Provenance research in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s museums – a first check

A survey conducted by the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania museum association in 2015 showed that provenance research had so far only been carried out in the state’s major museums (Pomeranian State Museum Greifswald, Schwerin State Museum, Rostock Cultural History Museum). Small museums have lacked the personnel, time and financial capacity to record, research and document the provenance of “objectionable” exhibits. The first check project has now made it possible to “track down” suspicious items and recommend further research where necessary

The two-year research focused on museum collection items which were unlawfully confiscated from Jewish, communist, social democratic, Catholic, etc. owners as well as from Freemasons and student fraternities between 1933 and 1945 during the Nazi dictatorship and which later found their way in to the museums’ collections.

The aim of the two-year project was to:

· obtain an overview of the status of the inventory of museum collections in the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,

· gain an insight into the history of the archives of individual museums,

· obtain information on objects of “critical” provenance from the National Socialist era (1933-45) at the participating institutions.

The project in figures

12 museums in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania were recruited for the study:

· Anklam: Museum im Steintor

· Demmin: Regionalmuseum

· Neubrandenburg: Regionalmuseum

· Neubrandenburg: Städtische Kunstsammlung (municipal art collection)

· Pasewalk: Stadtmuseum (municipal museum)

· Rostock: Schiffbau- und Schifffahrtsmuseum (shipbuilding and maritime museum)

· Rostock: University Zoological Collection

· Rostock-Warnemünde: Heimatmuseum (museum of local history )

· Schönberg (Meckl.): Volkskundemuseum (folklore museum)

· Schwerin: Stiftung Mecklenburg (foundation)

· Stralsund: Municipal and Cultural History Museum

· Wismar: Museum of the History of the Hanseatic City of Wismar in the Schabbell house

With the exception of the Städtische Kunstsammlung Neubrandenburg and the Zoological Collection of the University of Rostock, the museums analysed are multi-disciplinary institutions (archaeology, art, history).

Numerous museums declined to participate in the first check for a variety of reasons, ranging from “no need”, “closure due to renovation work” and “post-1945 collection” to “provenance research already completed”.

Historical figures and institutions

Stadtgeschichtliches Museum im Steintor Anklam (municipal history museum):

· Figures involved: Bollnow, Otto: rector; Brunier, Prof. Dr. Johannes Weygard: secondary school teacher; Scheel, Hermann: teacher, volunteer museum director

Stadtgeschichtliches Regionalmuseum Demmin (regional municipal history museum):

· Figures involved: Diemer, Lothar: liaison officer for monument preservation and museum director; Captain Kapustin: Soviet town commander; Peters, Klara: assistant to the liaison officer for monument preservation; Thielscher, Dr. Paul: founder of the museum; Zindel, Maria: employee of the liaison officer for monument preservation

· Business partners: Münzhandlung Ludwig Grabow (coin dealer, Rostock); Antiquariat Hellmut Meyer & Ernst (antiquarian bookshop, Berlin); Verlagsbuchhandlung und Antiquariat J. A. Stargardt (publishing bookseller and antiquarian bookshop, Berlin); Buch-, Antiquar- und Globenhandlung? Gsellius, (bookseller, antiquarian and globe dealer, Berlin); Münzenhandlung Rudolph Hess Nachf. (coin dealer, Frankfurt a. M.); Buchhändler und Antiquar Max Goetz (bookseller and antiquarian, Munich); numismatist Sally Rosenberg (Frankfurt a. M.); coin and medal dealer Robert Ball Nachf. (Berlin); art dealer and auctioneer Otto Helbing (Munich); antiquarian Agnes Straub (Berlin); art antiquarian and dealer Konrad Zimmermann (Berlin); art dealer? Wascher (Halle a. d. Saale.); bookseller and antiquarian Helmut Tenner (Würzburg); bookseller H. Stettin (Stettin); antiquarian and art dealer Karl Gerlinghaus (Munich); bookseller and antiquarian Speyer & Peters (Berlin); coin dealer E. Button (Frankfurt a. M.); coin and book dealer A. Riechmann & Co. (Halle a. d. Saale.); coin dealer and owner of the coin shop Otto Helbing Nachf., Karl Kress (Munich)

Stadtgeschichtliches Regionalmuseum Neubrandenburg (regional municipal history museum):

· Figures involved: Günteritz, Walter: director of the museum

Städtische Kunstsammlung (municipal art collection)

· Figures involved: Günteritz, Walter: director of the museum

Stadtmuseum Pasewalk (municipal museum):

· Figures involved: Haase, Theo: teacher and collector

Schiffbau- und Schifffahrtsmuseum Rostock (shipbuilding and maritime museum)

· Figures involved: Heyne, Dr. Martin: director of the shipbuilding museum; Lachs, Dr. Johannes: director of the maritime Museum

Zoological Collection of the University of Rostock:

· Figures involved: Schulze, Prof Dr. Leopold Paul: institute director

Heimatmuseum Rostock-Warnemünde (museum of local history ):

· Figures involved: Gosselck, Johannes: teacher, volunteer museum director

Volkskundemuseum Schönberg (Meckl.) (folklore museum):

· Figures involved: Buddin, Fritz: teacher, volunteer museum director

· Business partners: Ludwig Grabow: coin dealer (Rostock)

Stiftung Mecklenburg (foundation)

· Figures involved: Fischer, Emil: painter (Malchin)

Municipal and Cultural History Museum Stralsund:

· Figures involved: Adler, Dr. Fritz Walter: director, district conservator; Dibbelt, Prof. Dr. Otto: teacher, collector; Ewert, Wolf: colonel; Klingenberg, Friedrich August Carl: chaser, belt maker and liquidator of the Masonic Lodge; Rieck, Käthe: director

· Business partners: Antiquariat Agnes Straub (antiquarian bookshop, Berlin); Antiquariat Gerlinghaus (antiquarian bookshop, Munich); Antiquariat H. Tiedemann (antiquarian bookshop, Berlin); Antiquariat Hellmut Meyer & Ernst (antiquarian bookshop, Berlin); Antiquariat Joseph Schauler (antiquarian bookshop, Augsburg); Antiquariat Oberdorfer (antiquarian bookshop, Augsburg); Antiquariat, Buch und Kunsthandlung Zahn & Jaensch, Nachf. (antiquarian bookshop and art dealership, Dresden); Antiquitätenhändler Carl Sager (Stettin); Antiquitätenhändler John Horneburg (antiques dealership, Stralsund); Buchhändler u. Antiquar Friedrich Otto (bookseller and antiquarian, Mannheim); Buchhändler u. Antiquariat Heinrich Rosenberg (bookseller and antiquarian, Berlin); Buchhandlung für Kunst und Wissenschaft/Antiquariat, Arthur Collignon (dealer in art books and academic books/antiquarian bookshop, Berlin); Galerie Dr. h. c. Hans Boerner (owner, Dr. Wolfgang Boerner). Antiquariat Heinrich Rosenberg (antiquarian bookshop, Berlin); Buchhandlung für Kunst und Wissenschaft/Antiquariat, Arthur Collignon (dealer in art books and academic books, Berlin); Dr. h. c. Hans Boerner (owner), Dr. Wolfgang Boerner (Berlin); Galerie Axel Vömel (Düsseldorf); Galerie Dr. W. A. Luz (Berlin); Galerie Gurlitt (Berlin); Graphisches Kabinett Guenther Franke (Munich); J. Frank’s Antiquariat (antiquarian bookshop, Helmut Tenner), (Würzburg); Kunstantiquariat Franz Meyer (art antiquarian, Dresden); Kunstantiquariat Konrad Zimmermann (art antiquarian, Dresden); Kunsthandlung C. G. Boerner (art dealership, Leipzig); Kunsthandlung P. H. Beyer & Sohn (art dealership, Leipzig); Kunsthandlung P. Rusch (art dealership, Dresden); Kunsthandlung und Kunstantiquariat Curt Naubert (art dealership and art antiquarian, Leipzig); Kunstschau A. Blumenreich (art dealership, Berlin); Münzhandlung Ludwig Grabow (coin dealership, Rostock); Münzhandlung Robert Ball, Nachf. (coin dealership, Berlin); Verlagsbuchhandlung von Diepenbroick-Grüter & Schulz (publishing bookseller, Hamburg)

Museum of the History of the Hanseatic City of Wismar in the Schabbell:

· Figures involved: Kröpelin, Otto: teacher, volunteer museum director; Lübeß, Dr. Hugo: teacher, volunteer museum director

Business partners: Book store, antiquarian bookshop and lending books Hermann Rhein (Wismar); antiquarian bookshop Albert Drüge, proprietor Ms Hilde Drüge (Wismar)