The Bomann Museum Celle and its collections. The influence of National Socialist tyranny on inventory procurement from 1933 to 1945

The Bomann Museum was founded in 1892 on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of Celle and was able to move into a new building in 1907. Its first director, Wilhelm Bomann (1848–1926), limited the collecting activities to the three core themes of Hanoverian military and regional history, rural cultural history and municipal history of Celle. His successors also followed these guidelines, although they brought out their  own main points.

Until 1938, an association that occasionally had more than 800 members ran the museum. With the economic crisis in 1929, a significant decrease in the number of members began. This development also led to the founding of a supporting company in 1938. Since the city of Celle now made a significant contribution to the maintenance of the museum, the director Albert Neukirch (1884–1963), who had been in office since 1923, had less scope. From the museums point of view, however, it was positive that a significantly higher purchasing budget was now available. A significant part of the acquisitions made by Albert Neukirch also served to furnish Celle Palace next to the museum.

The aim of this project in the first two years was a systematic review of the new contracts to the collection between 1933 and 1945 to identify objects confiscated because of Nazi persecution. Out of this period, around 3,000 entries are listed in the inventory register. However, the number of actual additions is significantly higher and amounts to around 6,000 objects. In addition to everyday objects and rural cultural assets, the provenance of furniture, faience, porcelain, paintings, graphics, textiles and weapons had to be reviewed.

As an interim result, it emphasized that in particular several additions from local Jewish property as well as the acquisitions at auction house Hans W. Lange in Berlin had to be examined more intensively. Therefore, the focus in the third year of the project was on researching these bundles. It was therefore necessary to research local contexts as well as to examine the provenance of cultural assets that were dealt on the German and European art market during the Nazi era and the Second World War.

(c) Bomann Museum Celle