In 1920s Weimar Berlin, artists, writers, gallerists, collectors and dramatists all collided; interests and paths crossed and overlapped: it was a vibrant, challenging and engaging city and epoch.

This immersive tour chronicles the ‘lost’ era of Weimar Berlin’s Tiergartenviertel, featuring the stories of the largely Jewish protagonists of the art world before its demise during the Nazi regime. It also includes the people who later passively accepted or took an active role in the regime after 1933. Each entry includes a map of a related landmark — a home, office or exhibition space — to trace the footsteps of how these figures once lived. In honour of the 25th anniversary of the Washington Principles, the Christie’s Restitution team also connects the featured collectors, patrons and dealers to art and objects they once owned, which were looted by the Nazis or sold under duress.

The historic neighbourhood Tiergartenviertel in Western Berlin was the centre of the art world from the turn of the 20th century until the Nazis seized power in 1933. In this small bustling quarter south of the city’s largest park, collectors Dr.Franz and Margarethe Oppenheimer displayed their exquisite trove of Meissenporcelain at their home while the influential art dealer Paul Cassirer exhibited the French Impressionists at his Kunstsalon down the block. He lived with his then-wife, the artists’ muse and actress, Tilla Durieux a stone’s throw away where they hosted the luminaries of their artistic circle. On the other end of Tiergartenviertel, the villa of art patrons Hugo and Gertrud Simon — restored by Cassirer himself — was the social hub for European intelligentsia, from writer Thomas Mann to artists Max Liebermann and Aristide Maillol, who mingled among an extensive modern art collection.