Glossary

According to the Federal Council Resolution of 21 February 1889,  which entered into force on 22 July 1890, any collections which were of scientific interest due to their composition and which were to be sold after being assembled on state-funded expeditions to German colonies first had to be made available to public German scientific institutions. This applied to ethnographic, zoological, botanical and mineralogical collections and the scientifically relevant estates of deceased German colonial officials and explorers. The relevant materials and collections first had to be sent to the Museum for Ethnology (Berliner Völkerkundemuseum) in Berlin, which then passed on the non-ethnographic collections to the other local museums. The ethnographic items remained at the museum or were classified as so-called “duplicates” and could then be sold or given away free of charge, for example as part of an exchange. The relevant directories were created for this purpose and initially sent to the museums in the other German states. In 1891, the regulation was generally extended to officials and members of the →“Protection Force” („Schutzgebieten“) working in the “protectorates”, who had amassed such collections during their occupation and wanted to sell them. This so-called “Duplicate Resolution” (Dubletten-Erlass) established the central position of the Museum for Ethnology in Berlin and resulted in competition amongst the ethnological museums. At the same time, there were many attempts to circumvent the regulations from the outset. (SF)

From 1941, the Berlin museums in particular relocated their collections to flak bunkers in Berlin Friedrichshain and Berlin Zoologischer Garten. These were captured by the Red Army on 1 and 2 May 1945. Severe fires broke out in the Friedrichshain flak bunker in May 1945 and the holdings stored there were badly damaged. (MO)

Attention, this is a problematic term from contemporary historical linguistic usage. The current use of this term is inappropriate or only common in the scientific context with appropriate labeling. Such terms can be discriminatory, euphemistic, ideologically tinged neologisms and/or ideologically motivated neologisms.

The "Führer’s Building" (Führerbau) was constructed as the Nazi Party headquarters at Königsplatz in Munich. The former administration building of the Nazi Party, which is now home to the Zentralinstut für Kunstgeschichte, is located next to the Führerbau, which is reserved for representative purposes and now houses the University of Music and Performing Arts (Hochschule für Musik und Theater). The buildings also served as a temporary storage facility for the works of art that were supposed to be exhibited in the planned "Führermuseum" in Linz as part of the "Sonderauftrag Linz". Many of the items were looted at the end of April 1945. The US military government eventually set up a →Central Collecting Point there to register, identify and restitute works of art that had been confiscated by the Nazis. This resulted in the development of archival records in the form of index cards for each item, which now form an important basis for provenance research. The archival records can be accessed via an online database on the website of the Deutsches Historisches Museum. The Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte has reconstructed the circumstances surrounding the confiscation of art for the Führerbau with the support of the German Lost Art Foundation. (SL)

Attention, this is a problematic term from contemporary historical linguistic usage. The current use of this term is inappropriate or only common in the scientific context with appropriate labeling. Such terms can be discriminatory, euphemistic, ideologically tinged neologisms and/or ideologically motivated neologisms.

In 1938, Adolf Hitler issued a decree to effectively grant himself the personal privilege of inspecting all confiscated cultural property. While this so-called "Führervorbehalt" was originally devised for annexed Austria, it was extended on numerous occasions and ultimately applied to the entire Third Reich and its occupied territories during the Second World War. In addition to selecting works of art to be exhibited in the planned "Führermuseum" in Linz, the decree was issued to dampen the smoldering dispute over powers and competition between Nazi officers, authorities and cultural institutions that were trying to profit from the cultural property confiscated in Nazi Germany. (SL)