Authors

Gabriele Anderl

Freelance researcher, writer and journalist in Vienna; worked for the Historical Commission of the Republic of Austria; current member of the Commission for Provenance Research and vice-president of the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Exilforschung (öge) (Austrian Society for Exile Studies); numerous publications on modern history (e.g., Nazi expulsion and looting policy, Jewish history, Nazi looting of art and cultural objects, the art market, and past and present refugee and asylum policy); Käthe Leichter Prize (1994); Leon Zelman Prize for Dialogue and Understanding (2016); Preis der Stadt Wien für Publizistik (City of Vienna Prize for Scholarly and Journalistic Publishing) (2020).

Nadine Bauer

Studied art history in Berlin, Vienna and Münster; student internship in the Degenerate Art and Research Centre, Freie Universität Berlin; 2012/13 Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, German Sales 1930–1945: Art Works, Art Markets, and Cultural Policy database project; internship in the Provenance Research office and Zentralarchiv of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; 2015–18 employed in the provenance research department of the German Lost Art Foundation; since 2018 provenance research at Brücke-Museum, Berlin; until 2020 dissertation on Galerie Almas in Munich.

Sarah Bock

Studied art history and history at the University of Munich; master's thesis "Vienna art market between the wars: Auktionshaus für Altertümer Glückselig GmbH (1919–1941)"; 2015–16 freelance provenance research; since the end of 2015 employed in the collection archive & provenance research department of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München; member of Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.; institutional member of Forschungsverbund Provenienzforschung Bayern (FPB).

Sonia Buchroithner

Studied history and combined studies (incl. culture management) at the University of Innsbruck; since 2003 employed at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum; 2003–08 public relations department; maternity leave; since 2011 assistant in the Historical Collections, esp. provenance research; since December 2020 head of DAS TIROL PANORAMA mit dem Kaiserjägermuseum.

Ildikó Cazan-Simányi

Historian, studied history/combined studies, incl. non-European ethnology, at the University of Vienna; since 1995 head of the archive of the Museum of Ethnology, now Weltmuseum Wien; member of the Commission for Provenance Research; publications on museum history; since 2017 editor of Archiv Weltmuseum Wien.

Julia Eßl

Studied art history at the University of Vienna; 2005–11 employed in the art restitution working group of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism; since May 2011 provenance researcher in the Albertina on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research; since 2016 also in charge of the database of provenance markings.

Konstantin Ferihumer

Studied political science at the University of Vienna; 2013–16 employed in the Collection and Archive Institute of the University of Applied Arts Vienna; 2016–20 provenance research at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; since 2018 editor of the Lexicon of Austrian Provenance Research; since 2021 provenance researcher on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research at Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung.

Lisa Frank

Art historian and graphic artist; from 2008 provenance researcher in the Bureau of the Commission for Provenance Research; 2014 provenance research in the Main Zoology Library of the Natural History Museum Vienna; since 2020 also in the mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna; talks and publications on provenance research and collaboration in the Online card index of the Central Depot for Seized Collections in Vienna.

Nicole-Melanie Goll

Studied history at Karl-Franzenz-University Graz, PhD 2014. Research associate at the Institute of History (Contemporary History) at the University of Graz (2010-2017), at the House of Austrian History (2017-2019) and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (2020-2021). External fellow at the Center Austria of the University of New Orleans (2013), curatorial activity at the Universalmuseum Joanneum. Lectureships at the Institute of History (Department of Contemporary History), Andrassy University Budapest, University of Klagenfurt, among others. Research focus on the cultural history of war, Nazi crimes and perpetrator research. Since January 2021 provenance researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research. Member of Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.

Katinka Gratzer-Baumgärtner

Studied restoration and art history in Florence and Vienna; since 2007 employed in various functions in the Belvedere archive and research centre; as member of the Commission for Provenance Research specialization in the systematic investigation of the art inventory; as archivist also investigation of estates and artist documentation, academic research and contributions to exhibition and research projects.

Christina Gschiel

Studied art history at the University of Graz; 2009–13 provenance research at the Österreichisches Theatermuseum; 2014 provenance researcher in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere – both on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research; 2014–15 return to the Theatermuseum in the same function; co-editor of the database of provenance markings; co-author of schneidern und sammeln. Die Wiener Familie Rothberger (2010) in the Commission for Provenance Research publication series.

Susanne Hehenberger

Historian (doctorate 2003); since March 2016 archivist at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) Vienna; 2009–16 (with Monika Löscher) provenance researcher in the KHM on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research; 2015–17 coordination of the digitization and online publication of the Central Depot files; since 2018 editor of the Lexicon of Austrian Provenance Research; further information: homepage.univie.ac.at/susanne.hehenberger.

Birgit Johler

Cultural studies specialist and curator; exhibitions for the Jewish Museum Vienna, Frauenmuseum Hittisau et al.; 2008–17 for the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in Vienna and editor of Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde; since 2014 curator in the team for a new Austrian exhibition in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum; 2017–19 curator in the House of Austrian History; since 2019 curator in the Folk Life Museum in Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum; research and publications on everyday life and persecution in the Third Reich, material culture, museum history and history of folk life knowledge and science; conception and collaboration in remembrance culture initiatives.

Olivia Kaiser

Studied history and cultural studies in Vienna and Madrid; 2010–11 member www.ns‑quellen.at project; 2011–12 member of provenance research project in the parliament library; since 2013 provenance researcher at the University of Vienna Library; member of Provenienzforschung und Restitution – Bibliotheken (Provenance Research and Restitution – Libraries) working group; since 2018 head of NS-Provenienzforschung (NS Provenance Research) working group in the Vereinigung Österreichischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (VÖB) (Association of Austrian Librarians).

Birgit Kirchmayr

Historian, associate professor in the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of the University of Linz; since 2020 member of the Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board and senior adviser of the Commission for Provenance Research at the Federal Ministry of Culture, Public Service and Sport; 2001–07 collaboration in Geraubte Kunst in Oberdonau (Looted Art in Upper Danube) research project; until 2013 freelance provenance research at the Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum (Upper Austria Provincial Museum); exhibition curator (incl. Kulturhauptstadt des Führers (Führer's Capital of Culture), Schlossmuseum Linz 2008/09; Aphrodite: Eine Bestandsaufnahme (Aphrodite: An Inventory), Stadtmuseum NORDICO Linz 2018); 2017 habilitation with a monograph on artist (auto)biography in the context of Austrian politics and society in the early twentieth century.

Christian Klösch

Studied astronomy, history and philosophy at the University of Graz (1987–96) and University of Vienna (2003–06); 1996/97 co‑initiator of the Austrian Heritage Collection at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York during voluntary service; 1997–2002 Austrian Archives for Exile Studies in the Literaturhaus Wien; 1999–2004 assistant in the Historical Commission of the Republic of Austria in Vienna; since 2005 provenance research at the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology with Austrian Media Library (department head); since 2012 curator in the transport/mobility department responsible for space and mobility inclusion/exclusion; further information: www.christiankloesch.at.

Johannes Koll

After studying history, musicology, philosophy and political science at the University of Cologne and completing his doctorate at the same university in 1999, he held academic positions at the universities of Münster and  Vienna. He has been associated with several academic institutions in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands as a visiting scholar. In 2013, he completed his habilitation in Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Vienna. Since 2015, he has been employed as a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Economic and Social History and as Head of the Archive of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). He has been head of provenance research at WU Vienna since 2016.

Christina Köstner-Pemsel

Studied German studies and Romance philology in Vienna and Turin; head of Public Relations and Department of Old Books of the University of Vienna Library; since 2006 provenance researcher at the University of Vienna Library; member of NS provenance research working group of the Vereinigung Österreichischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (VÖB) (Association of Austrian Librarians); co-editor of open access and peer-reviewed series Schriften der Vereinigung Österreichischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare; publications on library science and provenance research, most recently co‑editor of the conference proceedings Treuhänderische Übernahme und Verwahrung: International und interdisziplinär betrachtet, Göttingen 2018; Künstliche Intelligenz in Bibliotheken, Graz 2020; 75 Jahre VÖB, Graz 2021; further information: orcid.org/0000-0003-3756-1461.

Stefan Kurz

Studied history and political science; since 2013 employed in the Museum of Military History/Institute of Military History (HGM/MHI); collaboration in several exhibition projects, incl. as co-curator of travelling exhibitions; research focus Austrian military history in the "long nineteenth century" and the interwar period, and history of the HGM/MHI (currently dissertation project on the history of the k. u. k. Heeresmuseum during the First World War); since March 2020 also responsible for provenance research in the HGM/MHI.

Karin Leitner-Ruhe

Art historian; since 2013 chief curator of the Alte Galerie at the Universalmuseum Joanneum (UMJ) in Graz; since 1992 employed in the Joanneum; curator for the Medieval Collection and Graphic Collection in the Alte Galerie; curator of numerous graphics exhibitions; since 1995 lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Graz; 2002–04 lecturer in the Department of Art History at the Graz University of Technology; since 1998 provenance research at the UMJ; 2003–13 part-time position; 2003–18 member of the Arbeitskreis Provienzforschung; co-editor of 2010 restitution report at the UMJ and numerous other publications on provenance research at the UMJ, on medieval art in Austria and Slovenia, and on Styrian graphic prints and works in the Graphic Collection.

Katja Lindenau

Studied art history, medieval history and Romance literature at Technische Universität Dresden and the University of Bologna (doctorate 2006); research assistant in the early modern history research project "Institutionelle Ordnungsarrangements öffentlicher Räume" (TU Dresden); since 2007 provenance research at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, currently in the Kupferstich-Kabinett.

Andreas Liška-Birk

Studied history/combined studies specializing in contemporary history and Spanish (master's degree 1999); since 1992 culture communicator in various exhibitions (Lower Austrian State Exhibitions, Künstlerhaus, Museum Niederösterreich); 2000 Austrian Historical Commission; 2001–14 historian in the General Settlement Fund; since 2015 provenance researcher in the State Collections of Lower Austria employed by the Danube University Krems.

Sabine Loitfellner

Studied history and political science at the University of Vienna. Since 2024 employee of the Austrian Commission for Provenance Research at the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport (BMKÖS) in the field of provenance research and heir search; editor of the Lexicon of Austrian Provenance Research. From 2002 to 2023 employee of the Jewish Community Vienna/Department for Restitution Affairs. Previously long-standing collaboration in research projects on approaches to Nazi crimes after 1945 and dealing with the past in Austria (FWF, Austrian National Bank Anniversary Fund, Investigation Office for Post-War Justice) and Wehrmacht crimes ("History in the Making", Ruth Wodak/Walter Manoschek); 2000–01 Austrian Historical Commission (Nazi asset expropriation and restitution in Austria).

 

 

Monika Löscher

Historian; 2005 doctorate at the University of Vienna; worked in the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism and the Nazi provenance research project at the University of Vienna Library; since April 2009 provenance researcher at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research; member of Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.

Dario Alejandro Luger

Studied history, global history and global studies at the University of Vienna; since 2017 provenance researcher at the Natural History Museum Vienna on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research.

Monika Mayer

Historian, studied history, art history and European ethnology in Innsbruck and Vienna; head of the archive of the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna; member of the Commission for Provenance Research; numerous publications and talks on museum history, provenance research and cultural policy during the period of Austro-Fascism and National Socialism, incl. 2012 with Eva Blimlinger co-editor of Kunst sammeln – Kunst handeln. Beiträge des internationalen Symposiums in Wien (vol. 3 of Commission for Provenance Research publication series).

Thomas Mayer

Historian of science, 2015 doctorate at the University of Vienna; 2001-2004 staff member at the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, then involved in various research projects on the history of biology, eugenics, genetics, medicine and psychology, 2009–2013 assistant PraeDoc at the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna and associated fellow in the FWF PhD program DK+ Natural Sciences in Historical, Philosophical and Cultural Context, since April 2019 provenance researcher at the Natural History Museum Vienna on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research, member of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.

Walter Mentzel

Historian; 1997 doctorate at the University of Vienna/Department of Contemporary History on war refugees and refugee policy in the Habsburg monarchy and early First Republic; 1995–2004 employed in the Österreichische Gesellschaft für historische Quellenstudien in the Austrian State Archives (edited in several volumes of cabinet records in the First and Second Republic); collaboration in contemporary history research and book projects and exhibitions; since 2007 employee and provenance researcher in the University Library of the Medical University of Vienna/history of medicine branch library; member of NS provenance research working group of the Vereinigung Österreichischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (VÖB) (Association of Austrian Librarians); managing director of Netzwerk – Arbeitsgemeinschaft freiberuflicher HistorikerInnen; other focuses: history of photography, war refugees and refugee policy in the First World War, contemporary Austrian history; further information on research and publications: waltermentzel.wordpress.com.

Gerhard Milchram

Historian and curator; studied history, journalism and communication studies in Vienna, study and research trips to Israel; graduate of the international Summer Academy for Museology of the universities of Klagenfurt, Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck; from 1993 culture communicator and research assistant at the Jewish Museum Vienna; 1997–2010 curator; since 2011 Wien Museum history and provenance research department; research, publications and exhibitions on Austrian Jewish history and Vienna city history.

Ulrike Nada

Studied art history in Vienna. From 1999 to 2014, member of the austrian Commission for Provenance Research and employee in the archive of the Federal Monuments Authority.

Sonja Niederacher

Historian (doctorate 2009 on wealth creation, Nazi loot and restitution). Since 2021 Senior Provenance Specialist at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 2008–20 provenance researcher on behalf of the Federal Chancellery at Leopold Museum Private Foundation, Vienna; since 2016 member of Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.; 2005–09 lecturer in Austrian history at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; 2006–08 lecturer for the Pädagogisches Institut des Bundes, Vienna; 1999–2008 researcher at Bruno Kreisky Archives Foundation, Vienna; numerous publications and research projects on National socialism, asset history, exile studies and art history, e. g. for the Historical Commission of the Republic of Austria, Post AG, Dorotheum, Department of Contemporary History at University of Vienna and Gustav Klimt Foundation | Vienna 1900.

Lena Nothdurfter

Studied European ethnology and cultural and social anthropology at the University of Vienna; since 2018 employed at the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art Vienna, incl. provenance research.

Marcus Rößner

Studied history and physics at the University of Vienna; 2013 history degree; since 2014 employed in the IAEA International Nuclear Information System (INIS) project in the Austrian INIS Centre at the central physics library; since 2018 Austrian alternate INIS liaison officer; 2017–20 provenance researcher at the Natural History Museum Vienna; since 2020 project coordinator for monitoring and databases at the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD); since 2021 also employed in the German INIS centre at Karlsruhe Research Centre.

Anneliese Schallmeiner

Studied art history in Vienna; since 1999 member of the Commission for Provenance Research and employed in the archive of the Federal Monuments Authority; since 2012 archivist in the Federal Monuments Authority; research focuses: the monuments authority in Vienna before and during the annexation of Austria to the German Reich; salvaging of cultural objects, storage in and return from the Operation Zone of the Adriatic Littoral.

René Schober

Jurist and art historian focusing on provenance research, twentieth-century fine and applied art and graphic arts; 2009–15 provenance research, assistant and project work in the art collection of the University of Applied Arts Vienna; 2013–15 provenance research in the Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research; since 2015 curator of the Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Pia Schölnberger

Studied German Philology and History at the University of Vienna; worked at the General Settlement Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism and at the National Socialist "euthanasia" memorials in Hartheim and Am Spiegelgrund; 2008-11 project work on politically motivated property expropriation in Vienna 1933-38 at the Department of Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna; 2011-17 provenance researcher at the Albertina on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research; 2017 transfer to the Arts and Culture Division, at that time in the Federal Chancellery, among other things responsible for the establishment of a memorial to Austrian Shoah victims in Maly Trostinec/Minsk (Belarus); since 2019 Head of the Commission for Provenance Research and the Office of the Art Restitution Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.

Elisabeth Schroll

Studied museology and history, student intern in FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum Berlin and Stadtarchiv München; since 2020 student and freelance assistant in the Commission for Provenance Research.

Claudia Sporer-Heis

Studied history and classical philology at the University of Innsbruck; since 1988 research assistant in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum; since 1999 provenance researcher for the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum; since 2009 curator of the Historical Collections; publications on Tyrolean history and cultural history; curator of numerous exhibitions.

Claudia Spring

Historian; since 2008 doctorate at the University of Vienna with a (published) dissertation on Nazi forced sterilization in Vienna; collaboration in various contemporary history research projects, incl. compensation legislation (on behalf of the Austrian Historical Commission), anthropology in the Third Reich (FWF project at the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna), anatomical science at the University of Vienna 1938–45 (University of Vienna senate project); provenance research at the NHM Vienna; since 2015 provenance researcher at the Museum für Volkskunde (Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art) in Vienna; further information on research and publications: www.claudia-spring.at.

Anita Stelzl-Gallian

Art historian; studied art history at the University of Vienna; since 1997 employed in the archive of the Federal Monuments Authority; since 1998 provenance researcher in the Bureau of the Commission for Provenance Research; research and publications on collections expropriated in the Nazi  period, most recently vol. 8 of the Commission for Provenance Research publication series on the files in the Federal Monuments Authority on Hitler's "Sonderauftrag Ostmark".

Markus Stumpf

Academic librarian, historian and Nazi provenance researcher; head of the contemporary history library and Nazi provenance research at the University of Vienna; co-editor of both open access and peer-reviewed series Bibliothek im Kontext series (Vienna University Press/V&R unipress) and Schriften der Vereinigung Österreichischer Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (Grazer Universitätsverlag); numerous publications, most recently co‑editor of the conference proceedings Treuhänderische Übernahme und Verwahrung: International und interdisziplinär betrachtet, Göttingen 2018; further information: zeitgeschichte.univie.ac.at/ueber-uns/gastforscherinnen-und-fellows/markus-stumpf.

Felicitas Thurn-Valsassina

Studied law, art history and modern history at the universities of Freiburg im Breisgau, Paris Sorbonne IV and FU Berlin (MA); doctorate at the University of Vienna on the Rothschild painting collection in Vienna (Rothschild’sche Gemäldesammlungen in Wien, Böhlau 2006); since 2003 head of provenance research at the Dorotheum, Vienna; numerous talks in Austria and elsewhere, international publications on the art trade, provenance research, collection analysis and research.

Leonhard Weidinger

Historian; 2005–23 provenance researcher at the MAK, Vienna, and collaboration in several online projects on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research; 2011–13 and 2016–17 collaboration in "German Sales" project by the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; 2017–19 collaboration in projects at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich; 2014–18 board member, 2017–18 chairman of Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.; numerous publications and productions in various media; courses at the University of Vienna; research focuses: Austrian cultural history in the nineteenth and twentieth century, digital media in the study of history; further information: leonhard.weidinger.wien.

Margot Werner

Historian and librarian, years of work on provenance research and restitution of Nazi looted objects, including for the Austrian Historians Commission, and head of the project to identify looted items in the Austrian National Library; numerous publications and curator of two exhibitions on Nazi looted books; since 2004 in the National Library, currently head of the Department for Reference and Information Services.

Michael Wladika

Jurist and historian; since 1999 provenance researcher in the Museen der Stadt Wien; from 2008 to 2020 provenance researcher in the joint provenance research in Leopold Museum by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport and Leopold Museum Privatstiftung; member of the Arbeitskreis für Provenienzforschung e.V.; from 1999 to 2003 research assistant in the Historian Commission of the Republic of Austria; several projects and publications on political parties, German nationalism, Nazi art looting and restitution law; in April 2008 award of the Karl von Vogelsang-Staatspreis für Geschichte der Gesellschaftswissenschaften for a monograph "Hitlers Vätergeneration: Die Ursprünge des Nationalsozialismus in der k. u. k. Monarchie".

Regina Zodl

Studied history at the University of Vienna. Worked as a librarian at the University Library of the Vienna University of Economics and Business and has been employed at the University Archive since 2016; she has been involved in the NS-Provenance Research project at the WU Library since 2010.