Morton H. Bernath

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Morton Heinrich Bernath (born November 25, 1886 in Belenves , Hungary , † July 27, 1965 in Mexico City ) was a German art historian and art dealer.

Life

Morton Bernath came from a German-Romanian-Hungarian family and lived in New York for some time. From 1909 he published essays on art history. From 1911 he worked for the editors in Leipzig for volumes 5 to 7 of the General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present and wrote biographical contributions for volumes 5–8, 10, 18–19. In 1912 he received his doctorate from the University of Friborg (Switzerland) . From 1913 to 1915 he edited the short-lived “Archive for Cultural History” with Detlev von Hadeln and Hermann Voss at EA Seemann .

In 1917 he was head of department at the Museum and Institute for the Customer of German Abroad in Stuttgart. After the November Revolution in 1918, he led a short-lived “Council of Intellectual Workers” in Stuttgart. From mid-April 1919 to mid-February 1920 he was head of the press department of the Württemberg State Ministry in Stuttgart, but was completely overwhelmed by this activity.

Since 1926 he was the owner of the antique shop in the Prinzenbau ("Antiques House Prinzenbau") on Schlossplatz in Stuttgart. During the boycott of Jewish shops on April 1, 1933, his shop was marked with red stickers “Jude”, the premises were given to him the next day, and on April 29, 1933 he had to close his shop and sell his warehouse below value. He then worked for the American Consulate General in Stuttgart.

He emigrated with his wife in 1939, first to Switzerland, then to Mexico in 1942, where he and Otto Pössenbacher opened an antiquarian bookshop and ran it until 1965.

He was married to Sonja Dümmler (1889–1961), who came from the Dümmler publishing family, and with whom he had three children.

Publications (selection)

  • Studies on the miniature manuscripts of the Leipzig city library I. Noske, Borna / Leipzig 1912 (= dissertation University of Freiburg (Switzerland) 1912; without curriculum vitae).
  • New York and Boston (= Famous Art Places 58). EA Seemann, Leipzig 1912 ( digitized version ).
  • Medieval painting . Kröner, Leipzig 1916.
  • Transylvanian-Saxon folk art . In: Heimat und Welt 6, 1916, pp. 338–341.

literature

  • Ulrike Wendland: Biographical handbook of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism. Part 1: A – K. KG Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 45–46 (with list of publications; incorrect place of birth stated as "New York").
  • Ernst Fischer: Publishers, booksellers and antiquarians from Germany and Austria who emigrated after 1933. A biographical handbook . Association of German Antiquaries, Elbingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-9812223-2-6 , p. 27.
  • Anja Heuss: persecution, emigration and reparation . In: Andrea Bambi, Axel Drecoll (ed.): Alfred Flechtheim: Robbery Art and Restitution . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-040484-5 , p. 12 (with reference to the personal file Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg EL 350I ES 3279).

Remarks

  1. ↑ Kathrin Iselt: "Special representative of the Führer". The art historian and museum man Hermann Voss (1884–1969) . Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20572-0 , p. 51.
  2. ↑ Morton Bernath: The German Foreign Museum in Stuttgart and the historical art monuments of Germanness abroad . In: Thirteenth Day for the Preservation of Monuments 1917, pp. 83–86; Morton Bernath: The German Foreign Museum and Institute . In: Museumskunde 14, 1918, pp. 38–40.
  3. ↑ Paul Bonatz : Living and Building . Stuttgart 1950, pp. 88-90; Fritz Elsas : On the Stuttgart town hall 1915–1922. Memories , ed. by Manfred Schmid. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1990, pp. 87, 231.
  4. ^ Matthias Lau: Press policy as an opportunity. State public relations in the countries of the Weimar Republic . Steiner, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-08071-6 , pp. 77-80.
  5. ^ Landesmuseum Württemberg, Provenance Research, Clarified Cases .
  6. ↑ S. documents about the persecution of Jewish citizens in Baden-Wuerttemberg by the Nazi regime 1933-1945 , the second part, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1966, p 41st
personal data
SURNAME Bernath, Morton H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernath, Morton Heinrich (full name); Bernath, Morton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian and art dealer
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Belenves , Hungary
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1965
Place of death Mexico city