Emil Kaim (collector)
Emil Kaim ( Hebrew אמיל חיים; * 1872 in Breslau ; † 1951 in Zurich ) was a German Jewish businessman and art collector in Silesia.
Life
Kaim ran the company Kaim & Schlesinger in Breslau, which he had taken over from his father and which was mainly active in the timber trade. Before the First World War he built for his wife Sophie, nee. Glücksmann, and a villa on Kleinburgstrasse (today ulica Januszowicka), where the city's artists, artisans and scientists were frequent guests. Before that he had apparently lived at 72 Hohenzollernstrasse. The Kaim couple supported young artists such as the composer Edmund Nick . The Silesian Museum Association also received financial help from Emil and Sophie Kaim. The couple also got involved in setting up the Jewish Museum in Wroclaw.
Emil Kaim also ran a sawmill in Berlin and, together with Albert Seligson from Berlin, the Elbsägewerk Schöna GmbH since 1921. The Kaim couple regularly spent their holidays in their own house in Schöna. After the Kaims were expelled from the town as Jews, the mayor advertised the sawmill, which may have previously gone bankrupt, for sale or lease. Kaim's house in Schöna was bought by a baker from Heidenau.
In 1937 Kaim had to give up his business in Breslau, and two years later the villa. He first moved with his wife into an apartment on Kurfürstenstrasse (today ulica Racławicka) and in 1941 into the "Judenhaus" at Wallstrasse 10 (today ulica Włodkowica). From there, the couple were deported to Theresienstadt in June 1943 , where they survived for almost two years before they were able to travel to Switzerland in January 1945 with the transport of around 1200 Jews, which the Orthodox Rabin Union of the United States and Canada had initiated. On February 7, the mostly elderly inmates of this train were released in Switzerland. Emil Kaim died a few years later in Switzerland. A daughter named Hulda had died in 1945 at the age of 37.
Kaim collection
The Kaim couple's library contained around 1,500 volumes, including works on art history and musicology. The bookplate was designed by Rose Eisner , who lived at Kronprinzenstrasse 10 in Breslau. Sophie and Emil Kaim also owned a number of valuable pictures and art objects that had been purchased to decorate their villa. These included works by Lovis Corinth , Anselm Feuerbach , Carl Spitzweg , Wilhelm Trübner and Charles Tooby (1863–1918).
The whereabouts of the collection
The pictures were in Emil Kaim's possession until 1940 and were then confiscated by the National Socialists. While some pictures were transferred to the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, the others went into private ownership.
The picture Calling St. Matthew is likely to have been painted around 1530. Its history prior to being in Kaim's possession is unknown. It ended up in the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in 1942. Initially attributed to an unknown Dutch artist, it was later attributed to Marinus de Seeu or one of his imitators. The picture was transferred to Kamenz and from there reached the National Museum in Warsaw in 1946 . There it was assigned to another painter before Marinus de Seeu was accepted as the creator of the picture.
A dark landscape possibly originating from Carl Spitzweg was given to Professor Neubert in Breslau in 1941 .
Trübner's coffee table on Lake Starnberg from 1909 was shown at the exhibition of the Berlin Secession in 1910 and in an exhibition in 1911 in which works of art from private collections in Breslau were on view. At that time it was already owned by Kaims. In 1941 the oil painting was sold to Erich Wiese (1891–1979). His further fate is unknown. The picture was sometimes confused with another version of the painting that had been hanging in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe since 1910 .
The bearded man with helmet and armor , which also came from Trübner, was briefly in the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts and was sold to Hildebrand Gurlitt in Hamburg as early as 1942 . It is now privately owned.
Lovis Corinth's Reading Girl is missing. The 50 by 70 cm oil painting showed a young lady lying on her back, absorbed in a book. It was in the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts until 1945 and has since disappeared.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Obituary notice for Hulda Kaim ( memento of the original from June 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 490 kB)
- ^ Announcements of the Exlibrisverein zu Berlin , 1908, p. 15
- ↑ November pogrom ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Reinhard R. Doerries: Hitler's Intelligence Chief. Walter Schellenberg. The Man Who Kept Germany's Secrets . Enigma Books, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-929631-77-3 , p. 183.
- ↑ Another obituary for Hulda Kaim ( memento of the original from June 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 580 kB).
- ↑ Announcements of the Exlibrisverein zu Berlin 1908, p. 14.
- ↑ Emil Kaim on silesianartcollections.eu
- ↑ Calling St. Matthew
- ↑ Dark landscape ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Lostart.de
- ↑ Coffee table on Lake Starnberg
- ↑ Bearded man with helmet and armor on Lostart.de
- ↑ A reading girl
- ↑ Reading girl or reading woman on Lostart.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kaim, Emil |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | אמיל חיים (Hebrew) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Jewish businessman and art collector in Silesia |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wroclaw |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1951 |
| Place of death | Zurich |