Dr. Franz Oppenheimer (1871–1950) and his wife Margarethe (née Knapp, 1878–1949) were prominent Jewish art collectors who specialised in Meissen porcelain in the Chinoiserie style during the early 20th century [FIG. 1, 2]. Franz was a businessman and partner in the coal wholesalers Emanuel Friedländer & Co. Around 1902, he and Margarethe began to build an outstanding porcelain collection displayed in their Berlin home at Regentenstrasse 2.
In 1927 the Oppenheimer collection was catalogued by Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1877–1945), a renowned expert on European porcelain and ceramics, who was a curator and professor at Berlin’s Museum of Decorative Arts (Schloßmuseum Berlin [FIGS. 3-5].
After the Nazis came to power, the Oppenheimers fled to Vienna in 1936, where Margarethe was from. On 12 March 1938, the day before Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, they fled to Budapest with only the bare essentials, embarking on a long journey via Sweden and Colombia to reach New York in 1941, where they were reunited with Franz’s brother Leo. The Oppenheimers were twice forced to pay discriminatory taxes, in Berlin and in Vienna, where the contents of both their homes were looted by the Nazis.
A short time before their flight from Vienna, the Oppenheimers sold most of their porcelain collection to Fritz Mannheimer (1890–1939), the Jewish director of the Amsterdam branch of the Berlin bank Mendelssohn & Co. and a passionate art collector, who had built up a vast and wide-ranging collection displayed in his Amsterdam home but by the late 1930s was de facto owned by the bank [FIG. 6].
Mannheimer died suddenly in 1939. The estate was declared bankrupt, and an inventory of the collection compiled under the supervision of the Rijksmuseum was completed in March 1940 [FIG. 7, 8].
Following the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the executors of the estate sold the collection en bloc to Kajetan Mühlmann, head of the Nazi art looting agency in the Netherlands, for the ‘Führermuseum’, or Sonderauftrag Linz (Special Project Linz), an unrealized museum Hitler planned to build in Linz. After the end of the war, the Allies recovered the Mannheimer collection and transferred it to the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP) before returning it to the Netherlands into the care of the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, the Dutch authority charged with the handling and restitution of artworks repatriated from Germany.
In 1952, part of the Oppenheimer porcelain collection was sold at Frederik Müller & Co. in Amsterdam while another part was transferred to the Rijksmuseum, where it was displayed until its 2019 restitution to the Oppenheimer heirs. Select pieces reacquired at auction are on display at the Rijksmuseum.
A striking Meissen Chinoiserie figure of a man seated in an arbour sold at Christie’s New York in 2018 illustrates some of the challenges when researching decorative art. The 1927 Oppenheimer collection catalogue documents two examples of this object (Plates 30 and 31).The object consists of two parts; the figure can be detached from the arbour. By the time the two objects were photographed in 1940 in a display cabinet in Fritz Mannheimer’s home, the figures had been switched.
This particular arrangement is also visible in the records of the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP), where cultural property recovered by the Allies was systematically photographed and recorded on property cards (MCCP no. 1626/6, the figure only) in 1945–46 [FIG. 11] .
Since at least 1981, when the figure from the Oppenheimer catalogue (cat. no. 30) was sold in a Swiss auction in 1981, it has been seated within a third arbour, which does not match either of the two arbours originally documented in 1927. The 1981 auction catalogue entry mentions a collection label with the number 30; in 2018, the object reappeared at Christie's with a faint trace of that collection label [FIG. 12].The figure was then sold with the arbour which originally did not belong to Oppenheimer’s figure at Christie’s New York pursuant to a settlement agreement between the consignor and the Estate of Franz Oppenheimer.
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Following the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the executors of the estate sold the collection en bloc to Kajetan Mühlmann, head of the Nazi art looting agency in the Netherlands, for the ‘Führermuseum’, or Sonderauftrag Linz (Special Project Linz), an unrealized museum Hitler planned to build in Linz. After the end of the war, the Allies recovered the Mannheimer collection and transferred it to the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP) before returning it to the Netherlands into the care of the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, the Dutch authority charged with the handling and restitution of artworks repatriated from Germany.
In 1952, part of the Oppenheimer porcelain collection was sold at Frederik Müller & Co. in Amsterdam while another part was transferred to the Rijksmuseum, where it was displayed until its 2019 restitution to the Oppenheimer heirs. Select pieces reacquired at auction are on display at the Rijksmuseum.
A striking Meissen Chinoiserie figure of a man seated in an arbour sold at Christie’s New York in 2018 illustrates some of the challenges when researching decorative art. The 1927 Oppenheimer collection catalogue documents two examples of this object (Plates 30 and 31).The object consists of two parts; the figure can be detached from the arbour. By the time the two objects were photographed in 1940 in a display cabinet in Fritz Mannheimer’s home, the figures had been switched.
This particular arrangement is also visible in the records of the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP), where cultural property recovered by the Allies was systematically photographed and recorded on property cards (MCCP no. 1626/6, the figure only) in 1945–46 [FIG. 11] .
Since at least 1981, when the figure from the Oppenheimer catalogue (cat. no. 30) was sold in a Swiss auction in 1981, it has been seated within a third arbour, which does not match either of the two arbours originally documented in 1927. The 1981 auction catalogue entry mentions a collection label with the number 30; in 2018, the object reappeared at Christie's with a faint trace of that collection label [FIG. 12].The figure was then sold with the arbour which originally did not belong to Oppenheimer’s figure at Christie’s New York pursuant to a settlement agreement between the consignor and the Estate of Franz Oppenheimer.
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Related addresses: Street partially still exists as Hitzigallee.
Related addresses: Street partially still exists as Hitzigallee.
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Related addresses: Schöneberger Ufer 38 until May 1935 (Architect: Heinrich Schweitzer); Schöneberger Ufer 71
Budapester Strasse (1932) not identical with today’s Budapester Strasse; Lützowstrasse 32 I (October 1925–1930); Königin-Augusta-Strasse 22 (October 1930–1932) - in 1933 this street becomes Tirpitzufer 84 and in 1947 it was renamed to Reichpietschufer. Lützowufer 19a (November 1932–1937), since 1933: Galerie Nierendorf; Großadmiral-von-Koester-Ufer 65 (1935–1947), Schöneberger Ufer.
Potsdamer Strasse 134c (Mid-Oct 1918-Sept 1924); Schöneberger Ufer 38 (July 1927-1931); Großadmiral-von-Koester-Ufer 39 respectively (since 1936) Großadmiral-von-Koester-Ufer 73 (1935-1939);Kluckstrasse 12 (May 1939 –Dec 1949)
Employee and partner at the Galerie / Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer
Related addresses: Street partially still exists as Hitzigallee.
Related addresses: Koenigin-Augusta-Strasse 46, in 1933 becomes Tirpitzufer 84, in 1947 becomes Reichpietschufer. Her last address in Berlin before deportation to Theresienstadt Bleibtreustrasse 17.
ALL BUILDINGS ARE DESTROYED
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Henry van de Velde (1894-1943), designer of the interior of the reading room at the gallery Paul Cassirer, Victoria Strasse 35.
(Street and building are destroyed)
Related addresses: Reichskammer der Bildenden Künste, Government agency 1933-1945; Blumes Hof 4-6 (since June 1934; street and building are destroyed; today's postcode 10785), Derfflingerstrasse 7 (from October 1935 until March 1937), Ahornstrasse 2 (1938). Today's postcode 10785
