Sándor Wolf

Sándor Wolf (also Alexander W., born December 21, 1871 in Eisenstadt ; † January 2, 1946 in Haifa ) was an Austrian collector, art patron and wine merchant . His collection served as the basis of the Burgenland State Museum , which he co-founded.

family

Sándor Wolf was born as the son of the Jewish wine merchant Igna (t) z Wolf (born August 27, 1841 in Eisenstadt; † January 18, 1906 Eisenstadt) and his wife Minna (Hermine), née. Gomperz, born. He had several sisters, Ernestine, married. Schleisser; Flora, married Braun (March 26, 1868 Eisenstadt; † 1920); Adelheid, married Böhm (born November 1, 1870), Gisela, married. Gomperz (* around 1873; † 1937 in Vienna), Frieda, married. Löwy (born January 27, 1877, Eisenstadt - † Haifa, July 11, 1963), Alice († 1906 in Bern ) and Helene, married. Stern and a brother, Leopold (born May 27, 1868 Eisenstadt, † May 14, 1926).

His niece was the potter Lucie Rie .

Life

The " Leopold Wolf's Söhne " wine wholesaler that he ran was one of the largest in the Danube monarchy. At the turn of the century at the latest, his archaeological and historical interests began. From 1920 Wolf developed a passion for collecting the history of Burgenland and Jewish history. For example, he had recreated a Jewish office in one of the rooms, just as his father - "still a full ghetto dealer" - had run. His closeness to Zionism is proven by his trip to Israel in 1923 . On his initiative, the Burgenland State Museum was founded in 1926, which was housed in the Leinnerhaus of his family business from 1926 to 1938 . In 1932 his collection - excluding the archaeological objects - already comprised more than 5800 objects. In order to participate in the founding, he was appointed curator of the Austrian Federal Monuments Office.

In March 1938 Sándor Wolf was arrested by the Gestapo in the course of the " Anschluss " between Austria and Hitler-Germany and forced to " voluntarily " give up his property and his collection . While parts of the Burgenland collection remained in Eisenstadt, his library was probably brought to Berlin with Judaica. Wolf and his sister Frieda Löwy had to flee via Fiume and Trieste to Palestine , where he bought a country estate in Haifa . He might be able to have his library come here. In the Jewish Social Studies of 1946 he stated as his own information that the library and museum of Sándor Wolf in Palestine consisted of 31,000 books on the history and art of Hungary. The museum would be divided into archeology, art and history. He died in 1946 - in the middle of his travel preparations for a return to Eisenstadt.

Restitution and whereabouts of the collection

After the war his sister Frieda inherited. However, an art export law prohibited her from exporting the collection from Austria. In 1955 she donated at least eight ancient mummy portraits to the Museum of Antiquities in Haifa . In 1957 she (and her lawyer Dr. Karl Friedmann) reached an agreement with the official authorities about the further fate of the estate. Parts of the former Wolf collection were acquired by the Province of Burgenland in 1958 and are exhibited in the Wolf House of the State Museum. The remainder of the collection was auctioned off in 1958 in Lucerne by the Galerie Fischer auction house. In the Albertina in Vienna there is a part of the estate, the restitution of which has not yet been decided.

recognition

In Eisenstadt, the historic Wolf House and Wolf Museum is an integral part of the state museum building. There is Alexander-Wolf-Gasse named after him in Eisenstadt. In the Oberberg there is the so-called Wolfgarten with the mausoleum of the Wolf family. Franz Werfel is likely to have portrayed Wolf in the character of Baron Jacques Emanuel Weil in his novel Cella .

Publications

• Roman finds from Eisenstadt . Edited by Wilhelm Kubitschek , with a contribution by Sándor Wolf (= special publications of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna, vol. 11). Austrian publishing company B. Filser & Co, Vienna 1926
• (Ed.): Eisenstadt research . Holzhausen, Vienna 1922–

literature

• André Csatkai, Dagobert Frey: The monuments of the political district Eisenstadt and the free cities Eisenstadt and Rust . With archival contributions from the State Archives Dr. Rudolf Wolkan. Vienna: Filser 1932 ( Austrian Art Topography , Volume 24)
• Library from the Sandor Wolf collection . Lucerne: Galerie Fischer, June 20, 1958.
• Large art auction in Lucerne: Sandor Wolf private museum in Eisenstadt, miniature collection of a prince, pocket watch collection I., Ostasiatica estate of Konsul Klein . Galerie Fischer, 1958.
• Library from the Sandor Wolf collection . Lucerne: Galerie Fischer, 3rd part. Manuscripts, miniatures, prints and woodcut works from the 15th and 16th centuries. Lucerne: Galerie Fischer, 1959.
• Jewish Frontier , Volume 27, 1960.
• Hugo Gold: Memorial book of the perished Jewish communities of Burgenland. Ed. Olamenu. 1970.
• Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Volume 3: S – Z, Register. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 , p. 1500.
• Dieter Szorger: Sándor Wolf (1871–1946) founder of the State Museum. In: Burgenland. 90 years - 90 stories. Accompanying volume to the exhibition (= scientific works from Burgenland . Volume 137). Landesmuseum Burgenland, Eisenstadt 2011, ISBN 978-3-85405-180-0 , pp. 190f.

Web links

• Sándor Wolf spotted Viennese art history
• Article Sándor Wolf at the Landesmuseum Burgenland
• Bookplate for Sándor Wolf by Sascha Kronburg, ÖNB
• Photograph of an excavation by Sándor Wolf

Individual evidence

1. ^ Austrian National Library: ÖNB / ANNO AustriaN Newspaper Online. In: anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved February 15, 2016 . 
2. ^ Sonia Wachstein: Hagenberggasse 49: Memories of a Viennese Jewish childhood and youth . Böhlau Verlag Wien, 1996, ISBN 978-3-205-98604-1 ( google.com [accessed on February 15, 2016]).
3. ^ Austrian National Library: ÖNB / ANNO AustriaN Newspaper Online. In: anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved February 15, 2016 . 
4. ^ Jan Björn Potthast: The Jewish Central Museum of the SS in Prague: Research on opponents and genocide under National Socialism . Campus Verlag, 2002, ISBN 978-3-593-37060-6 ( google.at [accessed on February 15, 2016]).
5. ^ Austrian National Library: ÖNB / ANNO AustriaN Newspaper Online. In: anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved February 15, 2016 . 
6. ^ Dirk Rupnow: Destroying and remembering: traces of nationalistic memory politics . Wallstein Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-3-89244-871-6 ( google.com [accessed February 15, 2016]).
7. ↑ Historians' Commission of the Republic of Austria: "Aryanizations," confiscated assets, provisions and compensation in Upper Austria . Oldenbourg, 2004, ISBN 978-3-7029-0521-7 ( google.com [accessed February 15, 2016]).
8. ^ Jewish Social Studies . Conference on Jewish Social Studies., January 1, 1946 ( google.com [accessed February 15, 2016]).
9. ↑ No receipt!
10. ↑ Possibly ten too. On January 20, 1956, eight works with the shelfmarks 5094-5101 were signed in the Museum of Ancient Art in Haifa under their sponsorship. On the same day, there was a double portrait (signature 5093A and 5093B), which - due to the proximity of the photo - should also come from her. Kind information from the museum, February 15, 2016.
11. ↑ Gabriele Anderl: … significantly more cases than assumed: 10 years of the Commission for Provenance Research . Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2009, ISBN 978-3-205-78183-7 ( google.at [accessed on February 15, 2016]).
12. ↑ ALBERTINA - Albertina reports for the Commission for Provenance Research. (No longer available online.) In: albertina.at. Archived from the original on February 15, 2016 ; accessed on February 15, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ^ Hans Wagener, Wilhelm Hemecker : Judaism in life and work of Franz Werfel . Walter de Gruyter, 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-025282-8 ( google.com [accessed February 15, 2016]).