Bernhard A. Böhmer

Bernhard A. and Hella Böhmer grave in the Güstrow cemetery with a relief of Ernst Barlach

Bernhard A. Böhmer , also Boehmer , according to the baptism certificate: Bernard Aloysius Böhmer (born June 10, 1892 in Ahlen , † May 3, 1945 in Güstrow ) was a German sculptor , painter , art dealer , Barlach friend and confidante, member of the art service the Protestant Church and traders of countless works of art of the " degenerate art " intended for destruction by the Nazi authorities .

Live and act

Bernhard A. Böhmer was the son and youngest of five children of the billing councilor Hubert Böhmer (1854–1926) and his wife Gertrud, b. Kirchesch (1854–1940).

Böhmer grew up in an art-loving family. At the age of ten he was portrayed in the magazine Die Woche as the “child prodigy of painting”. After completing his school days, he graduated from the crafts and arts and crafts school in Bielefeld . Here he met his classmate and later sculptor Marga Graeber from Stolberg (Harz) , whom he married in 1917. After initially living as a sculptor in Krefeld and then in other places, they settled in Güstrow in Mecklenburg in 1924, where they acquired a large property on the banks of the river with a country house. They soon met Ernst Barlach and took him in at their house. After the death of his friend and supervisor Cassirer, Barlach made Böhmer his secretary and entrusted him with the marketing of his works.

The marriage with Marga Böhmer , who had maintained close and friendly contacts with Ernst Barlach since 1924 and later became his partner, was divorced in 1927. From his second marriage in 1931 with the Rostock factory owner's daughter Hella Otte (1905–1945), the only child was the son Peter (Bernhard) Böhmer (1932–2007). At Easter 1933 the Böhmers moved into an apartment in Barlach's new studio house. After Barlach's death in 1938, he headed the Barlach Estate Commission.

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists , Böhmer succeeded in becoming one of the leading art dealers in National Socialist Germany. He cultivated contacts with high-ranking Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels and Hans Hinkel and was one of the few "exploiters" of Nazi looted art, especially works of so-called "degenerate art" that had been confiscated on behalf of Joseph Goebbels' Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and which Böhmer sold or bartered off abroad for a large (also personal) profit. The so-called Harry Fischer list of works of art intended for “recovery” handed down in London contains with the note “B” all those works that Böhmer had put aside and temporarily stored in his house in Güstrow.

His clever sales strategy made Böhmer a millionaire. With the currency he had acquired and his excellent, often personal relationships in the National Socialist art scene, Böhmer was also able to campaign for Barlach's confiscated works, get them out of the line of fire and thus preserve them for posterity. This ambivalence in Böhmer's actions is documented to this day in widely divergent assessments of his life and work. Some see in him an unscrupulous profiteer of the Hitler state, others the savior of numerous works of art.

On the evening of May 3, 1945, when the Soviet army entered , Böhmer and his second wife Hella sought a jointly organized suicide , whereby the 12-year-old son escaped the attempted murder by his parents only by chance. Böhmer and his wife found their final resting place in the Güstrow cemetery, where their graves have been preserved to this day.

collection

The studio house in Güstrow was confiscated by the Soviet Army. In the course of the liquidation of the Güstrow household, countless works of art from the estate came to Boehmer's heirs in Rostock . The Boehmer estate was secured there by the German Central Office for National Education and in 1947 parts of it (34 paintings, 9 sculptures, around 1000 graphics) were handed over to the Rostock City Museum and subsequently distributed to the rightful owners. From 1948 onwards, remnants that remained in the family property of the heirs made their way to the western zones and western countries via West Berlin .

The 613 works from the Böhmer estate (27 paintings, 6 sculptures, 23 watercolors, 20 drawings, 537 prints), which are still kept in the Rostock Cultural History Museum , form the most extensive bundle of previously confiscated “degenerate” art in museum ownership.

In mid-October 2016, numerous documents were found during the demolition of a building next to the Böhmer family home. Presumably, the letters and documents from the possession of Böhmers and the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt will provide further information about Böhmer's function in the sale of works of art that the National Socialists vilified as "degenerate".

Fonts

• Barlach in conversation. Communicated by Friedrich Schult . (On behalf of Bernhard A. Böhmer, printed) (Güstrow), (1939), 2nd edition 1940

literature

• Meike Hoffmann (Ed.): A dealer of “degenerate” art. Bernhard A. Böhmer and his estate. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2010 (publications of the research center "Degenerate Art" 3) ISBN 978-3-05-004498-9
• Hans Prolingheuer : Bernhard A. Boehmer - Barlach friend and savior of countless works of "degenerate art". In: Barlach-Journal 1997–1998, 2000
• Jens Griesbach: Discovered: Letters from Nazi art dealers . In: Uetersener Nachrichten . October 18, 2016, p. 23. Mail bag with letters from Hildebrand Gurlitt and Bernhard A. Böhmer found in Güstrow .

Web links

• Literature by and about Bernhard A. Böhmer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Bernhard A. Böhmer in the state bibliography MV
• Degenerate art inventory (inventory of all works of art confiscated from German museums as part of the “Degenerate Art” campaign). On the Victoria and Albert Museum website.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans Prolingheuer: Hitler's pious iconoclasts. Church & art under the swastika. Dittrich Verlag Cologne 2001, p. 319f., ISBN 3-920862-33-3
2. ^ Marie-Luise Brave: From “child prodigy” to art dealer. In: Meike Hoffmann (Ed.): A dealer of “degenerate” art. Bernhard A. Böhmer and his estate. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2010, p. 1.
3. ↑ Friedrich Droß (Ed.): Barlach - The letters. Vol. 2, 1969.
4. ↑ 3sat.online: discovered letters to "degenerate art" in demolition work in Güstrow - Culture-time News from Monday, October 17, 2016. In: www.3sat.de. Retrieved October 17, 2016 .