Cornelius Müller Hofstede

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Cornelius Müller Hofstede (Photo 1963)

Cornelius Müller Hofstede (born February 2, 1898 in Geisa ; † July 29, 1974 in Berlin ) was a German art historian and director of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie from 1957 to 1963 .

Life

Cornelius Müller Hofstede was born as the son of Pastor Müller. His mother was a sister of the Dutch scholar Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930). One of his sons was the art historian Justus Müller Hofstede (1929–2015).

He passed his school leaving examination in Weimar in 1918 . He then studied in Munich with Heinrich Wölfflin as well as in Vienna and Berlin and received his doctorate in 1924 with the art historian Adolph Goldschmidt with a dissertation entitled "Contributions to the history of the biblical historical image in the 16th and 17th centuries in Holland" . Even then he was working temporarily for his uncle Hofstede de Groot in The Hague . In the following years he published several studies on Dutch baroque painting, which identify him as an excellent expert on this period.

After a traineeship at the Bavarian National Museum in Munich and at the State Museums in Berlin with Wilhelm von Bode , he worked as assistant and senior assistant at the art history seminar at Berlin University with Adolph Goldschmidt and Albert Erich Brinckmann from 1927 to 1934 . He then chose the name Müller Hofstede to avoid confusion with colleagues.

In 1934 he decided to work in the museum and took a temporary position at the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau , two years later he was appointed managing director. During his tenure, some interesting exhibitions are to be highlighted, which in addition to the Silesian painting of the 16th century were especially dedicated to the German painting of the 19th century, including Caspar David Friedrich , Carl Blechen and Adolph Menzel . As a state central cultural institute, the Wroclaw Museum was also involved in the maintenance and recording of private art collections in Silesia and acquired knowledge that the National Socialist dictatorship intended to use in terms of foreign exchange gains and war preparations. This was primarily about Jewish art possession, for whose value and material security Müller Hofstede was responsible as director. In this respect he has - insofar as the relevant files permit a judgment - "decisively and actively supported the exploitation of formerly Jewish art possessions" . Müller Hofstede's activity in Breslau ended in 1944 when he was called up for military service.

At the end of the war , Müller Hofstede had to leave Breslau and in 1945, after a stopover in Weimar at the Goethe and Schiller Archives, found a new sphere of activity in Braunschweig , where he was appointed head of the picture gallery in 1947 and, since 1955, director of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum . The Brunswick collections owe numerous studies to his scientific activity, most of which focused on the pictures of Rembrandt and his circle. He also published important results for determining Giorgione's famous self-portrait .

The culmination of his professional career began in 1957 when he was appointed director of the Gemäldegalerie of the former State Museums in Berlin , which was then located in Berlin-Dahlem as a result of the division of the city . The return to the German capital and to the beginning of his training also meant a challenge for the goals of his research, which were now primarily aimed at Rembrandt. The genesis and reconstruction of Rembrandt's painting “The Batavian Conspiracy under Claudius Civilis” in the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm was a particular focus.

Müller Hofstede was a member of the Historical Commission for Silesia . From 1961 to 1970 he was chairman of the Berlin Art History Society .

Publications (selection)

  • Abraham Bloemaert as a landscape painter. In: Oud Holland 44, 1927, pp. 193-208.
  • with JQ van Regteren Altena: The painter Jacob van Geel. In: Yearbook of Prussian Art Collections 52, 1931, pp. 187–188.
  • Comments on Michael Willmann's landscape art . In: Der Oberschlesier 19, 1937, pp. 245–247.
  • Monumental stained glass by Ludwig Peter Kowalski in Silesia (1940)
  • Exhibition of five stained glass with various designs for tapestries and mosaics, an application work and selected paintings by Ludwig Peter Kowalski on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday (1941)
  • Behind the wire fence and the railway barrier: on the exhibition by Professor Alexander Olbricht in the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau (1941)
  • Rembrandt's family portrait and its restoration (= Kunsthefte des Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum 7). Braunschweig 1952.
  • HdG 409. A review of the Munich Civilis drawings. In: Kunsthistorisk Tidskrift 25, 1956, pp. 42–55.
  • Investigations into Giorgione's self-portrait in Braunschweig. In: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz 8, 1957, pp. 13–34.
  • Two Silesian Madonnas by Lucas Cranach: a memory. Kulturwerk Schlesien, Würzburg 1958.
  • The self-portrait of Lucas van Leyden in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig. In: Festschrift Friedrich Winkler , Berlin 1959, pp. 221–238.
  • The Stuttgart self-portrait by Rembrandt. In: Pantheon 1963, pp. 65-100.
  • Michael Willmann. Jacob's ladder. In: Schlesien , 1965, pp. 193-201.
  • On the genesis of the Claudius Civilis picture. In: Otto von Simson , Jan Kelch (ed.): New contributions to Rembrandt research , Berlin 1973, pp. 12–30, 41–43.

literature

  • Fedja Anzelewski : Obituary for Cornelius Müller Hofstede . In: Art History Society of Berlin. Meeting reports NF 23, 1974, pp. 59–60.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marius Winzeler: Jewish collectors and patrons in Wroclaw - from donation to "utilization" of their art possessions. In: Andrea Baresel-Brand, Peter Müller: Collecting, donating, promoting. Jewish patrons in German society (= publications of the coordination office for the loss of cultural assets . Vol. 6). Coordination Office for the Loss of Cultural Property, Magdeburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-9811367-3-9 , pp. 131–150, here p. 145. S. Piotr Łukaszewicz: Muzea Sztuki w Dawnym Wrocławiu - Art Museums in Old Wroclaw , Wroclaw 1998, p. 229; Ramona Bräu : "Aryanization" in Breslau. The “de-Jewification” of a German city and its discovery in the Polish memory discourse. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-8364-5958-7 , p. 77 ff.
  2. ^ Fifty Years of the Historical Commission for Silesia . In: Yearbook of the Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau Volume 17, 1972, List of Members p. 415.


personal data
SURNAME Müller Hofstede, Cornelius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Geisa
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 1974
Place of death Berlin