Julius Genss

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Julius Genss (1887–1957)

Julius Genss (in Heb. יולי גענס) (* November 5 July / November 17,  1887 greg. In Dorpat , Estonia Governorate of the Russian Empire ; † February 3, 1957 in Tallinn as Julius Gens, Estonian SSR ) was an Estonian art historian , Bibliophile , art collector , art critic , art scholar and patron .

Life

Julius (Idel) Genss was born into a wealthy merchant family in Tartu (then Derpt ). He discovered his passion for painting and graphics early on. From 1906 to 1911 he studied at the Law Faculty of the University of Tartu (then Imperial University Jurjew ). Graduation with grade 1 (excellent). Genss began taking painting lessons while studying law.

As a lawyer, he had no affection for his profession. In 1911/12 he studied painting and architecture at the Technical University of Munich . He interrupted his studies for health reasons; the art life in Munich shaped him. During his student days in Munich, Genss made numerous trips through Germany and a trip to Italy to visit the most important painting collections.

Bibliophile and art collector

Studying in Munich was followed by a longer stay in Moscow and close acquaintance with the local Cubofuturists such as Alexei Jelissejewitsch Krutschonych , Vladimir Mayakovsky and Dawid Burljuk , as well as with Russian avant-garde artists Mikhail Larionow and Natalia Goncharova .

After returning to Tartu in 1918, he began building a private art collection. From 1920 he lectured at the Tartu Art School , was committed to the Jewish cultural autonomy achieved in Estonia in 1925 and was an active member of Pallas , the Estonian society of artists and writers. As an envoy of the Academic Association for Jewish History and Literature, he represented Estonia's Jewish cultural community at the Second Congress of Anti-Fascist Writers in Madrid in 1937 .

In 1934 he became head of the Estonian branch of a Swedish timber trading company. He moved to the Estonian capital Tallinn with the von Tartu family . By 1939 he had amassed a large art library in the Baltic region and a large art collection, the largest of which was devoted to Estonian, Russian and Jewish art.

Evacuation, Loss of Collection, and Political Persecution

In the summer of 1940, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union . A year later the German Wehrmacht conquered the Baltic States . In July 1941, the Genss family had to leave Tallinn to avoid the persecution of Estonian Jews by the German occupiers. She was evacuated to Tashkent .

In 1941 the art collection and library were housed in the Tallinn Art Museum , which was destroyed in the devastating Soviet bombing of Tallinn in 1944. The library and the graphic collection had previously been confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR). Since Alfred Rosenberg was also from Tallinn, he was familiar with the Julius Genss collection. The library, consisting of over 10,000 art history volumes, was later sent to Ratibor . In November 1944, Rosenberg reported on 61 boxes from the Genss collection in the barracks in Pless , which were named among the most important for relocation to Minsk . 6,000 volumes were finally transported there and handed over to the library of the Academy of Sciences there. 780 volumes stamped by the Tallinn Art Museum (these books Genss had made available to the museum as a temporary loan before the war) were given to the library of the Academy of Sciences of Estonia .

Genss filed several restitution lawsuits, but they were unsuccessful. The collection has not yet been returned to its owner.

In 1951, Genss was arrested on charges of cosmopolitanism despite his unstable health as a result of two heart attacks. He died in Tallinn in February 1957. Julius Genss is buried in the Tallinn-Rahumäe Jewish Cemetery .

family

Julius Genss was married to Bertha Genss. Her son Leo Gens (1922-2001) was the eminent Estonian art historian, but was temporarily banned from working during the Soviet era (early 1950s), professor of art history at the Estonian Art Academy and laureate of the Swedish Art Academy. His daughter Inna Gens (1928–2014) was a famous art historian for Japanese cinema and a writer. As a film critic, she received the " Kawakita Award " in 1991 for outstanding services to Japanese film. The granddaughter Julia Gens emigrated to Germany in 1991. She lives as an art restorer in Munich .

collection

Book collection

By 1941 Julius Genss had one of the largest art libraries in the Baltic region and a considerable art collection with departments of Estonian, Jewish and Russian art, as well as a large collection of bookplates and prints.

Genss described his relationship with books as the greatest passion of his life. In his collection he had gathered over 10,000 volumes. There were art-historical volumes but also magazines for bibliophiles such as Philobiblon , illustrated volumes and rarities. Every new book in the collection has been cataloged. Judaica formed a focus of the collection, which mainly consisted of objects from France, Russia and Germany.

Shir Hashirim (Song of Songs)

Genss left a version of the Song of Songs make (Shir HaShirim), which according to his ideas in the artistic design of Ado Vabbe was the 1,932th The parchment roll, measuring 527 cm × 52.5 cm, contains the Song of Songs in Hebrew and is provided with eight illustrations in tempera by Vabbe. Genss designed the text in Hebrew script, the vignettes and the initials himself.

Art collection

Genss himself organized three exhibitions of his collection. He owned several trademarks; He ordered four useful sex libris, each with an edition of 2,000 pieces, so that the book's entry into the library could later be tracked on the basis of these. He ordered some bookplates from the Estonian avant-garde artist, painter and graphic artist Ado Vabbe (1892–1961). In addition to the four utility bookplates, Genss also owned a luxury bookplate. He received this as a gift from the Parisian artist Fiszel Zylberberg (1909–1942, murdered in Auschwitz) in an edition of 40 pieces. Magnificent Judaica volumes in the collection were stocked with the luxury bookplate.

The graphic collection consisted of almost 3,000 sheets, including sheets by Marc Chagall , Lionel Feininger , Paul Klee , Léon Bakst , El Lissitzky and Konstantin Korovin . Many objects from the Genss collection are scattered in museums around the world.

Judaica Collection

Meanwhile, his interest in Jewish art had grown. On his travels, Genss visited synagogues and Jewish museums, and acquired catalogs and specialist literature. His Judaica collection grew and in 1938/39 he organized a traveling exhibition that was presented in Tartu, Tallinn and Riga: “I wanted to prove the existence of modern Jewish art,” he later wrote in his memoir.

Artists from Paris, Warsaw, Vilnius, even Israel and the Soviet Union sent him prints and illustrations at his request. 211 sheets came together like this. An exhibition catalog was published - in Estonian and in Yiddish, which was the common idiom among the Jews of Eastern Europe at the time. Marc Chagall and Lyonel Feininger contributed graphics, artists who are now world famous. But only a few people still know the names of the other participants. Some, like Nathan Altman or Zygmunt Dobrzycki , survived the Holocaust. No data could be obtained from others such as Necha Gelbersanska, Julius Kroll, Isaak Schorr. Fani Lewowna-Frydman was murdered in Krakow, Fiszel Zylberberg in Auschwitz.

Granddaughter Julia Gens came to Berlin in 1991. In her luggage she had the fragments of her grandfather's destroyed collection. Among them is a particularly valuable piece: a scroll with the Song of Solomon, written in Hebrew by Genss himself in the early 1930s and illustrated by his friend, the Estonian artist Ado Vabbe. A facsimile of the Darmstadt Haggadah from 1430 was also included.

The exhibition "Jewish graphics by Julius Genss"

Julius Genss' aim was to prove the existence of contemporary Jewish art and since transporting oil paintings was too expensive for him and, above all, too risky in those times, he decided to only show graphics. Among the artists were famous names such as Max Liebermann and Marc Chagall .

In 1938/39 Julius Genss organized the traveling exhibition "Jewish graphics". Its aim was to prove the existence of contemporary Jewish graphics. Of the 211 works of art that were exhibited in 1938/39, only 35 graphic sheets are left today. Polish artists were represented most fully, contributing eleven prints from Paris, Warsaw, Vilnius and the USA. The German graphic artist Hermann Struck sent him exhibits from Tel Aviv . One of the Soviet artists represented in the exhibition was Solomon Judowin . The Vilnius Art School sent works by Jewish students. Chagall , Israëls and Liebermann were exhibited by the renowned masters, as well as ornaments by Natan Altman . The exhibition opened in Tartu in May 1938 and subsequently shown in Tallinn and Riga .

In 1941 the collection was confiscated by the "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg", who systematically plundered Jewish cultural treasures in Eastern Europe. It was only through the commitment of one individual that three dozen sheets of this collection were preserved and brought to Munich with the granddaughter Julia Gens . Julius Genss owed a professor from his hometown of Tartu to the fact that some of it could be saved. His daughter Inna Gens remembers in an interview with Deutsche Welle: “ Paul Ariste worked on the Rosenberg task force. He kept stealing something there and taking a piece of my father's Jewish graphic collection home with him. When we came back, he was kind enough to give it back to us. "

The role of Paul Ariste (then Paul Arriste) was not always positive. According to ERR reports (# 61432592 page: 208) quote: "... mainly through the information provided by the university lecturer Dr. Arriste make the following apparently final statements about the current whereabouts of the Jewish gene library: ..."

In 2012, as part of an exhibition "Jews 45/90" (July 2012 - January 2013) at the Jewish Museum in Munich, fragments of Julius Genss' collection were shown. For Inna Gens it was a very special experience: “My father studied here in Munich. I could never have imagined that such an exhibition could be organized in Germany. Of course that makes me very happy. "

Books and publications

  • "Catalog of the library [by] Julius Genss", Th. 1-4, 1928–1930
  • "V. Timmi kirjad", Tartu, Postimees, 1930.
  • “Huvitav siluettide sorry”, Tartu, 1930.
  • "Wilhelm Timḿs letters to his father from the years 1841–1846", Dorpat, 1931.
  • "Eesti Rahva Muuseumi kunstiosakond: keraamika", Tallinn, 1931.
  • "Elevandiluu", Tartu, Postimees, 1931.
  • "Netsuke", Tartu, Postimees, 1931.
  • “Заметки библиофила”, Tallinn, Postimees, 1932.
  • Nõukogude vein kunstinäitus. Postimees, May 2, 1934.
  • "Биография У.Г.Иваск" Еврейская периодическая печать в России, Таллинн, 1935.
  • "Ed. Viiraldi ex-libriseid ”, Tallinn, 1935.
  • "Kunstipärase exlibrise Näituse kataloog", Tallinn, Tallinna Eesti Kirjastus-Ühisus, 1935.
  • "Eesti kunstnike originaalgraafika albumid" bibliograafiline kirjeldus, Tallinn, 1937.
  • "Eduard Wiiralt loob gravüüri", Tallinn, 1937.
  • "Tlingiti ja haida kunsti Eesti muuseumides", Tartu: sn, 1937.
  • “Juudi graafika”, Tallinn, 1938.
  • יידישע גראפיק, יידישער קולטור־פארוואלטונג אין עסטי, Tallinn, 1938.
  • Exhibition catalog “Juudi graafika: Tartu - Tallinn, April - May 1938. a.”, Tallinn: Libris, 1938.
  • With Eduard Ahas u. a .: "Kunstiühing Pallas: 1918–1938", Noor-Eesti, 1938.
  • With Anne Krebsbach and Edit Käärik, catalog for the exhibition “Idamaa kunst ja vaibad”: Kunstihoones 29. oct. - 4th nov. 1938, Tallinna Eesti Kirjastus-Ühisus, Tallinn, 1938.
  • Julius Genssi Raamatukogu catalog: יולי גענס ביבליאטעק. I טייל ביכער וועגן ביכער יודאיקא, Vol. 1, Tallinn, Libris, 1939.
  • "Каталог библиотеки и собрания Юлия Генса", Том 1 - 4, Tallinn, Libris, 1939.
  • "Book about books", Tallinn: [sn], 1939.
  • "Eksliibriseid aastaist 1936–1939" RaKü 6. rakenduskunsti Näitus: Tallinn, Kunstihoones, 15.-27.IV 1939.
  • "Üleliidulise põllumajandusnäituse arhitektuur". Ajakiri Viisnurk N1, 1940.
  • "Karl Timoleon Neff", Tallinn, 1940.
  • "Ilja Repin" (1844–1930) ". Ajakiri Viisnurk, October 1940.
  • Catalog for the exhibition “Leningradi ja Moskva kunstnike värvilise graafika”, Tallinn, Riigi Trükikoda, 1941.
  • "Lermontovi teoste illustreeritud väljaandeist". Ajakiri Viisnurk. May / June, 1941.
  • “Udo Ivask ja tema tegevus raamatumärkide harrastajana”, Tallinn, 1941.
  • Album "Eesti tööline", Tallinn, Eesti NSV Kunstifond, 1945.
  • "Eesti rahva elu-olu: 20 graafilist lehte", Tallinn, Eesti NSV Kunstifond, 1945.
  • With L. Medvedeva: “Nõukogude maal ja graafika Näituse juht”, Tallinn, 1945.
  • “Eesti kunsti materjale” bibliograafilisi materjale, 16 volumes, Tallinn, 1935–1948
  • "Vana Tallinn ajaloolistes mälestusmärkides", Tallinn, Ilukirjandus yes art, 1948.
  • Catalog for the exhibition "Kunstnik Roman Nymani teoste", Tallinn, Riiklik Kunstimuuseum, 1948.
  • "Vene Realistik Maalikool - Peredviznikud", NSVL Kunstifondi vabariiklik osakond, Tallinn, 1949.
  • "Eesti kunsti materjale". [4. osa], 12. [kd.]: Eesti tegelaste portreid kujutavas kunstis / koostanud Julius Genss, Tallinn: [sn], 1950.
  • "Заметки библиофила" часть 2, Tallinn, лето 1953.

literature

  • Осоргин М. "Библиофильская новинка", "Последние новости" (Париж), 1939, 1 июня;
  • F. Puksoo “Raamat ja tema sõbrad”. Tallinn, 1973.
  • "Eesti kunsti sidemed XX saj. algupoolelt ". Tallinn, 1978.
  • Ласунский О.Г. (предисловие к публикации “Заметок библиофила”), Книга: Исследования и материалы. 1990. Сб.60; его же «Второе« я »Ю.Генса»
  • Евреи в культуре Русского Зарубежья, Сост. М.Pархомовский. Иерусалим, 1993. Вып. 2
  • Инна Генс-Катанян. Дома и миражи. Нижний Новгород, изд-во ДЕКОМ, 2005, ISBN 5-89533-147-5 .
  • "Kodud ja kujutelmad", by Inna Gens, Tartu, Atlex, 2007, ISBN 978-9949-441-04-4 .
  • Lepik Hanno: Julius Genss yes ekslibristika. Tallinn, 2009.
  • Leo Gens: J. Genss - Investigator and Propagator of Jewish art. Jerusalem, 1994.
  • Mikhail Parkhomovsky: Russian-Jewish Diaspora (Historical Essays). Jerusalem, 2012, ISBN 978-965-90252-1-3 .
  • Eerik Teder: "Julius Genss and bibliophiilia. Raamat on… II, Tallinn 2002 (in Estonian)
  • Jutta Fleckenstein: From very far away - immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Hentrich and Hentrich Verlag Berlin, 2012, ISBN 978-3-942271-71-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti Entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 68.
  2. ↑ Patricia Kennedy-Grimsted: Roads to Ratibor: Library and Archival Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg. In: Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Volume 5, No. 3, 2005, pp. 390-458.
  3. ↑ Restorer J.Gens
  4. ↑ "Roads to Ratibor" (PDF file; 497 kB) Library and Archival Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, © Oxford University Press 2005.
  5. ^ "Interview on the exhibition" J. Gens restorer in Munich , Schir Haschirim (Song of Songs).
  6. ^ Article at Deutsche Welle " Julius Genss, collector out of passion by Cornelia Rabitz © DW
  7. ↑ Exhibition "Jews 45/90"
  8. ↑ exhibition "Jews 45/90" in Jewish Museum Munich
  9. ↑ nzz.ch NZZ
  10. ^ Article at Deutsche Welle " Julius Genss, collector out of passion by Cornelia Rabitz @ DW
  11. ^ Archive holdings, Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg Archive holdings, Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) from the Ukrainian State Archives
  12. ↑ When "the Russians" came, Jüdische Allgemeine
personal data
SURNAME Genss, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Genss, Idel; Gens, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian art historian, art collector, art scholar and patron
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Tartu , Estonia Governorate of the Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 1957
Place of death Tallinn , Estonian SSR