163-524: The Gurlitt Collection (alternatively known as the "Gurlitt Trove", "Gurlitt Hoard", "Munich Art Hoard", "Schwabing Art Trove", "Schwabing Art Find", etc.) was a collection of around 1,500 art works inherited by Cornelius Gurlitt , the son of one of Hitler's official art dealers, Hildebrand Gurlitt (1895–1956), and which was found to have contained several artworks looted from Jews by the Nazis . The collection attracted international interest in 2013 when it
326-716: A "historic agreement", Cézanne's great-grandson has acknowledged the Bern museum's ownership of the work in exchange for the ability to exhibit it in the artist's hometown; exhibition rights to the painting will thus be shared between the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence . The first public display of pieces from the Gurlitt Collection took place at an exhibition curated by
489-708: A Munich court appointed an official "Custodian" on his behalf, Christoph Edel, who initiated action against the Prosecutor's Office for the return of the collection to Gurlitt. Gurlitt also told Edel about the additional artworks stored at his Salzburg address; Edel was given permission by Gurlitt to remove these for safe keeping, a task which was carried out in February 2014. This portion of the collection, numbering 254 items, contained works by Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Liebermann, Toulouse-Lautrec, Courbet, Cézanne, Munch and Manet, some of extremely high quality, and were removed to
652-485: A Parrot , which was sold in 2007 for €2.4 million and (according to Hickley) was most likely consigned by Benita. The eleven works sold by Cornelius in 1988 included a Degas pastel and items by Otto Dix, Erich Heckel, Christian Rohlfs, Max Pechstein and Otto Müller; according to gallery owner Eberhard Kornfeld, Cornelius also sold four other works on paper via him in 1990, originally from the 1937 "degenerate art" holdings. Paul Klee's Swamp Legend , purchased by Hildebrand from
815-548: A casual labourer and by painting and selling watercolours of Vienna's sights. During his time in Vienna, he pursued a growing passion for architecture and music, attending ten performances of Lohengrin , his favourite Wagner opera. In Vienna, Hitler was first exposed to racist rhetoric. Populists such as mayor Karl Lueger exploited the city's prevalent anti-Semitic sentiment, occasionally also espousing German nationalist notions for political benefit. German nationalism
978-552: A challenge to the government in Berlin. Hitler and Ludendorff sought the support of Staatskommissar (State Commissioner) Gustav Ritter von Kahr , Bavaria's de facto ruler. However, Kahr, along with Police Chief Hans Ritter von Seisser and Reichswehr General Otto von Lossow , wanted to install a nationalist dictatorship without Hitler. On 8 November 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised by Kahr in
1141-677: A classical high school and become an artist, Alois sent Hitler to the Realschule in Linz in September 1900. Hitler rebelled against this decision, and in Mein Kampf states that he intentionally performed poorly in school, hoping that once his father saw "what little progress I was making at the technical school he would let me devote myself to my dream". Like many Austrian Germans, Hitler began to develop German nationalist ideas from
1304-588: A collection of over 1,400 artworks known as the Gurlitt trove or Gurlitt Collection , a small number (less than 20) of which were subsequently demonstrated to have been looted from Jews by Nazis. Upon its public discovery, the collection was impounded by the Augsburg Prosecutor's Office as evidence in a possible case for tax evasion that was never mounted; the works were not returned to Gurlitt's estate until after his death. In his will, Gurlitt left
1467-470: A crowd of over 6,000. To publicise the meeting, two truckloads of party supporters drove around Munich waving swastika flags and distributing leaflets. Hitler soon gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews. In June 1921, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin , a mutiny broke out within
1630-408: A dealer he often exhibited their works for sale, and on occasion purchased items he particularly liked for his own collection. From the mid 1930s onwards, he also purchased and, in some cases, sold on artworks, often bought for low prices, from private individuals including Jewish owners who were under duress to pay extortionate taxes, or were otherwise liquidating assets in order to flee the country. On
1793-506: A drawing by Adolph von Menzel Interior of a Gothic Church had been returned to the descendants of Elsa Helene Cohen. In October 2017 it was announced that the painting Portrait of a Seated Woman by Thomas Couture had been identified as a looted work and would be returned to the descendants of the original owner, Jewish French politician Georges Mandel (the actual return taking place in January 2019), and in September 2018 four drawings by
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#17328023861131956-724: A failed coup in Munich and was sentenced to five years in prison, serving just over a year of his sentence. While there, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ( My Struggle ). After his early release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting pan-Germanism , antisemitism , and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda . He frequently denounced communism as being part of an international Jewish conspiracy . By November 1932,
2119-399: A joint agreement with German and Swiss authorities about the handling of this bequest. The will was challenged by one of Gurlitt's cousins based on a psychiatric report concluding that Gurlitt suffered from dementia , schizoid personality disorder , and a delusional disorder at the time he wrote his will. The challenge was defeated in court and the Bern bequest permitted to stand. Some of
2282-473: A letter to Hindenburg. The signers urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties", which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people". Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor after two further parliamentary elections—in July and November 1932—had not resulted in the formation of a majority government. Hitler headed
2445-402: A local court in Munich appointed a German lawyer, Christoph Edel, to look after Gurlitt's affairs for the next six months, under a scheme which provides legal representation for old or infirm clients. Edel filed lawsuits first against unidentified officials who had leaked information on the discovery to the press, then on the Prosecutor's office for return of the collection, which, however, Gurlitt
2608-702: A matter of debate. His friend August Kubizek claimed that Hitler was a "confirmed anti-Semite" before he left Linz. However, historian Brigitte Hamann describes Kubizek's claim as "problematical". While Hitler states in Mein Kampf that he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna, Reinhold Hanisch , who helped him sell his paintings, disagrees. Hitler had dealings with Jews while living in Vienna. Historian Richard J. Evans states that "historians now generally agree that his notorious, murderous anti-Semitism emerged well after Germany's defeat [in World War I], as
2771-528: A meeting with the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Heinrich Held , on 4 January 1925, Hitler agreed to respect the state's authority and promised that he would seek political power only through the democratic process. The meeting paved the way for the ban on the Nazi Party to be lifted on 16 February. However, after an inflammatory speech he gave on 27 February, Hitler was barred from public speaking by
2934-727: A museum in Switzerland, the Museum of Fine Arts Bern (German: Kunstmuseum Bern ), as his "sole heir". People close to Gurlitt told an American newspaper that he decided to give the collection to a foreign institution because he felt that Germany had treated him and his father badly. The legacy included the items that Gurlitt had kept in Munich and also in Salzburg, which German authorities had not confiscated because their remit did not extend to property held in Austria, plus his properties in
3097-600: A position as Director of the Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, based in Düsseldorf. In 1949 his mother died (his father, Cornelius senior, having died in 1938) and he may have inherited additional works held by the family at that time, if not previously; according to his papers (later found not to be entirely trustworthy), Monet's painting of Waterloo Bridge, subsequently one of the most valuable in
3260-562: A previous date, including four drawings, originally the property of the Jewish Deutsch de la Meurthe family in Paris, which were voluntarily returned to representatives of the family in 2018 by the unnamed present owner (see above section "Works identified for return to original owners"). Benita's husband Nikolaus also consigned Max Liebermann's pastel drawing The Basket Weavers for sale via a Berlin auction house in 2000, where it sold to
3423-461: A private Israeli collector for DM 130,000 (around US$ 70,000), more than double its pre-sale estimate. Following a 2016 legal action against the auction house to reveal the identity of the purchaser, that person (a Holocaust survivor) was traced and agreed to sell the painting back to David Toren, heir of the original owner from whom it was stolen by the Nazis, for the original auction price paid, and
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#17328023861133586-546: A product of the paranoid "stab-in-the-back" explanation for the catastrophe". Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich , Germany. When he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army , he journeyed to Salzburg on 5 February 1914 for medical assessment. After he was deemed unfit for service, he returned to Munich. Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve
3749-496: A profit-sharing agreement was reached with the heir of another family for a work by Max Beckmann prior to its sale in 2011. Hildebrand Gurlitt was an art historian, museum director and art dealer in Germany during the 1930s who became an official art dealer for the Nazis. He was particularly interested in modern art of the day, befriended a number of artists and purchased their works for the museums under his control; when he became
3912-550: A reasonable explanation for their presence in Gurlitt family holdings, for example being created by family members, and/or created after 1945 (18 items). These "traffic light" categorizations are carried through to the complete lists of items as published on the Kunstmuseum Bern website. Cornelius Gurlitt died on 6 May 2014. In his will, written shortly before his death, Cornelius named the Museum of Fine Arts Bern (Kunstmuseum Bern) in Switzerland as his sole heir. People close to Gurlitt told an American newspaper that he decided to give
4075-681: A recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann , his Jewish superior, Hitler received the Iron Cross, First Class, a decoration rarely awarded at Hitler's Gefreiter rank. On 15 October 1918, he was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack and was hospitalised in Pasewalk . While there, Hitler learned of Germany's defeat, and, by his own account, suffered a second bout of blindness after receiving this news. Hitler described his role in World War I as "the greatest of all experiences", and
4238-549: A result of military action in the European theatre . The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, and the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history . Hitler's father, Alois Hitler (1837–1903), was the illegitimate child of Maria Schicklgruber . The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, and Alois initially bore his mother's surname, "Schicklgruber". In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother. Alois
4401-639: A secure location where their provenance could be investigated further; the Augsburg Prosecutor's Office would not have access to them. Access to the Salzburg works was provided, in a "secret location", to BBC reporter Stephen Evans, who showed some of them in a brief video segment made available by the BBC in March 2014. One painting, Portrait de Monsieur Jean Journet by Gustave Courbet, had disappeared in 1914 and had previously been believed to have been lost during World War II. In April 2014, Edel obtained an agreement with
4564-537: A short period until he joined his family again, now settled in Düsseldorf , where he took his school leaving examination in 1953 at the age of 20. Three years later, while Gurlitt was enrolled at Cologne University studying art history, his father Hildebrand was killed in a 1956 road accident, leaving to his wife Helene the custodianship of his extensive and valuable, but generally little known, private art collection . In 1961, Helene bought two small apartments in
4727-651: A short-lived coalition government formed by the Nazi Party (which had the most seats in the Reichstag) and Hugenberg's party, the German National People's Party (DNVP). On 30 January 1933, the new cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office. The Nazi Party gained three posts: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Göring Minister of
4890-411: A small number of items from the collection, notably in 1988 and 1990, with the proceeds paid into a Swiss bank account which he would visit at four- to six- week intervals to withdraw money for his living expenses. Another painting, Max Beckmann's The Lion Tamer , was sold at auction in 2011, most likely to cover medical bills; Cornelius had already agreed to share the around €800,000 proceeds equally with
5053-515: A special party congress on 29 July, he was granted absolute power as party chairman, succeeding Drexler, by a vote of 533 to 1. Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. A demagogue , he became adept at using populist themes, including the use of scapegoats , who were blamed for his listeners' economic hardships. Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to his advantage while engaged in public speaking. Historians have noted
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5216-474: A substantial component of the collection contains printed graphic works on paper whose individual value may be in the order of no more than €1,000 per item, or possibly even less. Nevertheless, the collection does contain a number of significant, high value items including, among others, a Claude Monet painting "valued at $ 12 million", a Matisse painting ("$ 20 million"), a major Cézanne 1897 painting La Montagne Sainte-Victoire , as well as Liebermann's Two Riders on
5379-547: A victim of Nazi persecution due to his Jewish heritage, and negotiated the release of his possessions. Whether or not portions of his collection and records of business transactions were destroyed in Dresden as Gurlitt claimed, additional portions apparently had been successfully hidden in Franconia, Saxony and Paris, from which they were retrieved after the war. By 1947, Gurlitt had resumed trading in art works and also took up
5542-481: A young age. He expressed loyalty only to Germany, despising the declining Habsburg monarchy and its rule over an ethnically diverse empire. Hitler and his friends used the greeting "Heil", and sang the " Deutschlandlied " instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem . After Alois's sudden death on 3 January 1903, Hitler's performance at school deteriorated and his mother allowed him to leave. He enrolled at
5705-724: Is considered the primary cause of World War II in Europe . He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, causing Britain and France to declare war on Germany . In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union . In December 1941, he declared war on the United States . By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa . These gains were gradually reversed after 1941, and in 1945
5868-507: Is on a strictly voluntary basis and, 15 years later, very few museums and libraries have done so. Individuals are under no legal requirement whatsoever to return Nazi-looted art. A failure on the part of the German government to return the rightful possessions of Cornelius Gurlitt might have been a violation of his property rights as guaranteed in the German constitution. On 4 December 2013, prominent German art historian Sibylle Ehringhaus , who
6031-557: Is that van der Lubbe set the fire alone. At Hitler's urging, Hindenburg responded by signing the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February, drafted by the Nazis, which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. The decree was permitted under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which gave the president the power to take emergency measures to protect public safety and order. Activities of
6194-486: Is undeniable", according to Ian Kershaw . Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, Mein Kampf sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. One million copies were sold in 1933, Hitler's first year in office. Shortly before Hitler was eligible for parole, the Bavarian government attempted to have him deported to Austria. The Austrian federal chancellor rejected the request on the specious grounds that his service in
6357-522: The 1932 presidential elections . A speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf on 27 January 1932 won him support from many of Germany's most powerful industrialists. Hindenburg had support from various nationalist, monarchist, Catholic, and republican parties, and some Social Democrats . Hitler used the campaign slogan " Hitler über Deutschland " ("Hitler over Germany"), a reference to his political ambitions and his campaigning by aircraft. He
6520-627: The Allied armies defeated the German army. On 29 April 1945, he married his longtime partner, Eva Braun , in the Führerbunker in Berlin. The couple committed suicide the next day to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army . In accordance with Hitler's wishes, their corpses were burned. The historian and biographer Ian Kershaw described Hitler as "the embodiment of modern political evil". Under Hitler's leadership and racist ideology ,
6683-699: The Battle of the Somme in October 1916, he was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout. Hitler spent almost two months recovering in hospital at Beelitz , returning to his regiment on 5 March 1917. He was present at the Battle of Arras of 1917 and the Battle of Passchendaele . He received the Black Wound Badge on 18 May 1918. Three months later, in August 1918, on
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6846-1003: The Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment), he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium, spending nearly half his time at the regimental headquarters in Fournes-en-Weppes , well behind the front lines. In 1914, he was present at the First Battle of Ypres and in that year was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross , Second Class. During his service at headquarters, Hitler pursued his artwork, drawing cartoons and instructions for an army newspaper. During
7009-551: The Bürgerbräukeller , a beer hall in Munich. Interrupting Kahr's speech, he announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government with Ludendorff. Retiring to a back room, Hitler, with his pistol drawn, demanded and subsequently received the support of Kahr, Seisser, and Lossow. Hitler's forces initially succeeded in occupying the local Reichswehr and police headquarters, but Kahr and his cohorts quickly withdrew their support. Neither
7172-463: The Centre Party , governed through emergency decrees from President Paul von Hindenburg . Governance by decree became the new norm and paved the way for authoritarian forms of government. The Nazi Party rose from obscurity to win 18.3 per cent of the vote and 107 parliamentary seats in the 1930 election, becoming the second-largest party in parliament. Hitler made a prominent appearance at
7335-574: The Dammtor district of Hamburg with his sister Renate (later known as Benita), who was born there in 1935. After attending primary school in Hamburg, he went to secondary school in Dresden until the city was destroyed by allied bombing in 1945, when Gurlitt was 13. The family moved to rural Aschbach , then in 1946 Gurlitt and his sister were sent to the private Odenwaldschule at Heppenheim for
7498-589: The German Communist Party (KPD) were suppressed, and some 4,000 KPD members were arrested. In addition to political campaigning, the Nazi Party engaged in paramilitary violence and the spread of anti-communist propaganda in the days preceding the election . On election day, 6 March 1933, the Nazi Party's share of the vote increased to 43.9 per cent, and the party acquired the largest number of seats in parliament. Hitler's party failed to secure an absolute majority, necessitating another coalition with
7661-532: The Great Depression , the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which initially gave him significant popular support. One of Hitler's key goals was Lebensraum ( lit. ' living space ' ) for the German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive, expansionist foreign policy
7824-594: The Habsburg Empire because of the mixture of races in its army and his belief that the collapse of Austria-Hungary was imminent. In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I , Hitler was living in Munich and voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army . According to a 1924 report by the Bavarian authorities, allowing Hitler to serve was most likely an administrative error, because as an Austrian citizen, he should have been returned to Austria. Posted to
7987-733: The Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall in Berlin. In September 2019, a selection of 110 items from the Collection were displayed in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum under the title "Fateful Choices: Art from the Gurlitt Trove". The content of the collection previously in the possession of Cornelius Gurlitt has been gradually documented over the several years since its rediscovery, especially since November 2014 when
8150-648: The Museum of Fine Arts Bern in Switzerland, which agreed to accept the collection (minus any works suspected of being looted) in November 2014. Hildebrand Gurlitt, who had assembled the collection, was suspected of incorporating a number of looted items and, potentially, works acquired in dubious circumstances during the Second World War and preceding period in Nazi Germany , in addition to works acquired legitimately and/or passed down through his family;
8313-649: The Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, where his behaviour and performance improved. In 1905, after passing a repeat of the final exam, Hitler left the school without any ambitions for further education or clear plans for a career. In 1907, Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna , financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother. He applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but
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#17328023861138476-404: The Reichstag building was set on fire . Göring blamed a communist plot, as Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found in incriminating circumstances inside the burning building. Until the 1960s, some historians, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock , thought the Nazi Party itself was responsible; according to Ian Kershaw, writing in 1998, the view of nearly all modern historians
8639-415: The Schwabing suburb of Munich , while Gurlitt moved to Austria, building himself a small house in Aigen , a relatively affluent suburb of Salzburg . His mother died in January 1968, after which time Gurlitt divided his time between one of the two fifth-floor Munich apartments (which his sister had inherited) and his Salzburg house; he never married and lived alone for the next four decades, surrounded by
8802-421: The parliamentary republic , which faced challenges from right- and left-wing extremists . The moderate political parties were increasingly unable to stem the tide of extremism, and the German referendum of 1929 helped to elevate Nazi ideology. The elections of September 1930 resulted in the break-up of a grand coalition and its replacement with a minority cabinet. Its leader, chancellor Heinrich Brüning of
8965-444: The "Nazi Party"). Hitler designed the party's banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background. Hitler was discharged from the Army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the party. The party headquarters was in Munich, a centre for anti-government German nationalists determined to eliminate Marxism and undermine the Weimar Republic . In February 1921—already highly effective at crowd manipulation —he spoke to
9128-405: The "degenerate art" holdings, was still in his possession at his death and then sold some time between 1956 and 1962 (when it appeared at auction), probably by his widow; after several changes of ownership, this work ended up in Munich's Lenbachhaus Museum , where in 2015 it was under protracted legal action from the heirs of original owner Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers for its restitution. An agreement
9291-595: The 2000s, his Salzburg house was becoming neglected and Gurlitt, whose health was failing, visited it less frequently, spending more of his time residing in the Munich apartment. Since he had never had any other source of income, after exhaustion of any other money inherited from his mother, Gurlitt appears to have lived by selling the occasional painting from his father's collection, the proceeds being paid into an account in Zurich , Switzerland, to which Gurlitt would travel every four to six weeks and withdraw €9,000 to pay his living costs. The existence, quality and extent of
9454-403: The Army nor the state police joined forces with Hitler. The next day, Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government, but police dispersed them. Sixteen Nazi Party members and four police officers were killed in the failed coup. Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and by some accounts contemplated suicide. He
9617-518: The Army. In July 1919, he was appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance unit) of the Reichswehr , assigned to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers' Party (DAP). At a DAP meeting on 12 September 1919, Party Chairman Anton Drexler was impressed by Hitler's oratorical skills. He gave him a copy of his pamphlet My Political Awakening , which contained anti-Semitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist , and anti-Marxist ideas. On
9780-402: The Augsburg Prosecutor's Office entered his apartment and found not records of past sales, but a reported 121 framed and 1,258 unframed works, the major part of the collection inherited from his father, with an initial reported worth of €1 billion (approx. $ 1.3 billion), although this value eventually proved to be a significant overestimate. The collection was confiscated, under a process that
9943-522: The Augsburg prosecutor whereby the collection confiscated in Munich was to be returned to Gurlitt in exchange for his co-operation with a government-led task force charged with returning any stolen pieces to the rightful owners which Gurlitt signed. However, Gurlitt was by then very ill and died on 6 May 2014, never seeing the paintings again. His will bequeathed all his property to the Museum of Fine Arts Bern , Switzerland, after all legitimate claims of ownership against it had been evaluated. An entity called
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#173280238611310106-458: The BBC TV programme Fake or Fortune? and found to be not only genuine, but also to have been legitimately purchased from a London exhibition by the artist in 1931 by Dr Max Sauerlandt, head of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg; from there the drawing entered the confiscated, "degenerate art" exhibition and was subsequently purchased by Hildebrand Gurlitt in 1940, remaining undocumented to curators of Moore's legacy until its emergence in
10269-549: The Bavarian Supreme Court, he was released from jail on 20 December 1924, against the state prosecutor's objections. Including time on remand, Hitler served just over one year in prison. While at Landsberg, Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf ( lit. ' My Struggle ' ); originally titled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice ) at first to his chauffeur, Emil Maurice , and then to his deputy, Rudolf Hess . The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart,
10432-404: The Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927. To advance his political ambitions in spite of the ban, Hitler appointed Gregor Strasser , Otto Strasser , and Joseph Goebbels to organise and enlarge the Nazi Party in northern Germany. Gregor Strasser steered a more independent political course, emphasising the socialist elements of the party's programme. The stock market in
10595-456: The Beach to the great-nephew of the industrialist and art collector David Friedmann ; and Carl Spitzweg 's Playing the Piano to the heirs of music publisher Henri Hinrichsen , who was murdered at Auschwitz. Two Riders on the Beach was subsequently auctioned at Sotheby's , London in June 2015, where it fetched the unexpectedly high price of almost 1.9 million pounds; Playing the Piano took longer to be returned to Hinrichsen's descendants as
10758-464: The Beach which subsequently realised almost 1.9 million pounds at auction (see below), and others including original works by Manet, Degas, Renoir and more; in 2019 it was also reported that the Manet painting, Marine, Temps d'Orage ("Ships at Sea in Stormy Weather") had been sold for US $ 4 million to Tokyo's National Museum of Western Art . In 2020, it was reported that Paul Signac's 1887 painting Quai de Clichy. Temps Gris , which had been returned to
10921-519: The Bern Fine Art Museum, running from November 2017 to March 2018, which featured 160 works from the Cornelius Gurlitt bequest, which had previously formed part of the original 1937 "degenerate art" exhibition. Concurrently, an exhibition of some 250 works whose status was uncertain was displayed in Bonn, Germany, entitled "Gurlitt: Status Report – An Art Dealer in Nazi Germany", including works from Dürer to Monet and from Cranach to Kirchner and Rodin; both shows were then scheduled to travel to be displayed at
11084-437: The DNVP. On 21 March 1933, the new Reichstag was constituted with an opening ceremony at the Garrison Church in Potsdam . This "Day of Potsdam" was held to demonstrate unity between the Nazi movement and the old Prussian elite and military. Hitler appeared in a morning coat and humbly greeted Hindenburg. To achieve full political control despite not having an absolute majority in parliament, Hitler's government brought
11247-516: The Führermuseum. Gurlitt undoubtedly used his thus "officially sanctioned" purchasing trips to Paris – which was at that time awash with artworks, including old masters of dubious provenance and including many items now recognised as being looted – to further enrich his own holdings, and also became very wealthy from commissions on the enormous amounts of money being paid by Hitler's regime for artworks at that time. Gurlitt also purchased paintings on his own behalf from artists who were being persecuted by
11410-433: The German Army made his Austrian citizenship void. In response, Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925. At the time of Hitler's release from prison, politics in Germany had become less combative and the economy had improved, limiting Hitler's opportunities for political agitation. As a result of the failed Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazi Party and its affiliated organisations were banned in Bavaria. In
11573-523: The German Lost Art Foundation concluded that "Looking at the art trove as a whole, it becomes clear that it is not so much a collection of highly valuable artworks worth billions as was initially assumed, but rather a mixture of family heirlooms and dealer stock. It does contain some very high quality, outstanding pieces, but most of it consists of works on paper, including a large number of serial graphic works." Speaking to Der Spiegel magazine in November 2013, Cornelius insisted that his father had obtained
11736-452: The Gurlitt estate. Museum officials stated that no art looted by the Nazis would be permitted to enter the museum's collection. Some 500 works were to remain in Germany until their rightful owners could be identified. Three pieces were singled out for immediate return: Henri Matisse 's Femme Assise to the descendants of the Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg ; Max Liebermann's Two Riders on
11899-460: The Interior for Prussia. Hitler had insisted on the ministerial positions as a way to gain control over the police in much of Germany. As chancellor, Hitler worked against attempts by the Nazi Party's opponents to build a majority government. Because of the political stalemate, he asked Hindenburg to again dissolve the Reichstag, and elections were scheduled for early March. On 27 February 1933,
12062-538: The Jewish Blumstein family in Riga . Other works in the collection are by Gurlitt family members, which include 90 by Cornelius' great-grandfather, the landscape painter Louis Gurlitt, and 130 by Cornelia Gurlitt, Cornelius' aunt, a talented but relatively unknown artist who died in tragic circumstances in 1919. A page of putative drawings by Henry Moore , also in the collection, was investigated in an episode of
12225-479: The Museum of Fine Arts in Bern legally accepted the Gurlitt estate. Two listings, which are believed to be complete, are available online, one for the items originally in the Munich apartment (approximately 1,350 records) and one for the Salzburg items (254 records). The lists are described as "works in progress" and are subject to update or amendment as new information is available. The Munich list runs to 196 pages, and
12388-535: The Nazi Party held the most seats in the Reichstag , but not a majority. No political parties were able to form a majority coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders convinced President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly thereafter, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933 , which began
12551-542: The Nazi Party in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the Nuremberg-based German Socialist Party (DSP). Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party. Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that
12714-455: The Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims, whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans) or socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the deliberate killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as
12877-425: The Nazi regime, and a further 380 have been definitively identified as removed from museums by the Nazis as "degenerate art" so will pass to Bern without further obstruction. Art objects continued to surface after Cornelius' death. In July 2014, a new discovery was made in his Munich apartment: a Rodin marble and a Degas sculpture, along with some Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Asian objects, which had been missed when
13040-525: The Nazis' paramilitary organisation, the Sturmabteilung (SA, "Stormtroopers"), which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. A critical influence on Hitler's thinking during this period was the Aufbau Vereinigung , a conspiratorial group of White Russian exiles and early Nazis. The group, financed with funds channelled from wealthy industrialists, introduced Hitler to
13203-864: The Nazis, among them Max Beckmann who by 1944 was living in exile in the Netherlands, prior to departing for the United States in 1947. Gurlitt and his associate Erhard Göpel , local buyer for Hitler's planned Führermuseum, purchased five works from Beckmann in September 1944, including Bar, Brown which Gurlitt retained for himself. After Gurlitt's death the painting was offered for sale by both his widow (unsuccessfully) and subsequently by his son Cornelius, when at auction by Ketterer in Stuttgart in 1972 it realised DM 90,000 to Cornelius after auctioneer's fees (the same painting later re-sold at Sotheby's in London for £1.2 million). Beckmann's family did not dispute
13366-548: The Salzburg list runs to 95 pages. In addition to the works owned by Cornelius, his sister Benita inherited some works from the collection; reportedly, in 2013, 22 of these were voluntarily surrendered to police for "safe keeping" by the by-then deceased Benita's husband, Nikolaus Frässle, previously kept at their home in Stuttgart. Details of these works have not been released except that they included four medieval paintings which belonged to Cornelius, which were then added to his estate. Benita had also consigned some items for sale at
13529-553: The Schwabinger Kunstfund (Schwabing Art Trove) Task Force was set up in November 2013 under the direction of Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel to research the provenance of the paintings in the Gurlitt trove. However, after several years of operations it was widely criticized for having few results and little visibility. The taskforce initially identified around 590 works as "possibly looted", but after two years of research had published provenance reports on only five items from
13692-493: The Swiss art dealer Eberhard Kornfeld who paid him in cash or by cheque. The amount was below the legally allowed limit to be carried between countries in cash but aroused the suspicion of authorities that he might be involved in some sort of art fraud selling stolen artworks on the black market , on which he was paying no tax in Germany. German customs officials obtained a warrant to search his sister's Munich apartment where he
13855-505: The United States crashed on 24 October 1929 . The impact in Germany was dire: millions became unemployed and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the Nazi Party prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to repudiate the Versailles Treaty, strengthen the economy, and provide jobs. The Great Depression provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent about
14018-461: The United States up to and beyond his premature death at age 61 in a car crash in 1956. On his death, the collection passed to his wife Helene, and on her death in 1964, mainly to their son Cornelius, with some items also passed to Cornelius' sister. Knowledge of the collection appears to have persisted in the minds of his contemporaries in the German art dealing world, and in some cases with their successors in business, but eventually – particularly with
14181-689: The aim of the government "must unshakably be the removal of the Jews altogether". At the DAP, Hitler met Dietrich Eckart , one of the party's founders and a member of the occult Thule Society . Eckart became Hitler's mentor, exchanging ideas with him and introducing him to a wide range of Munich society. To increase its appeal, the DAP changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ( National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), now known as
14344-429: The apartment of French real estate broker Gaston Prosper Lévy, and that "a claim has been registered for the return of the painting". The work was eventually handed back in July 2019. By May 2020, 14 artworks had been returned, with a further 7 identified for additional return to heirs of their original owners, including two 1922 watercolors by Otto Dix entitled Dompteuse and Dame in der Loge . A slightly different case
14507-410: The apartment was originally searched in 2012. In September, an early pastel landscape by Claude Monet was discovered in a suitcase Gurlitt had left in the last hospital where he had stayed. Initial media reports that the collection was worth in excess of $ 1 billion, based apparently on its size alone plus descriptions of one or two contained works, have proved to be an over-estimate, bearing in mind that
14670-421: The art collection he had inherited upon his mother's death. He lived modestly, drove an inexpensive Volkswagen car, and was a virtual recluse, maintaining as little contact with the outside world as possible, with the exception of regular visits from his sister Benita. In addition to possessing a German passport, he had taken out Austrian citizenship and was registered in that country for tax purposes. However, by
14833-458: The artist's work, in 2015 and was determined to be a forgery ("counterfeit work"); it is included in the list below with authorship as "Unknown". The Gurlitt Provenance Research Project was unable to document the painting's ownership prior to its acquisition by Hildebrand during the war years; however, according to a 2013 newspaper report, the painting had originally been seized by the Gestapo from
14996-479: The artists Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen , Augustin de Saint-Aubin and Anne Vallayer-Coster that were among items previously sold by Benita Gurlitt were identified as originally stolen and would also be returned by their new owner. In March 2019, it was announced that the painting Quai de Clichy by Paul Signac , purchased by Hildebrand Gurlitt in Paris in the 1940s, had also been identified as Nazi-confiscated art, having been seized in 1940 by German soldiers from
15159-643: The artworks have been established as being previously looted and have been returned to the heirs of the legitimate owners, notably a portrait by Matisse restored to the heirs of French art dealer Paul Rosenberg . Another major painting from the collection, Two Riders on a Beach (1901), by Max Liebermann , was returned to the heirs of the German-Jewish industrialist and art collector David Friedmann, and sold at auction in June 2015. By late 2014, Carl Spitzweg 's Musical Pair had also been identified for return to
15322-679: The claim that Alois's father was Jewish. Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn , a town in Austria-Hungary (present-day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire . He was the fourth of six children born to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl . Three of Hitler's siblings—Gustav, Ida, and Otto—died in infancy. Also living in the household were Alois's children from his second marriage: Alois Jr. (born 1882) and Angela (born 1883). When Hitler
15485-399: The collection is in the form of prints and other "dealer stock" in addition to a smaller, but still noteworthy number of unique and more valuable works; initial sensationalist claims of the value of the collection being "in excess of 1 billion dollars" based on its size alone have proved to be unfounded, though the collection is certainly worth tens of millions of dollars. Legally, Cornelius was
15648-461: The collection that he had inherited remained largely secret, unknown to his acquaintances and the public at large, although according to one dealer was "common knowledge among dealers in southern Germany". In September 2010, Gurlitt, then aged 77, was stopped on a train returning from Zurich to Munich and found to have €9,000 in his possession, which he said came from selling some paintings he had had in his possession in 1978. He made regular trips to
15811-410: The collection to a foreign institution because he felt that Germany had treated him and his father badly. The legacy included the paintings Cornelius had kept in Salzburg, which German authorities had not confiscated because their remit did not extend to property held in Austria. His decision created further controversy over the appropriateness of the museum accepting this bequest. The will stipulated that
15974-543: The collection, was purchased by his father as a gift to his mother at some point from 1914 onwards, and had passed already to Hildebrand in 1923 as a wedding present. He continued to purchase works for his own collection, including Courbet's Village Girl with Goat for which he paid the then very large sum of 480,000 French Francs, and lent works from his collection for several travelling exhibitions: one such show, "German Watercolors, Drawings and Prints: A Mid-Century Review" included 23 works from Hildebrand's collection and toured
16137-688: The collection; under a flood of criticism, the taskforce was disbanded in December 2015. "We are disappointed," said Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress. Its activities and some of its personnel were passed to a new "Centre for Lost Cultural Property", project name "Gurlitt Provenance Research", under the direction of Dr. Andrea Baresel-Brand . By December 2018, the Gurlitt Provenance Research project reported that it had completed its activities, with
16300-439: The country. Many Germans saw the treaty as an unjust humiliation. They especially objected to Article 231 , which they interpreted as declaring Germany responsible for the war. The Versailles Treaty and the economic, social, and political conditions in Germany after the war were later exploited by Hitler for political gain. After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich. Without formal education or career prospects, he remained in
16463-885: The distribution of the sale proceeds and considered that the original purchase by Gurlitt had been legitimate, albeit under reduced circumstances of the artist. Hildebrand was captured with his wife and twenty boxes of art in Aschbach ( Schlüsselfeld ) in June 1945. Under interrogation after capture, Gurlitt and his wife told United States Army authorities that in the fire bombing of Dresden of February 1945 much of his collection and his documentation of art transactions had been destroyed at his home in Kaitzer Strasse. One hundred and fifteen pieces were taken from him by American and German authorities, but returned to him after he had convinced them that he had acquired them lawfully. Gurlitt successfully presented himself to his assessors as
16626-440: The entire collection, minus any works that turned out to be looted, to a lesser known gallery in Switzerland, the Museum of Fine Arts Bern ( German : Kunstmuseum Bern ), apparently in reaction over his perceived poor treatment by the German authorities. Gurlitt's parents were the art dealer and previous museum director Hildebrand Gurlitt , who worked for the Nazis selling looted art, and his wife, Helene Hanke. He grew up in
16789-556: The entries on a listing compiled by the Ministry of Propaganda and now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum that provides details of the fate of each object, including whether it was exchanged, sold or destroyed. Following the fall of France, Hermann Göring appointed a series of Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce approved dealers, including Gurlitt, to acquire French art assets – mainly comprising works looted from museums and from
16952-468: The family moved to Lambach. The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest. In 1898, the family returned permanently to Leonding. Hitler was deeply affected by the death of his younger brother Edmund in 1900 from measles . Hitler changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers. Paula Hitler recalled how Adolf
17115-534: The family tree was more complex and there were more legal issues to be overcome, but was eventually restituted in 2021 and consigned to the auction house Christie's, by whom it is expected to be sold. In 2017, it was announced that the Camille Pissarro painting La Seine vue du Pont-Neuf, au fond le Louvre , found in Gurlitt's Salzburg house had been restituted to the heirs of Max Heilbronn, a Paris businessman from whom it had been confiscated in 1942, and that
17278-462: The field", had been "stabbed in the back" on the home front by civilian leaders, Jews, Marxists , and those who signed the armistice that ended the fighting—later dubbed the "November criminals". The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany had to relinquish several of its territories and demilitarise the Rhineland . The treaty imposed economic sanctions and levied heavy reparations on
17441-548: The further researching of items in this bequest. Cornelius' family (cousins) also entered the discussion, raising questions about the legality of the will, based on his state of mind at the time. His cousin, Uta Werner, filed a claim of inheritance on the artwork. Werner's lawyer, Wolfgang Seybold, argued that Gurlitt's relatives were the rightful heirs; however this claim was rejected by relevant authorities. Around 590 pieces remain in Germany pending further investigation to determine whether they were confiscated from individuals under
17604-516: The grounds that he had committed no crime, but eventually agreed that the collection could remain with the Prosecutor's office for evaluation in case any Nazi-era looted works could be identified. In 2014, a new agreement was reached that the collection would be returned to Gurlitt, but he died shortly thereafter, leaving all his property – including two Munich apartments plus a house and additional works stored at his residence in Salzburg , Austria – to
17767-492: The heir to the Jewish family that had originally possessed the painting. On 22 September 2010, German customs officials at the German–Swiss border stopped Cornelius on the return leg of one of his visits to Switzerland and found him to be carrying €9,000 in cash, within the legal limit for cash transfers across the border but which was notified as suspicious to the German tax authorities; under questioning, he explained that it
17930-401: The heirs of the original owner, had been consigned for auction and was estimated to sell for up to £800,000 ($ 1 million). The overall value of the collection as held by Cornelius Gurlitt in 2012 may thus conservatively be stated to have been in the order of at least several tens of millions of dollars, although no official valuation has ever been publicly released. German newspapers questioned
18093-612: The holdings of Cornelius Gurlitt in 2012. In order to defray some of the ongoing costs associated with managing the collection, in 2019 it was reported that the Bern Museum of Fine Art had agreed to sell the Manet painting, Marine, Temps d'Orage ("Ships at Sea in Stormy Weather") to Tokyo's National Museum of Western Art , for US $ 4 million. This painting was previously owned by Japanese industrialist Kōjirō Matsukata before
18256-673: The hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups. Alfons Heck , a former member of the Hitler Youth, recalled: We erupted into a frenzy of nationalistic pride that bordered on hysteria. For minutes on end, we shouted at the top of our lungs, with tears streaming down our faces: Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil! From that moment on, I belonged to Adolf Hitler body and soul. Early followers included Rudolf Hess , former air force ace Hermann Göring , and army captain Ernst Röhm . Röhm became head of
18419-477: The idea of a Jewish conspiracy, linking international finance with Bolshevism . The programme of the Nazi Party was laid out in their 25-point programme on 24 February 1920. This did not represent a coherent ideology, but was a conglomeration of received ideas which had currency in the völkisch Pan-Germanic movement, such as ultranationalism , opposition to the Treaty of Versailles , distrust of capitalism , as well as some socialist ideas. For Hitler,
18582-551: The leader of the Nazi Party , becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. His invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 marked the start of the Second World War . He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust : the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims . Hitler
18745-618: The meaning "one who lives in a hut". Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois's mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz , and that the family's 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois, a claim that came to be known as the Frankenberger thesis . No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenberger's existence, so historians dismiss
18908-578: The most important aspect of it was its strong anti-Semitic stance. He also perceived the programme as primarily a basis for propaganda and for attracting people to the party. In 1923, Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted coup known as the " Beer Hall Putsch ". The Nazi Party used Italian Fascism as a model for their appearance and policies. Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini 's " March on Rome " of 1922 by staging his own coup in Bavaria, to be followed by
19071-484: The museum would be required to research the provenance of the paintings and make restitution as appropriate. The museum decided to initially accept only those works for which original legal ownership by the Gurlitts could be established, including items acquired from the "degenerate art" collection and those passed down from other family members, and has entered into a joint agreement with German and Swiss authorities about
19234-531: The officer corps. Brüning's austerity measures brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular. Hitler exploited this by targeting his political messages specifically at people who had been affected by the inflation of the 1920s and the Depression, such as farmers, war veterans, and the middle class. Although Hitler had terminated his Austrian citizenship in 1925, he did not acquire German citizenship for almost seven years. This meant that he
19397-626: The one hand he claimed he was helping the owners in their predicament, since there were few dealers who were prepared to undertake such transactions, but on the other he was not averse to enriching himself in the process, as well as providing no cooperation to post-war claimants seeking to reclaim or obtain compensation for such works sold under duress. In 1937, Nazi Germany under Hitler condemned modern art as " degenerate " (not fitting to be called art in Hitler's view) and confiscated it from museums all over Germany. A travelling Degenerate Art Exhibition
19560-413: The onset of intense father-son conflicts caused by Hitler's refusal to conform to the strict discipline of his school. Alois tried to browbeat his son into obedience, while Adolf did his best to be the opposite of whatever his father wanted. Alois would also beat his son, although his mother tried to protect him from regular beatings. Alois Hitler's farming efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897
19723-523: The orders of his army superiors, Hitler applied to join the party, and within a week was accepted as party member 555 (the party began counting membership at 500 to give the impression they were a much larger party). Hitler made his earliest known written statement about the Jewish question in a 16 September 1919 letter to Adolf Gemlich (now known as the Gemlich letter ). In the letter, Hitler argues that
19886-565: The owner of all the works upon their discovery, because in Germany, legal claims on potential looted works expire after 30 years; however, from 2012 he agreed to voluntarily return any works that were shown to be looted to the heirs of the families concerned, a provision that has been carried on by the new custodians of the collection. By May 2020, 14 works had been returned, with a further 7 stated in 2021 as to be returned shortly including works by Henri Matisse, Max Liebermann, Carl Spitzweg , Camille Pissarro, Adolph von Menzel and Paul Signac , while
20049-518: The party headquarters would remain in Munich. The committee agreed, and he rejoined the party on 26 July as member 3,680. Hitler continued to face some opposition within the Nazi Party. Opponents of Hitler in the leadership had Hermann Esser expelled from the party, and they printed 3,000 copies of a pamphlet attacking Hitler as a traitor to the party. In the following days, Hitler spoke to several large audiences and defended himself and Esser, to thunderous applause. His strategy proved successful, and at
20212-575: The passage of more than four decades – faded from public awareness. The bulk of Hildebrand's collection survived with his son Cornelius, who lived a quiet, virtually reclusive life with the artworks inherited from his father for over forty years, with portions of the collection kept at his two addresses in Munich, Germany and Salzburg, Austria; additional items appear to have been held by Cornelius' sister Benita, who later married and moved away to Stuttgart with her husband. Apart from any monies inherited after his parents' deaths, Cornelius survived by selling
20375-474: The period between 1933 and 1945 is not entirely clear; there are gaps in the provenance", i.e., requiring further investigation (650 items); and red for works "proven or highly likely to be Nazi-looted art" (4 items). A further 42 works were not reviewed, but also believed not to represent looted artworks , either because they could be assigned to additional works known to originate from German museums (22 items), be commercially mass produced goods (2 items), or have
20538-494: The previously wealthy collectors of the day – for Hitler's planned Führermuseum which he wanted to build in Linz ; some of the works also went to swell Göring's personal art collection. Gurlitt, who had already embarked on purchasing trips to Paris on behalf of German museums, purchased around 200 works in Paris and the Netherlands between 1943 and 1944, not including works acquired for his own collection, of which 168 were intended for
20701-543: The process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism . Upon Hindenburg's death on 2 August 1934, Hitler succeeded him, becoming simultaneously the head of state and government, with absolute power. Domestically, Hitler implemented numerous racist policies and sought to deport or kill German Jews . His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from
20864-593: The prosecutor's right to seize the collection. Property rights in cases of works of art acquired during the Nazi period are highly complex. After the war the Nazi law legalizing possession of stolen works of " degenerate art " was deliberately upheld by the Allied Control Council in order that the trade in artworks could continue. Unlike in Austria, where the Kunstrückgabegesetz 1998 ( Art Return Law 1998 [ de ] ) regulates
21027-678: The provenance of a significant subset of items is still under investigation. The collection contains Old Masters as well as Impressionist , Cubist , and Expressionist paintings, drawings and prints by artists including Claude Monet , Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Paul Cézanne , Paul Gauguin , Henri Matisse , Eugène Delacroix , Edgar Degas , Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , Franz Marc , Marc Chagall , Édouard Manet , Camille Pissarro , Auguste Rodin , Otto Dix , Edvard Munch , Gustave Courbet , Max Liebermann , Wassily Kandinsky , and Paul Klee , among many others, as well as works by family members who were themselves artists. A considerable portion of
21190-522: The purchase of [the painting]"... since it was part of the focus of "a great effort to reunite the collection" originally belonging to Matsukata, under a single roof. [REDACTED] Media related to Gurlitt collection at Wikimedia Commons Cornelius Gurlitt (art collector) Rolf Nikolaus Cornelius Gurlitt (28 December 1932 – 6 May 2014) was a German art collection owner. The son of Hildebrand Gurlitt , an art gallery director and Nazi-era dealer of looted art , Gurlitt inherited from his father
21353-482: The relevant heir of the original owner. A small number of additional items have continued to be identified as looted and have been returned to the original owners' heirs where known. Exhibitions of some of the works from the collection went on show in November 2017. Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as
21516-587: The results being presented on the German Lost Art Foundation website. 1,039 items were investigated; of these, 315 were identified as confiscated from German museums during the "degenerate art" campaign, and thus not subject to suspicion of looting, so their responsibility could be passed directly to the Kunstmuseum Bern. The remaining 724 were assessed according to a "traffic light" system: green for works "proven or highly likely not to be Nazi-looted art " (28 items); yellow for "provenance during
21679-403: The return of Nazi-looted art, there is no law in effect in Germany requiring the return of Nazi-looted art, as long as the items in question can be proven to have been, at any point in time, legally acquired. As signatories of the 1998 Washington Agreement , Germany agreed that all of its public institutions would check their inventories for Nazi-looted goods and return them if found. However, this
21842-404: The second world war, who left the painting in Europe under the safe keeping of Kôsaburô Hioki, a retired Japanese navy officer. Hioki subsequently sold a number of paintings from the collection, including Marine, Temps d'Orage , in order to raise funds to safeguard the others; Hildebrand Gurlitt had acquired it in Paris in the 1940s. The Tokyo National Museum of Western Art was "thrilled to announce
22005-549: The seizure. On 20 November 2014, the German jurist Jutta Limbach , the head of the Limbach Commission on Nazi-looted art, confirmed the opinion of the German Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that the Bavarian "State Prosecutor used an incorrect application of the tax liability law to seize" the artworks of Cornelius Gurlitt. On 24 November 2014, the Museum of Fine Arts Bern agreed to accept
22168-421: The time, and his repeated requests for the collection to be returned to him on the basis that he had committed no crime went unheeded. The Augsburg Prosecutor's investigation, meanwhile, proceeded very slowly and out of public sight until the find was leaked to the press and sensationally reported by the German magazine Focus on 3 November 2013. News of the discovery was reported worldwide. In December 2013,
22331-490: The trial of two Reichswehr officers, Lieutenants Richard Scheringer and Hanns Ludin , in late 1930. Both were charged with membership in the Nazi Party, at that time illegal for Reichswehr personnel. The prosecution argued that the Nazi Party was an extremist party, prompting defence lawyer Hans Frank to call on Hitler to testify. On 25 September 1930, Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through democratic elections, which won him many supporters in
22494-432: The two locations, which the Bern Museum subsequently announced they would be selling in order to offset some of the costs associated with accepting the bequest. The will stipulated that the museum would be required to research the provenance of the paintings and make restitution as appropriate. The museum decided to accept those works, none of which are suggested to represent the proceeds of Nazi-era looting, and enter into
22657-614: The work has subsequently been on display at the New York Center for Jewish History . Other paintings which had previously been in the collection but sold prior to its 2012 rediscovery included a Paul Klee landscape painting sold by Hildebrand in 1950, the Picasso Portrait of a Woman with Two Noses and two items by Rudolf Schlichter and Georg Schrimpf sold by Helene in 1960 as noted above, Beckmann's Bar, Brown and The Lion Tamer by Cornelius, and Macke's Woman with
22820-451: The works in his collection had been acquired legally by his father and that no suggestions that the collection contained looted art would be entertained. However, he subsequently agreed in 2014 that if indeed the collection did include looted items, he would return these to the rightful heirs of the families from which they had been stolen, thereby conforming to the (non binding) 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art , although he
22983-453: The works legally and stated that he would not voluntarily return any of them to previous owners, although subsequently he said that in respect of the latter statement he was misquoted. Feeling threatened by the intense media attention, Gurlitt's brother-in-law offered 22 works in his possession to the police for safe keeping. Gurlitt repeatedly requested the return of his collection but did not obtain legal representation until December 2013 when
23146-457: Was stateless , legally unable to run for public office, and still faced the risk of deportation. On 25 February 1932, the interior minister of Brunswick , Dietrich Klagges , who was a member of the Nazi Party, appointed Hitler as administrator for the state's delegation to the Reichsrat in Berlin, making Hitler a citizen of Brunswick, and thus of Germany. Hitler ran against Hindenburg in
23309-418: Was a teenage bully who would often slap her. Alois had made a successful career in the customs bureau and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. Hitler later dramatised an episode from this period when his father took him to visit a customs office, depicting it as an event that gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism between father and son, who were both strong-willed. Ignoring his son's desire to attend
23472-428: Was an autobiography and exposition of his ideology. The book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race. Throughout the book, Jews are equated with "germs" and presented as the "international poisoners" of society. According to Hitler's ideology, the only solution was their extermination. While Hitler did not describe exactly how this was to be accomplished, his "inherent genocidal thrust
23635-538: Was announced as a sensational 2012 " Nazi loot discovery" by the media as a result of actions by officials of Augsburg in Cornelius Gurlitt's apartment in Schwabing , Munich , investigating Gurlitt on suspicion (later shown to be unfounded) of possible tax evasion. German authorities seized the entire collection, although Gurlitt was not detained. Gurlitt repeatedly requested the return of the collection on
23798-641: Was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz . He lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I , receiving the Iron Cross . In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and in 1921 was appointed leader of the Nazi Party. In 1923, he attempted to seize governmental power in
23961-437: Was brought up in the family of Hiedler's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler . In 1876, Alois was made legitimate and his baptismal record annotated by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father (recorded as "Georg Hitler"). Alois then assumed the surname "Hitler", also spelled "Hiedler", "Hüttler" , or "Huettler" . The name is probably based on the German word Hütte ( lit. ' hut ' ), and has
24124-451: Was depressed but calm when arrested on 11 November 1923 for high treason . His trial before the special People's Court in Munich began in February 1924, and Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of the Nazi Party. On 1 April, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg Prison . There, he received friendly treatment from the guards, and was allowed mail from supporters and regular visits by party comrades. Pardoned by
24287-802: Was even more widespread in the Mariahilf district, where Hitler then lived. Georg Ritter von Schönerer became a major influence on Hitler, and he developed an admiration for Martin Luther . Hitler read local newspapers that promoted prejudice and utilised Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of Eastern European Jews as well as pamphlets that published the thoughts of philosophers and theoreticians such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain , Charles Darwin , Friedrich Nietzsche , Gustave Le Bon , and Arthur Schopenhauer . During his life in Vienna, Hitler also developed fervent anti-Slavic sentiments . The origin and development of Hitler's anti-Semitism remains
24450-468: Was finally reached in 2017 for the Museum to retain the painting but for compensation (estimated at €2–4 million, or $ 2.33–4.65 million) to be paid to the heirs of the original owner. A supposedly signed, but previously unknown, Marc Chagall work Allegorical scene with embracing lovers , held by Hildebrand Gurlitt since at least 1945, was examined by the Comité Chagall, the definitive authority on
24613-447: Was living and discovered 1,406 works of art initially reported as worth €1 billion (this figure was subsequently revised downwards to some tens of millions of euros). The collection included works by Renoir , Matisse , Otto Dix and many other famous artists. These works were all confiscated by officials of the Augsburg Prosecutor's office, although the legality of that action was later challenged in court. Gurlitt had no lawyer at
24776-474: Was never to see again. Gurlitt also revealed to Edel the existence of a second portion of the collection at his Salzburg house, which Edel took steps to secure and remove to a new location on Gurlitt's behalf; these items, more than 250 pieces including works by Monet , Renoir, Gauguin , Liebermann , de Toulouse-Lautrec , Courbet , Cézanne , Munch , and Manet , were never touched by the German authorities. Initially, Gurlitt reportedly maintained that all of
24939-438: Was no suggestion that Hildebrand Gurlitt had any involvement in the original theft. Representatives of the gallery met with Cornelius and then negotiated an amicable settlement with Hulton to share the profits of the sale, the picture eventually selling for €864,000. Following a number of years of ill health, Gurlitt died of heart failure on 6 May 2014 at the age of 81. The will he wrote shortly before his death unexpectedly named
25102-553: Was one of the first experts to view the artworks in the spring of 2012, gave an interview in the newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine , demanding the immediate return of the complete collection to Gurlitt. However, she had looked at the works very briefly and had not researched their provenance because, as she stated in the interview, "Cornelius Gurlitt commissioned neither myself nor anyone else" to perform such research. Chief Prosecutor Reinhard Nemetz vehemently denied her appeal, yet apparently failed to cite any concrete legal grounds for
25265-510: Was one of the first politicians to use aircraft travel for campaigning and used it effectively. Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 35 per cent of the vote in the final election. Although he lost to Hindenburg, this election established Hitler as a strong force in German politics. The absence of an effective government prompted two influential politicians, Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg , along with several other industrialists and businessmen, to write
25428-471: Was praised by his commanding officers for his bravery. His wartime experience reinforced his German patriotism, and he was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918. His displeasure with the collapse of the war effort began to shape his ideology. Like other German nationalists, he believed the Dolchstoßlegende ( stab-in-the-back myth ), which claimed that the German army, "undefeated in
25591-474: Was presented by Paul Cézanne's 1897 painting La Montagne Sainte-Victoire , possibly the most prestigious in the entire trove, which was known to have been in the Cézanne family in 1940, and appeared in Gurlitt's holdings some time between then and 1947, when Gurlitt mentions the painting in a letter; however, its status as a looted item could not be unequivocally established. In 2018, in what has been described as
25754-426: Was proceeds from the sale of a painting. Since Cornelius had no occupation and no obvious means of income, the tax office suspected that he might be involved in the illegal transfer of artworks across the border without paying the relevant taxes, and obtained a warrant in 2011 to search his apartment in Schwabing , Munich, to see if they could find any evidence to support their suspicion. On 28 February 2012 officials of
25917-566: Was rejected twice. The director suggested Hitler should apply to the School of Architecture, but he lacked the necessary academic credentials because he had not finished secondary school. On 21 December 1907, his mother died of breast cancer at the age of 47; Hitler was 18 at the time. In 1909, Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live a bohemian life in homeless shelters and the Meldemannstraße dormitory . He earned money as
26080-423: Was set up where some of these pieces were displayed to the public to show their so-called "degenerate" nature. The Nazis set up a system to raise cash by selling as confiscated items abroad. The Nazis authorized four dealers, Hildebrand Gurlitt, Karl Buchholz, Ferdinand Möller and Bernhard Böhmer to trade such pieces, seeking overseas buyers in return for an agent's commission. Gurlitt's name appears against many of
26243-552: Was subsequently challenged in court since Cornelius had committed no crime under German law; it was also subsequently claimed that the scale of the action was disproportionate to any supposed tax irregularities. Authorities initially banned reporting on the raid, which only came to light in 2013. Initial media hysteria with sensational headlines such as "Artworks Worth $ 1.6 Billion, Stolen by Nazis, Discovered in German Apartment" proved to be an overstatement; writing in 2017,
26406-527: Was three, the family moved to Passau , Germany. There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect , rather than Austrian German , which marked his speech throughout his life. The family returned to Austria and settled in Leonding in 1894, and in June 1895 Alois retired to Hafeld, near Lambach , where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-funded primary school) in nearby Fischlham . The move to Hafeld coincided with
26569-499: Was under no legal obligation to do so: under German law, any claims to restitution of looted art would have expired after a 30-year period, long expired by 2010. Already in 2011, he had consigned one picture, Max Beckmann's The Lion Tamer , for sale to the Cologne auction house Lempertz , where it was recognized by Mike Hulton, heir to a Jewish family from which the work had originally been stolen prior to World War II, although there
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