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This is how August Liebmann Mayer describes Toledo. After completing his doctorate in Berlin on the Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera, in 1908 Mayer goes on a tour of Europe. He spends a number of weeks in Spain.
He is so fascinated by the old imperial city of Toledo that he writes a guidebook on it.
From Mayer's guidebook "Toledo".
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The slim volume conveys Mayer’s love of Spain and Spanish art.
Perhaps this is what draws him to Munich: the city’s Alte Pinakothek museum has an important collection of Spanish art. In 1909 he finds work there as a researcher, initially on an unpaid basis.
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An eminent career
From his beginnings as an unpaid member of staff, August Liebmann Mayer rises rapidly through the ranks to become an esteemed expert.
In 1913 alone he has four books and twelve essays published in Germany and abroad. He is twice awarded honors in Spain for his services to Spanish art.
Alongside his work for the museum, he establishes a career as an academic and holds a professorship at the University of Munich. Mayer is also a much sought-after expert in the art trade. He enjoys a distinguished reputation worldwide and is considered one of the most important art historians of his time. His writings are still of relevance today and continue to be cited.
Mayer’s private art collection
Mayer is himself a collector of art from all eras. He owns a number of oil paintings, including a still life by Renoir; drawings by renowned artists such as Corinth and Lehmbruck; and more than twenty classical and medieval sculptures.
Wikimedia commons, public domain
A keen writer
Mayer does not only publish on art history, but also translates works from Spanish. In addition, he writes novels, although these were never published.
The opening scene of one of these novels is set in Café Stefanie, a favorite haunt of Munich’s bohemian community. Mayer too frequents this café as he is part of the artistic and intellectual scene of Munich’s Schwabing neighborhood.
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1930 A happy family
In 1920 August Liebmann Mayer marries Aloisia Däuschinger, who is originally from Czechoslovakia. Their daughter Angelika is born in February 1930.
Yet the year that begins with such joy
is also to mark the end of Mayer’s career.
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His success as an art expert led him to become the target of jealous colleagues in the field, who launched a series of polemical attacks accusing him of illicit enrichment, poor scholarship, and corruption.
From summer 1930 he was subject to a smear campaign spearheaded by individuals including Ernst H. Zimmermann, director of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Germanic Museum) in Nuremberg; and the art historians Wilhelm Pinder and Luitpold Dussler.
Zimmermann, for example, reported to the Bavarian Ministry of Culture on “Jews with doctorates who are more dealers than art historians.”
Forced to resign due to emotional strain
Mayer can no longer stand the smear campaign. In January 1931, he asks for his dismissal from the civil service:
“The personal attacks and the suspicions raised against me by various Bavarian officials and art historians have made it clear that for a sizeable group of Bavarian officials I am persona non grata…Even though I could expect a disciplinary procedure to find in my favor, I do not feel capable of withstanding the distress that such a procedure would cause, especially as my nerves have been under enormous strain as the result of months of harassment.”
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The director of the Pinakothek, Friedrich Dörnhöffer, defends his colleague against the allegations. He encloses Mayer's dismissal request with an accompanying letter in which he rejects the accusations against Mayer and praises his diligence and expertise.
Friedrich Dörnhöffer verteidigt seinen Mitarbeiter (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Akte 3/2b, Dörnhöffer, Korrespondenz 1916-1933).
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Continued hostility
However, Mayer’s resignation is not enough to stop the attacks from his colleagues, which become openly antisemitic.
The Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party’s official newspaper, describes Mayer as a “Jewish art parasite” and “fake expert”. After the Nazis come to power, the Gestapo takes him into “protective custody” (Schutzhaft) in March 1933. He attempts to take his own life.
His former boss Friedrich Dörnhöffer is horrified and makes efforts to get Mayer released. Mayer is freed in July 1933.
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Left without means
The Nazis confiscate Mayer’s property and auction off his furniture and his valuable art collection. As a Jew, he is excluded from the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture). His professional and private existence in tatters, in 1935 Mayer flees with his family to Paris. With the help of friends, he is able to take his library of books and a few pieces of art with him.
Bundesarchiv, B 323 Bild-0311-004
Further persecution in France
In Paris the family has an initial respite. Mayer resumes his work as an art expert. He and his family live near the Louvre, in a street parallel to the rue de Rivoli.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-L12796 / Heinz Boesig
However, in 1940 the German Wehrmacht invades France.
Because he is from Germany, Mayer is now considered a “hostile foreigner” and for this reason the French authorities send him to an internment camp in the south of France.
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After France signed an armistice with the German Reich in June 1940, Mayer is released.
However, he is unable to return to Paris, which is now under German occupation. Instead, he remains in the as yet unoccupied south of the country.
He hopes that his family would join him. However, his wife Aloisia is seriously ill. She dies in August 1941.
Angelika Mayer is just eleven years old. Friends of the family find a boarding school for her in Nice, the Institut Massènes. Its headmistress endeavors to save Jewish children.
Bundesarchiv, 323 Bild-0311-031
Bundesarchiv, 323 Bild-0311-029
Raided in Paris
In the meantime, Mayer’s apartment in Paris is being looted by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Task Force (ERR) (-> Glossary). His few remaining artworks and his library of books are brought to Germany; a number of the artworks go straight to Hermann Göring (-> Glossary), who is building up his own collection.
The art expert in hiding
Despite being subject to persecution, August Liebmann Mayer attempts to keep making a living as an art expert.
He changes his place of residence frequently and works under the pseudonym Henri Antoine.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-B10919
Betrayal and murder
Mayer is ultimately betrayed by a French art dealer. He is arrested by the Gestapo on February 3, 1944. During his internment, members of the ERR (-> Glossary) try to extort information from him about the whereabouts of various artworks.
He is subsequently deported via Drancy transit camp to Auschwitz, where he is murdered upon arrival on March 12, 1944.
The orphaned daughter
At this time, Angelika Mayer is 14 years old. She is now orphaned and stateless. She wis able to survive thanks to the help of friends of her parents.
In 1951 she emigrates to the USA, where she begins to study art history.
From 1954 she endeavores to claim compensation from the West German authorities through a number of procedures.
In 1963 she receives 2,500 German marks for her father’s financial loss and the loss of the art collection and library.
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Zentralarchiv
Those behind Mayer’s persecution continue their careers undisturbed
The people who had persecuted Mayer are able to continue their careers undisturbed after the war.
Ernst H. Zimmermann, for example, who was one of the ringleaders of the smear campaign in 1930, becomes a museum director in Berlin and is awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1950s.
Luitpold Dussler is appointed professor at the Technical University in Munich in 1947, despite his former membership of the Nazi Party and his involvement in Mayer’s persecution.
Restitution
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Pictures returned to Angelika Mayer
In the course of its provenance research, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections) come across four paintings from August Liebmann Mayer’s art collection.
In 2010 these paintings were returned to his daughter Angelika Mayer, by then 80 years old, in accordance with the Washington Principles.
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Since 1918 the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen had owned a portrait bust of Mayer.
It was created by the sculptor Edwin Scharff, a friend of the art historian.
In 2015 the bust was taken out of storage and put on display in front of the director general’s office at the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. This was a gesture by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen to commemorate their colleague who was persecuted and murdered.
