Fritz Nathan (art dealer)

Fritz Nathan (born June 30, 1895 in Munich , † February 28, 1972 in Zurich ) was a German - Swiss gallery owner and art dealer.

Life

Fritz Nathan was born as a son from the second marriage of Alexander Nathan; from his father's first marriage he had four much older half-siblings. His mother was Irene Helbing, the sister of the Munich auctioneer Hugo Helbing , whose father was already an antique dealer. When Nathan was 13 years old, his father died and Helbing acted as his guardian. When the First World War broke out , Nathan enrolled as a medical student and volunteered for the medical service. In 1922 he completed his medical studies with a doctorate . In the same year he married Wilhelmine Erika Heino. He joined the art shop of his half-brother Otto H. Nathan, which he continued to run alone after his death in 1930.

In 1924 the company moved to Ludwigstrasse in Munich and was named Ludwigs Galerie . Nathan was particularly interested in paintings from the German Romantic era , an era for which he was soon considered a specialist. He brokered works by Caspar David Friedrich to collectors and museums, for example the painting Chalk Cliffs on Rügen from the Julius Freund Collection in Berlin in 1930 to the Swiss collector and patron Oskar Reinhart from Winterthur, with whom Nathan had an increasingly close business relationship and friendship.

The Ludwigs Galerie also held monographic exhibitions during these years: 1926 on Karl Philipp Fohr , 1928 on Hans Thoma , 1931 on Friedrich Wasmann ( Bernt Grönvold Collection ) and 1934 on Ludwig Richter . In 1929, in collaboration with the Hugo Helbing company, Nathan organized an exhibition in Berlin on German painting from 1780–1850. A thematic exhibition on romantic painting in Germany and France was held in 1931 with the Paul Cassirer company , Berlin, in new premises at Brienner Strasse 46 in Munich, and an exhibition on art in the age of Goethe in 1932 with the same company in Berlin.

After the National Socialists came to power, Nathan had to relocate the gallery to Ottostraße 5, after which the professional ban in 1935 forced him to transfer the company to his long-time employee Käthe Thäter. In March 1936, he emigrated with his wife and three children to St. Gallen , where he had previously been awarded the contract, which is owned by the St. Gallen Art Museum located Sturzeneggersche collection of paintings enhance quality. Thanks to the help of Oskar Reinhart and St. Gallen City Mayor Konrad Nägeli , Nathan received a work permit. He was able to establish himself quickly and in 1937 became a member of the Swiss Art Trade Association (1953–1963 Vice President, then honorary member). With the new environment, Nathan expanded his field of knowledge, which particularly extended to the Swiss and French painting of the 19th century, areas in which he was soon considered one of the best connoisseurs.

In his work during the Second World War , Nathan was well aware of the difficult, often ambiguous position of the art dealer (see for example his article in Neue Zürcher Zeitung , March 4, 1944, no. 375). In his professional practice he took into account the plight of emigrants created by the National Socialist regime, whose fate he shared. Due to his contacts in Germany, he supported the transfer of individual works and collections of racially persecuted people to Switzerland, mostly on loan to the St. Gallen Art Museum. In doing so, he helped those affected to use one of the few loopholes for the transfer of assets. According to the final report of the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War (Bergier report): "Among the emigrated art dealers, Fritz Nathan was probably the most important supplier for the large private collections of Oskar Reinhart and Emil G. Bührle."

1948 Nathan got the Swiss citizenship in 1951, he moved with his family to Zurich , where he in building up the private collection of Emil Georg Buehrle participated. He also remained active for Oskar Reinhart, for whom he was able to negotiate several purchases from the estate of Otto Gerstenberg's collection , for example the painting Au Café by Édouard Manet .

Nathan's activities expanded in Zurich, he brokered works to museums in Switzerland, Germany, England and the USA as well as to a number of Swiss and foreign private collectors. After the death of his wife Erika in 1953, he married Ilse-Gabriele Nast-Kolb (1920–2016) in 1955. His son Peter Nathan (1925–2001) went on to become a Dr. phil. joined his father's art shop in 1953, Fritz Nathan remained active as a dealer until shortly before the end of his life. In 2017 his grandson Johannes ran the company in Zurich and Potsdam.

Even after the investigations that were undertaken in the course of restitution claims from the late 1990s, Nathan's integrity remained intact. According to the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland , its role in World War II was later z. T. questioned.

Publications (selection)

Exhibition catalogs of the Ludwigs Galerie, Munich

• Carl Philipp Fohr (1927)
• Emil Lugo (1928)
• German painters 1780–1850 (1929 in collaboration with the Berlin branch of Hugo Helbing)
• Hans Thoma (1929)
• Romantic painting in Germany and France (1931 in collaboration with the Paul Cassirer company, Berlin)
• Bernt Grönvold collection, works by Friedrich Wasmann a. a. (1932)
• German Art in the Age of Goethe (1932 in collaboration with the Paul Cassirer company, Berlin)
• Ludwig Richter (1934)

Publications of Fritz Nathans during his work in Switzerland (selection)

• Fritz Nathan: Ten years in St. Gallen: 1936–1946. St. Gallen 1946.
• Fritz Nathan and Peter Nathan: 25 years 1936–1961. Winterthur 1961.
• Fritz Nathan and Peter Nathan: 1922–1972. Zurich 1972.
• Fritz Nathan: Memories from my life. Zurich 1965.

literature

• Alex Vömel , Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler , Fritz Nathan: The joys and sorrows of an art dealer. Düsseldorf 1964.
• Hans Curjel : Obituary in Neue Zürcher Zeitung , March 2, 1972.
• Gabriele Nathan-Nast-Kolb:  Nathan, Fritz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 744 ( digitized version ).
• 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, ISBN 3-0340-0601-2 .
• Jörg Krummenacher: Fleeting luck. The refugees in the border canton of St. Gallen at the time of National Socialism. Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85791-480-7 .
• Götz Adriani (ed.): The art of acting. Masterpieces from the 14th to the 20th centuries by Fritz and Peter Nathan. Exhibition catalog, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Ostfildern 2005, ISBN 3-7757-1658-0 .
• The Path of Art from Switzerland to America from the Late 1930s to the Early 1950s Laurie A. Stein Declassified Swiss government report detailing traffic in Nazi looted art through Switzerland

Web links

• Elisabeth Eggimann Gerber: Nathan, Fritz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Götz Adriani: The art of acting. Masterpieces from the 14th to the 20th century by Peter and Fritz Nathan. Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2005, p. 269 , accessed on December 28, 2013 ( ISBN 978-3-7757-1658-1 ). 
2. ↑ Jean-François Bergier, President Wladyslaw Bartoszewski Saul Friedländer Harold James ...: Switzerland, National Socialism and the Second World War Final report of the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War. Pendo Verlag GmbH, 2002, archived from the original on July 10, 2017 ; Retrieved July 10, 2017 . 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. Jean-François Bergier, President Wladyslaw Bartoszewski Saul Friedländer Harold James ...: Switzerland, National Socialism and the Second World War Final report of the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War. Pendo Verlag GmbH, 2002, accessed on July 10, 2017 .