Coordination office Magdeburg

Logography

The Magdeburg coordination office was an independent working group of the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs of Saxony-Anhalt , which was financed by all the federal states and the federal government. It was a service facility for the documentation of sought and found cultural goods that were withdrawn from their owners during the National Socialist era due to persecution ( Nazi looted art ) or that were brought in during the war ( looted art from the Second World War ). Searches and found reports from institutions or private individuals were publicly documented via the lost art database set up there in 2001 .

Since January 22nd, 2015, your tasks have been carried out by the German Loss of Cultural Property Center .

history

The coordination office was initially set up in Bremen in 1994 as the office of the federal states to document the institutional losses of cultural goods during the war. She took on a role that had been part of the Federal Ministry of the Interior since the 1950s . Initially it was about works of art that Germans had left behind when Germans fled and expelled from Central and Eastern Europe in 1945–1950 . Only after 1990 was looted art understood as such that were illegally collected by German authorities during National Socialism.

In 1998 it was set up as a "coordination office for the loss of cultural property" - supported by the federal government (50%) and all states (50%) - with extended responsibilities in Magdeburg . Since 2010 it has been called "Magdeburg Coordination Office - A federal and state institution for the documentation and loss of cultural assets at the Ministry of Culture of the State of Saxony-Anhalt".

tasks

In accordance with the requirements of the Washington Declaration ( Washington Principles ) of 1998 and the German Joint Declaration of 1999, its main task was the documentation of international search and find reports on cultural assets that were stolen from Nazi persecution (Nazi looted art) and that were brought in during the war (looted art). This has been done since 2001 via the free searchable database www.lostart.de. The purpose of the Lost Art Database (not to be confused with the Art Loss Register or the Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property) is to record cultural assets,

“The public institutions or private persons and institutions were lost as a result of the National Socialist tyranny and the Second World War and were advertised for global searches via the Lost Art Internet database. Owners or administrators of cultural assets with uncertain or incomplete provenance can research here whether they are being sought elsewhere. "

The purpose of the database is not only to facilitate the search for works of art, but also to promote amicable solutions regarding looted art (and for works where there is only a suspicion of looted art as well as for works that are not lost) through a warning function for the art trade. so no longer be searched). The Federal Administrative Court writes:

"Restricting the publication of search reports to cultural objects whose whereabouts are unknown to the seeker (...) would also not be compatible with the (...) explicitly emphasized historical responsibility in the form of consent to the Washington Principles of 1998."

The coordination office had a wide range of tools for public relations, e. B. organized specialist and advanced training events, published a series of scientific books (publications by the Coordination Office for the Loss of Cultural Property, since 2010 publications by the Magdeburg Coordination Office), provided checklists for provenance research and was the office of the Advisory Commission in connection with the return of Nazi persecution-related items Cultural assets ( Nazi looted art ). It operated a website that contained, on the one hand, the world's largest database for the documentation of objects of Nazi looted art and looted art and, on the other hand, represented an information portal on these subject areas.

In addition, the coordination office was responsible for the electronic version of the complete directory of German nationally valuable cultural assets in accordance with Section 6 (2) and Section 13 (2) of the Cultural Property Protection Act .