Gilhofer and Ranschburg

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Gilhofer & Ranschburg
legal form 1883–1938: corporation ; 1938-1947 GmbH ;
1947–2005 limited partnership
founding 1883
Seat Vienna , Austria
management
  • 1883–1903: Hermann Gilhofer
  • 1884–1914: Heinrich Ranschburg
  • 1915–1936: heirs to H. Ranschburg, Ernst Ph. Goldschmidt until 1925, Wilhelm H. Schab
  • 1936–1938: Managing director Otto Ranschburg, owner Wilhelm H. Schab, Elisabeth Margulies b. Ranschburg, Anna Epstein b. Ranschburg
  • 1938–1945: After "Aryanization" Hans Werner Taeuber managing director and main owner, co-owner Steinert and Adolf Ziegler ;
  • 1945–1950: Owner Wilhelm H. Schab, Elisabeth Margulies
  • 1950–1970: After purchasing Schab and Margulies, the former “Aryan” Hans Taeuber is the owner, from 1958 Rudolf Hoffmann is the managing director
  • 1970–1988 Werner Taeuber
  • 1989–2005: Elisabeth Hoffmann
Branch Book and art antiquarian

Gilhofer & Ranschburg around 1900
The business premises of Gilhofer & Ranschburg around 1900
Art Nouveau bookseller's mark
Antiquarian bookshop catalog 1925

The Viennese book and art antiquarian Gilhofer ( operating under the name Gilhofer und Ranschburg in its heyday 1884–1938 ) was considered the “first house on the square” for over a century. The business location in the middle of Vienna's city center , on the corner of Bognergasse and Tuchlauben, and thus exactly at the end of the most famous Viennese shopping streets , the Graben and Kohlmarkt , was one of the most internationally renowned centers of the second-hand book trade.

history

History until 1938

The company was founded in the summer of 1883 as a range bookstore by Hermann Gilhofer (1852–1913), who had previously worked as an authorized signatory at the Franz Leo company. In the following year, on October 1, 1884, the 24-year-old Heinrich Ranschburg (1860–1914) joined the company as a partner. He expanded the business activities of the company, now trading as "Gilhofer und Ranschburg", to include the antiquarian bookshop and thus became the actual founder of the company, which within a decade should be one of the most important in its branch. When Hermann Gilhofer left his company in 1903, its international reputation was already assured: the auctions of valuable books and art organized by Ranschburg brought buyers to Vienna from all over Europe and overseas, as well as important private collectors as well as the world's most important libraries and public collections.

By 1912 alone, almost 200 camp catalogs and lists had appeared; In 1924 a branch was established in Lucerne. The high points of business activity in these years included the auctions of the Metternich and Dietrichstein libraries and the collections of Tsars Nicholas I , Alexander II and Tsarina Katharina II , as well as the auction of duplicates from the Albertina . At that time the warehouse contained approx. 300,000 books, 100,000 sheets of graphics and 25,000 autographs . Numerous later antiquarians learned their trade here, but Rudolf Bing (1902–1997), the long-time director of the New York Metropolitan Opera , was an apprentice here at the age of seventeen.

When Heinrich Ranschburg died in 1914, he was followed by his widow Ida and Dr. Ernst Philipp Goldschmidt (1887–1954) and Wilhelm Heinrich Schab (1888–1975) as managing directors. Goldschmidt, himself a collector and long-standing customer of the company, was later praised by colleagues as “the most learned antiquarian there ever was”. Goldschmidt left the second-hand bookshop in 1925 to open his own second-hand bookshop in London. After leaving, Ranschburg's son Otto (1900–1985) joined the company. Another employee was the bookseller Friedrich Steinert, who also received the power of attorney. From 1936 Wilhelm Schab, Elisabeth Margulies geb. Ranschburg and Anna Epstein born Ranschburg, as a silent partner, owner of the antiquarian bookshop. Otto Ranschburg had previously divided his shares between Wilhelm Schab and Elisabeth Margulies. But he remained managing director.

From the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich until 1945

On the day the annexation of Austria and the takeover by the Nazis immediately a persecution of the Jews began. The Germans had brought numerous SA and SS units with them who, supported by local Nazi supporters, brutally persecuted Jews. A special command of the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD) was on the way - also equipped with personal files - to track down opponents of National Socialism. In their prejudiced anti-Semitic ideas, the National Socialists believed in a Jewish world conspiracy . They suspected that they would find records of Jewish organizations in archives and also in second-hand bookshops. The then SS-Untersturmführer Adolf Eichmann - Jewish advisor in the Berlin SD main office - was involved in carrying out this action . Eichmann himself confiscated archives and libraries from Jewish organizations and also searched Jewish second-hand bookshops for material.

As part of this persecution, all Jewish entrepreneurs were expropriated. The Jewish booksellers were also robbed of their property . Competitors or colleagues of the entrepreneurs concerned, who wanted to acquire the stolen company cheaply, were often behind “aryanization projects”.

This is also the case with Gilhofer. First, a few months after the German invasion, the managing director Otto Ranschburg was relieved of his office. Then the bookstore was confiscated and an asset manager was employed for the “Aryanization”. As early as September 8, 1938, Friedrich Steinert, the Aryan authorized signatory of the antiquarian bookshop, and the antiquarian Hans Werner Taeuber, a competitor from Munich who had excellent connections with the SS, registered as the initiator of the then legal robbery. Taeuber was an experienced "Aryan", he had already been able to take over the share of his partner Ernst Weil, who had fled to London in 1933. Taeubert and Steinert proved that they were "Aryan" interested parties. Then a new company, Gilhofer & Ranschburg Antiquariats Gesellschaft mbH, was founded, which legally took over the Jewish company in the spring of 1939. Another interested party had reported before the notary contract was signed. Adolf Ziegler , president of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts , allegedly acquired the majority of the shares for the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts. The book trade historian Schröder thinks it is conceivable that Ziegler acted for himself personally. The old managing director Otto Ranschburg was summoned to the Hotel Metropol , the headquarters of the Gestapo, and under threats was forced to conclude a contract that was very disadvantageous for the owners of the bookstore. Taeuber and Steinert became managing directors. Overall, the buyers only had to pay a fraction of the company's true value. The old bookstore owners received nothing from the purchase price that was paid to the NSDAP.

The historian Martin Schumacher is convinced that the takeover of the antiquarian bookshop in Vienna was a hidden acquisition by the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, i.e. the German Empire. The Third Reich was able to export looted cultural property from Jews and other victims of violence to Switzerland via Gilhofer and Ranschburg. Since the Nazi connection between Gilhofer and Ranschburg was not known, the stolen goods could be sold on the world market via Lucerne without any problems. The Lucerne branch also enjoyed the highest reputation in Switzerland, because in 1939 it was one of the founding members of the "Association of Antique Books and Engraving Dealers of Switzerland (VEBUKU)".

Schab managed to escape via Lucerne to the USA, where he founded an antiquarian bookshop in New York under his own name. A Swiss branch had to cease its business activities, but was still a founding member of the "Association of Antique Books and Engraving Dealers in Switzerland" in 1939 and was re-established in 1956 under the old name, but under new management. Otto Ranschburg also emigrated to New York. As early as 1939 he was running an antiquarian bookshop under his own name; In 1951 he took over the renowned Lathrop C. Harper company , which he headed until his death in 1985. Anna Epstein probably died in 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp .

After the war

On December 17, 1945, the previous owners William H. Schab and Elisabeth Margulies from New York initiated a return. On March 21, 1947, her Viennese lawyer applied to set up a public administration for the company as a precautionary measure pending the final decision on the return. In the justification, the lawyer spoke of a particularly bad "Aryanization case":

Mr. Taeuber was able to Aryanise the company without paying a penny of his own with the intervention of the NSDAP and due to the relationship with high SS functionaries .

The Aryan Taeuber and the wife of the fallen Steinert felt that they had been treated unfairly and requested that this measure be lifted. They won and the public administration was suspended. On April 8, 1949, the Restitution Commission decided to return the company to Schab and the descendants of Ranschburg. In 1950 Hans Werner Taeuber was able to acquire the business from them.

In 1958 the antiquarian Rudolf Hoffmann, previously employed in the Vienna antiquarian bookshop Christian M. Nebehay , joined the company as co-managing director. After the death of Hans Werner Taeuber in 1970, his son Werner Taeuber (1920–1988) became a partner and co-manager. The company's centenary in 1983 was celebrated with great interest from international trade, libraries and collectors. In 1989 Hoffmann handed over the management of the company to his daughter Elisabeth, who continued the business for 15 years.

Business liquidation and new takeover

With the termination of its own business activities at the end of 2004, Gilhofer KG merged with Inlibris GmbH. The latter company has been operating under the name Antiquariat Inlibris, Gilhofer Nfg. GmbH since January 2005 after taking over the reference library and company archive as well as part of the old warehouse. Hugo Wetscherek took over the management.

The owners of Inlibris have attracted international attention several times since taking over. For example, the Berlin theater scholar Hugo Fetting entrusted them with the sale of August Wilhelm Iffland's estate , the rightful owner of which he believed, since he had saved it from destruction in the post-war period. However, since the manuscripts were in public possession before 1945 (archive of the Prussian State Theaters in the holdings of the Berlin Theater Museum ), Wetscherek returned them to the State of Berlin in exchange for compensation for his expenses .

In 2017 the antiquarian bookshop Inlibris was awarded the export price (in bronze) of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce ; With an annual turnover of over 7.5 million euros in 2016, the export quota was 99.25 percent.

literature

  • Hans Werner Taeuber: One hundred years of Gilhofer . In: Gilhofer Buch- und Kunstantiquariat Wien. Catalog 132. Vienna 1983, pp. 4–10
  • Werner Schröder: The 'Aryanization' of Jewish second-hand bookshops between 1933 and 1942. Part II. In: From the second-hand bookshop. Journal for Antiquaries and Book Collectors, Volume 7, 2009, pp. 359–386, esp. 368–371.
  • Agnes Schildorfer / Ute Simonlehner, "Aryanizations" in the case of the book and art antiquarian shops "Gilhofer und Ranschburg" and " Dr. Ignaz Schwarz ” . Seminar paper in the seminar “Aryanization” in the Austrian book trade organized by Murray G. Hall at the Institute for German Studies at the University of Vienna in the winter semester 2001/2002 ( digitized version ).
  • Georg Hupfer: On the history of the antiquarian book trade in Vienna . Diploma thesis University of Vienna 2003, pp. 149–157 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Company archive Inlibris, Gilhofer Nfg.
  2. ^ F. Endler: A first house on the square. The Viennese book and art dealer Gilhofer is celebrating its 100th anniversary . In: Die Presse , 1./2. October 1983, Art Scene VII. Press
  3. ↑ See J. Eisenstein: The antiquarian book trade in Austria and Hungary . In: Austrian-Hungarian bookseller correspondence. Fixed number on the occasion of the 50th anniversary . Vol. 1. Vienna 1910, pp. 62–69, here: p. 67.
  4. ↑ See Hans Werner Taeuber: Hundert Jahre Gilhofer . In: Gilhofer Buch- und Kunstantiquariat Wien. Catalog 132. Vienna 1983, pp. 4–10.
  5. ↑ See Rudolf Bing: The Sir Rudolf Bing Memoirs. 5000 evenings at the opera . Kindler, Munich 1973, p. 15.
  6. ↑ Christian M. Nebehay: The golden armchairs of my father . C. Brandstätter, Vienna 1983, p. 197.
  7. ↑ a b c s. Werner Schröder: The Aryanization of Jewish second-hand bookshops. Part II , in From the second-hand bookshop. Journal for Antiquaries and Book Collectors New Volume 7, 2009, pp. 359–386, esp. 368–371.
  8. ↑ Werner Schröder: The Aryanization of Jewish second-hand bookshops. Part II , in From the second-hand bookshop. Magazine for antiquarians and book collectors New Volume 7 (2009) No. 6.
  9. ↑ s. A. Schildorfer, U. Simonlehner: "Aryanizations" in the case of the book and art antiquarian shops "Gilhofer und Ranschburg" and "Dr. Ignaz Schwarz ” . Seminar paper Vienna 2002.
  10. ↑ Martin Schumacher: From Max Alsberg to Ludwig Töpfer. Books and libraries of Jewish lawyers after 1933 - losses, finds and an inheritance from “Reich property”. Schmidt, Neustadt an der Aisch 2012, ISBN 978-3-87707-844-0 , S.; also with Esther Tisa Francini, Anja Heuss, Georg Kreis : Fluchtgut - Raubgut: the transfer of cultural goods in and via Switzerland 1933–1945 and the question of restitution . Edited by the Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War. Chronos Verlag Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-0340-0601-2 . S.
  11. ↑ VEBUKU [1]
  12. ↑ Jürgen Kaube : The Iffland robber pistol , in: FAZ , January 7, 2014; Press review of the planned auction of the Iffland estate 2014 ( memento of April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  13. ↑ Inlibris wins export award , boersenblatt.net, July 5, 2017, accessed on July 5, 2017.