Otto Kallir

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Otto Kallir (actually Otto Nirenstein ), (born April 1, 1894 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † November 30, 1978 in New York City , USA ) was an Austro-American art historian , essayist , publisher and gallery owner .

Life

Otto Nirenstein was a son of the lawyer Jacob Nirenstein and Clara Engel. He attended the Academic Gymnasium and studied from 1912 to 1914 and, after his service in the First World War, again from 1919 to 1920 at the Technical University of Vienna , but gave up his studies because of the prevailing anti-Semitism. At the same time, he began his career as a publisher and gallery owner with the founding of the “Verlag Neuer Grafik” in 1919 and the “Neue Galerie” in Vienna's inner city in 1923 , today the gallery next to St. Stephan , where he for the first time had a larger Egon Schiele - Exhibition organized. Nirenstein then developed into an internationally renowned art dealer, he published bibliophile works about Gustav Klimt , Oskar Kokoschka , Egon Schiele and Alfred Kubin and in 1931 saved Richard Gerstl's paintings from decay. The painters Fritz Waerndorfer , Hans Pilhs and Leopold Hauer could also be found in his exhibitions. Nirenstein began studying art history in 1927, which he completed in 1931 with a dissertation on the subject of contributions to Vischerforschung with Julius von Schlosser .

In 1933 Otto Nirenstein changed his name to Kallir. Nirenstein, homonym for kidney stone , is one of the derisive names that were forcibly assigned to Jewish families in the Habsburg monarchy in the 18th century. Kallir was the Hebrew name of a branch of the family that Otto decided to run himself.

Since after the annexation of Austria there was a risk of imprisonment by the National Socialists , Kallir was forced to emigrate to France because of the persecution for "racial" reasons and because of his open support for the Kurt Schuschnigg government . In Paris he founded the gallery “St. Etienne “(St. Stephan). Due to the development of the political situation he had to emigrate to the USA in 1939, where he also opened the gallery “St. Etienne ”and in 1941 again organized the first Schiele exhibition in the USA. Schiele's international recognition can be attributed to his constant efforts to find this artist. He wrote a book about the American painter Grandma Moses and exhibited the painter Josef Scharl . Kallir received American citizenship in 1945.

The “ Otto Kallir Autograph Collection” is located in the Vienna Library in the City Hall . His estate is kept in the Leo Baeck Institute in New York and in the archive of the Austrian Gallery in the Belvedere .

Kallir was one of the pioneers of amateur radio in Austria (OE1OK) and was a passionate photographer. In 1922 he married the German Franziska Baronin zu Löwenstein in Vienna.

Otto Kallir and Willibald Plöchl

In America, Kallir became head of the Austrian refugee association Austrian-American League . Willibald Plöchl , the founder of the Free Austrian National Council , made him responsible for the differences that arose between him and Otto Habsburg . In connection with this, Kallir from Plöchl's circle was accused at the FBI of having been a "former agent of Hitler and Mussolini" and of having traded in looted art. He therefore suffered an almost fatal heart attack on December 12, 1942; after his long convalescence he left the Austrian-American League and from then on had nothing to do with politics. The Washington Post , which had published an article about his Nazi connections, issued a letter of apology; the FBI closed the investigation on the orders of J. Edgar Hoover as based on defamation. Otto Habsburg wrote in a report to the OSS ( Office of Strategic Services , forerunner of the CIA ) on April 14, 1942 :

“Kallir has faced many attacks. It seems these attacks were unjustified. Kallir is honest, but has a very unfortunate hand in politics. "

Awards

literature

  • Gerhardt Plöchl: Willibald Plöchl and Otto Habsburg in the USA. - Wrestling for Austria's 'government in exile' 1941/42. Verlag Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance , Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-901142-52-9 . (Chapter Otto Kallir edited and supplemented by Jane and John Kallir [New York], Evamarie Kallir [Vienna])
  • Kallir, Otto , in: Ulrike Wendland: Biographical Handbook of German-Speaking Art Historians in Exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism . Munich: Saur, 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 351-355

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Gerhardt Plöchl: Willibald Plöchl and Otto Habsburg in the USA. [1]
  2. ↑ Otto Kallir: Grandma Moses, your art and your personality , DuMont, Cologne 1975, ISBN 3770111222 .
personal data
SURNAME Kallir, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nirenstein, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian art historian, essayist, publisher and gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1978
Place of death New York City , USA