Berlin sculpture find

Archaeological excavations at the construction site of the future Rotes Rathaus underground station, 2010

When a sculpture was found in Berlin in 2010, sculptures of classical modernism were rediscovered, which were lost after they were confiscated by the National Socialist regime .

history

Before construction work began on the new Red City Hall underground station on the U5 line , archaeological rescue excavations were carried out in 2010 . Valuable witnesses to Berlin's history are believed to be in the ground under today's open space, which was a densely built-up district before it was destroyed in World War II . In fact, the foundations of the medieval Berlin town hall were found, among other things .

The find in the cellar of the house at Königstrasse 50 (today Rathausstrasse ) directly opposite the Red City Hall was spectacular , where high-ranking sculptures of the classical modern age were recovered from the rubble.

The sixteen works of art are well preserved. They originally come from German museums, from which they were confiscated in 1937 because the National Socialist regime considered them “ degenerate art ”. Most of the pieces were shown in the exhibition "Degenerate Art" from 1938 , some were also used as props for the propaganda film Venus in court . From around 1942 they were stored in the house at Königstrasse 50 in a storage room of the Reich Propaganda Ministry. After they were found again, the scientists initially suspected a connection with Erhard Oewerdieck's office on the fourth floor of the house .

There is evidence that the house also had extensive holdings of paintings, but these were burned in the bombing.

exhibition

Eleven of the works of art were shown from November 9, 2010 to March 2012 in the Neues Museum in Berlin. After that, they could be seen, in the meantime expanded, as part of a traveling exhibition in the Museum of Art and Industry in Hamburg , in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich , in the Museum in the Kulturspeicher Würzburg and in the Moritzburg Halle (Saale). Wuerzburg it discovered in Berlin were pregnant by Emy Roeder and their self-made by the artist copy from the collection of the Museum exhibited together. The exhibition ran from September 29, 2013 to January 19, 2014 in Gottorf Castle in Schleswig, and from April 4 to June 15, 2014, it was on view in the Kaiserpfalz in Paderborn .

On March 15 and 16, 2012, a scientific symposium took place in Berlin at which new findings were presented.

From September 21, 2018 to January 6, 2019, 16 sculptures were shown in the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin in the exhibition Moving Times. Archeology shown in Germany , which took place on the occasion of the European Cultural Heritage Year 2018.

List of works of art

• Otto Baum : Standing girl , 1930. Fig.
• Karl Ehlers : Woman with a grape , 1933. Fig.
• Otto Freundlich : Kopf , 1925. Fig.
• Richard Haizmann : Figure , 1929.
• Karl Knappe : Hagar , 1923. Fig.
• Will Lammert : Sitting Girl I , 1913 (fragment) Fig.
• Marg Moll : Dancer , around 1930. Fig.
• Karel Niestrath : The simple-minded and pious man Fig. , 1924
• Emy Roeder : Pregnant women , 1918. Fig .: [1] , [2]
• Edwin Scharff : Portrait of the actress Anni Mewes , 1917/1921. Fig.
• Naum Slutzky : Female bust , before 1931. Fig.
• Fritz Maskos Somnambule Previously the sculpture was incorrectly assigned to Milly Steger :. With the label Kneeling. , before 1915. Fig.
• Gustav Heinrich Wolff : Female Nude with Dressed Left and Standing Robe Figure , 1925 Fig.
• Fritz Wrampe : Reiter , 1933/1934. Fig.

literature

• Matthias Wemhoff : The Berlin Sculpture Find. "Degenerate Art" in bomb rubble , Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2463-3 . (Accompanying volume to the exhibition)
• Matthias Wemhoff (Ed.): The Berlin Sculpture Find. “Degenerate Art” in bomb rubble. Discovery - interpretation - perspective. Accompanying volume for the exhibition with contributions from the Berlin Symposium 15. – 16. March 2012 , Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2628-6 .

Web links

• Synergy potential: Berlin sculpture find: Cooperation between archeology, museums and art history. Workshop on October 13, 2011, in the video library of the Dahlem Humanities Center at the Free University of Berlin
• Tilman Urbach : Berlin sculpture find in the Neue Pinakothek. ( Memento from March 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Radio report from October 31, 2012 at Bayerischer Rundfunk

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the trail of the past. In: BVG gap closure newsletter. December 2010 (PDF) ( Memento from December 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
2. ^ Exhibition: The Berlin Sculpture Find. “Degenerate Art” in bomb rubble. Press release from the National Museums in Berlin, November 9, 2010, archived at DocPlayer.org.
3. ↑ Origin of "degenerate art" clarified. Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 14, 2012, accessed on October 20, 2013.
4. ^ ^{A b} Matthias Wemhoff: The Berlin Sculpture Find. “Degenerate Art” in bomb rubble. Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2463-3 (volume accompanying the exhibition).
5. ^ Exhibition: The Berlin Sculpture Find. “Degenerate Art” in bomb rubble. National Museums in Berlin ( Memento from September 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
6. ↑ The Berlin Sculpture Find. Federal program of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (with a list of previous exhibition locations), accessed on July 15, 2017.
7. ↑ The Berlin Sculpture Find. Exhibition information from the Museum im Kulturspeicher , Würzburg, accessed on July 15, 2017.
8. ↑ The Berlin Sculpture Find. Exhibition information from the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, accessed on March 25, 2014.
9. ↑ The Berlin Sculpture Find. “Degenerate Art” in bomb rubble. Symposium. Conference program at the Coordination Office for the Loss of Cultural Property , accessed on October 20, 2013.
10. ^ Matthias Wemhoff (Ed.): The Berlin Sculpture Fund. “Degenerate Art” in bomb rubble. Discovery - interpretation - perspective. Accompanying volume for the exhibition with contributions from the Berlin Symposium 15. – 16. March 2012. Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2628-6 .
11. ↑ Stars from the underground. Welt online , January 8, 2018.
12. ↑ http://emuseum.campus.fu-berlin.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=119371&viewType=detailView

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 8.2 "  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 29.4"  E