{"id":4772,"date":"2024-07-02T17:20:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T15:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de\/?post_type=avada_portfolio&p=4772"},"modified":"2024-09-18T16:52:17","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T14:52:17","slug":"davidsohn","status":"publish","type":"avada_portfolio","link":"https:\/\/kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de\/en\/biografie\/davidsohn\/","title":{"rendered":"Premeditated Art Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two \u201cnewcomers\u201d in Bavaria<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Colour<\/span>
Julius Davidsohn\u2019s entry in the Kriegsstammrolle, the register of all those liable for military service.<\/div>

Bavarian Main State Archives \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to enlarge <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Semaya Franziska and Julius Davidsohn were \u201cZuagroaste\u201d, the Bavarian term for \u201cnewcomer\u201d. She was from Frankfurt am Main and he came from Hanover, the couple married in 1901 in Mannheim, and then lived for a while in Berlin until a change of job took them to Bavaria. Julius Davidsohn became the manager of the graphite mine in Untergriesbach, near the Bavarian city of Passau.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1914 saw the outbreak of World War One. Julius Davidsohn signed up as a volunteer in the Landsturm, an auxiliary military force that assisted the Bavarian army in World War One.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
The village of Wytschaete in ruins after the battle of Messines. Julius Davidsohn was deployed nearby.<\/div>

John Warwick Brooke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

As he had a driver\u2019s license, he was assigned to the Bavarian Driver Replacement Battalion and served in Flanders, where the fierce fighting resulted in a particularly high number of casualties.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
During World War One, the Main Customs Office at Landsberger Stra\u00dfe in Munich was turned into a reserve military hospital. Julius Davidsohn was a patient here for three weeks in August 1917.<\/div>

Munich City Archive, DE-1992-FS-PK-ERG-09-0153<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Military hospital<\/h4>\n

On two occasions he became so seriously ill that he had to be sent to a military hospital \u2013 the first in Landshut and the second in Munich. He was in active service until the end of the war in 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Turbulent times: the Weimar Republic<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black<\/span>
Widenmayerstra\u00dfe in Munich.<\/div>

Munich City Archive, DE-1992-FS-PK-STR-00737<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h4>\n

After the war, the Davidsohns moved into an apartment in Widenmayerstra\u00dfe, right by the river Isar and a stone\u2019s throw away from the Deutsches Museum (German Museum).<\/p>\n

These were turbulent times. The Bavarian monarchy was overthrown, there were revolutions and economic crises, civil unrest was rife, and society became increasingly polarized.<\/p>\n

As a salesman and entrepreneur, Julius Davidsohn was particularly exposed to economic fluctuations. Business would be going well one moment and then badly the next. The advertising firm in which he was a partner had to file for bankruptcy in the early 1930s.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Ludwig Hirsch, Semaya Franziska Davidsohn\u2019s brother. Photograph from the duplicate index card in the registry. <\/div>

Photograph from the identity card duplicate. Munich City Archive, DE-1992-KKD-1681<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h4>\n

The Davidsohns did not have any children of their own. Semaya Franziska looked after her brother Ludwig Hirsch, who was deaf. He lived with the couple in their home. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
The ruins of the synagogue in Herzog-Rudolf-Stra\u00dfe in November 1938. <\/div>

Stadtarchiv M\u00fcnchen, DE-1992-FS-NS-00084 \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to enlarge <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Gradual deprivation of rights<\/h3>\n

With the seizure of power by the National Socialists, the couple's life changed. The Kristallnacht pogrom on 9 November 1938 shows the full brutality of the regime. Not far from the Davidsohns' apartment is the synagogue on Herzog-Rudolf-Stra\u00dfe, one of the many synagogues in the German Reich that was destroyed in the night of November 9 to 10.<\/p>\n

After the Kristallnacht pogrom, more than 1000 Jewish men are taken to the Dachau concentration camp. Among them was Julius Davidsohn. He was imprisoned there until November 20, 1938.<\/p>\n

Just returned home, the horrors continue.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Context<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
<\/i>Takeover of power<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Systematic art theft<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Colour<\/span>
Entrance door in Widenmayerstra\u00dfe 45 today. <\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

On 25 November 1938 the doorbell rang at the Davidsohns\u2019 home. Gestapo officials and the antiques dealer Ludwig Schrettenbrunner were at the door. They had come to confiscate the Davidsohns\u2019 cultural property.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Painting<\/div>
A. J. Daiwaille and Eugene Verboeckhoven: Farmhouses and grazing cattle, before 1866.<\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Painting<\/div>
Monogramist B.v.H. (probably Bartholomeus van der Helst): Portrait of a young man with a lemon, 1660.<\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Painting<\/div>
Otto Fedder: Stagecoach in the mountains (around 1900).<\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Painting<\/div>
Ludwig Kandler: Farmer's wife with headscarf.<\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Two<\/div>
French colour cast, Semire et Melida.<\/div>

Munich State Collection of Prints and Drawings<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Depiction<\/div>
French colour cast, Loth and his daughters.<\/div>

Munich State Collection of Prints and Drawings<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Man<\/div>
French colour cast, Le primeur navigateur.<\/div>

Munich State Collection of Prints and Drawings<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Finely<\/div>
Soup tureen made from Nymphenburg porcelain.<\/div>

Bavarian National Museum<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Oil<\/div>
Aelbert Cuyp (copy): On the ice, 18th\/19th century.<\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/div>
<\/i><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The elderly couple looked on helplessly as their pictures, a carved ivory relief depicting Schiller\u2019s \u201cLied von der Glocke\u201d (Song of the Bell), and a magnificent soup tureen made of Nymphenburg porcelain were removed and place in a furniture van waiting in front of the building.<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black<\/span>
In happier days: Alfred Pringsheim celebrating his 80th birthday. Standing in front of the holiday home of the Mann family on the Curonian Spit from the left: Elisabeth, Golo and Katja Mann, Alfred and Hedwig Pringsheim, Thomas Mann, September 1930.<\/div>

ETH Library Zurich, Thomas Mann Archive \/ Fritz Krauskopf \/ TMA_0212<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Davidsohns were not the only ones to be robbed in the days that followed \u201cReichskristallnacht\u201d (The Night of Broken Glass), a wave of orchestrated anti-Jewish violence in November 1938. Similar scenes played out in around 70 apartments in and around Munich where Jews were resident. This art theft operation was meticulously planned with the help of art and museum experts and carried out under the perfidious pretext of wanting to protect the artworks from being destroyed or looted. The initial victims were the owners of large, well-known collections in Munich, for example Alfred and Hedwig Pringsheim, the parents-in-law of the writer Thomas Mann. They were forced to sell their city-center villa to the Nazis and they now lived in the same street as the Davidsohns, Widenmayerstra\u00dfe, at number 35.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
The silver collection of Alfred Pringsheim.<\/div>

Private collection<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Pringsheims had a renowned art collection. Alfred Pringsheim was an avid collector of work produced by silversmiths from the Renaissance period. The Gestapo seized 96 of these artworks on 21 November 1938.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Typewritten<\/span>
Confiscation record by the Gestapo, 25 November 1938.<\/div>

Bavarian National Museum, doc. 199, folder 3<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

However, soon the looting operation went on to target people who only owned a few artworks such as the Davidsohns, who lived ten buildings down from the Pringheims.<\/p>\n

There is a precise record of the items that the Gestapo removed from the apartment. An inventory listed each and every item along with its estimated value.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (Bavarian National Museum), 1926.<\/div>

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The confiscated artworks were taken to a depot at the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (Bavarian National Museum) and in 1940 Munich\u2019s museums were given the chance to purchase them. The Bayerisches Nationalmuseum bought the porcelain tureen.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Forced changes of residence and deportation<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/span>
Entrance to Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp .<\/div>

Federal Archives Image 183-C0716-0049-019<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Davidsohns\u2019 suffering continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1939 they had to vacate their apartment in Widenmayerstra\u00dfe and in the years that followed they had to live in so-called Jew houses (Judenh\u00e4user), collective accommodation assigned to Jews. Julius Davidsohn had to undertake grueling forced labor. The couple were ultimately taken to the internment camp in Berg am Laim, from where they were deported to Theresienstadt on 16 July 1942. They did not survive the horrific conditions in the ghetto and concentration camp. Julius Davidsohn perished on 11 August 1942 and Semaya Franziska on 24 April 1943.<\/p>\n

Semaya\u2019s brother Ludwig Hirsch also perished in Theresienstadt.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Context<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
<\/i>Jew house (Judenhaus)<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black<\/span>
Lawyer Siegfried Neuland, friend of the Davidsohn family.<\/div>

Bavarian Senate, picture archive 169 000<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Shortly before being deported, Semaya Franziska Davidsohn appointed the Munich attorney Siegfried Neuland as executor of the couple's will. Neuland was a friend of the Davidsohns, as he later recounted:<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the time I lived in Schwabing, up until 1937, I regularly went to the Davidsohns\u2019 apartment at 45 Widenmayerstr. on Sunday evenings to play chess with Julius Davidsohn. It was what you call a mansion apartment. When I went there, I noticed the elegant interiors. The apartment was very well furnished; there were Persian rugs on the floor and there were pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Colour<\/span>
Lied von der Glocke (Song of the Bell). Panel with nine ivory reliefs.<\/div>

Bavarian National Museum<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Siegfried Neuland had himself been persecuted as a Jew under the National Socialist regime. After the war he initiated the reestablishment of the Israelite Religious Community in Munich and his daughter Charlotte Knobloch was to continue this legacy. Moreover, he campaigned for justice for his Jewish clients and endeavored to have the Davidsohns\u2019 looted property returned to the rightful heirs. However, Munich Regional Court rejected his claims on the grounds that they had not been submitted in time. The artworks belonging to the Davidsohns were transferred to several Bavarian museums in 1955. The five paintings went to the Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections), the three French color engravings to the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung (State Graphic Arts Collection) and the ivory relief to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Difficult search for heirs<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"World<\/span>
The Davidsohns\u2019 relatives fled to destinations all over the world to escape the National Socialists.<\/div>

Google My Maps<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

When researching the museum holdings sixty years later, provenance researchers established that the owners of the five paintings had clearly lost them as a result of persecution. The artworks had to be returned. But to whom?<\/p>\n

The Davidsohns had no children of their own and so Semaya Franziska\u2019s cousins were eligible for the inheritance. However, as a result of fleeing the National Socialists, the family was scattered all over the world and it proved difficult to track down the heirs. Professional heir hunters took two years to trace descendants in Germany, England, the USA, Israel, and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Colour<\/span>
Restitution of artworks to descendants of the Davidsohns.<\/div>

State Ministry of Science and the Arts \/ Andreas Gebert<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

In 2019 it was finally possible to restitute the artworks. Hardy Langer, the representative of the joint heirs, received them on behalf of the other rightful heirs from the family. On this occasion, he recounted a very moving anecdote from his own family history. His grandmother Emma was Semaya Franziska Davidsohn\u2019s cousin. She managed to survive the Nazi era in Germany with the precarious protection afforded by a \u201cmixed marriage\u201d (Mischehe) as her non-Jewish husband remained steadfastly by her side.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Context<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
<\/i>Privileged mixed marriage (privilegierte Mischehe)<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Film by Bayerischer Rundfunk on Julius and Semaya Franziska Davidsohn<\/h2><\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>