Paul Graupe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emil Orlik : Poster for the 24th auction at Graupe in 1922
Firmenblau
auction catalog for Wilhelm Solf's Japan collection (1936)

Paul Graupe (born May 29, 1881 in Neutrebbin ; died February 9, 1953 in Baden-Baden ) was a German antiquarian bookseller and art dealer.

Life

Paul Graupe was of Jewish origin, but that didn't seem important to him. He attended high school and trained as a bookseller in Poznan in the Joseph Jolowicz company. He then worked for Gustav Fock in Leipzig , Jacques Rosenthal in Munich , Martin Breslauer in Berlin , Lipsius & Tischer in Kiel and Friedrich Cohen in Bonn .

As early as 1902, Graupe founded an antiquarian bookshop under his name in Berlin. Graupe was exempted from conscription as unfit and was not drafted during the First World War . In 1916 he held his first book auction in Berlin, and in 1917 he auctioned the library of the deceased publisher and co-founder of Insel-Verlag Alfred Walter Heymel with dedicatory copies by Rainer Maria Rilke .

After the war he was involved in organizing the replacement of the holdings of the Löwen University Library, which was destroyed in World War I, alongside Joseph Baer & Co. , Jacques Rosenthal , Ludwig Rosenthal , Karl Wilhelm Hiersemann and Martin Breslauer . Book art and graphics were the focus of his business until 1927, his success was also based on his carefully edited inventory and auction catalogs, which he equipped with high-quality photos and which appeared in the company's blue color from 1930. He expanded his business to include the fine arts and, despite the global economic crisis, carried out seventeen large art auctions with the Hermann Ball art dealer between 1930 and 1932.

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933, many Jewish art dealers had to flee Germany, including Alfred Flechtheim and Walter Feilchenfeldt , while Graupe was allowed to continue his profession until 1937 thanks to a special permit from the Reich Chamber of Culture . Since he had an international clientele, Joseph Goebbels saw him as a source of foreign currency.

Graupe was now involved in the dissolution of numerous art collections, to which the Jews persecuted by the National Socialists were forced to pay additional income tax and the Reich flight tax . On the other hand, those who were forced to emigrate from Graupe hoped for fair treatment. In January 1934 Max Alsberg's art collection was auctioned by Graupe., Alsberg fled to Switzerland in 1933 and committed suicide there. In 1935 Max Silberberg's extensive picture collection and library near Graupe were closed.

Van Gogh: The man is at sea

By 1937 Graupe had organized around 160 auctions with works by Rubens, Rembrandt or Tiepolo, Corot, Menzel and Liebermann when he himself had to flee to Switzerland. The business in Berlin was Aryanized and in favor of Hans Wolfgang Lange (1904-1945) continued until 1944. Graupe founded the company "Paul Graupe & Cie" in Paris, but had no permission to work as an auctioneer in France. At the beginning of the war in 1939 he escaped internment in France because he was staying in Switzerland. After the German conquest of France in 1940, the company's warehouse in Paris was stolen by Reichsleiter Rosenberg . In 1941, Graupe and his wife managed to flee to the USA, where he struggled to do business. Only the painting The Man is at Sea by Vincent van Gogh could be smuggled out of occupied France, and Graupe sold it to Errol Flynn .

After the war ended, he returned to Paris in 1945 and resumed business there. He sought the restitution of the stolen inventory, which could not be reconstructed later, had what images Graupe and what his company had taken on commission. Graupe fell seriously ill in 1950 and died in 1953. His son Tommy Grange was also an art dealer and carried on research, restitution and compensation negotiations for the family until the 1960s.

Auction catalogs (selection)

  • Paul Schlenther Library . Auction on Saturday, May 5th, 1917. Introduction: Otto Pniower. Graupe, Berlin 1917.
  • Otto von Falke : Marc Rosenberg Collection: auctioned on November 4, 1929 . Hermann Ball / Paul Graupe, Berlin 1929.
  • 19th century paintings and drawings from a well-known Silesian private collection and from various private collections . Catalog for auction on March 23, 1935, Paul Graupe auction house, Berlin 1935.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The presentation of the stages in life follows the review by Anja Heuss (2016); the extensive monograph by Golenia et al. Was used for the preparation of this article. a. not used.
  2. ↑ Ernst Fischer; Stephan Füssel (Ed.): History of the German book trade in the 19th and 20th centuries . Vol. 2: The Weimar Republic: 1918–1933 . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, p. 418.
  3. ↑ Golenia et al. a .: Paul Graupe (1881-1953) , 2016, p. 125.
  4. ^ Art possession Prof. Max Alsberg, Berlin: Paintings and applied arts from a well-known private collection in southern Germany; various private collections in Berlin; Auction 29./30. Jan. 1934. Berlin: Paul Graupe, Berlin W 9, Bellevuestrasse 3, 1934
  5. ↑ Golenia et al. a .: Paul Graupe (1881-1953) , 2016, p. 98.
  6. ↑ Golenia et al. a .: Paul Graupe (1881-1953) , 2016, p. 129.
  7. ↑ Golenia et al. a .: Paul Graupe (1881-1953) , 2016, p. 174.
  8. ^ Project: Paul Graupe (1881-1953). A Berlin art dealer between the Republic, National Socialism and Exile (completed) , at the Institute for Art Research and Historical Urban Studies. Department of Modern Art History, TU Berlin.
personal data
SURNAME Graupe, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German antiquarian bookseller and art dealer
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH New Trebbin
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1953
Place of death Baden-Baden