Julianenhof 1933–1955 as a location for the transfer of money and art

The Internationales Fledermausmuseum Julianenhof (Julianenhof international bat museum) is located around 50 km east of Berlin in the former buildings of an old country estate. Here, NABU Regionalverband Strausberg-Märkische Schweiz e.V. (the organization responsible for running the museum) is committed to protecting bats and delivering educational activities relating to the work of the museum. Since 2000, the volunteer museum director has also devoted an increasing amount of her time to researching the 300-year history of the estate. This research revealed that the farm achieved fame in the local region in the 1940s, as it is said that a cousin of Hermann Göring, Erika Rode, lived here with her family. With an eyewitness report about deliveries of crates from and for Göring via the station at Buckow five kilometers away, it seemed almost a fact that Göring, Adolf Hitler’s second in command, must have carried out some of his activities here at Julianenhof. How far Göring’s influence stretched when it came to his cousin’s purchase of the estate, whether he too was here personally as a guest and whether he used this location not far from Germany’s capital to securely store and move (art) objects were all questions in this project’s field of research. Eyewitness interviews, archival research and analyses of sources have revealed that he must have played a significant part in Walter A. Rode’s purchase of the estate from Max Reincke, the previous owner of Julianenhof, and that this resulted in personal and party political enrichment. However, on the basis of the existing sources, it has not been possible so far to confirm that Hermann Göring stored and transferred art objects here.

Hermann Göring’s sister-in-law, Ilse Göring, appears as an authorized representative in the negotiations relating to Max Reincke’s sale of the property to Walter A. Rode in fall 1940. Rode, who is still running a coffee plantation in Venezuela at this time together with his family, wanted to move to Germany. Hermann Göring intervened significantly in this matter by urging the Jewish Bernheimer family from Munich—who were compelled to emigrate—to sign a purchase contract in May 1939 for the hacienda in Venezuela under the threat of reprisals. The “aryanization” of the company L. Bernheimer K.G. undertaken in this context is closely connected to the Rode transaction and results in the expropriation of the Bernheimer family's private and company property in Munich.

Rode receives the purchase price and can now move back to Germany with his family.

According to descendants of the Reincke family and surviving witness reports, it now appears that while Rode did indeed buy the Julianenhof estate from the Reinckes, he and his family probably paid only a fraction of the purchase price agreed in the sales contract in cash to the previous owner. This became clear when various sources were analyzed in the course of the project. Surviving witnesses also report that Hermann Göring visited Julianenhof in person. His wife and children occasionally stayed as overnight guests at the estate in summer 1942. This close connection to Rode and Göring’s direct intervention in the “aryanization” of the Bernheimer company leads to the assumption of the possibility that artworks were perhaps also moved from the Bernheimer premises to Julianenhof. However, no proof has been found of this at this point in the investigations. When a fire broke out at the estate’s mansion in summer 1945, it is likely to have destroyed most of the inventory left behind at the Julianenhof manor house after the occupants fled. Documents relating to the Julianenhof estate may possibly still be found in the archives of the Soviet forces which subsequently occupied the area. It has not yet been possible to investigate this assumption. Unfortunately, it has also not been possible so far to make contact with the descendants of the Rode family in order to obtain further information.

(c) Internationales Fledermausmuseum Julianenhof