Otto Bernheimer

Otto Bernheimer (born July 14, 1877 in Munich ; † July 5, 1960 there ) was an art collector and antique dealer.

Life

Otto Bernheimer was born as the son of Lehmann Bernheimer (1841–1918), who was appointed royal Bavarian purveyor to the court in 1884 and had been running a trading business in Munich since 1864 . With his two brothers Max and Ernst (1875–1956) he traveled to many European countries in search of fine art. Bernheimer's customers included the European nobility, financiers, diplomats and artists as well as the Krupp family and William Randolph Hearst . Bernheimer not only offered exclusive individual items, but also complete interior fittings for its customers.

Gestapo files on the deprivation of the Reich citizenship of Otto and Charlotte Bernheimer

After his father's death in 1918, he was the second generation to take over the company, and the difficult economic situation made business worse. After the handover of power to the National Socialists , the business volume could initially even be increased, as equipment for prestige events was required. During the Reichspogromnacht 1938 the shop windows were smashed and Otto Bernheimer was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp . Due to the intervention of the Mexican government, Bernheimer was Honorary Consul of Mexico , he and his sons were released. The family emigrated all over the world: Otto was forced to buy a run-down coffee plantation in Venezuela from an aunt of Hermann Göring . It took place the linearization of the "art dealer Otto Bernheimer" (after "Munich art market society" and " camaraderie of artists "), as well as the confiscation of all property (including a collection of German and French paintings from the 19th century).

Otto Bernheimer returned to Munich in August 1945, rebuilt the war-damaged commercial building and company, and campaigned for the restitution of the family property. In 1948 he was able to resume business with a focus on the fabrics and furnishings department. On his initiative, at the beginning of the economic boom, the "German Art and Antiques Fair" was founded in Munich in 1956 and Bernheimer was elected President of the German Art Trade Association.

In addition to the office building on Lenbachplatz in Munich ( Palais Bernheimer ), Otto Bernheimer owned a villa in Feldafing on Lake Starnberg, which he had built in 1912/13 by the architect Max Littmann on Höhenbergstrasse. After the restitution in the 1950s, Otto Bernheimer donated the villa to the Feldafing community, which had operated a primary school there since 1934. The school is called “Otto Bernheimer Elementary School”.

Awards

• 1954: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class
• 1959: Bavarian Order of Merit
• 1960: Golden Citizen Medal from the City of Munich

literature

• Otto Bernheimer: Memories of an old man from Munich. Munich 1957 (autobiography)
• Erich Pfeiffer-Belli: Bernheimer - 100 years in Munich. 1864-1964. Festschrift, Munich 1964.
• Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 .
• Konrad O. Bernheimer : Narwhal Tooth and Old Masters. From the life of an art dealer dynasty . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-455-50280-0 .
• Bernheimer, Otto , in: Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life . Munich: Saur, 1980, p. 59

Web links

• Brita Sachs: Portrait of a family of art dealers. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 15, 2008
• Manfred Hummel: arbitrariness and expropriation. The bitter fate of the Jewish purveyors to the court during the Nazi era. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 9, 2006, p. 50. (PDF file; 357 kB)
• Entry at the coordination office for the loss of cultural assets, Magdeburg
• Fifty years ago, Munich City Archives

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Louis Lewitan: That was my salvation. Interview with Konrad O. Bernheimer , Zeitmagazin , January 2, 2014, p. 46