Collection History in Braunschweig: Provenance and Looted Art since 1933

In a long-term cooperation project that ran from April 2016 to March 2019, the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum (BLM), the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (HAUM) and the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig (SMBS) systematically investigated a number of their collection holdings to establish whether they contained cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution. The investigation was based on various grounds for suspicion. The project involved a wide range of mass-produced and individual objects: from handcrafted items, through coins, books, prints and drawings, to paintings. In total, 3,218 objects were included in the project. On the basis of current information, 153 can be classified as lawful, 2,704 as questionably lawful, and 299 as more or less suspicious. 62 of the clearly problematic objects comprise a collection of gold and silver coins at the SMBS “from Jewish capital levies” procured from the Reichsbank; however, the individual objects cannot be conclusively identified due to a lack of descriptions. For 5 objects and collections previously owned by the “Carl zur gekrönten Säule” Masonic lodge, confiscation as a result of Nazi persecution could neither be definitively ruled out nor conclusively proven. In the search for a just and fair solution, the lodge and the BLM came to the mutual agreement that the objects would remain in the museum.

The majority of the objects and stocks selected for the project come from the estate of Karl Steinacker, the former director of the Vaterländisches Museum Braunschweig (today: the BLM). The items from the estate were divided among all three museums in 1946. Steinacker is said to have accepted objects owned by Jews and freemasons for his collection and for the undocumented historic stock at the BLM. Another key area of focus was the private “form collection” belonging to the artist and art historian Walter Drexel, which was purchased by the city of Braunschweig in 1955. His acquisitions for the city of Braunschweig’s form collection have already been considered partly problematic because of purchases from Jewish dealers in the Netherlands in 1941/42. In addition, there are connections linking a number of objects with art dealers and art historians involved in Nazi art looting, namely Wolfgang Gurlitt, Wilhelm August Luz, Adolf Weinmüller, Kajetan Mühlmann, Franz Kieslinger, Benno Geiger and Erich Pfeiffer. Due to uncertainties over ownership status and provenance, many questions continue to be raised regarding the donation to the HAUM from the Braunschweig Gesellschaft der Freunde junger Kunst, led by art collectors Otto Ralfs and Erich Scheyer (a brother of the art dealer Galka Scheyer), which was dissolved when the Nazis seized power.

Information about the project is available on the websites of the three museums. The project has been presented to both a national specialist audience and the general public in Braunschweig by means of a conference held at the HAUM, as well as through various talks and lectures. Selected freemasons’ objects formed part of a small display at the BLM. An exhibition is planned.

(c) Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum