Wiesbaden Manifesto

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The Wiesbaden Manifesto was a declaration that US art protection officers (so-called Monuments Men ) wrote on November 7, 1945 to protest against the transfer of art treasures from German museums to the United States after the end of the Second World War .

history

Occasion of the Wiesbaden Manifesto was the November 6, 1945, Walter Farmer , director of the Central Collecting Point (centralizing) for works of art in Wiesbaden , via telegram handed down command , a transport of 200 paintings from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin and two paintings from the National Gallery Berlin to prepare for the USA. The selected high-quality paintings included works by Tizian , Sandro Botticelli , Rembrandt van Rijn , Peter Paul Rubens and Lucas Cranach. Walter Farmer then initiated a meeting of the US art protection officers stationed in Europe , 32 of whom attended the meeting, while three could not be reached in time. All officers present signed a declaration expressing their rejection of the project. One of the central statements of this protest note was:

“We wish to state that, from our own knowledge, no historical grievance will rankle so long or be the cause of so much justified bitterness as the removal for any reason of a part of the heritage of any nation even if that heritage may be interpreted as a prize of war. "

"We would like to point out that, to the best of our knowledge, no historical offense is as long-lived or as justified bitterness as the removal of part of a nation's cultural heritage for whatever reason, even if that cultural heritage could be viewed as the spoils of war."

- Wiesbaden Manifesto, November 7, 1945

The declaration could not prevent the removal of the works of art, which was justified by securing them in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC . However, the publication of the declaration in American newspapers, including the New York Times , in January and February 1946 led to controversial discussions in the United States and protests by US museum staff with then President Harry S. Truman . The paintings were eventually returned to Germany in April 1949 after an exhibition in 13 American cities.

In 1996 Walter Farmer received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his work .

literature

  • Wiesbaden Manifesto of November 7, 1945. In: Walter Farmer: The Preservers of the Heritage: The Fate of German Cultural Assets at the End of the Second World War. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89-949010-X , pp. 159-165 ( digitized version )
  • Tanja Bernsau: The occupiers as curators? The Central Collecting Point Wiesbaden as a hub for the reconstruction of the museum landscape after 1945 . Lit, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-12355-8 .

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