Looting and restitution of the Goldschmidt-Rothschild collection

In 1938, under pressure from the National Socialists, Baron Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild sold his palatial city residence at Bockenheimer Landstraße 10, Frankfurt am Main and his substantial art collection of almost 1,400 objects to the city of Frankfurt am Main. The masterpieces were mainly divided among the Museum für Kunsthandwerk (today: Museum Angewandte Kunst), the Städtische Galerie and the Städelmuseum. The mansion itself was converted into a branch of the Museum für Kunsthandwerk and renamed “Museum für Kunsthandwerk II”. The Goldschmidt-Rothschild collection was restituted in 1948/49 in a settlement with the community of heirs. The research project explored these processes in detail.

Maximilian Goldschmidt (Fig. 1), born in Frankfurt am Main on June 20, 1843 came from the Jewish Goldschmidt-Kassel family, who were originally cloth and textile merchants. In the 19th century, Maximilian’s father, Benedict Hayum Salomon Goldschmidt, Consul to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, founded the B. H. Goldschmidt Bank. Maximilian ran the bank together with his brother until it closed in 1893.¹

In 1878, Maximilian married Minna Caroline von Rothschild (*1857 †1903) and thus became a member of Frankfurt’s most prominent Jewish family. Minna and Maximilian had five children: Albert (*1879 †1940), Rudolf (*1881 †1962), Lilli (*1883 †1929), Lucy (*1891) and Erich (*1894). They lived in the Rothschild mansion at Bockenheimer Landstraße 10 (Fig. 2), a former country house and summer residence that had been owned by Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the eldest son of the progenitor of the Rothschilds.²

After the early death of his wife, Maximilian Goldschmidt added “Rothschild” to his surname. Hereditary Prussian nobility was conferred upon him under the name “von Goldschmidt-Rothschild” and he was then made a Prussian baron in 1907. He was also Imperial and Royal Consul General of Austria-Hungary and owner of the entailed estate in Wroniawy, near Poznań, which he founded.

As well as holding a high position in society, Maximilian was one of the wealthiest people in Germany. The 1913 “Jahrbuch des Vermögens und Einkommens der Millionäre Hessen-Nassau” (Yearbook of Assets and Income of Millionaires in Hesse-Nassau)³ names him the richest man in Hesse-Nassau. His wealth enabled him to establish and support numerous foundations and also to provide financial assistance to many small scientific projects. He provided funding to museums in Frankfurt on a regular basis and gave them various masterpieces during his lifetime.

In 1938, he first of all sold his land and the mansion in Bockenheimer Landstraße. This was followed by the sale of his art collection to the city of Frankfurt am Main in November 1938.

Maximilian died in Frankfurt am Main on March 15, 1940. The residence was completely destroyed on March 22, 1944 in one of the worst air raids of the war.

The historical circumstances of the sale and of the restitution of the Maximilian Goldschmidt-Rothschild collection have been, insofar as can be proven, covered in a detailed report which has been received by the Research Office.

After an initial review of various files, it was possible to gauge the content of the art collection with the aid of lists created in 1938. Photo documentation of the decorative art objects could also be acquired. The vast number of handcrafted objects forms a consistent collection of exceptional quality. There are medieval, primarily sacred objects; Renaissance, French Baroque and Rococo objects and masterpieces of furniture production. The period at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century is represented by an impressive number of miniatures.

A comprehensively detailed investigation of these files for the purpose of conclusively clarifying the whereabouts of the collection objects is to be the subject of a long-term research project.

¹ Schembs, Hans-Otto: Jüdische Mäzene und Stifter in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt a. M. 2007, p. 74

² All information on the history of the Rothschild family comes from the accompanying book and volume of essays for the exhibition “The Rothschilds: A European Family” at the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt am Main, edited by Georg Heuberger, 1994

³ Martin, Rudolf: Jahrbuch des Vermögens und Einkommens der Millionäre in Hessen-Nassau, Berlin 1913, p. 65

(c) Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt am Main