Kurt Luthmer

Kurt Friedrich Hermann Eduard Luthmer (born June 19, 1891 in Zabern , Alsace , † September 11, 1945 in Marburg ) was a German art historian and museum director.

Life

Kurt Luthmer was born as the son of the secret government councilor, high school councilor and Dr. of philosophy Hans Georg August Hermann Luthmer (born around 1851/52 in Goslar ; died on May 25, 1935 in Jugenheim , at the age of 83) and his wife Tina Luthmer nee. Becker born. After graduating, Kurt took part in the First World War as a soldier . From 1919 to 1923 he was employed at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt .

In April 1922, he moved to the Kassel State Museum as curator . In 1866, with the annexation of Hessen-Kassel, Prussia transferred the princely collections to state administration for the first time. In August 1913, the State Museum received a new building on the edge of Kassel's city center on Brüder-Grimm-Platz. In 1924 the collections were merged under the name "Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel" and given a joint administration and scientific management. In October 1928 Kurt Luthmer was finally put in charge of the museum in Kassel. He thus succeeded Johannes Boehlau , who had headed the museum since 1924.

From 1927 onwards, Luthmer participated intensively in setting up a Jewish department in the Kassel State Museum. To this end, he worked closely with the Jewish Museum Association, founded in 1928, of which Luthmer himself was closely involved and of which he was second chairman. At the beginning of 1933, Luthmer still planned to accommodate the acquired exhibits on the second floor of the new building. After the elections of March 5, 1933, Luthmer quickly changed his position. By the summer of 1933, all exhibits of the planned Jewish Museum had been removed from the holdings of the State Museum. Luthmer also publicly announced his support for the Nazi regime. In contrast to many other museum directors, he was able to keep his position and consolidate it in the years to come.

In September 1933 a day for the preservation of monuments and homeland security took place in Kassel. On this, Luthmer gave a report on the situation of the museums and their reorientation towards the Nazi regime . In the following years, supporters of the National Socialist ideologues were also increasingly employed in the State Museum in Kassel. In the spring of 1935 , the later NS cultural functionary Rolf Hetsch got a position as a research assistant at the State Art Collections in Kassel. At the end of 1936, Kurt Luthmer was appointed National Socialist museum curator for the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau. Since such an office was only given to politically reliable persons, his turn to National Socialist ideology can be derived from it.

Kurt Luthmer died of pulmonary tuberculosis on September 11, 1945 in the Sonnenblick sanatorium in Marburg . His last residence was at Adolphseck Castle near Fulda . He was buried in a cemetery for war dead in the main cemetery in Marburg.

Honors

• Awarded the title of professor

Publications (selection)

• Strasbourg guide . Strasbourg 1913.
• The Jewish Museum . In: Jewish weekly newspaper for Kassel, Hessen and Waldeck No. 16, April 29, 1927, p. 1.
• Memorandum on the establishment of an art library and a cabinet of copper engravings in Kassel . Kassel 1928.
• The Thomée Collection . Marburg 1931.
• with Rudolf Hallo : The Kupferstichkabinett and the library of the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Kassel . Kassel 1931, 2nd edition 1933.
• The Hessian family of painters Tischbein . Kassel 1934.
• Adolf Pistor (obituary) . In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies 59 (1934), pp. 1–5.
• The picture gallery in Kassel. A selection of the most beautiful works . Kassel 1938.
• In memoriam Johannes Boehlau, Eberhard Preime, Franz Voigt . Kassel 1941.

literature

• Wilhelm Hopf: Kurt Luthmer. In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies 63, 1952, pp. 123–124.
• Jürgen M. Lehmann (edit.): Biographies of the scientific staff at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Kassel 1913–1988 . In: Art in Hessen and am Mittelrhein 28, 1988, p. 164.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, registry office Jugenheim, death register 1911–1940 (HStAMR order 902 no. 419), document no. 11 from May 25, 1935 digital
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, registry office Marburg, death register 1945 (HStAMR Best. 915 no. 5770), document no. 1292 from September 11, 1945 digital
3. ^ Jens Hoppe: Jewish history and culture in museums. On the non-Jewish museology of the Jewish in Germany. Waxmann, Münster / Munich [et al.] 2002, ISBN 978-3-8309-1178-4 , pp. 195ff.