Rosa Schapire lived within a total work of art: In 1921, the art historian, collector and journalist had two rooms in her Hamburg apartment designed by the expressionist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, with whom she was a close friend. In front of the green-painted walls of the living room there were hand-carved furniture painted ultramarine blue and bright yellow, there were pictures, sculptures, reliefs and a cactus window. When Schapire had to flee to London from the repression of the National Socialists in 1939, the entire furnishings designed by Schmidt-Rottluff were to follow her along with other works of art and were already deposited in a transport box at the harbor. But their property never arrived, was confiscated by the Nazis and auctioned off as “Jewish property”.
Through unknown means, Schapire still managed to save some paintings, sculptures, graphics and her “Brücke” artist postcards to England. The preserved treasures are now part of the large-scale exhibition “From Monet to Picasso – Jewish art collectors in Germany” based on intensive research in the Bucerius Kunst Forum, which WELT AM SONNTAG was able to visit exclusively in advance. The show reconstructs 15 private Jewish collections of modern art that were created before 1945 and brings together the works scattered around the world.
The high-quality collections, for example those of Martha and Walter Blank, Max Silberberg, Max Meirowsky, Martha and Hugo Nathan or the Mendelssohn and Hirschland families, were torn apart, stolen or had to be sold far below their value as a result of the disenfranchisement and expropriation of Jewish citizens. “The 15 collectors represent thousands,” says forum leader Kathrin Baumstark. She curated the show with the art historian and journalist Stefan Koldehoff, who initiated the project.
With the loss of their art possessions, many of the collectors also fell into oblivion. The Clothilde and Paul Student collection, for example, was one of the most unknown in Germany - it included important works, including “Neckerei” by Emil Nolde and the only self-portrait by Paula Modersohn-Becker, in which she depicted herself as a painter with a raised brush. Paul Student had to declare bankruptcy in the wake of the global economic crisis and sell some of the pictures. Due to the ban on Jews working, he was unable to regain his economic footing. The art that remained after the crisis was sold under Nazi pressure or confiscated by the Gestapo; deportation and death followed.
“The Nazis also wanted to erase people’s life stories,” says Baumstark. Now the cultural and historical achievements of the collectors should return to public consciousness. For this purpose, a separate area was designed for each collection in the exhibition hall. There, in front of walls decorated in 15 shades of green, there is space for the biographies of collectors. Art also unfolds, with works or groups of works hanging that originally belonged to the respective collection: pictures that adorned private rooms, had personal meaning, and accompanied eventful lives.
Many of the masterpieces are of immense value today, as they come from, among others, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Picasso, Monet, Rodin and Pissarro, Liebermann, Slevogt and Corinth. The exhibits also show that Jewish collectors built particularly progressive and modern collections. The Jewish bourgeoisie made a decisive contribution to the establishment of a modern art canon in Germany around 1900. The collectors, including entrepreneurs, bankers, manufacturers and doctors, were also active as lenders to museums, donated works of art, and supported artists and cultural institutions - until the state turned against them.
Jewish collectors, such as Margarete Mauthner and Antonie Lessing, also played a special role for modernism as taste-safe, unwavering art connoisseurs. Margarete Oppenheim also “stands for those numerous Jewish women who acquired highly significant art collections in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic without primarily aiming for stability of value or social recognition,” explains Koldehoff. Oppenheim collected with passion - including artists who were not yet established on the art market at the time, for example Cézanne and Van Gogh, whose “Girl with Disheveled Hair” can be seen. After the collector's death in 1935, her possessions were auctioned off, but the heirs were unable to freely dispose of either the proceeds or the remaining works.
Today, several museums are holding discussions with the collector's descendants; there have been agreements in line with the Washington Declaration on Dealing with Nazi-Looted Art of 1998, in which the signatory states committed themselves to identifying looted cultural assets and finding “just and fair solutions” with the former owners or their heirs. Other museums refuse to engage in dialogue. Instead of the Cézanne paintings from the former Oppenheim collection, empty frames hang in the show: although the works could be identified, they were not available in the context of the project. In total, according to Baumstark, 95 loans came to the Bucerius Kunst Forum - out of around 500 works requested.
The exhibition makes stark contrasts clear: there is the magic of art, of classical modernism, and there is also the open-mindedness, progress-orientation and curiosity of the collectors. On the other hand, there is the small-mindedness, the resentment, the cruelty, the contempt for humanity and the perfidious terror bureaucracy of the Nazi dictatorship. Only through cynical regulations, through compulsory taxes such as the Reich flight tax, through bans on leaving the country, asset freezes or currency restrictions, was the systematic robbery of Jewish property possible, which continues to have an impact today.
