Bruno Lohse

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Wilhelm Peter Bruno Lohse (born September 17, 1911 in Düingdorf , † March 19, 2007 in Munich ) was a German art dealer . During the German occupation of France in World War II , Lohse was from 1941 to 1944 deputy director of the National Socialist art theft organization Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in Paris and art procurer Hermann Görings . After the Second World War he worked as an independent art dealer. Lohse was involved in the robbery of works of art that mostly belonged to Jewish owners. After his death, a collection of paintings looted during the Second World War was found in his safe in the Zürcher Kantonalbank.

Childhood and studies, job

Lohse's father August was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and a percussionist . Bruno Lohse grew up with two siblings, a brother and a sister. The mother Anne Catherine Lohse, nee Hoenekop, died in 1938. Lohse completed elementary school and high school in Berlin. In 1929 he finished his school career with the Abitur . He then studied art history , philosophy and German literature in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main from 1930 . In 1933 he spent four months studying languages ​​in France. In 1936 he received his doctorate in art history . His dissertation on a classical landscape painter is entitled Jakob Philipp Hackert . Life and beginnings of his art . The font was published in 1936 by Lechte-Verlag in Emsdetten. From 1936 to 1939 Lohse worked as an art dealer in his father's apartment in Berlin.

Time of National Socialism - after the seizure of power

In 1933 Lohse became a member of the SS and, according to his own statement, remained so until the end of the war. In 1942 he was appointed SS-Obersturmführer in Paris . In 1937 he joined the NSDAP . During the invasion of Poland in 1939, he was a driver of a medical department and then employed with a tank destroyer unit in East Prussia . In 1941 Lohse was transferred to Paris to join the Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) staff . A short time later, Hermann Göring , the commander in chief of the German Air Force , appointed him his personal representative in Paris, which resulted in his discharge from the army and acceptance into the air force. Lohse remained a member of the ERR.

Lohse in occupied France

Lohse in the management of the task force Reichsleiter Rosenberg

From the fall of 1940, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) and the special staff for the fine arts were the main participants in the robbery of Jewish art collections in France . Kurt von Behr was head of ERR France, based in Paris, from autumn 1940 , initially as deputy and then from early 1941 as head. Von Behr also headed the Special Staff Fine Arts, the largest department of the ERR. Through Göring's intervention, Bruno Lohse became a deputy in the fine arts staff. The journalist Robert Scholz , head of the main office for fine arts in the Rosenberg office , formally filled the post of head of the special staff for fine arts from autumn 1941, but he could not assert himself against von Behr, who was sponsored by Göring. Von Behr gave up his leadership of the task force at the beginning of 1943 and left Scholz in charge of the task force. Behr was in charge of the furniture robbery campaign from the beginning of 1942 . Scholz had made Lohse and Walter Borchers his deputies, but since he stayed in Berlin, Lohse and Borchers were, in fact, from January 1943 in charge of the activities of the special staff “Fine Arts” in Paris. From January 1943, Lohse and his colleague Borchers were responsible for all confiscations of art objects carried out by the Rosenberg task force. They ordered them and directed them. At the beginning of August 1944, Lohse's and Borcher's position in the ERR was the ERR's main operational leader . On May 1, 1942, Bruno Lohse, along with other members of the ERR, including Robert Scholz and Günther Schiedlaudsky, was awarded the War Merit Cross, 2nd class, by the chief of staff, Gerhard Utikal, on behalf of Adolf Hitler , for his services in the art theft in Paris .

Lohse as Göring's agent

Göring played a prominent role in the art theft in France because he played a decisive role in the work of the ERR. On November 5, 1940, he decided in a decree how the images stolen by the ERR and located in the Jeu de Paume should be distributed at that time and in the future. Goering selected 38 pictures for his collection. In the years that followed, Göring also acquired many pictures. Göring formally agreed payment with the ERR and had the paintings valued - very low - by a French art expert. The payments were never made.

Between 1941 and 1942 Göring traveled to Paris about twenty times and had pictures newly arrived from raids presented to him in exhibitions in order to secure his share. He also provided trains and guards to transport the art objects to Germany. The ERR had not organized the transfer of the confiscated works of art until Goring's intervention, as military military commanders forbade this. Sometimes Göring took the stolen pictures with him in the baggage car of his special train. He managed to get Alfred Rosenberg's important subordinates in the ERR on his side and thus to control the ERR. The head of the ERR for France and the Benelux countries Kurt von Behr also worked for him. James S. Plaut, director of the OSS department for the investigation of the art theft ALIU (ART LOOTING INVESTIGATION UNIT), called the task force Rosenberg "from top to bottom a Goering show under the Rosenberg flag". The protegation of Bruno Lohse by Göring is to be classified in this context.

At the beginning of February 1941, Private Lohse was temporarily seconded to the ERR as an art historian by his Wehrmacht unit for four weeks. There he initially cataloged Alphonse Kann's confiscated collection in the Louvre group . Lohse became acquainted with Göring when he gave him a tour of an exhibition of stolen pictures in the art warehouse of the Jeu de Paume . He impressed the Reichsmarschall with his knowledge of Dutch painting of the 17th century and was invited to a private meeting in Göring's rooms in the building of the French Foreign Ministry on the Quais d'Orsay . Lohse, who adored the benefactor, was able to win his trust and was raised to an influential position: Göring appointed Lohse as his permanent representative and deputy to Kurt von Behr in the special staff for fine arts at the ERR Paris. For this purpose, Lohse was released from the army and transferred to the air force. He did not return to his tank destroyer unit, which was preparing for the war in Russia, in East Prussia. In addition, Göring appointed Lohse as his special art dealer, responsible for the acquisition of works of art in the occupied western countries. Lohse became a sergeant in the Air Force and at the same time remained a member of the ERR. With Lohse, Göring had finally succeeded in infiltrating the ERR. Göring provided Lohse with comprehensive power of attorney for use as an art buyer:

"Dr. Bruno Lohse has been commissioned by me to acquire art objects in art collections, private collections and at public auctions. All departments of the state, the party and the armed forces are instructed to support him in carrying out his assignment! "

Lohse's task was, on the one hand, to give Göring access to the stolen images from the ERR. In addition, Lohse regularly organized exhibitions exclusively for Göring in the Jeu de Paume about the recently stolen pictures. In addition, as deputy head of the ERR's art staff, Lohse was informed about the respective confiscation actions of the ERR if he did not initiate them himself, as in the case of the Schloss Collection .

Due to his appointment by Göring, Lohse had a strong position and enjoyed various privileges. He was allowed to wear civilian clothes - other members of the ERR were in uniform - and had his own apartment and a car. In the ERR he took an independent position after his appointment as Goering's special agent. On the one hand, he was deputy director, but was only formally subordinate to the ERR Paris and the overall management in Berlin. From 1941 to July 1944 he worked mainly for Göring in Paris. When his superiors in Berlin tried to hold him accountable in 1943 for errors in handling the matter of the robbery of the Schloss Collection , Lohse was able to successfully refuse to answer questions from his superiors, citing Göring.

During the robbery operations of the ERR, the works of art were confiscated from hunting squads with SD employees, employees of the secret field police , the art historians of the ERR and in some cases with the help of foreign exchange protection squads under Göring's orders . In some cases, the French police also helped. The works of art were collected in the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris, which was reserved for the Germans , and inventoried by a working group consisting of art historians, photographers and other employees. The objects considered valuable were brought to Germany. The main buyers were the planned Führer Museum in Linz and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A part was intended for camps of the task force in Germany. In addition, German museums should receive shares in the loot. Lohse's main task was to secure Göring's best looted pieces from the ERR. In total, Göring received around 600 images from this source.

When Lohse bought pictures for Göring in cash on the art market in France or in other countries, the money was made available from a special fund of the Air Force leadership in Paris. The German art thieves often paid the required purchase price by selling or exchanging stolen pictures of so-called degenerate art , which also came from confiscations and were stored in the Jeu de Paume. Lohse organized many such barter campaigns in which stolen pictures were used as payment for a purchase by Goering. Since Göring also acted extortionately against his helpers, it is not surprising that Lohse was also accused of threatening sellers if they were not prepared to accept the conditions offered by Göring.

The case of the "Schloss Collection"

Lohse and the staff of the ERR claimed after the war during the interrogations by the Americans and French that they had only confiscated the apartments and collections that were unsupervised and empty. From the Schloss case, among other things, it becomes clear that this was a protective claim.

One of the most sought-after collections for the Germans was that of the Jewish French Alphonse Schloss , as it contained many Dutch master paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. The heirs of this collection fled to unoccupied France in 1940 and hid the collection there. The ERR used police and informers to locate the location of this collection. In autumn 1942, Lohse had signed a contract for the ERR with the Parisian art dealer Jean-Francois Lefranc and Louis Darquier de Pellepoix , who was Commissioner General for Jewish Affairs , with Göring's approval to acquire the Schloss collection . Even after the eventual tracing, the Germans were dependent on the help of the French in order to be able to move the collection from the unoccupied area to Paris. Lefranc and Darquier de Pellepoix were promised a high reward.

After the occupation of the southern zone by the Germans, the situation was changed. A simple reference to the storage location of the collection was now sufficient. As the de facto director of the task force, Lohse initiated the robbery. On April 7th and 9th, 1943, in collaboration with Darquier de Pellepoix, the police of the Vichy government and the SS, Henri Schloss and his brother Lucien, the owners of the collection, were arrested until they were ready to determine the whereabouts of the pictures , the castle Chambon in Tulle betraying in the department of Corrèze. In the meantime the Germans had appointed their confidante Jean-Francois Lefranc as the Aryanization administrator of the collection. This led to a falling out with Darquier de Pellepoix and the Vichy government.

In order not to cause a stir, the ERR then undertook a covert seizure of the Chambon Castle on April 13, 1943. Emergency services from the ERR had arrived in Chambon disguised with two trucks. On the trucks were armed French Gestapo helpers with French police IDs, SS officers without uniforms and German art historians who pretended to be French and had French ID cards. The task force loaded the Schloss collection and wanted to leave for Paris. But the provincial prefect of Correzes took a stand and stopped the convoy with police units because he did not know that he was dealing with the occupying forces, but believed that he was dealing with an operation by a French troop. After some back and forth, the collection was taken into custody by German troops and only then brought to a German barracks in Tulles and finally to the German military base in Limoges. The matter attracted a great deal of attention and was reported in the synchronized press. After a few days, the collection was turned over to the French in order not to expose the collaboration government under Petain and his Prime Minister Laval, whereby the Germans made sure that they did not give up their access to the loot.

Lohse switched on the German embassy in Paris. The clerk in charge suggested buying the collection from the French government for the special order in Linz. Hitler agreed and there were negotiations. The compromise was that Vichy would then be willing to sell parts of the collection if Germany respected the French rights to the collection. Lohse promised this.

Lefranc had the collection transported to Paris. In the building of the General Commissariat for Jewish Affairs, the former Dreyfusbank, the French and German officials visited him and the collection was divided up. The French selected 49 paintings for the Louvre. Then Bruno Lohse and Erhard Göpel selected 284 pictures for the Reich from the “Special Order Linz”. 262 pictures were intended for the Linz Collection. Hitler paid the Vichy regime the equivalent of 2.5 million Reichsmarks for these pictures. Lefranc received 10 pictures as a reward. He later received 20 more pictures from the Louvre and immediately sold them to a dealer named Buittenwege. Presumably it was an art dealer who acted on behalf of Göring and so left the trace of Göring in the dark.

Goering had first given up his share of the booty when the robbery became known. But then Lohse acquired two paintings from the Schloss Collection for Göring, including a work ascribed to Rubens. The background to this came from a letter from Lohse to Göring, in which he offered him several pictures from the “Schloss Collection”. One sentence in this letter was reproduced by Göring's colleague Gisela Limberger in a note to Göring as follows: "He only needs to be given the catalog number". Goering responded to Lohse's offer by recording a handwritten phone call with Lohse on Limberger's note: I phoned him that I wanted to purchase the paintings whose photos I saw . Bruno Lohse acquired three paintings for himself at reasonable prices.

The August Liebmann Mayer case

The famous Jewish and still recognized art historian and expert on Spanish and Italian painting of the Renaissance and Baroque periods , August Liebmann Mayer , was the victim of the beginning of an unprecedented smear campaign in 1930 by colleagues who were envious of Mayer's success and / or anti-Semitic art historians in association with the Völkischer Beobachter become. Among other things, it was falsely alleged that Mayer had forged art appraisals for money. Mayer then gave up his post as chief curator at the Munich Pinakothek and his position as art history professor at the Munich University. He tried to continue working as a private art expert because he believed he could take the wind out of the sails of his pursuers. But the persecutors saw it as an admission of guilt and now even more hounded him.

After 1933 the persecutors came to power and now the German state also started the persecution. Mayer was temporarily arrested on the pretext of tax evasion and robbed of all of his property until 1935. It was only thanks to the help of foreign friends that Mayer was able to emigrate in 1935 and try to start a new life in Paris.

In Paris in 1936 Mayer published Velazquez's catalog raisonné and began to work on a catalog of works by Titian . His last work on it is from 1939.

After the Germans captured France, the persecution continued. Shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1941, the art historian Lohse initiated the manhunt for Mayer, who had fled to Nice in unoccupied France and had to leave his wife and daughter behind in their shared apartment in Paris. The Rosenberg task force cleared the apartment. In the ALIU investigation Activity of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in France CIR 1 from 1945, about the creation of which Lohse was also interrogated, the search by the ERR's special staff fine arts in the Mayers apartment in Rue Montabor, No. 9 , Paris without the ALIU interrogators in 1945 being aware of the connection to the manhunt initiated by Lohse. Some of the stolen works of art were later restituted by the German state, and the library has been lost to this day . After the German occupation of the Italian zone in southern France, Mayer fled from Nice to Monte Carlo in 1943. There he was betrayed by the art dealer Delcleve against payment of a reward to the Germans and arrested on February 3, 1944. After Mayer was transported from the Drancy transit camp to Auschwitz on March 7, 1944 , he was never heard from again.

Rescuing Jewish art dealers?

Lohse also worked with Jewish art dealers persecuted in France. He had special contacts with the brothers Allen Loebl and Manon Loebl. Allen Loebl, who owned a gallery, introduced Lohse to the Paris art market. The Loebls gallery had been "Aryanized" , but thanks to Göring, Loebl remained the de facto owner. Many purchases with the Germans, especially for Göring, were made through this gallery. When the Germans intensified the persecution of Jews and began to transport Jews to the extermination camps, the Loebls got more and more into trouble. Lohse then concluded an agreement with Allen Loebl with the following content: Löbl guaranteed Göring the right of first refusal for all pictures that he got his hand. In return, Lohse assured him that he would be protected from persecution by the SD and SS. In this context, Lohse sent a letter to Göring on June 15, 1943, in which he asked that I may continue to have the Jews made available by the SD for my investigation purposes . He made sure that they survived the occupation and continued to help him acquire works of art. Göring's only condition with regard to Lohse was that his name should not appear on any paper during negotiations with the Gestapo. Göring acquired several pictures and also the art history library from Loebl. Allegedly, Lohse took advantage of his position to help art dealers, historians, friends and relatives in many other cases.

Use in other countries

Lohse was also used in other countries in Western Europe. In search of pictures for Goering, he often traveled to the Netherlands. According to Lohse's own statements, he was even able to use Göring's special train a few times to travel to the Netherlands. Lohse was involved in the robbery of the collection of the Dutch citizen Gutmann, who had taken part of his collection to France. These parts of the collection were confiscated in Paris under Lohse's direction.

In the Netherlands, Lohse had assisted Himmler's SS in the confiscation of the collections of the Jewish traders Vaudstra and Simons - it was antique furniture and carpets. These were intended for the establishment of the Wewelsburg SS site . There was a rumor that Lohse had sold the SS collections.

Lohse had also traveled to Switzerland several times for Göring to buy and sell stolen pictures.

Lohse and the M-Aktion

From 1942 onwards, the Rosenberg task force in Paris launched an action to confiscate household goods from Jews, the so-called furniture action . The homes of Jews who had fled or were deported to death camps were searched and robbed. The items were collected in large warehouses in Paris and used for the bomb-damaged residents of German cities. Kurt von Behr was also in charge of this campaign. The staff of the task force as well as the embassy were allowed to acquire loot from the M-Aktion to furnish their apartments. Members of the German embassy were also allowed to help themselves from the furniture robbery. From March 1942 Lohse was in charge of the appraisal of works of art, which the furniture campaign passed on to the task force. His own apartment in Paris was also furnished with furniture from Jewish property. Lohse said during his interrogation by the Americans that he found his apartment newly furnished when he returned from an assignment outside Paris. A secretary of the ERR who was subordinate to him furnished them with furniture from the M-Aktion without his knowledge.

End of war

Lohse originally resigned from the task force in early 1944 after falling out with his colleagues and after breaking a leg and injuring his knee in an accident with his girlfriend in the French Alps. But Goring insisted on his continued presence in Paris. When the Allies approached, Lohse was still in the service of the task force in August 1944. On August 14, 1944, the “Haupt Einsatzführer” Bruno Lohse and Walter Borchers were given the direct order by Reichsleiter Rosenberg, “The art objects from the Jeu de Paume Museum and the Louvre depot that were seized according to the Fuehrer's order and that were still stored in Paris, immediately using all those still available Options to transport away ".

It was too late for that, because after Lynn Nicholas they and the other ERR staff had to leave Paris on August 16, 1944 - leaving behind a large part of their personal belongings. The site commander Paris had already wanted to use the ERR employees to defend Paris. The goods left behind in Paris were evidently brought to Brussels. Because after conquering Paris, Lohse drove back to Brussels from Germany to collect his personal belongings. A short time later, because of an illness, Lohse obtained permission from Göring to take a week's convalescent vacation in Merano , Italy. In the meantime, he was given a secure administrative position with a Göring Air Force Regiment in Berlin. From there he was seconded to the ERR art depot at Neuschwanstein Castle .

Immediately after the conquest of Paris, the American art protection officer and later director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , James Rorimer , and Rose Valland searched Lohse's abandoned apartment and the offices of the ERR, confiscating documents. Valland, the curator of the Musée du Jeu de Paume - who had stayed at the museum during the ERR period and kept records of the art theft, had also been a member of the Resistance. After the liberation of France, she was appointed by the French government as a specialist in the return of stolen works of art.

Lohse's imprisonment after the war

With the American occupation forces

On May 2, 1945, Lohse was arrested by the Americans for his work in Paris.

The western allies had found huge depots with stolen art treasures and set about investigating the robbery and restitution of the art treasures (see restitution ). To do this, they tried to avail themselves of the help of the art thieves involved. Lohse was ready to testify. Since others involved in the art theft, such as his superior Kurt von Behr and the head of the art historical research institute founded by Göring, had committed suicide by Hermann Bunjes immediately after the defeat, Lohse was an important remaining witness to the art theft in France.

Lohse was also prepared to testify in the Nuremberg war criminals trial against Rosenberg, but it did not come to that due to a curtailment of the proceedings. James S. Plaut , the head of the Art Looting Investigation Unit and later director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, judged Lohse in 1946 as follows: the young Bruno Lohse, tall, athletic and Prussian, was a serious student, a staunch Nazi and a dreamer. Fascinated by his attractive manner and his seriousness, Goering had picked him out of von Behr's team and made him deputy director and his personal authorized representative. Much of the French hatred of the humiliation of the task force is rightly related to Lohse, who, with his National Socialist zeal and his admiration for Goring, organized and dominated important robbery actions. He was convinced that his actions were being honorable for his state and his boss. According to the report "Activity of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in France", the Americans believed Lohse, however, that he had not known about the extent of Göring's crimes and was genuinely depressed when he heard about them from the Americans. The Americans kept Lohse in prison for three years. Then they extradited him to Paris in 1948.

Lohse's trial in Paris

Lohse was also imprisoned there. In 1950, a trial against six German art thieves, including Lohse, was opened before the military tribunal in Paris: against the factual head of the ERR art theft in France, Robert Scholz, who resided in Berlin (Rosenberg's closest colleague on art issues), head of the Görings gallery, Walter Andreas Hofer , against the NSDAP functionary and staff leader of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg Georg Ebert, who had been in Paris since July 1940, Artur Pfannstiel (a German painter and art dealer who lived in Paris before the war) and Gerhard Utikal , the general manager of the ERR (responsible for all art theft activities). The tenor of Robert Scholz's defense was the same as that which Rosenberg had already expressed in 1946 at the Nuremberg Trial: The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg had only protected the property of the Jews that they had left unattended when they were followed by the German troops in 1940 France fled. Germany only took the art objects for the protection of the Jews.

The verdict was passed on August 3, 1950. Bruno Lohse was acquitted. Details of the procedure are not known due to French confidentiality regulations. Lohse had certainly benefited from the fact that he was willing to help the Americans and also the French in clearing up the art theft. The investigations of the American OSS unit ALIU into the organization and implementation of the art theft were based to a large extent on statements by Lohse in Austria in 1945.

Robert Scholz and Walter Andreas Hofer were sentenced to ten years in prison. However, they did not have to serve the sentence imposed because they were not extradited by the FRG. The painter and art dealer Artur Pfannstiel and George Ebert were sentenced to three and one year prison terms, respectively.

Post-war life

After the trial, Lohse settled in Munich. Despite his involvement in the National Socialist art theft, he was able to continue working in his old profession as an art dealer. His job title was no longer an art dealer, but an art consultant. Lohse no longer had a gallery, but worked from his private apartment.

Bruno Lohse died on March 19, 2007 in Munich at the age of 95.

Stolen pictures in Lohse's safe

Two months after Lohse's death, the Zurich public prosecutor's office seized several paintings in a safe at the Zürcher Kantonalbank, according to a complaint from the Munich lawyer Kückelmann . These included works by the Impressionists Claude Monet , Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro and a painting by the Dutch painter Jan Meerhout A View of a City that was suspected of being looted art from the Nazi era. The safe had belonged to a Liechtenstein institution called Schönart for almost thirty years. Neither the bank, nor the Swiss authorities, nor anyone else knew who was hiding behind the “Schönart Institution” and what treasures it was hiding. It was not until May 2007 that the public prosecutor's office clarified the connections: Bruno Lohse was behind Schönart, "Schönart" was his property.

The Pissarro by Samuel Fischer

The picture by Pissarro Le Quai Malaquais et l'Institut came from the property of the publisher Gottfried Bermann Fischer and had been confiscated by the Gestapo in Vienna in 1938. Works by the painter Pissarro were on the German confiscation lists because he was a Jewish artist and not because this type of painting was viewed as degenerate. In 1940 the painting was auctioned off by the National Socialists in a Dorotheum auction to an unknown buyer. Bermann Fischer, who had managed to escape into exile from the National Socialists - first to Austria and then to the USA - had searched for this image throughout his life.
In 2006 and 2007, shortly before Lohse's death, two people in Zurich offered this picture to Gisela Fischer, the sole heir of Gottfried Bermann Fischer. They asked for a “finders fee” of 18% of the presumed market value of five to six million francs. However, Ms. Fischer did not accept the offer, but instead filed a criminal complaint with the Munich public prosecutor through her lawyer Norbert Kückelmann . Investigators came across the Schönart institute in the Principality of Liechtenstein, which had rented a safe in Zurich in which the Pissarro was. The two people who had offered Frau Fischer the picture, Jonathan Petropoulos and Peter Griebert, had taken photos of the Pissarro with them that they had taken in the large safe of the Zürcher Kantonalbank. Peter Griebert, an art dealer born in 1938, was a business partner of Lohse, had access to this foundation's safe and had been selling pictures from it for Lohse since 1988. Jonathan Petropoulos is a recognized art theft researcher and professor at Claremont McKenna College in California. He testified that he had not remotely suspected that Peter Griebert and Lohse had owned the Pissarro. He assumed that the picture was in the possession of another owner. The Munich I public prosecutor's office initiated an investigation against Peter Griebert. A case against Petropoulos had been dropped. Petropoulos, however, had to endure an investigation at his university, whether he had committed a criminal offense or violated the university's ethical standards. The result did not confirm this allegation. Nonetheless, he gave up his post as director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights at the CMC.

With the confiscation of the cantonal bank's safe contents, Jonathan Petropoulos' presumption from an article in 2006 (and also the presumption of Ms. Fischer Kückelmann's lawyer) that Bruno Lohse had property that had been stolen from Holocaust victims and not returned was confirmed had been.

The art trade had known since 1971 at the latest that this picture was stolen and wanted. At that time, the picture was mentioned in the newly published autobiography of Gottfried Bermann Fischer, which has been published again and again to this day, with the following sentences: But the picture of Pissarro, it was called Quai Malaquais and figured in the general catalog under number 1290, has disappeared. It certainly adorns the wall of a collector in South America or in one of the other countries that have lifted the return obligations .

The heirs returned the Pissarro to Gisela Fischer and another descendant of the Fischer family in August 2008. On November 3, 2009, the fishermen's heirs had this painting auctioned off by Christie's auction house in New York at a price of US $ 2,154,500.

The Meerhout

The picture by the Dutch painter Jan Meerhout (before 1630–1677), A View of a City , was in the possession of the Jewish collector Alfons Jaffé (1861–1949), who had lived in Berlin, London and the Netherlands. Jaffé had given his collection to Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden for safekeeping . There she robbed the Mühlmann office of Kajetan Mühlmann , the robbery organization of the National Socialists in the Netherlands , in 1942 . The agency had sold these paintings to leading National Socialists, and Göring was one of the buyers. There was no trace of Jaffé's 29 paintings until they were found in Lohse's safe.

The legacy of Lohse

According to the Lohse lawyer and estate administrator Willy Hermann Burger, Lohse's estate also included a private collection of paintings. According to Jonathan Petropoulos, the author of several books on Nazi art theft, who Lohse had met during his research, the collection was worth millions. In making this statement, Petropoulos only referred to the pictures in Lohse's apartment, which he had seen during a visit to Lohse's apartment with an employee of Looted.Art.com during his lifetime.

Several months after the administration of the estate began at the beginning of June 2007, the administrator of the estate was not yet aware of the images from the safe of the Zürcher Kantonalbank and the Schönart-Anstalt. He was of the opinion that there could be no stolen picture in Lohse's private collection. Lohse's chief heiress was his niece. But she had to share the inheritance with about twenty other people to whom Lohse had bequeathed individual gifts - mostly pictures. A daughter of Goering, Edda Goering , is said to have given Lohse a picture. British art journalist Catherine Hickley reported in an article on the Bloomberg news service that the estate administrator had ruled out Burger from exhibiting Lohse's pictures before they were distributed to the legatees. Lohse had expressly asked that his collection not be exhibited in public .

Catherine Hickley also interviewed the Munich prosecutor Joachim Lutz, who led the investigation into Lohse confidante Griebert and Petropoulos. After that, the judicial authorities would not research the Lohse collection, as there were no complaints or reports regarding pictures of the collection. Willi Korte, a lawyer and looted art investigator from Washington who had worked for Bermann-Fischer, was very surprised that Lohse's work as an art dealer and his private collection had never been examined before his death.

Hickley obtained more information about the Lohse collection in an interview with the journalist and filmmaker Maurice Philip Remy , who had known Lohse. In collaboration with the heirs, Remy was in the process of investigating Lohse's biography and the history of the pictures in the Lohse Collection - free of charge, as Stephan Koldehoff later wrote. According to Remy, the collection consists of various 17th century Dutch still lifes, a watercolor by Nolde and other Flemish, Spanish and French paintings. Remy stated that he was studying the history of 40 paintings. There are pictures that belonged to the inheritance and some that had been sold earlier. Of these, 18 have been sold in the last 25 years. Remy claims that he knows every picture in the collection and emphasizes that Lohse's pictures are not a hoard of Nazi-looted art. However, he is not quite sure about the provenance of three paintings that have already been sold from the Schönart Institute's holdings.

In an interview with Stephan Koldehoff in December 2007, Remy stated that Lohse had unwittingly bought the Pissarro in the 1950s and then wanted to refund it towards the end of his life when he found out about the origin of the picture. Remy did not reveal the name of the previous owner.

In his book The Pictures Are Among Us: The Business with Nazi Looted Art, Koldehoff presented the entire list of pictures that belonged to Lohse's estate, were in the safe or had already been sold. He lists a total of 46 pictures. Of these pictures, besides the Pissarro, two other pictures were clearly stolen pictures.

literature

  • Hector Feliciano: The Lost Museum. About art theft by the Nazis. Berlin 1998.
  • Esther Tisa Francini, Anja Heuss, Georg Kreis : Refuge - looted property. The transfer of cultural goods in and via Switzerland 1933–1945 and the question of restitution. Zurich 2001.
  • Günther Haase: The art collection of Reich Marshal Hermann Göring. A documentation. Berlin 2000.
  • Günther Haase: Art theft and art protection. A documentation. Hildesheim 1991.
  • Anja Heuss : Art and cultural property theft. A comparative study on the occupation policy of the National Socialists in France and the Soviet Union. Heidelberg 2000.
  • Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi-looted art. Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8218-5844-9 .
  • Jacob Kurz: Art theft in Europe 1938–1945 . Hamburg 1989.
  • Michael J. Kurtz: America and the Return of Nazi Contraband. The Recovery of Europe's Cultural Treasures. New York 2006.
  • Hanns Christian Löhr: The Iron Collector. The Hermann Göring Collection - Art and Corruption in the "Third Reich". Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-7861-2601-0 .
  • Hanns Christian Löhr, Art as a Weapon - The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Ideology and art theft in the "Third Reich" , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-7861-2806-9 .
  • Lynn H. Nicholas: The Rape of Europa. The fate of European works of art in the Third Reich. Munich 1995.
  • Jonathan Petropoulos: The Art World in Nazi Germany: Choices, Rationalization and Justice . Edited by Jonathan Huener and Francis R. Nicosia in “The Arts in Nazi Germany: Continuity, Conformity, Change”. University of Vermont 2007.
  • Jonathan Petropoulos: The Faustian Bargain. The Art World in Germany. London 2000.
  • Jonathan Petropoulos: Art theft and collecting mania. Art and Politics in the Third Reich. Berlin 1999.
  • Jonathan Petropoulos: Art theft. Why it is important to understand the biographies of the art experts in the Third Reich. In: The Political Economy of the Holocaust. On the economic logic of persecution and "reparation". Munich 2001.
  • Gunnar Schnabel, Monika Tatzkow: Nazi Looted Art. Handbook Art Restitution Worldwide. Berlin 2007.
  • Matila Simon: The Battle of the Louvre. The Struggle to Save French Art in World War II. New York 1971.
  • Elizabeth Simpson (Ed.): The Spoils of War - World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property. New York 1997.
  • Julius H. Schoeps , Anna-Dorothea Ludewig: An Endless Debate? Looted art and restitution in German-speaking countries. Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86650-641-1 .

Web links

General web links

Online service, newspaper and radio articles

Remarks

  1. ^ A b Günther Haase: The art collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A documentation. Berlin 2000, p. 35; see. OSS ALIU Detailed Interrogation Report No. 6. Bruno Lohse, August 1945. Interrogation of Bruno Lohse by the Art Looting Investigation Unit in French. (Available online: [1] .)
  2. ^ Activity of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in France, Consolidated Interrogation Report No. 1 , August 15, 1945 of the Art Looting Investigation Unit APO 413 of the OSS / US Army, i Introductory note-Sources, p. 2; Michael J. Kurtz: America and the Return of Nazi Contraband: The Recovery of Europe's Cultural Treasures , New York 2006, p. 38; Hector Feliciano: The Lost Museum. On the Nazis ' art theft , Berlin 1998, p 201; Thomas Buomberger, Looted Art - Art theft: Switzerland and the trade in stolen cultural goods during the Second World War . Edited by the Federal Office for Culture (BAK) and the National Information Center for the Preservation of Cultural Goods (NIKE), Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-280-02807-8 , p. 45; James Plaut in the 1946 ALIU Final Report.
  3. ^ Interrogation Robert Scholz of May 29, 1946 by Lieutenant Wilbur F. Dobber, Document IMT 39, Rosenberg Doc 41
  4. ↑ Lohse's statement in the interrogation of Bruno Lohse in OSS ALIU Detailed Interrogation Report No. 6, Bruno Lohse, August 1945 page 6 see under web links
  5. ↑ Wilhelm Treue , On National Socialist Art Theft in France - The “ Bargatzky Report” In: VfZ 13 (1965), no. 3, pp. 285–337 [2] pdf here: p. 336.
  6. ↑ Operations staff Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the occupied territories: Orders and communications 1942, July 15, 1942 No. 4. From the digitized files of the Federal Archives NS 30/3 No. 1 - 6 1942
  7. ↑ Ernst Piper: The task force Reichsleiter Rosenberg. In: Inka Bertz, Michael Dorrmann (eds.): Looted art and restitution. Jewish property from 1933 to the present day. Published on behalf of the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0361-4 , p. 116.
  8. ^ Hanns Christian Löhr: The iron collector. The Hermann Göring Collection - Art and Corruption in the Third Reich. Berlin 2009, p. 59.
  9. ↑ James Plaut, Loot for the master-race , September 1946, quoted from Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi-looted art. Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8218-5844-9 , p. 99.
  10. ↑ James Plaut: Loot for the Master Race in Atlantic Monthly September 1946 in the section Weblinks, see also Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi looted art. Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8218-5844-9 , p. 97.
  11. ^ Günther Haase: The art collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A documentation . Berlin 2000, p. 35 and Bruno Lohse's own statement DIR 6: OSS ALIU Detailed Interrogation Report No. 6, Bruno Lohse, August 1945. Interrogation of Bruno Lohse by the Art Looting Investigation Unit in French, II. (B) Text available under web links
  12. ↑ Lohse's English interrogation, available under Weblinks DIR 06, p. 9.
  13. ↑ Anja Heuss: Art and cultural property theft. A comparative study on the occupation policy of the National Socialists in France and the Soviet Union. Heidelberg 2000, p. 84.
  14. ^ Günther Haase: The art collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A documentation. Berlin 2000, p. 36.
  15. ↑ Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi looted art. Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8218-5844-9 , p. 98.
  16. ^ Günther Haase: The art collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A documentation. Berlin 2000, p. 36 f.
  17. ^ Günther Haase: The art collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A documentation. Berlin 2000, p. 37.
  18. ↑ The acquisition of the Renders collection from James Plaut: Loot for the Master Race in Atlantic Monthly September 1946. See under Paragraph 2 in the section Weblinks; Jonathan Petropoulos: Art theft and collecting mania. Art and Politics in the Third Reich. Berlin 1999, p. 248.
  19. ^ Hector Feliciano: The Lost Museum. About art theft by the Nazis. Berlin 1998, p. 110.
  20. ↑ Marie Hamon Jugnet, vector castle, Oevres spoliées pednat la guerre deuxiem mondila non restituées (1943-1998), ed. Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Direction des archives et de la Document, Paris 1998, p 7. See also Identical representation in the catalog posted on the website of the French Foreign Ministry, see. under web links
  21. ↑ DIR 6: OSS ALIU Detailed Interrogation Report No. 6, Bruno Lohse, August 1945. Interrogation of Bruno Lohse by the Art Looting Investigation Unit NARA Document M1782 at footnote.com p. 3 and p. 5. and Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi-looted art . Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8218-5844-9 , p. 98.
  22. ↑ a b c Hanns Christian Löhr: The iron collector. The Hermann Göring Collection - Art and Corruption in the Third Reich. Berlin 2009, p. 60.
  23. ↑ See web link “Collection Schloss - Archives et Patrimoine”. Also the telegram from Erhard Göpels to Bormann via the delegation councilor Schleier of April 26, 1943, in: Hildegard Brenner: Die Kunstpolitik des Nationalsozialismus. Reinbek 1963, p. 231 f.
  24. ↑ Limberger note from August 16, 1943, in: Günther Haase: Kunstraub und Kunstschutz. A documentation. Hildesheim 1991. (Document attachment.)
  25. ^ Günther Haase: The art collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A documentation. Berlin 2000, p. 145.
  26. ↑ Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi looted art. Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8218-5844-9 , p. 98
  27. ↑ Quotation from the presentation of the fate of the Schloss Collection on the website of the French Foreign Ministry under the title Collection Schloss - Archives et Patrimoine.
  28. ↑ s. under the web links CIR 01 Rosenberg in France, attachment 10 at Footnote.com
  29. ^ Christian Fuhrmeister, Susanne Kienlechner: Tatort Nizza. Art history between art trade, art theft and persecution. On the vita of August Liebmann Mayer, with an excursus on Bernhard Degenhard and Erhard Göpel and Bruno Lohse. In: Ruth Heftrig, Olaf Peters , Barbara Schellewald (ed.): Art history in the Third Reich. Theories, methods, practices. Berlin 2008, p. 419, note 47
  30. ^ Christian Fuhrmeister, Susanne Kienlechner: Tatort Nizza. Art history between art trade, art theft and persecution. On the vita of August Liebmann Mayer, with an excursus on Bernhard Degenhard and Erhard Göpel and Bruno Lohse. In: Ruth Heftrig, Olaf Peters, Barbara Schellewald (ed.): Art history in the Third Reich. Theories, methods, practices. Berlin 2008, p. 421 f.
  31. ↑ Statement (literally Lohse confessed ) during the interrogation of Bruno Lohse in OSS ALIU Detailed Interrogation Report No. 6, Bruno Lohse, August 1945 page 7 see under web links
  32. ^ Letter illustrated in Günther Haase: The art collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A documentation. Berlin 2000, p. 64.
  33. ^ Günther Haase: The art collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. A documentation. Berlin 2000, p. 36.
  34. ^ Hector Feliciano: The Lost Museum. About art theft by the Nazis. Berlin 1998, p. 185 f.
  35. ↑ Lohse's statement in the interrogation of Bruno Lohse, in OSS ALIU Detailed Interrogation Report No. 6, Bruno Lohse, August 1945 pages 12/13. (See under web links.)
  36. ↑ Willem de Vries: Art theft in the west 1940-1945. Alfred Rosenberg and the special staff for music. Frankfurt am Main 2000, p. 324.
  37. ^ Hanns Christian Löhr: Art as a weapon. The task force Reichsleiter Rosenberg. , Berlin 2018, p. 83.
  38. ↑ Catherine Hickley on July 12, 2007 in the article Nazi Art Dealers Will disperses Dutch Masters, Espressionists .
  39. ↑ Lohse's statement in the interrogation of Bruno Lohse, in OSS ALIU Detailed Interrogation Report No. 6, Bruno Lohse, August 1945, p. 3, II c. (See under web links.)
  40. ^ Rosenberg's order printed in Bargatzky report in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 1965, issue 3, p. 336 ( PDF ).
  41. ↑ Lynn H. Nicholas: The Robbery of Europe. The fate of European works of art in the Third Reich. Munich 1995, p. 387.
  42. ↑ James J. Rorimer, Gilbert Rabin: Survival. The Salvage and Protection of Art in War . New York 1950, p. 114 f.
  43. ↑ Anja Heuss: Art and cultural property theft. A comparative study on the occupation policy of the National Socialists in France and the Soviet Union. Heidelberg 2000, p. 80 f.
  44. ↑ James S. Plaut “The Loot for the Masterrace” in the September 1946 issue of Atlantik Monthly, paragraph 6, translated into German
  45. ^ CIR 1: Activity of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in France Consolidated Interrogation Report No. 1, August 15, 1945, carried out by the ALIU, Art Looting Investigation Unit of the OSS / US Army, contains the description of the structure and activities of the ERR at the Execution of the art theft in Paris, author James Plaut
  46. ↑ Jonathan Petropoulos: The Faustian Bargain. The Art World in Germany . London 2000, p. 143.
  47. ↑ Stephan Handel: A safe full of pictures. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung from June 1, 2007.
  48. ↑ J. Petropoulos: Germany, Choices, Rationalization and Justice . In Jonathan Huener, Francis R. Nicosia (Ed.): The Arts in Nazi Germany, Continuity, Conformity, Change . New York 2006, ISBN 1-84545-359-X , pp. 145 f.
  49. ↑ Gottfried Bermann Fischer: Threatened-Preserved. Path of a publisher . Frankfurt am Main 1971. (10th edition 2003, ISBN 3-596-21169-7 , p. 395.)
  50. ↑ Maurice Philip Remy, Errwege eines Pissarro, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung October 31, 2009.
  51. ↑ Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi looted art. Frankfurt 2009, p. 106.
  52. ^ Catherine Hickley, Nazi Looted Art in Zurich Bank Pits Heirress against Dealer , June 6, 2007
  53. ↑ Nicole Pallecchi art thriller , How the art dealer Bruno Lohse stashed looted art in Switzerland , in 3SAT-Online Kulturzeit from July 28, 2007 under web links
  54. ↑ Catherine Hickley, article Nazi Art Dealers Will disperse Dutch Masters, Espressionists , Bloomberg News Service July 12, 2007, incorporated by Commission for Looted Art-News
  55. ↑ a b Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi looted art. Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8218-5844-9 .
  56. ↑ Stefan Koldehoff: The pictures are among us: The business with Nazi looted art. Frankfurt 2009, p. 112.
personal data
SURNAME Lohse, Bruno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lohse, Wilhelm Peter Bruno (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art dealer
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Düingdorf
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 2007
Place of death Munich