A Bavarian idyll

Farbfotografie. Ansicht Schloss Hirschberg

Hirschberg Castle, near Weilheim, in 1912 and today
Gemeinfrei via Wikimedia Commons / Gras-Ober Wikimedia Commons cc-by-sa-3.0

About an hour’s drive from Munich, Hirschberg am Haarsee Castle can still be admired today. This picture-perfect castle has stood resplendent in idyllic countryside since 1909. “This magnificent castle is a jewel of the region”, enthused the Weilheimer Tageblatt newspaper shortly after its construction. Throughout its turbulent history, it provided a welcome retreat and a home for many an aristocrat, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. One such resident was the art collector and patron James von Bleichröder.

The Bleichröder Bank

Schwarzweißfotografie. Porträt Gerson von Bleichröder, älterer Herr mit Backenbart
Banker Gerson von Bleichröder, 1888.

Emile Wauters († 1933), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

James von Bleichröder was born in 1859 in Berlin. He was the third child of the banker Gerson Bleichröder. His father was part of Germany’s financial elite.

Zeichnung, Spritztechnik, die ein Fabelwesen - kollidierende Vögel - darstellt.
Bleichröder Bank, Unter den Linden, Berlin.

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-2007-0307-501 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Schwarzweißfotografie. Innenraum eines Bankgebäudes mit Schaltern.
Counters at Bleichröder Bank.

Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, Aufnahme-Nr.: fmkbb7910

The family enjoyed a high social standing as Gerson Bleichröder was not only an extremely successful businessman but also served as the banker to Otto von Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm I. In 1872 Gerson Bleichröder had a title bestowed upon him in recognition of his services and was now allowed to call himself Gerson von Bleichröder. He was the first Jew in Prussia to receive such an honor.

Schwarzweißfotografie. Bildnis James von Bleichröder in Uniform.
James von Bleichröder as a young man, around 1893.

Landesarchiv Berlin, E Rep 200-33 Nr. 20

James von Bleichröder grew up at his parents’ residence in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The von Bleichröders were considered ‘assimilated Jews’, in other words, they adapted as much as possible to the culture of Prussia, the dominant state within the German empire . This meant, for example, that James joined one of Berlin’s student corps, an elite student fraternity. From 1880 to1886 he studied law, ultimately gaining a doctorate. His father introduced him to Prussian high society and to leading artists. With the inheritance they received after their father’s death, Gerson von Bleichröder’s three sons Georg, Hans, and James were able to live in luxury. A second cousin continued to manage the day-to-day business at the bank.

In 1888 James married Harriet Alexander. They went on to have five children: Curt, Edgar, Ellie, Harriet, and Victor. However, the couple had a rocky marriage and they divorced in 1902.

Art, culture, and fast cars

Schwarzweißfotografie. James von Bleichröder in weiblicher Begleitung in einem großen Auto.
James von Bleichröder in his car.

Landesarchiv Berlin, E Rep 200-33 Nr. 20

With no financial concerns, James was able to pursue multiple leisure activities. His greatest passion was for cars. He even took part in car races. In 1902 he donated Palais Bleichröder to the Kaiserlicher Automobilclub (KAC, Imperial Automobile Club) for use as a club house.

Schwarzweißfotografie. Nilpferd im Zoo.
Ausschnitt aus Buch, aus dem Führer durch den Berliner Zoologischen Garten 1914, über das Bleichröder'sche Nilpferd
The Bleichröder hippopotamus in Berlin Zoo.

From the guide to Berlin Zoological Garden, 1914

Like Gerson von Bleichröder he regularly gave donations to fund medical research and hospitals. He continued his father’s legacy by supporting Berlin Zoological Garden. In 1910 he purchased a hippopotamus for the zoo.

He also followed in his father’s footsteps by collecting art. His collection contained paintings and sketches by famous artists including Adolph von Menzel, along with tapestries, fine furniture, and Meissen porcelain. It also included ethnological pieces such as Egyptian sculpture. His son Edgar inherited his passion for art and became a painter by profession.

Zeitungsausschnitt, der den Tod von Victor von Bleichröder bekanntgibt.
Clipping from the Vossischer Zeitung newspaper, dated August 11, 1915.

Landesarchiv Berlin, A Pr.Br. Rep. 030, Nr. 9128

The Bleichröders’ support for conservative-nationalist politics was another product of their assimilation. James joined the Prussian military. When World War One broke out, he volunteered for active service. His sons Curt, Edgar, and Victor also served in the war. Victor died on the front in 1915.

Schwarzweißfotografie. Wolfgang und James von Bleichröder, ein kleiner Junge und ein älterer Herr.
James with his son Wolfgang.

Leo Baeck Institute, Gerson von Bleichroeder Family Collection.

In 1918 James became a father again. He and his third wife Maria had a son, Wolfgang. In 1923 the family moved to Hirschberg Castle, near Munich. James relocated the majority of his art collection there.

Gemälde. Zahlreiche Figuren in einer bergigen Landschaft, im Hintergrund Gebirge.
Swabian master, Auferweckung des Lazarus (The Raising of Lazarus) (1530-1540).

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen 🔍 Hover over image to enlarge

1931

he acquired the painting Auferweckung des Lazarus (The Raising of Lazarus).

Schwarzweißfotografie. Zwei Herren und eine Dame flanieren auf einer Strandpromenade.

A love of travel

James and Maria von Bleichröder were keen travelers. This can be seen from the many postcards and photographs that they sent to their son. The card here was from Nice and shows the couple strolling along the beach promenade with an acquaintance.

‘Half Jews’ and ‘full Jews’: National Socialist racial mania

Amtliches Formular.
Supplementary card (Ergänzungskarte) for Edgar von Bleichröder, indicating the Jewish ancestry of his four grandparents.

Leo Baeck Institute, Gerson von Bleichroeder Family Collection.

When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Bleichröders were among those whose lives changed forever. Although James was a Christian, having been baptized as a young man, the National Socialists classed him and his children from his first marriage as Jews, while Wolfgang was considered a ‘half Jew’ (someone with one Jewish parent or two Jewish grandparents). Edgar was therefore excluded from the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste (Reich Chamber of Fine Arts) and unable to continue his profession as an artist. As a result of the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 , the Bleichröder banking house was ‘Aryanized’ (expropriated and transferred to non-Jewish ownership) in 1937, and subsequently liquidated.

Description of the painting in the auction catalogue.

James died in 1937 at the age of 77. After his death his art collection was auctioned off by the Berlin auction house Lepke. The Munich art dealer Julius Böhler purchased the Auferweckung des Lazarus at this auction.

A very prominent client bought the painting from Böhler for his own private collection: General Field Marshal Hermann Göring. He paid the princely sum of 8,000 Reichsmarks for it.

Schwarzweißfotografie. Hitler und Göring im Haus der Deutschen Kunstgalerie.
Hitler and Göring in the Haus der Deutschen Kunst (House of German Art, Munich).

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-C10110

Art collector Hermann Göring

Hermann Göring was, alongside Adolf Hitler, undoubtedly the main art collector among the National Socialist leadership elite. He used the artworks to present himself as a highly refined individual. Conversely, he also used his position as Minister President and General Field Marshal to indicate which works were to be considered particularly valuable and ‘German’. He often purchased works that had entered the market as a result of appropriation, persecution, or the murder of their rightful owners.

Schwarzweißfotografie. Ellie von Bleichröder lauscht einem Vortrag.
Photo: Ellie von Bleichröder in the audience during a lecture in Theresienstadt.

At the beginning of the 1940s the persecution of the family became even worse. Curt and Edgar, James’s sons from his first marriage, managed to emigrate to Switzerland in 1942. In the same year, their sisters Ellie and Harriet were captured. Ellie was interned in the Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp. She can be seen listening to a scholarly lecture in a short sequence from the propaganda film “Theresienstadt”. She was liberated from Theresienstadt by the Red Army in May 1945. Harriet was deported to Riga and murdered there. As a “Mischling” (person of “mixed blood”, with both Jewish and non-Jewish ancestry), Wolfgang von Bleichröder was due to be deployed as a forced laborer, but he managed to evade this by deliberately contracting jaundice. He later emigrated to the USA.

Schwarzweißfotografie. Männer in Militäruniform laden Gemälde in Goldrahmen von der Ladefläche eines LKWs.
Anlieferung von Kunstwerken in den Central Collecting Point München 1945/46.

Photo archive at the Central Institute for Art History, Munich

Anxious about the advance of the Red Army, in 1945 Hermann Göring had parts of his art collection moved from his residence at Carinhall to Berchtesgaden. In spring 1945 the artworks were discovered there by American troops and taken to the Central Collecting Point in Munich.

What happened to the painting?

Schwarzweißfotografie. Großer Lichthof, in der Mitte ein Tisch, auf dem Gemälde liegen.
Registration of artworks at the Central Collecting Point, 1945/46.

Photo archive at the Central Institute for Art History, Munich

Among the artworks was the painting Auferweckung des Lazarus. In 1961 it entered the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections) as a “transfer from state ownership”.

The fact that the painting had been part of Göring’s collection led provenance researchers to suspect that it was looted art - especially since at this point it was not known if the widow Maria von Bleichröder had received the proceeds from the auction. Therefore the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen enter the painting in the "Lost Art" database. The rightful heirs subsequently got in touch.

Farbfotografie. Zwei Herren im Anzug vor einem Gemälde in Goldrahmen.
“We cannot undo the crimes of the Nazi era, but we can restore legal certainty. This has been achieved.” These were the words of Dr. Frank Winkel, one of the heirs, on the occasion of the restitution. He can be seen on the right of the photo with the director general of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen.

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen

In 2017 the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen reached an agreement with the heirs of James von Bleichröder in Munich and San Diego. The painting was to be restituted but it could be repurchased by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen.

Farbfotografie. Großes Schloss aus rotem Sandstein.
Johannisburg Castle in Aschaffenburg.

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen

Farbfotografie. Kleine Schrifttafel.
Information panel detailing the provenance of the painting.

The Auferweckung des Lazarus can still be seen today at Johannisburg Castle in Aschaffenburg. There is now an information panel explaining the origins of the painting and the history of its restitution.

Related links

Lost Art Database

Der Central Collecting Point: Restitution und Wissenschaft nach 1945