Ernst Holzinger

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Ernst Holzinger (born July 5, 1901 in Ulm , † September 8, 1972 in Zaun, Bernese Oberland , Switzerland ) was a German art historian . From 1938 to 1972 he headed the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt am Main .

Life

Holzinger comes from a Swabian pastor's house. His father was the pastor at Ulm Minster and later dean of Ulm Heinrich Holzinger (1863-1944). He studied art history at the Universities of Tübingen, Munich and Berlin. In 1927 he received his doctorate at the University of Munich under Heinrich Wölfflin with a dissertation on Albrecht Dürer's Basel woodcuts. He was one of the last pupils of Wölfflin.

From 1928 to 1933 Holzinger was assistant to Ernst Buchner at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne . With Buchner he conceived the exhibition Newer German Art , which was shown in Oslo, Copenhagen and Cologne in 1932. In 1933 he followed Buchner when he became general director of the Bavarian State Painting Collection to Munich, where he became curator of the Alte Pinakothek .

In 1938, on the recommendation of Hanns Swarzenski , he applied for the post of director of the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt am Main. This had become vacant because the previous director Georg Swarzenski was retired because of his collection policy, but above all because of his Jewish origins. Georg Swarzenski had campaigned for Holzinger - under the given circumstances - as his successor because he had applied with a very relevant letter. At the same time he wanted to avoid a regime-compliant party man at the helm of the Städel. The competitors for the post of director, including Walther Karl Zülch and Luitpold Dussler , had identified themselves as loyal supporters of the National Socialists. Holzinger worked with Alfred Wolters , who had been the director of the Städtische Galerie in Frankfurt am Main since 1928, which was associated with the Städel .

Between 1941 and 1943, Holzinger worked as an “expert on the safeguarding and exploitation of cultural property from Jewish property for the purposes of the Reich”, where he appreciated the value of works of art and made suggestions for their usability. On behalf of the city of Frankfurt, he stayed in the countries occupied by the German Wehrmacht and acquired numerous works of art that had to be restituted immediately after the war.

In 1947 he became an honorary professor for contemporary and modern art history at the University of Frankfurt am Main . In 1949 he took over from Alfred Wolters - after his retirement - the office of director of the municipal gallery .

In 1971 Holzinger was retired. During a vacation in the Swiss Oberland, he died of sudden heart failure in September 1972. He was followed as museum director by the art historian Klaus Gallwitz .

He was married to Elisabeth Holzinger (née Fischer) and had two children.

Awards and prizes (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Investigations on the question of Dürer's Basler Stil , Mänicke + Jahn, Rudolstadt, 1927
  2. ^ Zeit.de: My Museum on the Main
personal data
SURNAME Holzinger, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holzinger, Ernst Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian and curator
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1972
Place of death Fence, Bernese Oberland , Switzerland