Provenance research on the Armbruster collection

In 2012, the Domäne Dahlem country estate and open-air museum was given a number of remaining objects that had once belonged to a scientific collection of cultural and historical importance. These were handed over by the Fördererkreis der naturwissenschaftlichen Museen Berlins (an organization supporting natural science museums in Berlin). The items all relate to beekeeping and are part of a collection which the scientist Ludwig Armbruster had started compiling in 1923 at the Institute for Bee Research in Dahlem, Berlin. Armbruster was forced to retire early from his post in 1934 because his behavior was critical of the Nazi regime. He protested against the “Brownshirts” at the university, worked with bee researchers in Palestine and helped Jewish emigrants leave the country. His bee research collection remained at the Dahlem institute and was carried on by his successor Werner Ulbrich, who was a member of the SS Ahnenerbe (a Nazi organization promoting German ancestral heritage).

Closer examination of the objects that ended up at Domäne Dahlem prompted the following questions: Where do the objects that entered the Institute for Bee Research after 1934 come from? Under what conditions did they become part of the collection? Which objects come from Ludwig Armbruster’s original collection and were these confiscated from him as a result of Nazi persecution?

The project investigated events at the Institute for Bee Research before and during the National Socialist era and was able to answer these questions to a certain extent.

The available sources enabled the objects added to the collection in the period before 1934 and afterwards to be categorized as far as possible. This step proved to be a complex reconstruction process which was only made possible mainly because of an extensive photo collection owned by Armbruster. Of the objects examined, 65% had been safely acquired before 1934.

For the collection objects obtained after 1934, the initial suspicion that they had been acquired as part of collecting activities motivated by the National Socialists was not substantiated. There was also no demonstrable connection between Werner Ulrich’s membership of the SS Ahnenerbe research community and the collecting activities at the Institute for Bee Research.

The precise acquisition circumstances of the objects collected during the war could not be reconstructed despite intensive research. However, we do know that objects were collected in occupied territories, including Poland and France, by an employee of the institute. Whether these are looted property cannot be verified. This may also be due to the fact that the collected objects were seen more as everyday objects and did not appear to have a particularly high value at the point they were collected.

On the question of whether the collection items were confiscated from Armbruster as a result of Nazi persecution, the answer is very likely no. The situation may be different as regards his correspondence; however, this was not part of this investigation.

(c) Domäne Dahlem