Electronic evaluation of the personal files of the Vermögensverwertungsstelle des Oberfinanzpräsident Berlin-Brandenburg (1933 to 1945) for the identification of art ownership and for the localization of Nazi looted art - Scientific indexing of a mass source to be digitized in the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, Potsdam - Pilot Project

The Brandenburg State Archives in Potsdam hold the files of the Oberfinanzpräsident Berlin-Brandenburg, which also include around 42,000 files of the National Socialist Vermögensverwertungsstelle (Property Liquidation Office). This financial authority was established in connection with the start of the mass deportations of Jews from the administrative district to concentration camps at the end of 1941. In addition to files on the liquidation of the last possessions of deportees, the historical stock also includes files on the confiscated property of refugees. Numerous documents relate to the confiscation and liquidation of art and cultural property.

The research project (OFP Project for short) systematically investigates the liquidation of looted art objects for the benefit of the state treasury. The liquidation methods favored by the Nazi state since 1941 were, on the one hand, various types of auctions and, on the other hand, the systematic segregation of the most valuable cultural objects for specific individuals and institutions in conformance with Nazi laws and service regulations. Essential to the project are the indications on records, which help to identify today's public institutions and museums as locations of Nazi-confiscated cultural property.

In order to achieve this, the files of the Vermögensverwertungsstelle must be systematically evaluated by way of an electronic case search with the help of a document management system (DMS). The DMS was designed and developed by OFP Project members and will need to be continuously updated throughout the life of the project. With the help of an optical character recognition as well as various programming services and keywording, which are the result of intensive basic research in the files, the profiteers of the National Socialist art theft are searched for.

In the OFP Project, the results of provenance research are to be passed on to the legal successors of the victims of National Socialist persecution (as far as they are known) and to the public institutions and museums which acquired art objects from looted Jewish property during the Nazi era, so that they for their part can take action.

In conformance with archiving and data protection regulations, the results and the electronic tool will be made available to the public and for further scientific use.

The OFP Project, which will initially run for three years, is being funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the Bundesland Brandenburg.

© Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv