Sonnenhaus (Lichtenfels)

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Today's view of the listed Villa Sonnenhaus
Villa Sonnenhaus around 1915, then address Kronacher Straße 19
Henriette "Jetta" Bamberger (1891–1978), on the right, at the Frog King fountain in Villa Sonnenhaus, around 1915
The Villa Sonnenhaus, probably in the 1940s or 1950s

The Sonnenhaus in Lichtenfels ( Upper Franconia ) is a villa built in 1914 in the characteristics of late Art Nouveau in today's Kronacher Strasse 21, which has been a listed building since 1994 .

The villa was built by the architect August Berger , who is one of the most important representatives of the late Art Nouveau in Upper Franconia, and is one of the villa buildings that were built by local entrepreneurs and industrialists in particular. The owner of the Villa Sonnenhaus was Otto Bamberger , an internationally active businessman, entrepreneur, art collector and patron from Lichtenfels , who lived in the building with his family from 1914 to 1933 (his relatives until 1938).

The villa with its multi-colored, artistically painted lattice windows in the entrance area and staircase and an originally spacious garden was considered a cultural center of the city at the time, because regular literary evenings took place in it, sculptors, graphic artists, painters, draftsmen, writers, art historians and industrialists came and went . The villa has been regularly visited by guests, whose numbers during the Nazi period as a result of anti-Semitic motivated discrimination of its inhabitants and a number of previous residents became increasingly smaller.

One of the great features of its interior is that it was completely furnished with Bauhaus furniture in the New Objectivity style , which was probably unique at the time . The villa was therefore probably the only private building in the whole of Germany that was fully equipped with Bauhaus furniture, lights and accessories.

Until it was confiscated and looted (see looted art ) on November 10, 1938, the villa housed the region's most extensive collection of expressionist art by now internationally known artists.

Construction of the villa

The merchant Otto Bamberger commissioned the building of the villa from the Hildburghausen -based architect August Berger when he was about to marry Henriette "Jetta" (1891–1978), née Wolff, with whom he was on December 24th Was married in 1913 . She was a daughter of the merchant Beni Wolff (1857-1923) from Hall (am Kocher) .

Both were expecting their first child, Ruth (1914–1983), in 1914. In 1920 the couple's second child was born, Klaus Philipp (1920–2008).

Before the villa was completed, Otto Bamberger lived with his parents, Philipp Bamberger (1858–1919) and his wife Sarah “Serry” (1863–1925), née Ellmann, at 45 Bamberger Strasse in Lichtenfels. Their house was right next to the family-owned company D. Bamberger Palmkorb- und Möbelklopfer-Fabrik , whose managing director Otto Bamberger had been his father Philipp and his brother Fritz (1862–1942) since 1910 .

Naming

Printed letterhead of Otto Bamberg with the sender Lichtenfels solar house , 1926

The name of the villa as a "sun house" is documented by a large number of contemporary sources by various authors.

Her address, which was officially Kronacher Straße 19 until the name was changed during the Nazi era, was preferably given as “Lichtenfels, Sonnenhaus”. However, a large number of letters have been received that prove that it was sufficient for proper postal delivery at the time to address "Otto Bamberger, Lichtenfels" so that the items could reach their recipient.

architecture

Known as the "sun" Villa is a single-storey gable permanent building with tails roof described, with a polygonal booth bay and eaves Zwerchhaus . The villa is characterized as single-storey because the building is single-storey under the roof, which is drawn far down on the west side.

However, the building was planned and executed on four levels, a basement halfway underground as a basement, a ground floor designed as a mezzanine, an upper floor and a converted attic.

The two entrances on the south and east sides were reached via eight-step stairs, as was the veranda on the north side, which was used for meals in the warmer half of the year and which could be accessed via a window in the adjacent kitchen. The villa had rooms for domestic servants as well as a bell between the kitchen on the ground floor and the attic, as well as rooms for guests of the house, known as guest rooms.

  • Basement (basement)

  • Ground floor (mezzanine floor)

  • Upper floor (1st floor)

  • Top floor (2nd floor)

interior

Both Otto Bamberger and his wife Henriette were interested in modern art, literature, philosophy, politics, architecture and interior design as well as trips abroad.

Entrance area and staircase

The entrance area and the stairwell of the villa are partly wood-paneled, the massive wooden pillar of the banister on the ground floor is turned, the staircase plinth is representative rounded. The parapets of the stair landings have straight horizontal and vertical struts, which continue in an ascending or descending line on the banister. The handrails of the parapet railing and the stair railing made of hardwood are designed differently, rounded for the latter easy to grip and grooved towards the pillar and then curved, while the parapet railing is wider and angular. The wooden steps were equipped with soundproofing by means of a carpet runner fixed with brass staircase poles.

Stained glass

In the late Art Nouveau period , the colorfully painted glass lattice windows of the Villa Sonnenhaus were made by the Coburg art glassworks Bringmann and Schmidt . Two windows show floral ornaments , some with fruits, some with flowers. A window shows a on a globe standing beardless Hermes -Figur with winged helmet, winged shoes and Caduceus (Greek kerykeion, Latin caduceus). Two further windows depict nature-related motifs with female figures, symbolizing flora and fauna . One holds up a small branch with leaves and buds (or fruit) that she is looking at. On the outstretched index finger of the raised hand of the other female figure sits a small songbird with a wide open beak, which is probably meant to chirp. Other works by Bringmann and Schmidt have been preserved in several churches in the region, for example in St. Bonifaz in Oberlauter .

Bauhaus furniture and accessories

Otto Bamberger commissioned the Bauhaus designer Erich Dieckmann in 1926 to completely redesign and equip the interior of the entire Sonnenhaus. As a result, a room in the villa on the ground floor (mezzanine floor) was partly rededicated compared to the original building plan designations. The previous salon was given combined use as a library, storage room for works of art, and a salon. For this purpose, a rabitz wall was put in, which was supposed to close a window facing the house entrance so that the partially glazed bookshelf lugs could be put in front. The reception and entertainment of house guests during literary evenings took place largely in this room and in the dining room with oriel seating area adjoining it through a wide, largely glazed sliding door, in the warmer seasons of course also in the once relatively spacious garden over the one adjoining the dining room Conservatory was accessible.

According to the correspondence received, the complete furnishing of the villa with Bauhaus furniture began in September 1927 with the library on the ground floor and was probably completed at Christmas 1932 with the daughter room for the then 18-year-old Ruth Bamberger. Possible further work prevented the time-related circumstances after the transfer of power to the National Socialists , which led, among other things, to the closure of the Bauhaus in 1933, to Dieckmann's ideological dismissal and to the early death of Otto Bamberger.

According to the documentation of the main state archive in Weimar , Otto Bamberger was probably the first and only client of the Bauhaus who commissioned the complete redesign and furnishing of an entire building. He is therefore considered to be the greatest sponsor and client of the Bauhaus.

A number of Dieckmann's designs for Otto Bamberger can be found in February 1929 in the design magazine Die Form , in at least one furniture catalog from the Staatliche Bauhochschule Weimar , in 1930 in Walter Müller-Wulckow's book The German Apartment of the Present and in Dieckmann's book Möbelbau in Holz, published in 1931 Tube and steel that is available as an antiquarian or reprint.

  • Partial view of the salon library designed by Erich Dieckmann (here still without table and lounge chair), September 1927

  • Partial view of of Bauhaus -Designer Erich Dieckmann designed salon library from bog oak , September 1927

  • Kitchen, designed by Erich Dieckmann and Karl Keller (1903–1979), not in the picture: sideboard behind the photographer, May 1928

  • Partial view of the dining room with oriel seating and the adjoining lounge library on the ground floor, around 1930

  • Partial view of the dining room bay window on the ground floor (four windows), Bauhaus furnishings, wickerwork chairs , around 1930

  • Partial view of the dining room designed by Erich Dieckmann with buffet, buffet attachment and buffet clock on the ground floor, 1931

  • Buffet with top and buffet clock by Erich Dieckmann in the dining room of the Villa Sonnenhaus, 1931

  • Buffet clock made of tubular steel by Erich Dieckmann for the buffet top in the dining room on the ground floor, 1931

  • Klaus Bamberger (1920–2008) in his attic children's room in the villa, chairs by Erich Dieckmann in the background, around 1931

  • Daughter room for Ruth Bamberger (1914–1983), designed by Erich Dieckmann, chairs with wickerwork, not in the picture: desk made of tubular steel and wood, 1932

The valuable and high-quality built-in cupboards that have been preserved to this day are still fully functional and, including their inlays ( inlays ), in very good condition. Even in the basement, the floor is equipped with high-quality parquet, which is still in perfect dry condition.

As early as 1925, the Sonnenhaus received a telephone connection with the local number 139 (see illustration in the description section ), which at that time was still rare in private households.

Expressionist art collection

Otto Bamberger supported mostly unknown and destitute artists of his time by purchasing works from them that at that time had no significant market value. He decorated the numerous rooms of the sun house with the most pleasing of these works. From September 1927, the vast majority of the works of art were stored in his library behind specially made wide sliding doors, behind which there were pull-outs / drawers for flat works of art. Today, the works of art in Otto Bamberger's collection are in great demand, and the artists are mostly internationally known.

He was a collector and patron of contemporary expressionist art of the artists involved in the Blauer Reiter and acquired an extensive collection of hundreds of graphics, paintings, drawings, etchings , lithographs , woodcuts , sculptures and other art objects, for example by Ernst Barlach , Max Beckmann , during the 1910s and 1920s , Marc Chagall , Lovis Corinth , Otto Dix , George Grosz , Otto Herbig , Wassily Kandinsky , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Paul Klee , Oskar Kokoschka , Käthe Kollwitz , Alfred Kubin , Wilhelm Lehmbruck , Max Liebermann , Franz Marc , Paula Modersohn-Becker , Emil Nolde , Pablo Picasso and Leo Putz . In 1918 he had Max Obermayer (1866–1948) make an oil painting that portrayed his four-year-old daughter Ruth. He also acquired sculptures by Maria Lerch , including Christian ones such as Maria with the baby Jesus .

Exterior

Otto Bamberger with daughter Ruth (1914–1983) in the garden of his Villa Sonnenhaus in front of a fountain with a frog prince sculpture, around 1919

The spacious garden of Villa Bamberger, bordered by a bright white painted wooden picket fence on a brick base, had various fruit trees. Semicircular white lacquered wooden benches with armrests provided seating for larger groups of people.

On the eastern side of the villa a fountain with a high column was built on which the frog prince is enthroned on a ball. The water gushes out of its mouth in an arc into a basin below.

At a later point in time, presumably in the 1920s, a Siemens intercom system including a hands-free door system and bell button was installed on the garden gate. These are designed and preserved with front plates made of copper. From today's point of view, the systems of that time are more likely to be characterized as call systems; they did not yet have the current functionality.

Contemporary use

The large villa served primarily as a residence for the family of three and, from 1920, four. There were domestic servants, a cook and a maid for house cleaning. If necessary, a gardener and employee of the family business D. Bamberger also worked . Regular supraregional meetings of close and other relatives, through which there was a very good family cohesion, took place exclusively in the Villa Sonnenhaus and its large garden; cousins ​​of Otto and Henriette Bamberger's children spent part of their school holidays there every year.

It is said that guests were often accommodated in the villa, including those who were not relatives. It was very unusual and the family noticed when they had their villa to themselves for a week.

On the occasion of regular literary evenings, writers and graphic artists such as Alfred Kubin and painters such as Reinhold Nägele frequented the villa . The sculptor Maria Lerch and the two art historians Justus and Senta Bier (1900–1978), née Dietzel, from around the mid-1920s the Bauhaus designer Erich Dieckmann , from around 1932 at the latest Thekla Hess (1884 ) were also frequent guests in the Sonnenhaus –1968), née Pauson, the wife and widow of the Erfurt industrialist, art collector and patron Alfred Hess and daughter of the Lichtenfels basketware manufacturer Pankratz Pauson (1852-1910).

Effects of the Nazi era

Otto Bamberger died in 1933 at the age of 48, shortly after he was taken into so-called “ protective custody ” and interrogated by members of the SA while on business in Frankfurt am Main as a Jew and SPD member .

Burglary during the "Reichskristallnacht"

Lichtenfels “ brown shirts ” penetrated the Villa Bamberger at Adolf-Hitler-Strasse 21 (today: Kronacher Strasse 21) in the so-called Reichskristallnacht from November 9th to 10th, 1938, destroyed a historic Dutch tiled stove in the salon and threw hundreds of books from Otto Bamberger's library to the street. The housekeeper Kunigunda "Kuni" Rübensaal (1890–1978) who was present and who resolutely drove away the SA members she knew personally was able to prevent worse. At this time Otto Bamberger's widow Henriette "Jetta" and her son Klaus had already emigrated to the United States, and their daughter Ruth followed shortly after from France.

At that time it had a negative effect for Germans of Jewish descent to live in a street whose name had been renamed " Adolf-Hitler-Strasse ". No Jews were to be allowed to live in a street dedicated to the “ Führer ”.

seizure

On November 10, 1938, several uniformed men from the Lichtenfels mayor's office arrived, recorded and classified Otto Bamberger's art collection as " degenerate " and confiscated it.

It has been proven that not all of the confiscated works of art were actually considered “degenerate”. This proves z. B. a preserved correspondence with Otto Modersohn , widower of the late Paula Modersohn-Becker . Their works were illegally confiscated in the Sonnenhaus, but were still allowed to be exhibited in art halls and museums during the Third Reich .

The Otto Bamberg acquired numerous drawings and prints from the work of Alfred Kubin were in the era of National Socialism , although partly as "degenerate" classified, but Kubin was not banned from exhibiting, so that his works could be shown publicly.

No restitution of "looted art"

The largest and most valuable part of Otto Bamberger's art collection has not yet been returned.

A small, far less valuable part of the collection, pencil and charcoal drawings, woodcuts and lithographs, was found in the cellar after the end of the war by US investigators, including a Hanoverian nephew of Otto Bamberger, Gerald (Gerhard) F. Bamberger (1920–2013) of the Lichtenfels town hall found. Apparently, Lichtenfels Nazi officials and local entrepreneurs privileged by them had used the collection. The finds were sent to Henriette Bamberger to the USA, where they arrived in a desolate state after months, packed in five boxes. The remaining parts of the family's property, which were kept in a Nuremberg warehouse until the “ Reich flight tax ” was paid , are said to have been destroyed in air raids .

Reuse

In 1939 the villa Sonnenhaus and the garden, which had been confiscated in the meantime, were " Aryanized ", forcibly expropriated and passed on far below their value. The family Conrad († 1959), Grete (1892–1986) and Siegfried Wagner (1929–2013), co-owners of the local textile factory Striwa-Werke Striegel & Wagner , which lived in the villa in the future, benefited from this .

A steel door in the basement was probably installed during the Second World War to use one of the rooms as an air raid shelter . The plans from 1913 did not envisage any use of the space in this way, especially since the basement corresponds to a basement, has windows and the protection that can actually be achieved seems doubtful from today's perspective.

At the end of the war, the Wagner family fled temporarily to Vierzehnheiligen because of the employment of around 2,000 forced laborers in their armaments factory and the activity of their company as a long-term manufacturer of uniform parts for steel helmets and Nazi uniform parts for the NSKK , the SA , the SS and the air force Wehrmacht , which goes back to the time of the Weimar Republic with the exception of air force outfits. The Villa Sonnenhaus was requisitioned in the immediate post-war period from 1945 by the General Staff of the US Army and was inhabited by them. After their departure, the property was used again by the Conrad, Grete and Siegfried Wagner families. This apparently also had various parts of the Nazi-looted art from Otto Bamberger's collection in the villa, as evidenced by two letters from a family member from 1994, and exhibited these works of art there until the end of the 1980s without this having any legal consequences . Instead, a street in Lichtenfels was named after Conrad Wagner, while his wife Grete was made an honorary citizen, whose grave is still the destination of guided tours by the city archives.

Immediately before the adoption of the Restitution Act ( reparation ) on the basis of Military Government Act No. 59 , the lawyer Thomas Dehler (honorary citizen of the city of Lichtenfels), who was working on behalf of the Wagner family at the time, had the widow of Otto Bamberger, who lived in precarious circumstances in the USA Henriette "Jetta" Bamberger, offered a payment of only 5,000 US dollars for the solar house. The aim was therefore to come into possession of a legal purchase contract in order to prevent the imminent regular restitution. Since Dehler "Jetta" Bamberger did not point out the imminent restitution, about which he was definitely informed due to his various functions in the Parliamentary Council , in the State Council of the US-American occupation area and in the Bavarian State Parliament , he maliciously deceived it . Shortly thereafter, Dehler became the first Federal Minister of Justice in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany.

From 1989 the Sonnenhaus was used by the law firm Goller & Schmauser, which sold the villa to the city of Lichtenfels in the spring of 2019 for a mid six-figure sum.

In the meantime, the listed building is being carefully restored, rebuilt for the needs of a daycare center and therefore equipped to be barrier-free . For this purpose, it should have an additional entrance or escape route with an attached elevator on its back. All work must be carried out in coordination with the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation.

Monument conservation assessment

According to the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments , the villa, with its almost unchanged and completely preserved wall-mounted furnishings, reflects an upscale residential architecture of the industrial middle class that is designed for representation. Against the background of the client, who is one of the leading entrepreneurs in the wicker trade in Upper Franconia, the Sonnenhaus is of particular architectural and artistic importance in addition to its historical significance, because it is still an authentic late Art Nouveau villa building.

book presentation

In 2005, the memories of his son Klaus Philipp (first name renamed to "Claude P.") about his family, childhood and youth in Lichtenfels , published in 1989 and 1993 in the USA, were published by the history association Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense (CHW) in the Sonnenhaus to the Bamberger family in partly abridged and partly expanded German version. The autobiography of Klaus Bamberger, published in 1996, was not taken into account.

Artist's impression of the sun house

Willibert Lankes: Watercolor depicting the sun house

In 2011, Willibert Lankes from Marktgraitz created a watercolor that depicts the sun house according to its current appearance. In cooperation with the Lichtenfels lawyer Peter Schmauser, the artist presented this work to the descendants of Otto Bamberger's family as a gift.

exhibition

From November 10 to 24, 2019, the city of Lichtenfels in the Sonnenhaus commemorated the Bamberger family with an exhibition on the occasion of the anniversary of the “ Reichskristallnacht ”. District administrator Günter Dippold from the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg gave two lectures during the initial opening due to the unexpectedly large number of visitors ; the first mayor of the city, Andreas Hügerich , then opened the two-week exhibition, during which the premises could be viewed.

literature

  • Klaus Bamberger: Meine Ferien [diary], handwritten entries, partly rhymed, with 3 glued photos, undated [clearly summer 1935], unpublished, 43 pages plus title page, without page numbering
  • Klaus Bamberger: Memories , dedicated to my mother on her 46th birthday [14. July 1937], unpublished typewriter manuscript, 18 pages, Lichtenfels, undated [June / July 1937]
  • Claude Bamberger: The Life of Claudius . In: Skyline , Quarterly of Cleveland College of Western Reserve University , Vol. XVI, No. 1, November 1942, pp. 10-13
  • Heinrich Meyer: The Lichtenfelser Jews - A contribution to the city's history . In: Geschichte am Obermain , Vol. 5, Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense, 1968/69, pp. 135–166. OCLC 633845164
  • Claude P. Bamberger: ART - A Biographical Essay . Meisenbach publishing house, Bamberg 1989. OCLC 634913800
  • Herbert Loebl : The Holocaust - 1800 Years in the Making. Exemplified since approx. 1030 by the Experience of the Jewish Community of Bamberg in Franconia. A course of 9 lectures . Department of Religious Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Winter Term 1989. Self-published, Newcastle upon Tyne 1989. OCLC 630421121 Does not include: Chapter IV The Bamberger Families of Burgkunstadt and Mitwitz [unpublished]
  • Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770-1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993. OCLC 174282770
  • Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2
  • Martin Messingschlager: The development of Kronacher Strasse in Lichtenfels 1900–1914. From Verkehrs- to Ämter- und Representationstraße (= Fränkische Heimat am Obermain, issue 39), supplement to the 2001/02 annual report of the Meranier-Gymnasium Lichtenfels, in July 2002. Obermain-Tagblatt, Lichtenfels 2002
  • Klaus Bamberger: From the history of the Bamberger family. Childhood memories of Lichtenfels (= Small CHW-Schriften, Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense, Issue 2, Lichtenfelser Hefte zur Heimatgeschichte, special issue 3), ed. v. Lichtenfels city archive, Schulze, Lichtenfels 2005, ISBN 3-87735-177-8
  • Siegfried Rudolph: Otto Bamberger - a Mitwitz art collector . In: 750 pages Mitwitz - An anthology , ed. v. Friedrich Bürger, self-published 2012, pp. 425–452. OCLC 814521359
  • Suzanne Loebl : Escape to Belgium - Youth on the Edge of the Holocaust . Epubli, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-7375-0002-9
  • 13 driving licenses - thirteen Jewish fates , scrapbook for the exhibition of the same name. Project of the P-seminar History of the Meranier-Gymnasium Lichtenfels under the direction of Study Director Manfred Brösamle-Lambrecht on the initiative of District Administrator Christian Meißner , school year 2017/18, 2nd, corr. and exp. Edition (PDF file; 11.8 MB), Lichtenfels 2019

Web links

Commons : Kronacher Straße 21 (Lichtenfels, Upper Franconia)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Otto and Henrietta Bamberger . In: New York State, Department of Financial Services, Holocaust Claims, on: ny.gov
  • Ramona Popp: House steeped in history will be Hort , March 29, 2019, on: infranken.de [The article does not mention the profiteers and subsequent users of the property from 1939 (Striwa co-owner Conrad Wagner with his wife Grete and son Siegfried), despite the underlying work of the Lichtenfels City Archives factual inaccuracies and blurring as well as a serious false statement with regard to the whereabouts of Otto Bamberger's art collection.]
  • Steffen Huber: Planned after-school care center in Kronacher Strasse in Lichtenfels . In: Obermain Tagblatt , July 5, 2019, on: obermain.de

References and footnotes

  1. ^ Builder Otto Bamberger, architect August Berger: building plans, 1913, Bamberg State Archives, signature Rep. K 14 Bpl. 5/1914
  2. ↑ a b D-4-78-139-322 Kronacher Straße 21 (PDF file; 2.4 MB). In: Bavarian Monument List, Upper Franconia District, Lichtenfels Architectural Monuments, ed. v. Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, as of July 11, 2019, p. 16
  3. ↑ Dr. Siegfried Rudolph: A Mitwitzer art collector . In: Mitteilungsblatt - Official Journal for the Administrative Community Mitwitz , No. 25 (1992), June 19, 1992
  4. ↑ Martin Messingschlager: The development of Kronacher Strasse in Lichtenfels 1900-1914. Von der Verkehrs- zur Ämter- und Reprentationsstraße (= Fränkische Heimat am Obermain, issue 39), supplement to the 2001/02 annual report of the Meranier-Gymnasium Lichtenfels, in July 2002. Obermain-Tagblatt, Lichtenfels 2002. pp. 34–37
  5. ↑ Prof. Dr. Günter Dippold: Structural evidence of the basket industry in the German basket town of Lichtenfels . In: Streifzüge durch Franken , Vol. 1, Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense, Verlag HO Schulze, Lichtenfels 2010, ISBN 978-3-87735-201-4 , pp. 111-122
  6. ↑ a b Written information from the master builder of the city of Lichtenfels, Dipl.-Ing. (Univ.) Gerhard Pülz, from July 3, 2019
  7. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2 , pp. 6-7. Quote: "Our home was constantly filled with all kinds of interesting people, mostly impoverished artists whom my father partially supported by buying their" crazy "pictures which the art world had not as yet recognized."
  8. ↑ Klaus Philipp Bamberger: Meine Ferien [diary], handwritten entries, partly rhymed, with 3 glued photos, undated [clearly summer 1935], unpublished, 43 pages plus title page, without page number indication [p. 10]. Quote: "Now the sun house has been without any visitors for 1 week."
  9. ^ Bamberger, Otto, correspondence with Erich Dieckmann and Otto Bartning. In: Main State Archive Weimar, holdings number: 6-33-9010
  10. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770-1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993, p. 17
  11. ^ Klaus Bamberger: From the history of the Bamberger family. Childhood memories of Lichtenfels (= Kleine CHW-Schriften , Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense, Issue 2; Lichtenfelser Hefte zur Heimatgeschichte , special issue 3), ed. v. Lichtenfels City Archives, HO Schulze, Lichtenfels 2005, ISBN 3-87735-177-8 , pp. 18–24
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Ramona Popp: Historically important house will Hort , March 29, 2019, on: infranken.de [The article does not mention the profiteers and subsequent users of the property from 1939 (Striwa co-owner Conrad Wagner with his wife Grete and son Siegfried ), contains factual inaccuracies and fuzziness as well as a serious false statement with regard to the whereabouts of Otto Bamberger's art collection despite the underlying preparatory work of the Lichtenfels City Archives.]
  13. ↑ a b Dr. Katja Schneider: Erich Dieckmann. Notes on life and work . In: Prof. Dr. Anita Bach, Alexander von Vegesack: Erich Dieckmann - practitioners of the avant-garde: furniture construction 1921–1933 . Bauhaus Weimar, Bauhochschule Weimar, Burg Giebichenstein, catalog for the exhibition June 13 - September 30, 1990, Vitra Design Museum, 1990, ISBN 3-9802539-1-0 , pp. 9–28, 109
  14. ↑ a b c d Otto and Henrietta Bamberger . In: New York State, Department of Financial Services, Holocaust Claims, on: ny.gov
  15. ↑ The marriage certificate of Otto Bamberger and Henriette Wolff dated December 24, 1913. In: Familienbuch Beni Wolff, entry B. No. 58; Registry office Schwäbisch Hall, transmitted by the Schwäbisch Hall city archive, Dr. Andreas Maisch, on July 5, 2019
  16. ↑ The first name of Otto Bamberger's wife is given in the English-language sources as Henrietta or "Jetta", in the German-language sources partly as Henriette or "Jette". The registry office entries in the family book of the Beni Wolff family (April 1, 1857 in Braunsbach; † January 2, 1923 in Stuttgart) from Hall, which was handed over to the Stuttgart registry office on September 13, 1921 because of their relocation, show in the marriage certificate of Otto Bamberger and Henriette, née Wolff, the spelling ending in "e", as well as two lists drawn up in 1938 by the Lichtenfels district office. In the periodicals of the Schule am Meer on Juist published during the early 1930s , the spelling “Jetta Bamberger” is recorded. Otto and Henriette Bamberger's son Klaus (1920–2008) consistently used the spelling ending in "a" in his records and publications from 1934 to 2005
  17. ↑ Groomsmen for the wedding of Otto Bamberger and Henriette Wolff were Henriette's father, the merchant Beni Wolff, and the merchant Adolf Wolff, both of whom lived in Hall. Quoted from: the marriage certificate of Otto Bamberger and Henriette Wolff from December 24, 1913. In: Familienbuch Beni Wolff, entry B. No. 58; Registry office Schwäbisch Hall and registry office Stuttgart. For Beni Wolff there are several spellings of his self-chosen first name, but his signature clearly identifies him as "Beni".
  18. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770-1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993, p. 14
  19. ^ Letter from Reinhold Nägele (1884–1972) dated December 15, 1919, addressed to "Otto Bamberger, Lichtenfels in Bavaria, Sonnenhaus", handwritten, unpublished
  20. ↑ Correspondence card [postcard] from Leo Putz (1869–1940) dated April 17, 1920, sent to Meran, Tyrol, postmark dated “17.IV.20”, addressed to “Mr. Otto Bamberger, Lichtenfels, Germany, Sonnenhaus”, handwritten , unpublished
  21. ^ Letter from Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) of May 5, 1931 to Mrs. Otto Bamberger [Henriette "Jetta" Bamberger]. Quotation: "How quiet it may be now in the sun house after the two children had to leave and your husband is also away - I can already understand the" loneliness feeling "", handwritten, unpublished
  22. ↑ Klaus Philipp Bamberger: Meine Ferien , Diary, handwritten entries, partly rhymed, with 3 glued photos, undated [clearly summer 1935], unpublished, 43 pages plus title page, without page number indication [p. 2, 6, 10]
  23. ↑ a b sheets of the outer community of the Schule am Meer, Juist (North Sea) , no. Year, no. No., November 1934, without page numbering [p. 5]
  24. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Steffen Huber: Planned after-school care center in Kronacher Strasse in Lichtenfels . In: Obermain-Tagblatt , July 5, 2019, on: obermain.de [According to the construction plans that have been received, the air raid shelter in the basement of the sun house mentioned in this article or the photo series does not date from the time the villa was built, but was probably made during the Second World War installed there at the instigation of the Wagner family.]
  25. ↑ a b Dr. Christian Dümler, Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, Bamberg Office, Seehof Castle, written information from July 29, 2019
  26. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770-1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993, Prologue, S. i.
  27. ↑ Manually written letter from Otto Bamberger of November 5, 1926 to Erich Dieckmann
  28. ↑ Erich Dieckmann 1896–1944 , see there: 1930/31, on: design-museum.de
  29. ^ Justus Bier: A new furniture book . In: Die Form - magazine for creative work , 7th year, issue 6, June 15, 1932, p. 200, on: uni-heidelberg.de
  30. ↑ Tim Benton: Review of the German-language exhibition catalog by Alexander von Vegesack: Erich Dieckmann - Praktiker der Avantgarde. Furniture construction 1921–1933 . Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein 1990, ISBN 3-9802539-1-0 . In: Journal of Design History , Vol. 4, No. 1 (1991), Design History Society (Ed.), Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 54-57
  31. ↑ a b c Siegfried Rudolph: A Mitwitzer art collector . In: Mitteilungsblatt - Official Journal for the Administrative Community Mitwitz , No. 25 (1992), June 19, 1992
  32. ↑ Facsimile of a letter from Otto Bartning dated April 20, 1928 to Mrs. Otto Bamberger, Lichtenfels / Bavaria, Kronacherstrasse [Weimar State Archives]. In: Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770–1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993, p. 45
  33. ^ Bamberger, Otto, correspondence with Erich Dieckmann and Otto Bartning. In: Main State Archive Weimar, holdings number: 6-33-9010
  34. ↑ Dr. Angelika Emmrich, Bauhaus School, Weimar 1990. In: Klaus Bamberger: From the history of the Bamberger family. Childhood memories of Lichtenfels (= Kleine CHW-Schriften, Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense, Issue 2; Lichtenfelser Hefte zur Heimatgeschichte, special issue 3), ed. v. Lichtenfels City Archives, Schulze, Lichtenfels 2005, ISBN 3-87735-177-8 , p. 20
  35. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770-1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993, p. 17
  36. ↑ Book room in Otto Bamberger's house . In: The Form. Journal for creative work , ed. For the German Werkbund . v. Dr. Walter Riezler , 4th year, issue 4, February 15, 1929, p. 119
  37. ^ Furniture from the Staatliche Bauhochschule Weimar , catalog of work carried out, undated [around 1930], 15 x 22 cm, 32 pages, on: archive.org
  38. ^ Walter Müller-Wulckow: The German apartment of the present . Langewiesche, Königstein im Taunus, 1930, p. 76. OCLC 258443596
  39. ^ Erich Dieckmann, Katharina Dieckmann: Furniture construction in wood, pipe and steel (= construction books, Volume 11), Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1931. New edition: Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein 1990. ISBN 3-9802539-2-9
  40. ^ A b Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2 , pp. 6-7. Quote: "Our home was constantly filled with all kinds of interesting people, mostly impoverished artists whom my father partially supported by buying their" crazy "pictures which the art world had not as yet recognized."
  41. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: ART - A Biographical Essay . Meisenbach publishing house, Bamberg 1989, p. 6
  42. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: ART - A Biographical Essay . Meisenbach publishing house, Bamberg 1989, p. 12
  43. ^ Meinhard Meisenbach: Reminiscences with Claude . In: Claude Bamberger, George McCauley: Celebrating Friends - A Memoir (PDF file; 4.4 MB), 2000/2012, p. 48
  44. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: ART - A Biographical Essay . Meisenbach publishing house, Bamberg 1989, p. 26
  45. ↑ Klaus Bamberger: Meine Ferien [diary], handwritten entries, partly rhymed, with 3 glued photos, undated [clearly summer 1935], unpublished, 43 pages plus title page, without page numbering [p. 2]
  46. ↑ Klaus Bamberger: Memories , dedicated to my mother on her 46th birthday [14. July 1937], unpublished typewriter manuscript, 18 pages, Lichtenfels, undated [June / July 1937], p. 3
  47. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir. C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, Chapter Ten, II
  48. ^ Claude Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2 , pp. 6-15
  49. ^ Suzanne Loebl: Escape to Belgium: Youth on the Edge of the Holocaust , epubli, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-7375-0002-9 , pp. 20-21.
  50. ↑ Klaus Bamberger: Meine Ferien [diary], handwritten entries, partly rhymed, with 3 glued photos, undated [definitely summer 1935], unpublished, 43 pages plus title page, without page numbering [p. 10]. Quote: "Now the sun house has been without any visitors for 1 week."
  51. ^ Klaus Bamberger: From the history of the Bamberger family. Childhood memories of Lichtenfels (= Kleine CHW-Schriften, Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense, Issue 2; Lichtenfelser Hefte zur Heimatgeschichte, special issue 3), ed. v. Lichtenfels City Archives, Schulze Lichtenfels 2005, ISBN 3-87735-177-8 , p. 18
  52. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2 , p. 64
  53. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770-1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993, p. 16
  54. ↑ Facsimile of a letter from Senta, Justus and “Bobby” Bier to Klaus Philipp Bamberger, signed “Ihr Drei Biers”, undated [end of the 1930s]
  55. ↑ Justus Bier , on: helga-pape-stiftung.de
  56. ^ Letter from Henriette "Jetta" Bamberger to her son Klaus in Neuchâtel dated June 17, 1936, typewritten, unpublished, contains a reference to Thekla Hess, née Pauson, and Charlotte "Lottie" Thurnauer (* 1890), née Neuberger. Both stayed in the Bamberger family's "Sonnenhaus" Lichtenfels repeatedly.
  57. ↑ Dr. Siegfried Rudolph: A Mitwitzer art collector . In: Mitteilungsblatt - Official Journal for the Administrative Community Mitwitz , No. 25 (1992), June 19, 1992.
  58. ↑ Alfred Thieret: Suddenly victim of blind rage . In: Obermain-Tagblatt , November 3, 2013, on: obermain.de
  59. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2 , pp. 23-24
  60. ^ Klaus Bamberger: From the history of the Bamberger family. Childhood memories of Lichtenfels (= Kleine CHW-Schriften , Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense, Issue 2; Lichtenfelser Hefte zur Heimatgeschichte , special issue 3), ed. v. Lichtenfels City Archives, HO Schulze, Lichtenfels 2005, ISBN 3-87735-177-8 , p. 44
  61. ↑ Alfred Thieret: "The beginning of the terrible end" . In: Obermain-Tagblatt, November 10, 2013, on: obermain.de
  62. ↑ Dr. Herbert Loebl OBE: The Holocaust - 1800 Years in the Making. Exemplified since approx. 1030 by the Experience of the Jewish Community of Bamberg in Franconia. A course of 9 lectures . Department of Religious Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Winter Term 1989. Self-published, Newcastle upon Tyne 1989. OCLC 630421121 Does not include: Chapter IV The Bamberger Families of Burgkunstadt and Mitwitz, unfinished, unpublished, p. 56
  63. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770-1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993, p. 22
  64. ^ A b Klaus Bamberger: From the history of the Bamberger family. Childhood memories of Lichtenfels (= Kleine CHW-Schriften, Colloquium Historicum Wirsbergense, Issue 2; Lichtenfelser Hefte zur Heimatgeschichte, special issue 3), ed. v. Stadtarchiv Lichtenfels, Schulze, Lichtenfels 2005, ISBN 3-87735-177-8 , pp. 48–50
  65. ↑ Letter from Otto Modersohn to the Ilse and Lena Wolff siblings on February 11, 1939. Quotation: “Fischerhude 11.II.39. Dear Miss. Wolff! On your request I will inform you of the following: the pictures m. deceased Mrs. Paula Modersohn-Becker were not officially rated as degenerate art. There was only a short time a picture of her in the degenerate exhibition in Munich a. was then soon withdrawn. In the exhibitions in Berlin a. Hamburg the “degenerate” had no picture of her. Her pictures hang in the Kunsthalle in Bremen, as well as a large number in the Roselius i. Bremen, which is also open to the public. The mayor's office in Lichtenfels is wrong if it is the question. Image by Paula M.-B. assigned to degenerate art, you can resp. Tell your wife sister to the mayor's office. Sincerely, Otto Modersohn. "
  66. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 342.
  67. ↑ a b c d Claude P. Bamberger: ART - A Biographical Essay . Meisenbach publishing house, Bamberg 1989, p. 12
  68. ^ Suzanne Loebl: Escape to Belgium - Youth on the Edge of the Holocaust . Epubli, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-7375-0002-9 , p. 244
  69. ↑ Gerhard Bamberger (born September 20, 1920 in Hanover; † December 2, 2013 in Sarasota, Florida), was a son of Otto Bamberger's brother Anton (born April 4, 1886 in Mitwitz; † December 28, 1950 in New York City) and his wife Else (born April 11, 1894 in Bocholt; † August 24, 1986 in New York City), née Magnus, and a cousin of Ruth and Klaus (Claude) Bamberger. Gerhard (Gerald) and Klaus were close friends from a young age and met regularly in Hanover and Lichtenfels. At Klaus' request, Gerhard also visited the institute on the Rosenberg in St. Gallen from 1935 . Henriette Bamberger had negotiated this with Gerhard's parents. In the United States, they met again in New York City after emigrating, but then there were differences of opinion about their professional orientation. Both changed their first names to Gerald and Claude respectively. Gerald initially worked at his father's company in New York City. After the USA entered the war in 1941, Claude and Gerald signed up for service in the US Army and were drafted in 1942. While Claude had to be dismissed from service three quarters of a year after a patellar fracture operation due to a serious knee injury sustained while skiing privately , Gerald was assigned to a unit for psychological warfare because of his good language skills (native German speaker, French). As an investigative officer of the Military Intelligence Staff (see: Ritchie Boys ) he was deployed at the end of the war in the German Reich and interrogated opportunists, careerists and perpetrators or citizens, military and other officials there. With the 8th Infantry Division he got to Bamberg and from there took the opportunity to make a detour to Lichtenfels, which he knew very well from his childhood. He visited the Sonnenhaus requisitioned by the US General Staff and was made aware of boxes found in the basement in the Lichtenfels Town Hall that bore the words "Bamberger - Jewish property". He confiscated these, which he was entitled to do because of his authority, and had them shipped to the address of his aunt Henriette in the USA. In the Lichtenfels town hall he also found parts of the art and book collection of his other uncle Ludwig (1893–1964), Otto Bamberger's youngest brother, also co-owner of the Lichtenfels company "D. Bamberger". Gerald worked again in his father's plastics recycling company until 1954, when it was sold. He then worked for various companies in this sector, and in 1967 he founded his own company, Bamberger Polymers, Inc. , from which he retired in 1984. Quoted from: Claude P. Bamberger: History of a Family - The Bambergers of Mitwitz and Lichtenfels 1770–1992 . Self-published, Tenafly, New Jersey, USA, 1993, p. 55. Quoted from: Obituary Gerald F. Bamberger . In: The New York Times , December 5, 2013
  70. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2 , p. 123
  71. ↑ Ramona Popp: Striwa- "S" stands for industrial history on Obermain , June 17, 2019, on: infranken.de [The article omits all Nazi references of the company and the Conrad and Grete Wagner family and instead limits itself to the innocuous ones appearing production of aviator outfits (for the Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht, not mentioned in the article).]
  72. ↑ 14 emergency helpers found a savior in need , at: moriah.de
  73. ^ Striegel & Wagner GmbH, Lichtenfels Bay., Striwa Ges. Gesch .: Price List No. 34 - Clothing for patriotic associations according to regulations, SA - SS - NSKK - Stahlhelm , undated [before 1933].
  74. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, pp. 118-119
  75. ^ Letter from Corinna Wagner [later married Wagner-Sorg], also in the name of her sister Yvonne, dated May 30, 1994 to Claude P. Bamberger, typewritten, 1 page, unpublished
  76. ^ Letter from Corinna Wagner [later married Wagner-Sorg] from October 1994 to Claude P. Bamberger. In: Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2 , p. 271
  77. ^ Conrad-Wagner-Strasse in Lichtenfels , on: neue-strassen.de
  78. ↑ tm: remembrance of deserving fellow men . In: Obermain-Tagblatt , July 6, 2015, on: obermain.de
  79. ↑ Honorary Citizen Dehler - From Thomas and Caesar . In: Der Spiegel , 12 (1956), March 21, 1956, on: spiegel.de
  80. ^ Claude P. Bamberger: Breaking the Mold - A Memoir . C. Bamberger Molding Compounds Corp., Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA, 1996, ISBN 0-9653827-0-2 , pp. 118-119
  81. ^ Exhibition The Bambergers in Lichtenfels , In: Obermain-Tagblatt , November 6, 2019, on: obermain.de
  82. ↑ jhw: The history of the widely ramified Bamberger family , November 4, 2019, on: infranken.de
  83. ↑ Bamberger-Villa in Lichtenfels becomes day care center , November 12, 2019, on: infranken.de
  84. ^ The Bambergers - family branches from Kronach and Lichtenfels . In: Stadt Lichtenfels , on: lichtenfels.de

Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 53.3 "  N , 11 ° 4 ′ 14.7"  E