Ladies’ secretary desk, Spindler Co., formerly owned by Altkunst Co.

The project concerns a ladies’ secretary desk with a sloping fold-down front, a style of ladies’ writing desk typical for the period around 1770 in Berlin and Potsdam. Rosewood and hornbeam have been used as base wood for this delicate piece of furniture, and the interior is finished in cedar. Various fruit tree woods have been used for the veneer; these have been stained and perhaps also dyed. The fittings are made of chased and gilded bronze.

In 2013, in accordance with the guidelines of the Washington Principles, the descendants of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer requested the return of the ladies’ secretary desk (Inv. VI 20848) from the Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation as their property.

The Märkisches Museum, a predecessor institution of the present-day Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation, had purchased the desk at an auction held by Paul Graupe in April 1935. The stock of the firm Altkunst was liquidated at this auction. Altkunst was one of three art galleries in the Berlin-based Margraf group. The group was founded by Albert Loeske in 1912 and gradually expanded up until his death in 1928. In his will, Loeske named his heirs as his companion, Rosa Beer, and the manager of the group, Jakob Oppenheimer and his wife Rosa. Loeske died in 1928 and his will was contested. The legal disputes were not resolved until the beginning of 1933. The Oppenheimers’ son-in-law Ivan Bloch, who managed the Margraf group from 1932, was faced with the difficult task of generating enough money from current business operations to settle the inheritance tax debt of nearly RM 5,000,000—levied by the tax office in 1932 on Loeske’s bequest, which had been contested in an ongoing case since 1929.

The Oppenheimers emigrated to France in 1933. Ivan Bloch therefore became the main person in control of the Margraf group in Berlin until 1938. As he reported in 1939, trade at the group had declined following the Wall Street crash of 1929. Payment of the inheritance tax debt thus made Margraf’s business situation even more difficult. Bloch therefore decided to give up the three galleries in 1934. This enabled the group’s debt to the bankers Jacquier & Securius to be repaid at the end of 1935. The inheritance tax debt was paid off in installments by 1937. Bloch had therefore made the Margraf group profitable again between 1933 and 1938. The sales had been necessary in order to settle the inheritance tax debt, and these must be assessed independently of events during the Nazi era. The situation is different regarding the private possessions of the Bloch family. They had to flee Berlin on November 13, 1938 leaving all their belongings behind. The ladies’ secretary desk was not among them.

(c) Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin