürich 1990.

Michael Forcher, Stift Stams. Ein Tiroler Juwel mit wechselvoller Geschichte, Innsbruck-Wien 2016.

Oswald Trapp, Die Denkmäler Tirols in Not und Gefahr. Bericht des Landeskonservators über die Geschehnisse in den Jahren 1938–1945, Innsbruck-Wien 1947.

Veröffentlichungen des Vereins Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum.

Archives

Archiv Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Verhandlungsschriften der Ausschusssitzungen des Tiroler Landesmuseums Ferdinandeum.
Archiv Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Hausakten.

Archiv Tiroler Volkskunstmuseum, Hausakten.

GND: 1035060-3

VIAF: 130809091

Wikidata: Q385797