Nazi Art Looting in the Records of the Vermögensverwertungsstelle Berlin
The People
Each file held by the Vermögensverwertungsstelle (Asset Realisation Office) contains the life stories of people who lost their possessions – including works of art and cultural artefacts – as a result of Nazi persecution.
Six examples from the files illustrate the various paths taken by the looted objects, how the Nazi financial administration documented them, and the life stories behind them.
In 1941, items belonging to Paul Jakob Eisner were brought to the auction rooms of the Finanzamt Moabit-West (Moabit‑West Tax Office) at Kottbusser Ufer 39/40, having previously been stored with the freight company Gustav Knauer. By that time, Eisner and his family had already fled from the National Socialists. What had happened up to that point? And how did two paintings from Eisner’s possessions find their way into the holdings of the “Sonderauftrag Linz” (Special Commission Linz)?
The merchant Hugo Loewy traded in silk ribbons and lived a middle‑class life in Berlin with his family. As a result of the antisemitic policies of the National Socialists, he first lost his factory, then his flat, and with his deportation his last possessions and his life. The artworks owned by Hugo and Louise Loewy disappeared into private hands.
Fritz Kurt Lomnitz worked on the board of a grain trading company. In 1933, he had a villa built for himself and his family in Grunewald, which he furnished with several works of art. One of these reappeared in a Berlin museum. In 1938, Lomnitz and his wife fled persecution via New York to Cuba.
On the first page of the file kept by the Vermögensverwertungsstelle (Asset Realisation Office) on the lawyer Max Michaelis and his wife Edith, there is a pencil note reading “bevorzugt” (preferred). What did the officials of the Asset Realisation Office treat as “bevorzugt“ from the property of the couple – and why?
Recha Storck – a directrice and widow of an artist – lived in a villa district in Berlin‑Nikolassee until her deportation in 1943. Among the last belongings taken from her during the deportation were paintings by her husband, Adolf Eduard Storck.
When he fled Germany, Berlin entrepreneur and art collector Oskar Skaller had to leave some of his belongings behind. These included a crate of Persian ceramics that had been confiscated by the Nazi financial administration. What role did the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (State Museums of Berlin) play in this case?
29 July 1874 in Ostrowo/Posen (now Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland)
Died:
21 October 1944 in Johannesburg, South Africa
Last place of residence:
Württembergische Straße 36, Berlin
Diese Website verwendet ausschließlich technisch notwendige Cookies. Diese Cookies sind für den ordnungsgemäßen Betrieb der Website erforderlich und können nicht deaktiviert werden, ohne die grundlegende Funktionsfähigkeit der Website zu beeinträchtigen.
