"Sonderauftrag Linz"

Stift Göttweig

Susanne Hehenberger — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 16:25:38 +0000

Benedictine Abbey Göttweig

Sabine.Loitfellner Thu, 12/12/2024 - 10:23

Stift Göttweig

The Benedictine Abbey Göttweig, founded in 1083 by Bishop Altmann of Passau, was subjected to reprisals by the local Nazi authorities shortly after Austria's annexation to the Nazi German Reich in March 1938 and was confronted with demands to hand over land to farmers as compensation. The primary school, which was privately run in the Abbey, and the boys' choir were closed due to the withdrawal of public rights. With the appointment of Krems as the district capital of the Lower Danube Region in July 1938, 16 surrounding communities were incorporated, including the community of Steinaweg with the Göttweig Abbey. The financing of the expansion into the new administrative center of Niederdonau (Lower Danube) was to come from various sources, one of which was the expropriation and exploitation of Göttweig Abbey’s assets. On 17 February 1939, the city of Krems placed the Abbey under provisional administration on behalf of Mayor Franz Retter. The monks were interrogated in the Gestapo headquarters in the Viennese Hotel Metropol and finally placed under house arrest in the provost's courtyard of the monastery in Unternalb near Retz. After the approval of the Reich Ministry of the Interior in Berlin and the Reich Commissioner for the Reunification of Austria with the Nazi German Reich in Vienna, Josef Bürckel, the city of Krems withdrew all movable and immovable assets as well as all rights and claims from the Gestapo Vienna State Police Control Center dated 15 August 1939, Göttweig Abbey. Only the question regarding the parish property and its separation from the monastery's assets could be delayed until the end of the war. As a result, the monastery was empty, and from 1940 onwards, the city of Krems took possession of all of its furnishings, collections and art objects. The majority of the books, manuscripts, paintings, natural history collections, the coin collection, dishes and furniture were transported away and mainly went to depots in the Steiner Minoritenkirche and the former Krems synagogue. The Krems city administration gave some of the items to the Dorotheum for auction, sold them to private individuals or to the Gau Niederdonau, or gave away individual objects as bribes. From December 1940, the Abbey served as a reception and transit camp for ethnic Germans from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Serbia, as well as a prisoner of war camp. Since this represented an ever-increasing financial burden for the city of Krems over time, on 1 January 1943, the listed building was donated to the Society for the Promotion and Care of German Cultural Monuments in order to set up a National political Educational-Institution (Napola School). This school was in operation until April 1945. Due to the approaching war front, SS units took up positions in Göttweig in March 1945, retreating across the Danube on the morning of 8 May 1945.

On 15 May 1945, Father Adalbert Lohmann, commissioned by Abbot Hartmann Strohsacker, requested the return of the monastery and its assets in Krems. On 17 May 1945, even before a legal solution for the return had been reached, Karl Suppanz, provisional mayor of the city of Krems, appointed Father Lohmann as provisional administrator of the Abbey. The monastery had been spared from immediate war damage but had been left completely desolated. In October 1945, the last Göttweig monks returned from Unternalb. It was only after the Third Restitution Act came into force in January 1947 that the monastery was able to gradually reclaim its movable and immovable property. With the exception of a few properties in Mautern, Göttweig regained most of its properties. The lost earnings continued to be disputed in court until a settlement was reached in 1954. The return of movable assets, particularly the furniture and art collections, was particularly difficult. By 1949, after a lengthy search, the majority of the monastery's furniture had been returned from the various depots and offices in Krems and Stein, but the process dragged on until 1954, due to the refusal of the state of Lower Austria to be considered the legal successor to the Reichsgau Niederdonau. This process involved the return of art and furnishings that the city of Krems had given to the Niederdonau Gauleitung to furnish offices and some private apartments. The dispute was resolved with an out-of-court settlement on 21 April 1954. In addition to the lost income, this also included the movable assets still owned by the State of Lower Austrian, although only a few furnishings and collection items could be secured in their offices and depots. The monastery's restitution efforts therefore continued over the following decades, so that from 2019 to 2022 there were further in rem restitutions by the city of Krems, the State of Lower Austria and the Republic of Austria in the areas of art and natural history.

Keywords

"Sonderauftrag Linz"

"Sonderauftrag Münzen"

Salvaging

Nazi asset expropriation

Andreas Liška-Birk

24 October 2024

Publications about the person / institution

Beiratsbeschluss Stift Göttweig, 25.06.2020, URL: www.provenienzforschung.gv.at/beiratsbeschluesse/Stift_Goettweig_2020-09-25.pdf (16.09.2024).

Helmut Engelbrecht, Göttweig zur Zeit der Ersten Republik und der NS-Herrschaft, in: Bayrische Benediktinerakademie (Hg.), Geschichte des Stiftes Göttweig 1083–1983, Festschrift zum 900-Jahr Jubiläum, St. Ottilien 1983, 386–429.

Hans Frühwirth, Die Doppelstadt Krems-Stein, Krems 2000.

Maximilian Krenn OSB, Stift Göttweig von 1938 bis 1945, in: Gedenkschrift zur Jahresausstellung 1998, 1938–1998. Aus Zerstörung auferstanden, Zum Gedenken an Abt Wilhelm Zedinek 1898–1971, Furth bei Göttweig 1998, 7–13.

Clemens Lashofer, Jüngste Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, in: Bayrische Benediktinerakademie (Hg.), Geschichte des Stiftes Göttweig 1083–1983, Festschrift zum 900-Jahr Jubiläum, St. Ottilien 1983, 430–451.

Kurt Preiß, Von der Befreiung zur Freiheit, Krems 1945–1955, Krems 1997.

Stefan Spevak, NS-Vermögensentzug, Restitutionen und Entschädigung in der Diözese St. Pölten (= Veröffentlichungen der Österreichischen Historikerkommission. Vermögensentzug während der NS-Zeit sowie Rückstellungen und Entschädigungen seit 1945 in Österreich 22), Wien/München 2004.

Andreas Liška-Birk, Göttweiger Spurensuche, in: Armin Laussegger/Sandra Sam (Hg.), Tätigkeitsbericht 2019 der Landessammlungen Niederösterreich und des Zentrums für Museale Sammlungswissenschaften, St. Pölten 2020, 164–167.

Bernhard Rameder, Göttweiger Bücher im Salzberg. Die Bergung der Göttweiger Handschriftenammlung während des Zweiten Weltkrieges im Salzbergwerk Altaussee, in: Vom Schreiben und Sammeln. Einblicke in die Göttweiger Bibliotheksgeschichte, Astrid Breith (Hg.), Studien und Forschungen aus dem Niederösterreichischen Institut für Landeskunde 74, St. Pölten 2021, 195–215.

Andreas Liška-Birk/Thomas Mayer, Enteignete katholische Pflanzen. Das Herbar des Stiftes Göttweig, in: Birgit Kirchmayr/Pia Schölnberger (Hg.), Restituiert. 25 Jahre Kunstrückgabegesetz in Österreich (=Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 9), Wien 2023, 368–375.

Susanne Hehenberger, Der Sonderauftrag Münzen. Quellen im Archiv des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien, in: RETOUR Freier Blog für Provenienzforschende, Wien 2023, URL: retour.hypotheses.org/2425 (23.10.2024).

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, M. 11, Z. 671, Stift Göttweig.

OeStA/AdR, Finanzen, BMF, Zl. 183.179-34/53.

Stiftsarchiv Göttweig, Nachlass Zedinek, Gedächtnisprotokoll, 14.4.1950 ; Vergleichsausfertigung zu 63 RK 328/52, 1.4.1954.

NÖLA, RStH ND, Dez. IIA-1-410/1940, Ankaufsakt Herbarium Stift Göttweig.

Landessammlungen Niederösterreich, Kulturdepot St. Pölten, Karteikarte zu Landschaft mit Hirten und Herde, Cajetan Roos,1735, Inv.Nr. KS-3662.
Landessammlungen Niederösterreich, unveröffentlichtes Dossier zu Stift Göttweig (Herbariensammlung, Cajetan Roos: Landschaft mit Hirten und Herde, 1735), St. Pölten 2019.

Altaussee, Salzbergwerk

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:54 +0000

Altaussee, Salzbergwerk Konstantin Ferihumer Wed, 11/18/2020 - 12:19

Salzbergwerk Altaussee

Saltmine Altaussee

other names: Altaussee, Steinberg

During the Nazi era, Salzbergwerk (salt mine) Altaussee in Upper Danube Gau was one of the most important depots, along with Schloss Thürnthal, managed by the Institute for Monument Preservation in Vienna. In the first half of 1943 the Steinberg tunnel, an already disused part of the salt mine, was considered by Franz Juraschek, Gau curator in the Upper Danube, and Herbert Seiberl, head of the Institute for Monument Preservation, as a possible salvage depot – on account of the atmosphere in the mine determined in several expert opinions, including one by the chemist Maximilian Eder (60–75% humidity, 6–8°C temperature), the accessibility and the remote location. After an agreement had been reached in early August 1943 between the Institute for Monument Preservation and Alpenländische Salinen regarding the temporary storage of artworks, the first transport left Vienna on 25 August 1943 and arrived at the mine the following day. It contained cultural objects from Wiener Neustadt, e. g. objects from the municipal museum and the Lorenz Luchsperger's statues of the apostles from the cathedral. The Monument Preservation employees Eva Kraft, Linde Schrader, Alice Hoyos and the restorer Emmerich Bergthold were responsible for the photo documentation and inventory of the stored works, while Seiberl was responsible for the salvaging. Transports left Vienna thereafter every month. In October 1943 secured artworks belonging to Jewish collections administered by the monument authority arrived for the first time. Salvaged items were evacuated to Altaussee from the Gau Upper Danube, for example from the library of the Historical Research Institute of Reichsgau Upper Danube (manuscripts and codices from the abbeys Kremsmünster, St Florian, Wilhering and Hohenfurt closed by the Nazis), as well as the Altdorfer panels from St Florian Abbey, the Mount of Olives group from the Dominican church in Steyr and numerous artworks from Lambach. From February 1944 privately owned items were transported there from Vienna and Linz. From January to September 1944 artworks for the planned Kunstmuseum Linz were also moved from Kremsmünster to the salt mine, supervised specially by a local restorer Karl Sieber. In the first half of that year, cultural items from the expropriated collection of the banker Jean Baron Cassel van Door, which had arrived from Paris, undistributed items from the seized Viennese collections of Alphonse and Louis Rothschild and salvaged items from looting by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce in western Europe were moved from Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee castles in Bavaria. Added to this were stained glass windows from Maria am Gestade church in Vienna, the Franzensburg in the Laxenburg complex, and the photo and map collection and parts of the library of the Institute for Monument Preservation. In May 1944 transports also commenced from the "Führerbau" in Munich, which continued until April 1945. In addition, in September 1944 seventy pictures from the Schack-Galerie in Munich and the Ghent Altarpiece, previously stored in Neuschwanstein, were moved to the mine. The last major transport to arrive was the collection belonging to the German-Dutch banker Fritz Mannheimer. With the impending defeat of Nazi Germany, August Eigruber, Upper Danube Gauleiter, had four crates with bombs brought to the mine on 10 and 15 April 1945 with a view to destroying the artworks stored there. On Seiberl's initiative, many items were moved, in some cases within the mine, and in others cases to Bad Aussee and Lauffen. On 3 and 4 May, mineworkers removed the crates from the mine, referring to an order by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the Reich Security Head Office. The following day, several entrances to the mine were blown up and not cleared until mid-May 1945. On 8 May 1945, the 3rd US Armored Division arrived in Altaussee, and the mine was handed over to the US Army. From then on, most of the artworks were transferred in numerous transports to the Central Collecting Point in Munich. Items whose Austrian provenance had been ascertained were left initially in the mine, mostly items belonging to the state or church, along with objects whose provenance needed to be verified by the Austrians. A few items, including the Rothschild family coin collection, remained in the mine until 1963. At the end of March 1946 the United States Forces in Austria handed over the art depot to the Republic of Austria, and its administration was taken over by the Bundesministerium für Vermögenssicherung und Wirtschaftplanung (Federal Ministry for Securing Property and Economic Planning). From 1966 until well into the 1970s, the Steinberg tunnel of Altaussee saltmine was enlarged in accordance with the Hague Convention as a central salvage site for Vienna's major collections and was placed under special protection until September 2000.

Keywords

"Sonderauftrag Linz"

Salvaging

Depot

Anneliese Schallmeiner

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Theodor Brückler, Gefährdung und Rettung der Kunstschätze im Altausseer Salzberg: Versuch einer kritischen Rekonstruktion, in: Eva Frodl-Kraft, Gefährdetes Erbe. Österreichs Denkmalschutz und Denkmalpflege 1918–1945 im Prisma der Zeitgeschichte, Wien-Köln-Weimar 1997, 363–379.

Theodor Brückler, Kunstwerke zwischen Kunstraub und Kunstbergung 1938–1945, in: Theodor Brückler (Hg.), Kunstraub, Kunstbergung und Restitution in Österreich 1938 bis heute (= Studien zu Denkmalschutz und Denkmalpflege 19), Wien-Köln-Weimar 1999, 13–30.

Robert M. Edsel/Bret Witter, Monuments Men. Die Jagd nach Hitlers Raubkunst, Salzburg 2009.

Eva Frodl-Kraft, Gefährdetes Erbe. Österreichs Denkmalschutz und Denkmalpflege 1918–1945 im Prisma der Zeitgeschichte, Wien-Köln-Weimar 1997.

Katharina Hammer, Glanz im Dunkel. Die Bergung von Kunstschätzen im Salzkammergut am Ende des 2. Weltkrieges, Altaussee 1996.

Veronika Hofer (Hg.), Berg der Schätze. Die dramatische Rettung europäischer Kunst im Altauseer Salzbergwerk, o. O. 2006.

Franz Juraschek, Die Klosterdenkmale Oberösterreichs. Ihr Schicksal in und nach dem Kriege, in: Jahrbuch des Oberösterreichischen Musealvereins 92 (1947), 84–99.

Konrad Kramar, Mission Michelangelo. Wie die Bergleute von Altaussee Hitlers Raubkunst vor der Vernichtung retteten, St. Pölten-Salzburg-Wien 2013.

Emmerich Pöchmüller, Weltkunstschätze in Gefahr, Salzburg 1948.

Anneliese Schallmeiner, Die modernen Nibelungen "salzen" ihre Schätze ein. Altaussee als Bergungsort des Instituts für Denkmalpflege, in: Pia Schölnberger/Sabine Loitfellner (Hg.), Bergung von Kulturgut im Nationalsozialismus. Mythen – Hintergründe – Auswirkungen (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 6), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2015, 103–128, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201564-007.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, K. 10/1, sog. Posse Korrespondenz; K. 22, Bergungsort Altaussee; K. 22/1, Bergungsort Altaussee I; K. 22/2, Bergungsort Altaussee II; K. 22/3, Bergungsort Altaussee III; K. 22/4, Bergungsort Altaussee IV; K. 22/5, Bergungsort Altaussee V.
BDA-Archiv, Bundesdenkmalamt allgemein, K. 32, Zentralbergungsort Altaussee (1967–1984).
BDA-Archiv, Haager Konvention, K. 2 (1982–1985).

BArch Berlin, NS 6/413.
BArch Berlin, NS 8/190.
BArch Koblenz, B323/106.

OeStA/AdR, UWK, BMU, II, 15B1, K 97, 98.

UAAbKW, Zl. 303/1943.

GND: 7560631-8

VIAF: 246318459

Wikidata: Q1635896

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.

Czeczowiczka, Caroline

Konstantin Ferihumer — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 13:05:01 +0000

Czeczowiczka, Caroline

Konstantin Ferihumer Wed, 12/01/2021 - 13:13

Caroline Czeczowiczka

14 March 1896 Vienna – 8 November 1979 London

née Caroline Reitlinger

Caroline Reitlinger studied medicine at the University of Vienna for seven semesters from 1916. In July 1919 she married Edwin Czeczowiczka, an engineer and co-owner of the Erste galizische mechanische Baumwollweberei in Andrychów, Poland. He collected drawings and had a long-standing arrangement with the art dealer Gustav Nebehay. In the early 1920s the couple added over 150 fifteenth- to nineteenth-century drawings to their collection, including works by Jan van Eyck, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Raphael, Urs Graf the Elder , Peter Brueghel the Elder, Jan van Goyen, Rembrandt and Albert Cuyp. Following the economic downturn in the late 1920s, Edwin Czeczowiczka found himself in financial difficulties, and the couple decided to sell some of their collection. On 12 May 1930, 164 drawings were auctioned by C. G. Boerner and Paul Graupe in Leipzig and 24 miniature book illustrations, 7 paintings, 16 sculptures, 6 Italian medals and 17 applied art works by Hermann Ball & Paul Graupe in Berlin. Practically all of the lots being sold, but Caroline Czeczowiczka managed to re-acquire two Gothic watercolour miniature book illustrations from the auction through Gustav Nebehay.

In 1938, even before the Vienna city authorities decided on 29 October to "secure" 22 of the around 70 artworks in the collection at the couple's home at Uraniastraße 2 in Vienna's 1st district to prevent them from being taken abroad, Caroline Czeczowiczka, a Polish citizen persecuted on account of her Jewish origins, had taken flight. With her husband and three children, she stayed temporarily in Andrychów. From there she tried in November 1938 to have the "secured" items released. On 4 July 1939, the Vienna city authorities released 11 works of little value, and the Central Monument Protection Authority approved their export, which did not, however, take place until 1947. The remaining 11 "secured" objects, along with the sheets by Ludwig Richter and Moriz von Schwind and the marriage certificate of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which were on the Reich list of valuable national artworks, remained in Vienna and were to be offered for sale to public collections. Caroline Czeczowiczka commissioned Christian M. Nebehay to handle the sales. Without regard for the "Führerbehalt" (Führer reserve), in force from 18 June 1938 and giving Hitler priority access to expropriated art collections, Nebehay sold two sheets by Richter and one by von Schwind to the Albertina in October 1939. A further sheet by von Schwind was acquired by Hans Posse in 1940 for the Kunstmuseum Linz, and in February 1940, with the approval of State Commissar for Education, Culture and Popular Education Friedrich Plattner, Nebehay sold Mozart's marriage certificate to the National Library. After the promulgation on 17 September 1940 of the Regulation of the Management of the Assets of Members of the Former Polish State, the Gestapo seized the 50 or so art objects, furniture, carpets, silver objects, antique books and textiles stored since 1938 by Spedition Fall in Makartgasse in Vienna's 1st district and sold them in the Dorotheum through the Vugesta, the Gestapo Office for the Disposal of the Property of Jewish Emigrants.

In 1945, directly after the end of the war, Theodore C. Cheston wrote on behalf of his mother Caroline Czeczowiczka, now living in London, to Alfred Stix, Director General of the State Art Collections in Vienna, requesting him to investigate the whereabouts of the dispersed collection. In November 1947, the three sheets from the Albertina were returned to Caroline Czeczowiczka against payment of the purchase price. Otto Benesch, director of the Albertina, refused to return the Salzburg miniatures, which the Albertina had obtained in summer 1948 from Galerie Neumann on Kohlmarkt in Vienna's 1st district in an exchange, stating that they had been acquired in good faith. During the 1950s, Caroline Czeczowiczka litigated without success against the Republic of Austria, although two Chinese tomb figures were returned in January 1959 from the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. As late as 1989, Gerhard Seiler, president of the Federal Monuments Authority, insisted that the miniatures had been obtained in good faith. It was not until the adoption of the Austrian Art Restitution Act that the Salzburg miniature book illustrations and a drawing were returned from the Albertina to the successors of Caroline Czeczowiczka.

Keywords

Nazi asset expropriation

Anita Stelzl-Gallian

28 November 2021

Publications about the person / institution

Beiratsbeschluss Caroline Czeczowiczka, 18.8.1999, URL: provenienzforschung.gv.at/beiratsbeschluesse/Czeczowiczka_Edwin_Karoline_1999-08-18.pdf (18.10.2021).

Gabriele Anderl/Alexandra Caruso (Hg.), NS-Kunstraub in Österreich und die Folgen, Innsbruck-Wien-Bozen 2005.

Alexandra Caruso (Hg.), Erica Tietze-Conrat, Tagebücher (1923–1926), Band I: Der Wiener Vasari, Wien-Köln-Weimar 2015.

Julila Eßl, Die Sammlung Feldmann: Spuren – Fragmente – Dokumente. Weg einer Rekonstruktion, in: Achim Gnann/Heinz Schödl (Hg.), Spurensuche, Die Sammlung Arthur Feldmann und die Albertina (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung Sonderband), Wien 2015, URL: doi.org/10.7767/9783205201571-001.

Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war. Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens (= Bibliothek des Raubes 8), Wien 2003.

N. N., Eine Wiener Sammlung in Berlin, in: Internationale Sammlerzeitung 22 (1930) 11, 124f, URL: digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/internationale_sammlerzeitung1930/0166 (18.10.2021).
N. N., Eine Wiener Sammlung in Berlin, in: Internationale Sammlerzeitung 22 (1930) 12, 143f, URL: digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/internationale_sammlerzeitung1930/0189 (18.10.2021).
N. N., Eine Wiener Sammlung in Berlin, in: Internationale Sammlerzeitung 22 (1930) 13, 154f, URL: digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/internationale_sammlerzeitung1930/0204 (18.10.2021).

Christian M. Nebehay, Die goldenen Sessel meines Vaters. Gustav Nebehay (1881–1935), Antiquar und Kunsthändler in Leipzig, Wien und Berlin, Wien 1983.

Birgit Schwarz, Auf Befehl des Führers. Hitler und der NS-Kunstraub, Darmstadt 2014.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restituttionsmaterialien, K. 8/1, M. 11, Ursprungsverzeichnis Caroline Czeczowiczka.
BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, K. 33, PM Caroline Czeczowiczka.
BDA-Archiv, Ausfuhrmaterialien, Zl. 5042/1939 Mariella Czeczowiczka.

OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, VA 14610, Caroline Czeczowiczka.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, VA 13886, Edwin Czeczowiczka.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, Vugesta, Bd. 3, Zl. 1570, Caroline Czeczowiczka.

UAW, Nationale der Medizinstudentinnen, Caroline Reitlinger.

WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Edwin Czeczowiczka.
WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Caroline Reitlinger.

GND: 131503022

VIAF: 309802058

Czernin, Jaromir

Susanne Hehenberger — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 07:45:53 +0000

Czernin, Jaromir

Susanne Hehenberger Tue, 12/19/2023 - 11:14

Jaromir Czernin

30 January 1908 Prague – 1 February 1966 Munich

Jaromir Czernin was a member of the Bohemian noble family Czernin von und zu Chudenitz. The end of the monarchy meant great cuts for his family: the title of nobility was abolished and a law on land reform was passed. The final step in the dissolution of the former noble dominions was the abolition of the entail estates in 1924. Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece Die Malkunst (The Art of Painting), in the family since 1804, belonged to the Czernin entail estate. In 1925, the question arose as to who should become the owner of the picture gallery stored in the palace at Friedrich Schmidt-Platz 4 in Vienna’s 8th district, Jaromir Czernin or his uncle Eugen Czernin. In 1933, the two agreed in a private-law settlement that Jaromir Czernin should receive the painting for the purpose of sale and pay 20% of the proceeds to Eugen Czernin, while Eugen Czernin should receive the remaining works in the gallery. However, until 1938, the implementation of this agreement failed due to the resistance of the Federal Monuments Office, which opposed the export permit required for a sale of Die Malkunst outside the country.

After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, the sales market for which no export permit was required expanded. In May 1938, Jaromir Czernin married his second wife Alix May, née Frankenberg-Ludwigsdorf, divorced Zandt, divorced Faber-Castell. On 9 April 1940, Jaromir Czernin applied for membership in the NSDAP at the local group Marschendorf 2, Gau Sudetenland. District leader Johann Hofhansel and mayor Franz Kasper rejected the application because of the “baseless character of the applicant”. Finally, Jaromir Czernin sold Die Malkunst in October 1940 for RM 1,650,000 to Adolf Hitler, who had the painting moved to the Munich "Führerbau". In the divorce proceedings in 1942, Czernin accused his wife of claiming before the marriage that she was "only 1/8 Jewish", while he had only learned afterwards that she was considered a "second degree Mischling" under the Nuremberg Laws because of a Jewish grandparent. In April 1943, Jaromir Czernin moved to Altaussee, which he was to justify after the end of the war with the fact that "at the end of 1942/beginning of 1943" he had been forbidden to manage his castle in Marschendorf, including his inherited forestry business, as well as to stay in the entire Sudetengau. In fact, however, the reason for the change of residence may have been the economic difficulties in managing the business. On 27 November 1944, he remarried Alix May in Altaussee. He was ultimately divorced from Alix May again in 1951 and was to enter into two more marriages thereafter.

The Vermeer masterpiece, salvaged from the Altaussee salt mine in 1943/44, was transferred to the Central Collecting Point in Munich at the end of the war. In November 1945, the American military government handed the painting over to the Austrian government in Vienna, which had it transferred to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) for safekeeping. In October 1947, Jaromir Czernin applied for the restitution of the painting in accordance with the Third Restitution Act. The Restitution Commission rejected the application as unfounded in its decision of 11 January 1949. The Supreme Restitution Commission at the Supreme Court rejected the appeal on 14 May 1949, since neither a political persecution of Jaromir Czernin or his wife Alix Czernin nor a resulting forced sale could be proven. A lawsuit filed in 1950 by Jaromir Czernin against the Republic of Austria at the Landesgericht für Zivilrechtssachen Wien (Provincial Court for Civil Matters Vienna) was dismissed on the grounds of the inadmissibility of the legal proceedings in all three instances. The decision of the People's Court of 31 March 1952, meanwhile, declared Adolf Hitler's assets, consisting of his paintings, to have been forfeited to the Federation in accordance with the 1947 Law on the Forfeiture of Assets. In February 1953, Jaromir Czernin brought claims for restitution under the Second Restitution Act, as the painting had in the meantime become the property of the Republic of Austria, which the Financial Directorate rejected with reference to previous decisions. The appeal filed against this decision was initially granted by the Federal Minister of Finance in his decision of 26 August 1955, but was ultimately dismissed because he came to the conclusion that the sale was not to be assessed as a seizure. At the end of 1958/beginning of 1959, Die Malkunst was included in the inventory of the KHM's Picture Gallery. In 2009, descendants of Jaromir Czernin publicly demanded the return of the valuable painting. The Art Restitution Advisory Board, which dealt with the case at its meeting on 18 March 2011, also did not recommend the return of the painting.

Keywords

"Sonderauftrag Linz"

Monika Löscher

31 May 2023

Publications about the person / institution

Beiratsbeschluss Jaromir Czernin, 18.3.2011, URL: provenienzforschung.gv.at/beiratsbeschluesse/Czernin_Jaromir_2011-03-18.pdf (24.5.2023).

Jiri Georgiev, Böhmischer Adel und nationale Frage nach 1918, in: Frank-Lothar Kroll/Hendrik Thosz (Hg.), Europas verlorene und wiedergewonnene Mitte. Das Ende des Alten Reiches und die Entstehung des Nationalitätenproblems im östlichen Mitteleuropa, Berlin 2011.

Susanne Hehenberger/Monika Löscher (Hg.), Die verkaufte Malkunst. Jan Vermeers Gemälde im 20. Jahrhundert (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 4), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2012.

Archives

Archiv der Sicherheitsorgane, Prag, Abteilung des Archivfonds des Föderalen Innenministeriums, Scheidungsurteil Kreisgericht Jičín, 12.2.1938 Ck I a 69/38.

BArch Berlin, PK (ehem. BDC), C0120, Bl. 150, Bl. 152.
BArch Berlin, PK (ehem. BDC), Czernin Graf von Chudenitz und Morzin, Jaromir.

BArch Koblenz, B 323/163, B 323/168.

BDA-Archiv, Fideikommissakten Czernin; Czernin (Res/Akten): I. 1935–1942.

Bundespolizeidirektion Linz, Auszug aus dem Haftbuch (Laufnummer 6959 zu Jaromir Czernin-Morzin).

Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, DKA, NL Posse, Hans, I, B-1 Tagebuch Hans Posse 1936–1942.

KHM-Archiv, XII 23 Sonderbestand Vermeer.

NARA, M1782 WWII OSS Art Looting Investigation Reports, Consolidated Interrogation Reports (CIR), Report: 4 – Linz: Hitler’s Museum and Library.
NARA, M1946, roll 118.

Neuhaus/Jindřichův Hradec, Familienarchiv Czernin, Tagebücher Eugen Czernin.
Neuhaus/Jindřichův Hradec, Familienarchiv Czernin, Galerieakten, K. 762.

OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, FLD, Zl. 19667 Bd.1, Jaromir Czernin.
OeStA/AdR, UWK, BMU, Sig. 15, K. 69, Sammelmappe 429.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ RK, K. 162, Vermeer.
OestA/KA, Wehrstammbuch Jaromir Czernin.

Stadt Graz, BürgerInnenamt, Referat Meldewesen, Meldeunterlagen Jaromir, Alix, Peter, Sophie Czernin.

Stadtarchiv Bad Aussee, Stadtgemeinde Bad Aussee, Meldeunterlagen zu Jaromir und Alix Czernin.
Stadtarchiv Bad Aussee, Stadtgemeinde Bad Aussee, Standesamt Nr. 54/1944, Heiratsurkunde, 27.11.1944.

Standesamt Stein, Scheidungsurteil Alix May, Robert Faber-Castell (I R 698/35).

Staatsgebietsarchiv Leitmeritz/Státní oblastní archiv v Litoměřicích, Říšské místodržitelství Libere 1938–1945.

Staatliches Bezirksarchiv Trautenau/Státní okresní archiv Trutnov, Fond Landrat Trutnov, Einwohnerkartei, Buchstabe C – Czernin (Meldekarten); Amtsgericht Marschendorf, Pflegschaftsakten Peter Czernin.

Staatliches Gebietsarchiv Zámrsk/Státní oblastní archiv v Zámrsku, inv. č 322 (a) Kart. 141; inv. č 322 (b) Kart. 141; inv. č 323, Kart. 142; inv. č 324 (e), Kart. 142; Inventarnummer 177, 3 R 13/42 Scheidungsurteil, 26.5.1942.

WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Jaromir Czernin.
WStLA, M.Abt. 119, A 41, VEAV C 105, 1. Bez., Jaromir Czernin.

GND: 1049857143

VIAF: 305807461

Wikidata: Q13736441

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

Engel, Hugo

Susanne Hehenberger — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 09:59:56 +0000

Engel, Hugo Sabine.Loitfellner Tue, 07/22/2025 - 07:54

Hugo Engel

3.8.1883 Vienna – 17.4.1963 Engelberg, Switzerland

Hugo Engel was the son of Jacob Engel, born in 1857, and his wife Therese, née Schaffer (1855-1912). Jacob Engel owned a jewellery shop at Große Mohrengasse 20 in Vienna’s 2nd district. In 1912, Hugo Engel registered an ‘antiques trade with art objects’ with the trade authority and the commercial court at Wiesingerstraße 3 in Vienna’s 1st district , but soon moved the business to Zirkusgasse 3 in Vienna’s 2nd district. In the same year, he married Ethel, née Terry-Newmon, a Protestant born in London in 1886, who had converted to Judaism, in the Vienna City Temple. Their daughter Dorothee (Dorothy) was born in 1912 and their son Herbert in 1916. In 1918, Hugo Engel resigned his trade licence and had the company dissolved. After graduating from a painting academy in Florence, he ran a trade in jewellery and clocks at Zirkusgasse 3 until 1924, and from 1928 a shop for oil paintings by old and new masters (Hugo Engel, Tableaux, Vienna), which exclusively supplied other dealers and was geared towards exports. Although Engel spent most of the following years in Paris, he continued to conduct many of his transactions through his main Viennese business.

Hugo Engel fled to France on 20 March 1938, shortly after the annexation of Austria to the National Socialist German Reich. According to the declaration of assets, his total assets, which also included a villa in Weidlingau, totalled around RM 15,600 . The provisional administrator of the business, his former chief restorer Wilhelm Kainz, terminated the tenancy at the end of September. Between January 1938 and February 1939, the Central Office for the Protection of Monuments received more than 60 export applications under the name Hugo Engel, many of which were re-exports. At the end of 1938, Kainz sold 17 old musical instruments from Engel's private collection to the Rück brothers in Nuremberg for RM 300. In February 1939, the Property Transaction Office transferred the liquidation of Engel's company to the Kommerzialrat (Commercial Councillor) Otto Faltis. Faltis exported the entire remaining stock of goods to Stockholm in the ‘second sale to Sweden’ in July 1939.

In July 1938, Engel opened the art dealership Hugo Engel (France) with Etienne Bisson as partners on Boulevard Malesherbes in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. After the beginning of the Second World War, he was initially interned by the French and later by the German occupying forces. Although he had transferred all his shares in the business to Bisson by May 1941, the latter merely acted as his front man. In the same year, Engel began working closely with Karl Haberstock, who was also active in France on behalf of Hans Posse, Hitler's special representative for the planned ‘Führer Museum’ in Linz. Engel traded in works owned by Jewish refugees, such as the Viennese industrial magnate Richard Neumann, and did business with the German art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt. As the Germans benefited from Engel's expertise in procuring important works of art, the military commander exempted him from the obligation to wear the ‘Jewish star’ in 1942. Engel's son Herbert, who had been living in France since March 1937, also worked for Haberstock, albeit in the southern zone, which was unoccupied until November 1942. He arrived in Switzerland illegally in 1943. Hugo Engel fled Paris in February 1944 to escape the threat of deportation and arrived in Switzerland in April. Because of his age, he was exempted from compulsory labour and was allowed to move in with his daughter Dorothy and son-in-law Fritz Feierabend in Zurich as a civilian internee. The assets of Hugo and Ethel Terry Engel and their children that were still in Reich territory were forfeited to the German Reich on the basis of the 11th Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Act of 25 November 1941. Hugo Engel's father Jacob Engel, who had also fled to France, was deported from the Drancy transit camp to Auschwitz in February 1944 and was subsequently murdered.

Hugo Engel returned to Paris in September 1945 and soon became managing director of the art dealership Hugo Engel (France) again, which he relocated to Boulevard Courcelles. In 1947, the IXe Comité de confiscation des profits illicites de la Seine opened an investigation into Engel's dealings with the Germans during the Second World War. As it assumed that Engel had not acted under duress, it confiscated 822,000 francs and sentenced Engel to pay a fine of 2.4 million francs for tax evasion.

Engel's villa in Weidlingau, which his father's domestic servant Marie Baldreich had ‘aryanised’, was restituted to him in 1948; it was no longer possible to return the liquidated business. In 1950, Hugo Engel dissolved his Parisian art dealership and acquired a trade licence for dealing in oil paintings at Reisnerstraße 12 in Vienna’s 3rd district. This licence remained valid until 1956. His claim under the Federal Restitution Act (BRÜG) filed in the FRG in 1959 for the loss of 170 paintings from the shop on Zirkusgasse was rejected, as the works of art exported by Faltis had travelled directly from Vienna to Sweden and therefore did not meet the requirements of the BRÜG. Herbert Engel worked as an art dealer in England and became a British citizen. In 1956, he changed his surname to Terry-Engell.

In 2013, six objects that Engel had acquired from Richard Neumann in 1941 were restituted from the holdings of the Musées nationaux récupération (MNR) to Neumann's heirs.

Keywords

Nazi asset expropriation

Gabriele Anderl

1 July 2025

Publications about the person / institution

APA-OTS, Richard-Neumann-Erben erhalten sechs Objekte aus Frankreich, 15.2.2013, URL: www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20130215_OTS0121/richard-neumann-erben-erhalten-sechs-objekte-aus-frankreich (28.6.2025).

Gabriele Anderl, "Kostbarkeiten, gemischt mit Trödel..." Die "Abwicklung" jüdischer Kunst- und Antiquitätenhandlungen in Wien während der NS-Zeit: in: Verena Pawlowsky/Harald Wendelin (Hg.), Enteignete Kunst. Raub und Rückgabe – Österreich von 1938 bis heute, Wien 2006, 36–58.

Gabriele Anderl/Gitta Ho, Hugo Engel, in: Répertoire des acteurs du marché de l'art en France sous l'Occupation, 1940–1945, RAMA (Frankreich), URL: agorha.inha.fr/detail/859 (27.6.2025).

DÖW, Opferdatenbank des Dokumentationsarchives des österreichischen Widerstandes, Eintrag zu Jakob Engel, URL: www.doew.at (27.6.2025).

Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, Kommentierte Online-Edition der fünf Reisetagebücher Hans Posses (1939–1942), URL: editionhansposse.gnm.de (8.6.2025).

Hélène Ivanoff, Wildenstein & Cie, Paris, in: Répertoire des acteurs du marché de l'art en France sous l'Occupation, 1940–1945, RAMA (Frankreich), URL: agorha.inha.fr/detail/484 (27.06.2025).

Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war. Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens, Wien 2003.

Maurice Philip Remy, Der Fall Gurlitt. Die wahre Geschichte über Deutschlands größten Kunstskandal, Berlin-München-Wien 2017.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Ausfuhrmaterialien, Zl. 384/1938, 385/1938, 1109/1938, 1395/1938, Hugo Engel.
BDA-Archiv, Ausfuhrmaterialien, Zl. 4577/1939, Otto Faltis.

Bundesarchiv Bern, Dossier Ethel, Herbert und Hugo Engel, Signatur: E4264#1985/196#14557*.

Landesarchiv Berlin, Wiedergutmachungsakten, 83/82 WGA 9115/59, Hugo Engel, Dorothy Feierabend, Herbert Terry-Engel.

OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, FLD, Zl. 16.309, Hugo Engel, Ethel Terry Engel.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, Hilfsfonds, Alter Hilfsfonds, 18.119 (25.227), Hugo Engel.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Allg. Reihe, K. 997, Abwickler Faltis, Hugo Engel.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Ha. 5277, Hugo Engel.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, VA 42.741, Hugo Engel.

WStLA, Handelsgericht Wien, B 76, Registerakten, A 22, 139, Hugo Engel.
WStLA, M.Abt. 119, A41, VEAV, 459, 14. Bez., Hugo Engel.

Proveana: Engel, Hugo

Wikidata: Q69010980

Gussenbauer, Hildegard

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:40:02 +0000

Gussenbauer, Hildegard Leonhard Weidinger Fri, 03/05/2021 - 16:34

Hildegard Gussenbauer

17 February 1891 Prague – 25 August 1953 Vienna

Hildegard Gussenbauer, daughter of the surgeon Carl Ignatz Gussenbauer, was an art broker, consultant and dealer in Vienna. After her father was appointed head of the 2nd Surgical University Clinic in 1894 as the successor to Theodor Billroth, the family moved from Prague to Vienna. Gussenbauer had private tuition at home until she went to secondary school. She later attended drawing and modelling courses in the studio of Emma Schlangenhausen, had lessons in applied art with the architect Othmar Leixner von Grünberg and completed training as a lacemaking teacher. Her knowledge of art history was expanded through visits to museums in various European countries. She was a member of the Verein der Freunde Ostasiatischer Kunst und Kultur in Wien (Association of Friends of East Asian Art and Culture in Vienna). In 1930 she travelled to the USA. She worked after 1922 as an "art consultant for home decor", dealing in this function with interior furnishing, designs and consultancy and mediating in interior design questions. She also painted furniture, checked valuations and the authenticity of artworks, liquidated estates and established contacts between private collectors and museums. She never married but must have been financially secure on account of her family, because – as she herself stated – the revenue from her activities did not cover her living expenses. At the same time, she emphasized the importance for her work of her wide-ranging contacts in numerous countries. She was a licensed art dealer from mid-1939, working exclusively from her apartment at Skodagasse 9 in Vienna's 8th district and then, from mid-1941, Jacquingasse 31 in the 3rd district. She also used the latter apartment for exhibitions. She had a large house and property in the country (probably in Oberverlach, Carinthia). She was a member of the designer, art publisher and art dealer section of the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste (Reich Chamber of Fine Arts) but was not obliged to join the Reichsschrifttumskammer (Reich Literature Chamber) on account of her minimal work as a writer. In the later phase of the war she claimed to have been involved above all with furnishing houses for bombed-out and young families in both the ruined cities and remote mountain regions throughout the entire Reich, where she also acquired interior furnishing items and folk art. In 1940 she travelled to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. She did not leave the Roman Catholic church during the Nazi era but held a NSDAP membership card for the Breitenfeld section. She repeatedly confirmed her loyalty to the regime with reference to her efforts to preserve German culture. She belonged to the Deutscher Schulverein Südmark and the Deutsch-Österreichischer Alpenverein and owned a gun licence. She also tried to sell artworks for the "Sonderauftrag Linz". Her name appears in connection with The Art of Painting by Vermeer: she was in contact with Karl Haberstock and in March and April 1939 unsuccessfully offered to broker its sale. The Museum für Völkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology, now Weltmuseum Wien) also acquired some objects from Gussenbauer during the Nazi era, whose provenance could not be determined. Her business licence for the art trade expired in 1951, two years before her death.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Susanne Hehenberger/Monika Löscher (Hg.), Die verkaufte Malkunst. Jan Vermeers Gemälde im 20. Jahrhundert (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 4), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2013, URL: doi.org/10.7767/boehlau.9783205789611.

Archives

Berufsvereinigung der bildenden Künstler Österreichs (Wien, Schloss Schönbrunn), Archiv, Unterlagen zu Hildegard Gussenbauer.

WStLA, Historische Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Hildegard Gussenbauer.

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

Kremsmünster, Reichskunstdepot

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

Kremsmünster, Reichskunstdepot Konstantin Ferihumer Wed, 11/18/2020 - 12:39

Reichskunstdepot Kremsmünster

Reich art depot Kremsmünster

other name: Kremsmünster Benedictine Monastery

Kremsmünster Benedictine Abbey in Upper Austria, founded in 777, was seized by order of the Gestapo in 1941 and placed under the administration of Reichsgau Oberdonau (Upper Danube). From summer 1941 it was used to store artworks for the "Sonderauftrag Linz". The proposal came from Gau curator Franz Juraschek, who, like Gauleiter August Eigruber, hoped it would work in favour of his Gau and suggested that the valuable objects stored in Kremsmünster should be shown "in the form of an exhibition". Nothing came of this, but Eigruber's suggestion was heard by those responsible for the "Sonderauftrag Linz", and important items secured and seized in Vienna in 1938 and managed at the time by the Institute for Monument Preservation were transported to Kremsmünster. The first and largest transports took place in May and June 1941 (28 May, 30 May, 4 June, 11 June, 24 June, 26 June) and included paintings, prints and art objects and furniture from the Alphonse Rothschild, Louis Rothschild, Oscar Bondy and Albert Pollak collections and, to a lesser extent from the collections of David Goldmann, Rudolf Gutmann, Felix Haas, Felix Kornfeld, Wally Kulka, Alfons Thorsch, Emmy Aldor and N. Pilzer. The transports were organized by Spedition Bäuml. While the Gau leadership and monument preservation authority hoped to store the most valuable objects in Kremsmünster, Hans Posse, head of the Linz project, quickly decided that more and more items from the "Führerbau" depot in Munich considered to be inferior should be transferred to Kremsmünster so as to make space in Munich for more valuable ones. Between August 1941 and November 1943 1,732 paintings were transferred from Munich to Kremsmünster, and some of the items transported from Vienna to Kremsmünster were kept there only in temporary storage prior to onward transport to Munich (for example, a transport on 24 August 1942 of objects from the collections of Berta Morelli, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, Oscar Bondy, Franz Erlach and others). Until 1943 transports continued to come from Vienna, and in 1942 two transports (25 September and 24 November) with eighty-eight paintings and fifteen crates of art objects from the "Jagd" depot in Steinbach near Göstling were also transferred to Kremsmünster. According to the Benedictine father Richard Rankl, in autumn 1943 there were around 5,000 pictures and 400 crates in the Kremsmünster Reich Art Depot. They were kept in the baroque ceremonial hall (Kaisersaal) and in several rooms of the former convent. For security reasons, the doors were bricked up and moved. The art historian Justus (Heinrich) Schmidt, who was head of the art history department of the Gau museum in Linz and deputy culture officer of the Reichsgau Upper Danube, was appointed as local manager of the depot. His deputy in Kremsmünster was art historian Father Petrus (Franz) Mayrhofer. Ignaz Hager, the provisional administrator of the abbey appointed by the Linz Gestapo, also considered himself responsible for the Reich Art Depot and complained about the unclearly defined competences and responsibilities of the staff of the "Sonderauftrag Linz", the Vienna Institute for Monument Preservation and the Linz Gau offices. In spite of the camouflage measures designed to protect the abbey complex from air raids, the Kremsmünster Reich Art Depot was too unsafe in the event of aerial bombardment, and its contents began to be removed in 1943. They were transferred in part to Hohenfurth Abbey (Vyšší Brod), which had also been seized by Reichsgau Upper Danube, and to Thürnthal castle, but mostly to the salt mine in Altaussee, which was now the central depot for objects intended for the planned "Sonderauftrag Linz".

Even after the contents had been transferred to Altaussee, Kremsmünster's role as an art depot was not over, because after the war the abbey was once again used to hold artworks, this time while awaiting their return and restitution. On 6 May 1945, the US military authorities appointed the prior, Father Richard Rankl, to manage the abbey, and on 29 July 1945 the abbot was able to return. Between November 1945 and summer 1946 art objects from Austria were transferred in eight shipments from the Central Collecting Point in Munich to Kremsmünster. They included objects seized from Viennese collections and already stored in the abbey during the war, and also expropriated church property from the abbeys at Kremsmünster, St Florian, Göttweig and Klosterneuburg. According to existing lists, the items were stored this time in the abbey mill and in rooms such as the Apostle Room within the abbey itself. From 1948 the abbey urgently requested that they be removed. At the time, objects that had not yet been restituted were transferred in 1949 for temporary storage in the depot of the Federal Monuments Authority in Salzburg-Kleßheim.

Keywords

"Sonderauftrag Linz"

Depot

Birgit Kirchmayr

9 July 2022

Publications about the person / institution

Rudolf Hundstorfer, Das Stift unterm Hakenkreuz, Kremsmünster-Linz 1961.

Birgit Kirchmayr/Friedrich Buchmayr/Michael John, Geraubte Kunst in Oberdonau, Linz 2007.

Benedikt Pitschmann, Die Einlagerung von Kunstschätzen im Stift Kremsmünster (1941–1944), in: Jahrbuch des öffentlichen Stiftsgymnasiums Kremsmünster 138 (1995), 59–61.

Archives

BDA-Archiv, Restitutionsmaterialien, K. 13/3 und 13/4: K-Inventar, Transportlisten, Korrespondenz.

BArch Koblenz, B323-123 und 124.
BArch Koblenz, NS 6-413, Transportlisten München Führerbau nach Kremsmünster.

Stiftsarchiv Kremsmünster, Tagebuch Richard Rankl.

GND: 2046531-2

VIAF: 156602229

Wikidata: Q688659