Kurt Seeleke

Kurt Seelekes birth and death house, Prinzenweg , corner of Güldenstraße .

Kurt Seeleke (born August 19, 1912 in Braunschweig ; † June 3, 2000 there ) was a German art historian and from 1939 to 1960 state curator and thus the highest monument protector of the state of Braunschweig . In this capacity, through selfless efforts, especially in the final phase of the Second World War and in the early post-war years , he succeeded in protecting a large number of art and cultural-historical treasures of the city and the state of Braunschweig from loss or destruction - including the Braunschweiger Löwen and the Imervard- Cross and countless other art treasures from the Braunschweig Cathedral and the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum . From 1960 to 1969, Seeleke was the state curator of West Berlin .

The square in front of the Municipal Museum at Magni-Tor in the Magniviertel was christened Kurt-Seeleke-Platz in honor of Kurt Seelekes .

Life

Savior of Braunschweig cultural assets

The Martini Church

Kurt Seeleke came from an old Brunswick family. His father was a honey cake baker. In 1939, the art historian with a doctorate was appointed state curator of Braunschweig. Shortly afterwards the Second World War began with the German invasion of Poland and Braunschweig was the target of Allied bombing raids from 1940. During such air raids, Seeleke often sat in one of the towers of the Martini Church and watched with binoculars where bombs fell and where fires developed. Then he drove a motorcycle to the source of the fire to help with the extinguishing work. B. in fires in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum and in the Vieweg-Haus, today's Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum .

As the chief curator of the state of Braunschweig, he received several orders from the National Socialists to relocate art and cultural assets from the city and state of Braunschweig to Silesia to protect them from destruction - most recently on July 10, 1944 from Bernhard Rust , Reich Minister for Science, Education and Public Education. Not only did Seeleke often resist these instructions by either not executing them at all, late or incompletely and at his own discretion, he also hid thousands of works of art from private owners together with art from state collections and museums, including numerous works by NS Regime were branded as " degenerate art ".

Rescue of the Brunswick Lion

The original of the Braunschweiger Löwen

For example, Seeleke did not have the Braunschweig lion (created around 1166), the city's landmark for centuries, transported to Silesia, but exchanged it, as the statue is still unprotected on the Burgplatz in front of Braunschweig, even after several years of war and multiple bombing raids on the city In a night-and-fog operation, Dom stood up against a copy without consulting his superior office and without informing the NSDAP leadership in Brunswick. But Seeleke brought the original to safety in a mine tunnel in the nearby Rammelsberg near Goslar . The lion only returned to Braunschweig on October 23, 1945, accompanied by Seeleke. The tomb of Henry the Lion and his second wife Mathilde of England (around 1230), the Imervard Cross (around 1150) and the seven-armed candlestick (12th century) from the cathedral were also housed in the same tunnel system .

End of the war in the Harz Mountains

His attitude towards the National Socialist rulers put Seeleke in danger several times. In the final phase of the war Kurt Seeleke was appointed by Dietrich Klagges , the NSDAP Prime Minister of the Free State of Braunschweig , as the state's "Gesamtkunstschutzbeauftragter". During this time he had some of the works of art in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum stored in the bunker on Salzdahlumer Straße and initially refused to make it available for the population. It was only when the Braunschweig police chief and SS officer Fuchs threatened him with a charge for disobedience to order that Seeleke let around 100 boxes with the works of Cranach , Rembrandt , van Dykes , Rubens , Giorgiones , Vermeers and other artists by truck into the castle, 50 km away Transport Blankenburg in the Harz region to store them in the vault there. Other works of art were stored in tunnels near Grasleben .

In April 1945 Heinrich Himmler , Reichsführer SS, declared the Harz to be the "Harz fortress" and Blankenburg to be its center. Similar to Monte Cassino , Blankenburg and the surrounding area were to be defended against the Allies "down to the last drop of blood". It was therefore to be feared that the castle and town of Blankenburg, including the art treasures stored there, faced a similar fate as the town and the monastery of Monte Cassino in the battle of Monte Cassino - namely total destruction. Out is made Seeleke, with walking cast due to an injury from shrapnel, on 11 April 1945 after Blankenburg in the headquarters of the Wehrmacht - General Walther Lucht on to move him to continue to move the front away from Blankenburg in the Harz into it. Numerous sources show that in order to emphasize his request, Seeleke had an onyx vessel from the holdings of the Duke Anton Ulrich Museum with him. He showed this to the general with the words: “Herr General, the German emperors were anointed from this vessel for 1000 years . The value of this onyx is just as immeasurable as the value of all the treasures that are stored here. Therefore my request: General, withdraw your troops. "

On the evening of April 13, 1945, the German units actually withdrew from the castle and the city and formed a new front deeper in the Harz Mountains, where heavy fighting with high losses on both sides still took place in the last days of the war. However, this saved the city and its art treasures from destruction.

After the end of the war, Seeleke had to fear for her again in June, as Red Army troops were on their way to the Harz Mountains to occupy it. Once again, the state curator - this time with the help of the British occupation forces and numerous trucks - managed to move the boxes back to the west.

post war period

At the end of the Second World War, Braunschweig was badly damaged by numerous bomb attacks. The inner city, characterized by its medieval floor plan, within the Oker flood ditch, practically no longer existed, as 90% of it had been destroyed by the bombing of October 15, 1944 , among other things .

Seeleke continued to be the state curator in Braunschweig until 1960 before moving to Berlin. According to the Hague Land Warfare Regulations, the British military administration provided him with a so-called " art protection officer " who was responsible for the protection of art objects, including their recovery, safekeeping, restoration and other uses. This officer was the British Robert Lonsdale Charles, called "Rollo" by Seeleke. He soon became close friends with him. In an interview from 1994, Seeleke said about Charles: “… the success of the campaigns [note: by Seeleke meant the return of the art objects] I owe above all to Rollo. ... Without Rollo and his influence ... the many transports would not have been possible ... That was because we believed together in a new Europe, in European values and art as a community obligation ... " .

Richmond Castle

At the beginning of 1946, Seeleke and Charles jointly succeeded in using the almost undamaged Richmond Castle as a depot for the returned works of art from Braunschweig that were in need of restoration. B. from the Nationalgalerie Berlin and the Berlin Ethnographic Museum. At that time it was the only restoration workshop in the north, which is why the British made it a conference center for conservators and museum directors from all over Germany. The head restorer was Fritz Herzig .

The "traditional islands"

Magni Church

Together with Friedrich Wilhelm Kraemer , architect and lecturer at the Technical University of Braunschweig , Seeleke developed the concept of the " traditional islands " in the heavily destroyed city by building around churches in the city center, ie: the cathedral with Burgplatz and the surrounding area, Martini church with the adjoining old town market , Aegidienkirche and the surrounding area , Magni Church with the Magniviertel and around the Michaelis Church ( Echternstrasse ), in the midst of almost total destruction, areas of original buildings that have grown over centuries have been preserved or largely restored. Among other things, buildings from other city districts worth preserving were relocated in order to be able to maintain the original overall impression of a grown urban landscape . These "islands" thus comprised three of the five historical Braunschweig soft forms , namely Altewiek , Altstadt and Sack . The destruction in the other two, Hagen , with Hagenmarkt and Katharinenkirche, as well as the almost complete destruction of the Neustadt around the Wollmarkt , with Andreaskirche , Alter Waage and Liberei , were so immense that initially it was hardly possible to think of a reconstruction in the original sense .

In 1963 the traditional islands were included in the monument preservation statute of the city of Braunschweig, so they were placed under special legal protection.

Destruction of the Braunschweig Castle

Summer 1960: The Braunschweig Castle is demolished

The Braunschweig Castle , one of the central points of Braunschweig city center, was badly damaged during the war. In the post-war period, a very controversial discussion arose around the question of “preservation or demolition?”, In which the state curator Seeleke was also involved with great commitment. He tried again and again to prevent the demolition - even after the city council had already decided - by urging Friedrich Wilhelm Kraemer to do more to preserve the castle. When this did not work, in May 1960, Seeleke wrote to Kraemer: “I am deeply disappointed that you did not commit yourself more vehemently. With furious effort you could have prevented this barbarian piece. "

In view of the “barbarism”, as Seeleke described the demolition in the summer of 1960, he gave up his post as state curator in Braunschweig and went to Berlin, deeply disappointed and deeply offended, where he worked as a conservationist for the Senate. After his retirement he returned to his hometown, where he was awarded the Citizens Medal of the City of Braunschweig in 1990 for his services to the preservation of monuments and the reconstruction of the city , and died on June 3, 2000 at the age of 87.

Based on a resolution of the Braunschweig City Council in 2004, the Braunschweig Castle was rebuilt as part of the so-called "Castle Arcades" using original components and opened in spring 2007.

literature

Reinhard Bein and Bernhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995.
Berlin manual: The lexicon of the federal capital. Berlin 1992, p. 266.
Regina Blume: Kurt Seeleke. In: Working group other history (ed.): Braunschweiger personalities of the 20th century. Volume 1, döringDruck, Braunschweig 2012, ISBN 978-3-925268-42-7 , pp. 248-253.
Braunschweiger Zeitung (ed.): The 100 largest Braunschweiger. Braunschweig 2005.
Braunschweiger Zeitung (ed.): End of the war. Braunschweig 2005.
Cay Friemuth: The stolen art. The dramatic race to save the cultural treasures after the Second World War. Braunschweig 1989.
Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Gerhard Schildt (ed.): The Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia . 2nd Edition. Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2001, ISBN 3-930292-28-9 .
Bernd Wedemeyer: The former residential palace in Braunschweig. Documentation about the building and its demolition in 1960. 2nd edition. Braunschweig 1993.

Web links

Literature by and about Kurt Seeleke in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ Bernd Wedemeyer: The former residential palace in Braunschweig. Documentation about the building and its demolition in 1960. 2nd edition. Braunschweig 1993, p. 155.
↑ Braunschweiger Zeitung of May 2, 2009: Platz am Stadtmuseum reminds of Kurt Seeleke on newsclick.de
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Braunschweiger Zeitung (ed.): The 100 largest Braunschweiger. Braunschweig 2005, p. 31.
↑ Reinhard Bein and Berhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995, p. 272.
↑ Reinhard Bein and Berhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995, p. 271.
↑ ^a ^b Braunschweiger Zeitung (ed.): End of the war. Braunschweig 2005, p. 13.
↑ Reinhard Bein and Berhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995, p. 270f.
↑ Reinhard Bein and Berhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995, p. 273.
↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, p. 1141.
↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, p. 1142.

personal data
SURNAME	Seeleke, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Braunschweig state curator
DATE OF BIRTH	August 19, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH	Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH	June 3, 2000
Place of death	Braunschweig

[1] Bernd Wedemeyer: The former residential palace in Braunschweig. Documentation about the building and its demolition in 1960. 2nd edition. Braunschweig 1993, p. 155.

[2] Braunschweiger Zeitung of May 2, 2009: Platz am Stadtmuseum reminds of Kurt Seeleke on newsclick.de

[groesste-3] Braunschweiger Zeitung (ed.): The 100 largest Braunschweiger. Braunschweig 2005, p. 31.

[Bein-4] Reinhard Bein and Berhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995, p. 272.

[5] Reinhard Bein and Berhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995, p. 271.

[Ende-6] Braunschweiger Zeitung (ed.): End of the war. Braunschweig 2005, p. 13.

[7] Reinhard Bein and Berhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995, p. 270f.

[8] Reinhard Bein and Berhardine Vogel: Post-war period. The Braunschweiger Land 1945 to 1950. Materials on the country's history. Braunschweig 1995, p. 273.

[9] Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, p. 1141.

[10] Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, p. 1142.