Hermann Voss (art historian)

Hermann Voss (born July 30, 1884 in Lüneburg , † April 28, 1969 in Munich ) was a German art historian and museum director . In 1943 he became a “special commissioner” for the art collection of Adolf Hitler's planned Führer Museum in Linz .

Life

Hermann Georg August Voss was born in Lüneburg in July 1884 as the son of the merchant Johann Voss and his wife Sophie Voss, b. Ore graves born. He attended the grammar school in Lüneburg and, after the family moved, the grammar school in Stralsund . There he received his secondary school leaving certificate in March 1903. Voss studied art history at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin and received his doctorate in 1907 under Henry Thode on the old German Renaissance painter Wolf Huber . From 1908 he volunteered with Wilhelm von Bode and Max Jakob Friedländer at the Royal Prussian Art Collections. His interest was in the then little-noticed art of the late Renaissance and early Baroque in Italy, which led him to work as an assistant at the Art History Institute in Florence from 1911 to 1912 .

Museum director

From 1912 to 1921 he was head of the graphic collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig and from 1922 to 1935 curator and deputy director of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in Berlin . From 1935 to 1945 he headed the municipal art collection at the Nassauisches Landesmuseum in Wiesbaden, which was renamed “Museum Wiesbaden” after the war. Voss built up a collection of 19th century paintings there and made a name for himself as an expert at the Danube School . By neglecting modernity and selling many works of " degenerate art " abroad, he rebuilt the collection in line with the National Socialist art doctrine. Voss followed the wishes of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts willingly and in advance . “As an art expert for the Wiesbaden police chief, Voss examined and appraised confiscated Jewish art collections. Thanks to his excellent contacts with the relevant Nazi institutions, he was able to secure the 'right of first refusal' in many cases and increase the holdings of the Wiesbaden gallery at 'good conditions'. ”Voss entered the system of confiscations and forced sales of art through his participation to the "center of German art theft."

When Voss showed the touring exhibition “ Degenerate Art ” in March 1937 , Alexej Jawlensky worried about the remaining portfolios of his lithographs that the Nassau Art Association had published in 1922 in the Wiesbaden museum . He wrote to Voss and asked for them to be released. In a letter dated September 21, 1937, Voss rejected the artist's request with diplomatic words, in line with the system.

Special representative for Linz

In March 1943, on behalf of Hitler , Joseph Goebbels appointed Voss - also at the suggestion of the late Hans Posse - as his successor as director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the special commission of Linz, who was to set up the Führermuseum in Linz. He retained his Wiesbaden function. Together with his art consultant Gottfried Reimer , he bought up works of art in Germany and in foreign countries occupied by German troops with considerable funds, including numerous confiscated Jewish art and cultural goods. Among other things, Voss was involved in the acquisition of the stolen art collection Schloss . Voss used his extensive professional connections to art dealers, art historians and collectors at home and abroad and also involved the Dorotheum auction house in Vienna, which was known for its extensive trade in looted Jewish property. Between April 1943 and March 1944 alone, he increased the collection by over 800 paintings. The fee income from Hitler's Mein Kampf , the net income from a special stamp from the Deutsche Reichspost , and a special donation from German industry (of 130 million Reichsmarks ) were used for the purchases. It was not until the approaching Allied troops that the buying-up came to an end in early 1945. The art dealer Voss used the most was Hildebrand Gurlitt , who was in charge of the art procurement from Paris .

Career after 1945

Voss, who was based in Dresden, was left as director by the Soviet occupying forces after the end of the war . In this capacity , he collaborated with the occupying power, in which he betrayed numerous locations of the Dresden art treasures to the occupying power. In July 1945 he fled back to the museum in Wiesbaden in the American zone of occupation , where he was immediately arrested. The museum was set up by the US Army as one of the Central Collecting Points for the holdings of looted Nazi art found in Germany . From there, the artwork should be returned to the previous owner. Voss was interrogated from August 15 to September 15, 1945 in Altaussee by officers of the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) , who were aware of his role as head of the special staff in Linz and his involvement in the exploitation of looted art from Jewish and other property. However, he gave little usable information that would have allowed the works to be returned to their owners. Voss stated that he had made 5,000 new acquisitions in his two-year tenure. His statements can be found in a personal survey, the Direct Investigation Report No. 12 Hermann Voss (DIR 12) and in the report on the construction of the Führer Museum, Consolidated Investigation Report No. 4 (CIR 4), entitled Linz: Hitler's Museum And Library , to which many of those involved in this company had contributed. "Above all, he was careful to pull his head out of the noose (which he succeeded in doing) [...]". The Americans soon released him because, apart from the Nuremberg trials , they had entrusted the Germans with the legal processing of Nazi crimes.

Voss then had to pass a denazification process , which was handled in front of a ruling chamber . When filling out the relevant questionnaire, Voss, who had not been a member of the NSDAP, stated that he had been in the National Socialist People's Welfare Association (NSV), which had meanwhile been regarded as unsuspicious , but did not mention that he had been head of the special staff in Linz. The Chamber did not notice this and Voss was not considered to be affected by the Law for Liberation from National Socialism and Militarism of March 5, 1946. The “Public Prosecutor” of the Chamber of Appeal, who knew that incriminating material was with the US authorities, started new proceedings against Voss. For this purpose, the Appeals Chamber asked the US military government in Munich in several attempts for the requested material, the content of which it did not know and which was located in the Central Collecting Point in Munich . The US authorities had difficulty finding the material. Finally, the military administration sent reports DIR 12 and CIR 4 to the Appeals Chamber. However, these reports were lost on official channels between German judicial authorities. The appellant's "months of insistence had been in vain". As a result, the proceedings against Voss were discontinued on March 24, 1949. The reason was that, according to the information in the first questionnaire dated April 25, 1946, which Voss had made himself, Voss was not affected within the meaning of the law for the liberation from National Socialism.

With that, Voss got rid of his troubled past. Voss, who was considered a recognized expert on the painting of the Seicento and Settecento , was able to continue his career. He worked as a researcher and scientist and wrote numerous articles, reviews and exhibition reviews that appeared in leading journals. He wrote numerous reports on this. He was accepted into the buying committee of the Bavarian State Painting Collections and acted as an advisor to the Bavarian State Government on the sale of paintings.

For his 80th birthday he was celebrated with a festschrift published by his (former) business partner, the art dealer Vitale Bloch.

Since August 2009, the Wiesbaden Museum has been researching the origins of a total of more than 200 paintings that Voss bought for the house between 1935 and 1944 under partially unexplained circumstances. Among other things , a painting attributed to Pieter de Grebber , a double portrait of a young couple , could be returned to the heirs of its rightful owner.

Private

Hermann Voss had been married to Marianne Boese from Berlin since December 1919. Marianne Boese was the daughter of the painter Konrad Boese (1852–1938).

Fonts

• German self-criticism. Bachmair, Starnberg am See 1947.
• Heinrich Scheufelen painting collection: Stuttgart-Oberlenningen. Editing under co. Juliane Harms. Ed. On the occasion of d. Exhibition d. Painting collection H. Schleufelen in d. Gemäldegalerie d. Nassau State Museum in Wiesbaden in the summer of 1938. Stuttgart 1938.
• Official catalog of the Gemäldegalerie Wiesbaden. Nassauisches Landesmuseum, Wiesbaden 1937–1939.
• Collection of Privy Councilor Josef Cremer, Dortmund. (with Friedrich Winkler) Wertheim, Berlin 1929.
• Baroque painting in Rome. Propylaea Publishing House, Berlin 1925.
• History of Italian Baroque Painting. Propylaea Publishing House, Berlin 1925.
• The painting of the late Renaissance in Rome and Florence , 2 volumes. G. Grote, Berlin, 1920.
• The origin of the Danube style - a piece of the development history of German painting. Hiersemann, Leipzig 1907.

literature

• Kathrin Iselt: "Special Representative of the Führer": The art historian and museum man Hermann Voss (1884–1969) (= studies of art , volume 20). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-41220572-0 (dissertation at the Technical University of Dresden 2009, 516 pages).
• Hanns Christian Löhr: The Brown House of Art: Hitler and the special order Linz, visions, crimes, losses. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-05004156-8 , p. 51 ff.
• Birgit Schwarz: Hitler's Museum. The photo albums Gemäldegalerie Linz. Documents on the “Führer Museum”. Böhlau, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-205-77054-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Voss in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Hermann Voss  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kathrin Iselt: Hermann Voss - An art historian and museum man in the context of the National Socialist art theft .
2. ↑ Hanns Christian Löhr: The Brown House of Art, Hitler and the “Special Order Linz”. Visions, crimes, losses. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-05-004156-0 , p. 49.
3. ↑ Detlev Rosenbach: Alexej von Jawlensky, life and graphic works. Hanover 1985, p. 55
4. ↑ See: Bernd Fäthke: 1937, Voss washed his hands in innocence. In: exhib. Cat .: Alexej Jawlensky, heads etched and painted, The Wiesbaden years. Galerie Draheim, Wiesbaden 2012, p. 51 f.
5. ↑ Kathrin Iselt: Special Representative of the Führer: The art historian and museum man Hermann Voss (1884–1969). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-41220572-0 , pp. 387-392.
6. ^ Birgit Schwarz: Hitler's Museum. Böhlau, 2004, p. 16.
7. ↑ Kathrin Iselt: Special Representative of the Führer: The art historian and museum man Hermann Voss (1884–1969). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2010, pp. 405ff, 408.
8. ↑ Internet page ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2013 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. of the Federal Office for Central Service and Property Matters  
9. ^ Museum Wiesbaden restitutes baroque paintings. On the website of kunstmarkt.com . Retrieved September 14, 2012.
10. ^ Dossier, Museum Wiesbaden, inventory number M 292 , pdf of the website lostart.de . Retrieved September 14, 2012.