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.

Even before the Dritte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz zur listenmäßigen Erfassung der jüdischen Betriebe (Third Regulation on the Reich Citizenship Law regarding t

Karl Baranyi, who came from Bohemia, first registered his domicile in 1919 in Vienna, where he worked as an auctioneer at Neubaugasse 68 in the 7th district until he lost the concession in 1932 after being sentenced to i

Friedrich Deutsch trained as a bank clerk and from 1926 managed a small fish shop at Servitengasse 9 in Vienna's 9th district. On 3 June 1919 he married Berta, née Hermann, and lived with her and their daughter Friederike, born in 1922, at Elisabethstraße 26 in the 1st district.

Robert Eigenberger studied art history at the German University in Prague and wrote his doctoral thesis in 1913 on the sculptor Adam Krafft.

On the initiative of Bartho

Wolfgang Gurlitt was born on 15 February 1888 as the son of the art dealer Fritz Gurlitt (1853–1893) and his wife Anarella, née Im-Hof (1858–1935).

Hirsch Isaac Kauftheil moved with his parents in 1899 from Neu Sandez, Galicia, to Vienna. He became an independent jeweller in 1919 and married Olga Esriel in 1922.

From the 1950s, the Viennese ophthalmologists Rudolf Leopold (1925–2010) and his wife Elisabeth Leopold (born 1926) started an extensive art collection.

Cäcilie Rosenthal married the lawyer Josef Lilienthal from Zurawno, Galicia, in Lemberg (now Lviv) in 1911. They had three children: Sylvia Lilith, Ricarda Antonia Eleonora and Karl René.

Rudolf Maier trained as a watchmaker with Ludwig Löwenstein at Gumpendorferstraße 20 in Vienna's 6th district.

After completing secondary school in Gera, Thuringia, Fritz Georg Meyer joined the Braunschweig Hussar Regiment No. 17 for a year in 1911 and then trained as an agent in the textile business in Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands and the USA.

Rudolf Perlberger was the eldest son of Max and Rosalia Perlberger, née Heinrich. He had four siblings, two of whom – Ida (1884–1887) and Leo (1890–1935) – died before the annexation of Austria to the Nazi German Reich.

Emil Politzer was a jeweler and antique dealer at Augustiner Strasse 12 in Vienna’s 1st district since 1919. His three brothers Isidor, Siegfried and Karl Politzer were also active in the same trade in Vienna's city centre.

Otto Reich studied history and the history of art at the University of Vienna, obtaining his doctorate in 1903 with a thesis entitled "The relationship of Frederick the Fair of Austria with Italy and Curia".

After an apprenticeship in Bavaria, Bartholomäus Schmid worked as a watchmaker in Wels in the early 1920s and then in Vienna from 1927.

Before becoming involved in the art market, Ferdinand Spany worked as a transportation clerk for the E. Bäuml company.

Ludmilla Wotawa grew up in her parents' villa at Schreiberweg 65 in Vienna's 19th district, where she first met

Anna Stein was married to Alfred Stein, who had a wine business in Vienna and was persecuted as a Jew after the annexation of Austria to the Nazi German Reich.

Sigmund Stiassny was the only son of the Viennese architect Wilhelm Stiassny (1842–1910) and his wife Julia, née Taussig (1848–1916). In 1899 he married Laura Kohnberger and had two children with her, Elisabeth (1901–1986) and Walther Stiassny (1902–1912).

The "uncontrolled Aryanization" that took place in Austria immediately after the annexation to the National Socialist German Reich grew to such proportions that the Nazi regime felt obliged to take countermeasures.