CHRISTOPH MACK | RESTITUTION

This summer, the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the foundation running most of Berlin’s museums, commisioned me to photograph the new issue of their biannual magazine, focusing on the restitution of art confiscated during the Third Reich. A seemingly dry assignment, which turned out to be an exciting look behind the scenes of cultural institutions and a moving encounter with the fates of those affected by persecution and expropriation under the Nazi regime. And while those crimes were commited more than 70 years ago, the injustice lives on to this day, I also got to witness story of those trying to rectify it and the obstacles they face. Pictured are five of many books that the Freemasons in Potsdam were forced to “donate” to the Berlin museums when they succumbed to the pressure to cease their operations. Returned together with 379 other books in 2016, after systematic research within the catalogue of the Staatsbibliothek.

August Gaul’s “Lying Lion”, commissioned by Jewish publisher Rudolf Mosse, was part of the extensive art collection his son was forced to surrender for permission for him and his family to leave Germany. It was restituted to the heirs in 2015.

Stuart E. Eizenstat was instrumental in negotiating the Washington Principles, a binding, multinational treaty to research and return art identified as confiscated by the Nazis. He’s now working as an attorney in Washington, D.C., where I photographed him in his office.

Mr Eizenstat was serving as Ambassador to the European Union when he was negotiating the treaty in 1998, leading to thousands of returned objects, archives being opened to researchers and an online database connecting collections and heirs. While he’s grateful for every object restituted under the Washington Principles, he still experiences backlash and outright refusal by some institutions.

Caspar David Friedrich’s romantic “The Watzmann” was owned by Jewish art collector Martin Brunn, he sold it in 1937, hoping to finance his family’s escape to the United States. The proceeds were forfeited, though, under a decree called the “Reich Flight Tax”, an especially perverted way for the Nazis to expropriate anyone trying to escape violence and persecution.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the confiscation of art all over Nazi Germany was Hermann Göring, whose country residence Carinhall was filled with objects acquired under, at best, dubious circumstances. The buildings were razed during the last days of the war, only rubble and the former guard towers remain. Even the signpost pinpointing the exact location is frequently painted over.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s blue etching “Fehmarnhäuser mit großem Baum” belonged to Eugen Moritz Buchthal, who was forced to sell it to afford the Reich Flight Tax. He and his family succesfully emigrated to London, the etching was among nine restituted in August 2017.

Another story of expropriation, displacement and the impossibility of adequate reparations is that of Agathe and Ernst Saulmann. Travelling to rural Southwest Germany to find out more about them, we could still feel the prejudice and mentality that lead to their expulsion. Us visiting the remainders of their live in Pfullingen lead to raised eyebrows among some of the local population, more than 80 years after the fact. Pictured is the factory they owned until 1936, when it was auctioned off and the proceeds forfeited under the Reich Flight Tax.

Agathe and Ernst Saulmann fled to France, where they were eventually arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Ernst succumbed to the injuries sustained during their incarceration, while Agathe commited suicide after returning to Germany. She was never to set foot onto their vast property with the impressive driveway again. One object of their confiscated art collection ended up in the collection of the Bode museum and was restituted in 2017, just to be bought back immediately by the museum, where it is currently on display.

This salt container was one of many decorative arts pieces in the collection of Margarethe Oppenheim. Her heirs auctioned it off in 1935 and it remains unclear wether they were able to keep the proceeds or were pressured by the Nazis to sell the collection as quickly as possible, leading to a settlement with the museum being allowed to keep some of the pieces. The Christian relief on the right, from 1440, showing the bearing of the cross, belonged to Harry Fuld jun., who fled from persecution in 1936 and left it in storage. It was subsequently seized and sold to the Berlin museums. After being restituted in 2009, a foundation bought it back, allowing it to be kept on display at the Bode Museum.

Michaela Scheibe is a historian working for the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, focussing mostly on provenance research and the subsequent restitution of books. A monumental task, considering there are more than three million books in the collection of the library alone. And while the restitution of famous paintings tends to make the news, books are often of little value, with some of the heirs of the owners not even interested in having them returned.

To find books that might be acquired through confiscation or expropriation, she goes through the acquiration logs of the Nazi years and flags any books of dubious provencance. Those will then be taken from storage and manually checked for any hints leading to their previous owners.

Hans von Marée’s “Self Portrait with Yellow Hat” was part of probably the most extensive and important private collection in Europe at the time, that of Max Silberberg. He was systematically expropriated, his company “Aryanized” and lived in poverty up until his murder in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The painting was the first to be restituted under the Washington Principles, in 1999, more than 60 years after it was robbed by the Nazis.