Privately owned by the von Klemperer family
Interwoven threads
The von Klemperer family is still closely associated with the Dresden State Art Collections today. Even in early 20th century their extensive collections were known beyond Germany's borders. Today, however, the majority of the objects are considered lost.
A Dresden family
Privately owned by the von Klemperer family
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Dresden banker and arts patron Gustav von Klemperer was born in Prague in 1852. His father, Aron Moses Klemperer, was an accountant and worked at the Prague Stock Exchange and the Privileged Austrian National Bank.
Ottomar Zieher, Munich, via altesdresden.de
Arrival in Dresden society
Gustav Klemperer begins his banking apprenticeship in Dresden in 1866. He quickly achieves professional success at the banking house Thode & Co.
During his training, Gustav Klemperer lives with his aunt Minna Meyer, who runs a boarding house for Jewish girls. At a dance evening at the boarding house, Gustav meets Charlotte Engelmann from Olmütz (Olomouc). They fall in love and marry in 1875.
Privately owned by the von Klemperer family
One year after their wedding, Charlotte and Gustav Klemperer welcome their first son, Victor. Their second child, Herbert Otto, follows in 1878, and six years later the youngest Klemperer brother, Ralph Leopold, is born.
After Gustav Klemperer's appointment to the board of Dresdner Bank, the family moves into a luxury villa at Wiener Strasse 25 in 1891, which they bought a few years later.
The next generation
Victor, Herbert Otto and Ralph Leopold grow up in Dresden. As adults they enjoy both private and professional successes.
Victor is named director of Dresdner Bank in Dresden, Herbert Otto is managing director of Berliner Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft formerly L. Schwartzkopff, Ralph Leopold is appointed director of Cartonnagenindustrie AG Dresden.
The brothers are actively involved in social life in Berlin and Dresden. They are involved in booster clubs and active as board members of various societies.
Privately owned by the von Klemperer family
In 1910, Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I awards Gustav Klemperer the hereditary title of „Edle von Klemenau“ for his services as honorary consul - a voluntary representative of his home country.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The joy of collecting
Privately owned by the von Klemperer family
Privately owned by the von Klemperer family
Gustav von Klemperer, Edler von Klemenau, and his wife Charlotte are known far beyond the borders of Germany for their impressive collection of artefacts. The couple begins buying Meissner porcelain as early as 1900.
The main focus is on works from the 18th century.
Gustav von Klemperer wants to document his porcelain collection. In 1926, he commissions the art historian Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld to write a catalogue.
In December 1926, Gustav von Klemperer dies unexpectedly at the age of 74. At his father's request, Victor completes the work. In 1928, the 834-item catalogue is published by Jakob Hegner in Hellerau.
Privately owned by the von Klemperer family
Three sons' collections
Charlotte von Klemperer continues to live alone in the villa at Wiener Straße 25 until 1933. After moving to a flat in Beethovenstraße, the porcelain is moved to Victor von Klemperer's villa at Tiergartenstraße 64 in Dresden.
All three sons carry on their parents' passion for collecting. Victor begins buying valuable 18th century books while still a student. A short time later, his interest in early prints from the end of the 15th century, so-called incunabula, also grows. In 1927, he publishes a catalogue of his collection: “Early prints from Victor von Klemperer's library".
His brother Herbert Otto also owns a large number of paintings, European decorative arts and East Asian artefacts. Ralph Leopold and his wife's house contains the miniature collection inherited from Gustav von Klemperer and precious Chinese lacquer panels.
Expelled from their homeland
Deutsche Fotothek / unknown photographer
No way out
The Klemperer family's life is increasingly restricted by National Socialist policies. After the seizure of power in 1933 and the resulting repression, they are forced out of their professional and social environments.
Between 1937 and 1939, the three brothers flee Germany with their families. Ralph Leopold lives in South Africa from 1937, Herbert Otto travels to England in 1938, Victor is granted asylum in South Africa in 1939 and later lives in Bulawayo, in what is now Zimbabwe. In June 1938, Victor begins writing his memoir, which he adds to until his death in 1942.
MAS Museum an de stroom. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Reichsgesetzblatt (RGBI) I 1938, p. 414. public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Forced to hand over their possessions
Like many other Jewish citizens, the von Klemperer family is forced to leave behind large parts of their personal property in Germany.
While Herbert is able to save parts of his art collection on his departure, Gustav von Klemperer's valuable porcelain collection remains in his son Victor's villa in Tiergartenstraße. It is impossible for Victor and Sophie to take it with them when they leave the country. The „Second Ordinance on the Registration of the Property of Jews“ of 26 April 1938 made it possible to confiscate the property of Jewish people in the German Reich without any compensation.
Looted goods in the museum
Dresden State Art Collections, Porcelain Collection
Dresden State Art Collections, Porcelain Collection
State Collections for Art and Science in Dresden
At the end of December 1938, Fritz Fichtner, Director of the Dresden Porcelain Collection and the Museum of Decorative Arts, is commissioned to secure the property of „the Jew who had left for South Africa“, Victor von Klemperer. This includes the entire furnishings of the villa at Tiergartenstraße 64.
Fichtner wants the important porcelains for the museum collections. The von Klemperer family raises objections. The „Eleventh Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Act“ deprives the family of all rights to their property.
On 13 January 1943, Adolf Hitler officially transfers the von Klemperer's porcelain collection to the Dresden Porcelain Collection via letter.
Relocation
During the Second World War, large parts of the Saxon State Collections are relocated outside Dresden to protect them from air raids. Among other things, castles and estates serve as storage locations.
The von Klemperer family's porcelain collection is also affected by these relocations. Lists show that in December 1943, a large part of it is stored in Rammenau Castle near Bautzen.
Dresden State Art Collections, Porcelain Collection
Deutsche Fotothek / Walter Möbius
At least three crates of porcelain belonging to the von Klemperer family are moved again on 8 February 1945. On its way west, the lorry loaded with works of art is parked in the courtyard of the Dresden Residential Palace on the night of 13 to 14 February 1945. That night, the city centre of Dresden and the palace are destroyed by bombing raids.
Further crates of porcelain are moved from Rammenau to the Rothschönberg and Reichstädt castles.
A few years after their forced escape from Germany, Victor von Klemperer dies in 1943. He does not live to see the end of the war and is also unable to regain his family's property.
In the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR
E. Schwesig, Berlin N54. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
After the end of the war, the collection is exposed to looting and wilful destruction by troops and civilians. In May 1945, the Soviet army begins to clear the storage depots and transports the majority of the art to the Soviet Union. Only a small part of the von Klemperer collection returns undamaged from the storage centres to Dresden. A large part is recorded as a war loss.
As early as 1947, Erich Goslar, the authorised representative of the Victor and Ralph Leopold von Klemperer families, contacts the state government of Saxony. In 1948, Herbert Otto contacts the administration of Moritzburg Castle to enquire about the whereabouts of his parents' collection.
Objects owned by the von Klemperer family that return to Dresden in the 1950s are not restituted to the heirs, however, as there are no applicable restitution laws in the Soviet occupation zone.
Restitution and donation
Porcelain Collection, Dresden State Art Collections
The end of the GDR in 1989 marks the beginning of an intensified exchange between the descendants of the von Klemperer family and the Dresden State Art Collections. The decision is taken in 1990, that they will restitute the existing porcelain to the von Klemperer family.
Just one year later, 86 works of art are returned to the family. Despite all the injustices they had suffered in their homeland, the von Klemperer heirs donate 63 important porcelains to the Dresden State Art Collections.
The research project
The work on the porcelain collection does not end with the first restitution in 1991. Since 2006, the entire collection has been scrutinised. As a result of this research, a further 227 porcelains are restituted to the heirs in April 2010. Since then, further porcelain items are returned to the heirs on an ongoing basis as they are found in the collections.
According to a comprehensive research project of the Dresden State Art Collections the von Klemperer porcelain collection comprises 926 objects. The majority of this collection - around two thirds - is still considered lost today.
Porcelain Collection, Dresden State Art Collections
