„Auslandsankäufe“ für das Museum für Kunsthandwerk in Frankfurt am Main

Abstract

“Foreign acquisitions” for the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Frankfurt am Main This essay investigates the entanglement between the Museum für Kunsthandwerk (today Museum Angewandte Kunst) in Frankfurt am Main and the French art market in Paris during the German occupation. As museum director from 1938 to 1948, Walter Mannowsky (1881-1958), made significant new acquisitions, not least by purchasing art objects in France (“Auslandsankäufe”) between 1940 and 1944 by order of the mayor of the City of Frankfurt, Dr. Friedrich Krebs (1894-1961). The mayor assigned hundreds of thousands reichsmarks to be spent on the acquisition of art objects in German-occupied Paris. During his travels to Paris, Mannowsky was at times accompanied by Dr. Ernstotto Graf zu Solms-Laubach (1890-1977), museum director of the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum (today Historisches Museum Frankfurt) and Dr. Ernst Holzinger (1901-1972), museum director of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut (today Städel Museum). In the endeavour to avail himself of the opportunities on the French art market, Mannowsky met with art experts and officers of the Kunstschutz in Paris, such as Franz Florentin Maria Graf Wolff-Metternich zur Gracht (1893-1978) and Dr. Hermann Bunjes (1911-1945), as well as members of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, such as Dr. Günther Schiedlausky (1907-2003). Also, Mannowsky was assisted by art dealers on the ground, above all Rudolf Melander Holzapfel (1900-1982), as well as Dr. Hildebrand Gurlitt (1895-1956) who facilitated the transport of art objects from Paris to Frankfurt a. M. In this way, Mannowsky acquired not less than ca. 120 decorative art objects, and ca. 175 accessions for the museum’s graphic arts collection. The historic acquisition records provide evidence of relevant art galleries and the dates of acquisition, not to mention the transnational networks on the French art market during World War II. By command of the American military government in Hesse, the Museum für Kunsthandwerk returned ca. half of the newly acquired decorative art objects to the French government via the Central Collecting Point Wiesbaden in the post-war years. The other half remains in the museum till this date for different reasons as shown in the text. The provenance research for these objects is far from being completed. What still remains in the museum today of the graphic arts bought in Paris will have to be the subject of future provenance research.