Wolfgang Gurlitt

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Lovis Corinth : Portrait of Wolfgang Gurlitt , 1917

Wolfgang Ludwig Heinrich Carl Gurlitt (born February 15, 1888 in Berlin , † March 26, 1965 in Munich ) was a German art dealer and collector, publisher and gallery owner .

Life

Childhood in Berlin

Wolfgang Gurlitt grew up in Berlin as the son of the founder of the Fritz Gurlitt Gallery . His half-brother was the composer Manfred Gurlitt . The art historian and dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt was his cousin.

Activity in the 1920s and early 1930s

After the First World War he continued to run his father's gallery in Berlin. At the same time he worked as a publisher. With Alfred Kubin and Oskar Kokoschka friends, he showed one of the first gallery in Germany works by artists such as Lovis Corinth , Henri Matisse and Max Slevogt . In his first few years of business, however, he ran into business difficulties and had to take out loans several times. In 1925 he was unable to repay debts of $ 50,000 and instead had to give up the pawns used for this loan; In 1932 he took the oath of revelation . Although numerous customers had already been damaged and Gurlitt was still unable to pay off his debts, especially tax debts, he continued to work in the art trade.

time of the nationalsocialism

He was a member of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, specialist group of art publishers and dealers (member number Ka 1439). The Berlin state management of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts and in particular Artur Schmidt intervened successfully on several occasions in his interest and suppressed the demands of the creditors, while Gurlitt managed the account of his divorced first wife Julia. Overall, its role during the Nazi era is difficult to assess. He tried to cover up his partially Jewish descent until 1938, while other members of his family had to emigrate. So he constantly had to live with suspicions and investigations. Nevertheless, he was able to continue to work in the international art trade and was involved in the sale of confiscated works of "Degenerate Art" abroad and in the procurement of material for the planned " Führer Museum " in Linz - the latter, however, probably more peripheral.

He drew considerable advantages from the procurement of works of art on behalf of Joseph Goebbels ' Propaganda Ministry, and various auctions at Dorotheum have shown that he also traded in "Aryanized", i.e. expropriated Jewish property. On the other hand, he stood up for two colleagues whose businesses had been forcibly closed. In 1936 he organized the most extensive exhibition of the painter Clara Siewert with 174 works .

In 1939 Gurlitt suggested to the curator of the Basel Art Museum that he put together a bundle of first-class works from the holdings confiscated by the National Socialists. However, this deal did not materialize. Instead, through his partner, he acquired several works of art confiscated from museums for his own property, and collected substantial premiums for other works of art that he sold abroad on behalf of the authorities.

In 1940 the Gestapo was finally entrusted with an investigation into his case. In particular, his Jewish partner and business partner Lilly Christiansen Agoston and his previous business relationships aroused the suspicion of the National Socialists. In the same year Gurlitt's ex-wife and his second wife bought a villa in Bad Aussee , where Gurlitt housed his art collection. In this way he was able to withdraw his private property from the threatened bombing war and at the same time from the Nazis' access to "degenerate art". In 1943, Gurlitt's Berlin residential and business premises were bombed out.

Post-war period in Linz

After the Second World War , Wolfgang Gurlitt stayed in Austria - possibly in order not to be caught up with his past. Gurlitt also benefited from his skilful handling of those in power there. In 1946 he changed citizenship; he was given travel and transport options as well as quick access to his initially blocked accounts, etc. Already in 1946 he was involved in negotiations for a gallery of modern art in Linz . A large part of the exhibits should come from Gurlitt's collection, the artistic direction should be entrusted to Gurlitt himself. A provisional opening took place in 1947 and the actual opening in 1948. In 1949 he also escaped a requirement by the Federal Ministry for Asset Protection and Economic Planning, which would have placed him under public administrators without the intervention of various relevant bodies and persons.

Gurlitt organized high-profile exhibitions; first he presented Kubin's work, followed by a Kokoschka exhibition; In 1952 there was a remarkable graphic exhibition under the motto “Never again war!”. Despite numerous clashes with the sponsors of the museum, Gurlitt was director of the Neue Galerie in Linz until January 31, 1956. Again he ran into great financial difficulties during these years; This may have contributed to the fact that the Gurlitt Collection passed largely into the possession of the City of Linz in 1953. However, the origin of numerous works of art could not be proven, which made negotiations more difficult and reduced the purchase price.

The Lentos , today's home of the Gurlitt Collection

Further discrepancies - Gurlitt did not separate his interests as director of the Neue Galerie and as an art dealer properly enough - finally led to his being persuaded to resign and in 1960 it was decided that his name would no longer be part of the museum name - at that time it was still “Neue Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum ”- should be. Three years later, however, Gurlitt enforced through the courts that the old name was reintroduced.

The work of Wolfgang Gurlitt for the Neue Galerie is also connected with the years of court proceedings regarding four works by Schiele and von Klimt that were loaned to the museum in 1951 but can no longer be found. After lengthy legal disputes, the Supreme Court sentenced the city of Linz to a replacement payment of 8,210,000 euros including accrued interest. At the beginning of 2018 it turned out that the gallery's secretary (Gertrude Merl) had received the Klimt drawing from Gurlitt's colleague and successor Walter Kasten, so that she would maintain silence about the whereabouts of the three Schiele works.

literature

  • Daniela Ellmauer, Michael John, Regina Thumser: "Aryanizations", confiscated assets, provisions and compensation in Upper Austria . Vienna and Munich: Wissenschaftsverlag Oldenbourg 2004. ISBN 3-486-56779-9 .
  • Hemma Schmutz, Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller (ed.): Wolfgang Gurlitt Zauberprinz. Art dealer - collector, Munich : Hirmer 2019, ISBN 978-3-7774-3328-8 .
  • Walter Schuster: The "Gurlitt Collection" of the New Gallery of the City of Linz . Linz: Archive of the City of Linz, 1999 (unpublished report, occasionally published at http://www.linz.at/archiv/gurlitt/bericht.htm , see Daniela Ellmauer; Michael John; Regine Thumser: "Arization", confiscated assets, Provisions and compensation in Upper Austria ( Vienna; Munich: Oldenbourg 2004, p. 173).
  • Gurlitt, Wolfgang. In: Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 1: A-K. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, DNB 453960286 , p. 899.

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Gurlitt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Schuster: The "Gurlitt Collection" of the Neue Galerie. Archive of the City of Linz, 1999, accessed on January 27, 2018 .
  2. ^ Roman Zieglgänsberger (editor): Clara Siewert. Between dream and reality. With contributions by Renate Berger, Michael Kotterer and Roman Zieglgänsberger. Ed .: Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, Regensburg 2008; ISBN 978-3-89188-116-3 , pp. 31f, 185.
  3. ↑ References s. Wikipedia entry on Walter Kasten
personal data
SURNAME Gurlitt, Wolfgang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gurlitt, Wolfgang Ludwig Heinrich Carl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art dealer and collector, publisher and gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1965
Place of death Munich