{"id":7458,"date":"2026-05-04T17:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de\/?post_type=avada_portfolio&p=7458"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:03:28","slug":"harry-fuld","status":"publish","type":"avada_portfolio","link":"https:\/\/kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de\/en\/biografie\/harry-fuld\/","title":{"rendered":"TheTelephone King"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Harry-Fuld-Stra\u00dfe in Frankfurt am Main.<\/div>

Photo: Frank Marten Pfeiffer, 2025 <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The Harry-Fuld-Stra\u00dfe in Frankfurt am Main.<\/div>

Photo: Frank Marten Pfeiffer, 2025 <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Frankfurt am Main, not far from the main train station. A small side street in a new development area bears the name Harry Fuld. However inconspicuous the place may seem at first glance: behind the street name lies an entrepreneur who was groundbreaking for the spread of telephones in Germany \u2013 \u201eone of the pioneers in the telecommunications market\u201c.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

A Frankfurt success story<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Harry Fuld with his three sisters. His sister Hedwig's daughter is the writer Anna Seghers.<\/div>

From: Leo Parth: Harry Fuld. A Sketch of His Life (Private printing by the firm H. Fuld & Co., Frankfurt am Main), 1932<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Harry Herz Salomon Fuld was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1879. His mother, n\u00e9e Goldschmidt, comes from a family of successful art and antique dealers. His father is co-owner of the Goldschmidt art dealership. He dies when Harry is three years old.<\/p>\n

Harry Fuld apprentices as a tradesman. Although he is very interested in art, to his great disappointment he cannot get into the art dealership; his maternal family does not see a place for him there.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Prospectus of the newly founded telephone company H. Fuld & Co.<\/div>

Company archive, via www.gvit.de<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

At the age of 19, Harry Fuld founds his own company, \u201eDeutsche Privat-Telefongesellschaft H. Fuld & Co\u201c. He leases ready-to-use telephone systems, a business model previously unknown in Germany.<\/p>\n

Buying a phone for private or business use had previously been associated with high costs: installation was complex and repairs were frequent. Fuld has great success with renting in an affordable subscription model.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Telephon apparatus \u201eModel Frankfurt\u201c by H. Fuld & Co. Telephon- und Telegraphenwerke AG, 1932.<\/div>

Museum Foundation for Post and Telecommunications, 4.2008.1199. CC BY SA 4.0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Fuld & Co Telephone and Telegraph Works, drawing of the factory premises, Mainzer Landstra\u00dfe 134-140 and H\u00f6chster Stra\u00dfe 83, 1926.<\/div>

Institute for Urban History Frankfurt am Main, S7A, No. 1998-29559<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Before long, Fuld begins producing his own telephones. The company grows rapidly, building a large network of branches within a few years, and by around 1930 it is one of Europe's leading industrial companies.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The villa at Douglasstra\u00dfe 9 in Berlin-Grunewald.<\/div>

Photo: Ralph Etter, 2025<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The Fulds' salon in Douglasstra\u00dfe, Berlin.<\/div>

Landesarchiv Berlin, B Rep. 025-07 No. 4884\/59 Photo 4b \/ Photo: Waldemar Titzenthaler \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image with the mouse to enlarge <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Harry Fuld marries three times. Each of his first two marriages produced a son: Harry Fuld junior (born 1913) and Peter Harry Fuld (born 1921).<\/p>\n

In 1929, Fuld moves with his third wife, Lucie, from Frankfurt to Berlin, where the couple lives in a sumptuously appointed villa in Berlin-Grunewald.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Art remains a passion<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia: The Clothing of Saint Clare by Saint Francis, c. 1455. From the Harry Fuld Collection, restituted to the heirs in 2019.<\/div>

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gem\u00e4ldegalerie \/ J\u00f6rg P. Anders \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to zoom <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Although Fuld does not pursue art as a profession, he remains intensely committed to it and builds a valuable art collection. Georg Swarzenski, the director of the St\u00e4del Museum in Frankfurt am Main, advises him in this endeavour.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Fuld is closely connected to the Frankfurt museum scene as a patron and lender of artworks.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\u201eOrient \u2013 Middle Ages \u2013 Exotica \u2013 Modern!\u201c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div><\/div>

Georg Swarzenski on Harry Fuld's Art Collection, 1918<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Henri Matisse: Landscape, the Pink Wall, 1898. From the Fuld Collection, restituted 2008, purchased in 2010 for the Jewish Museum Frankfurt.<\/div>

Jewish Museum Frankfurt<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Harry Fuld art collection is extremely diverse. It encompasses medieval sculptures and paintings, Asian art and arts and crafts, as well as contemporary art, including works by Emil Nolde, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Harry Fuld's study.<\/div>

From: Leo Parth: Harry Fuld. A Sketch of His Life (Private printing by the firm H. Fuld & Co., Frankfurt am Main), 1932<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Harry Fuld also surrounds himself with many works of Christian art. For example, a near life-size crucifix hangs in his office. In his time, he is not the only collector with a Jewish background to own art with Christian motifs.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Christ's Crucifixion, made from alabaster, Middle Rhine, circa 1440. From the Harry Fuld Collection, restituted 2009. On permanent loan from the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation at the Bode Museum.<\/div>

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Sculpture Collection and Museum of Byzantine Art \/ Antje Voigt \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to zoom <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

But not only that: The relief shown here, depicting Christ carrying the cross, features demeaning, stereotypical depictions of Jews among the surrounding figures, who accompany the scene with grimaces or with their trousers down. Such antisemitic motifs were not uncommon in the often anti-Jewish society and Christian art of the late Middle Ages.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Harry Fuld senior, circa 1930.<\/div>

Institute for Urban History Frankfurt a. M., S7P, No. 4760<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Gravestone of Harry Fulds senior in the New Jewish Cemetery in Frankfurt am Main.<\/div>

Bildarchiv Foto Marburg. CC BY-SA 4.0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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A<\/span>fter a restless working life, Harry Fuld dies of a heart attack on a business trip to Zurich in 1932. He leaves behind his third wife Lucie, as well as his two sons from his first and second marriages. Harry Fuld junior is 18 at the time, and Peter Fuld is 10 years old.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Flight and expropriation<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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The immense success of the Fuld Group had already roused envious competitors and zealous Nazis years before the National Socialist regime. As soon as Hitler comes to power at the end of January 1933, a boycott is imposed on the company starting in February. Under this pressure, the Jewish co-owners give up their shares in the company, many leave Germany and are later denaturalised by the NS state.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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

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<\/i>Takeover of power<\/span><\/a><\/div>
<\/i>Aryanization (Arisierung)<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Fulda's widow, Lucie Mayer-Fuld, remarries in 1934. Persecuted as a Jew, she and her husband Acatiu Mayer-Fuld flee in 1939 via France and South America to New York.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Harry Fuld Jr. returns from a stay abroad in 1933, but cannot work in his father's company as planned. The exclusion of Jews from German economic life is advancing relentlessly.<\/p>\n

Fuld Junior is forced to leave the country. He goes to Vienna first, and in 1937, he moves to England.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Peter Fuld in 1945.<\/div>

University of Toronto Archives. Torontonensis, vol. 47 (1945), p. 43.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Peter Fuld, the younger of the two half-brothers, is initially still under the protection of his mother, who is not Jewish. She sends him to a school in Switzerland in 1937. Afterwards, Peter begins his studies in England.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Harry Fuld as an \u201aenemy alien': File on his internment.<\/div>

The National Archives (UK), ref. HO396\/152 \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to zoom <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

A<\/span>t the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, both brothers live in England, but they are no longer safe there either: as German citizens, they are considered \u201aenemy aliens'. They are arrested and sent to internment camps: Harry Fuld junior to Australia, and Peter Fuld to Canada.<\/p>\n

Later, they return to Europe. Harry Fuld Jr. lives in London from 1943 until his death in 1963. After his release, Peter Fuld studies law in Canada but returns to Europe after the war. He dies in 1962 in his hometown of Frankfurt am Main. Neither of them have children.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Preview of Auction at Hans W. Lange in January 1943. Many of the artworks shown here originate from the Harry Fuld Collection. <\/div>

Archive Friedrich Wolters, Coesfeld \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to zoom in <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The art collection put together by Harry Fuld Senior is to be divided among his three heirs. Many works remain in Germany when Lucie, Harry Junior, and Peter leave the country. This allows the Nazi authorities to gain access to them.<\/p>\n

The art collection from the Grunewald villa, which Harry Fuld Senior and Lucie last resided in, is auctioned off at the Walther Achenbach auction house in Berlin on July 10th, 1940.<\/p>\n

Harry Fuld Jr. stores valuable furnishings and artworks from his inheritance at a shipping company in Berlin. There, they are seized and auctioned off from January 27th-29th, 1943, at the Hans W. Lange auction house in Berlin.<\/p>\n

Further artworks from the Fuld collection are still located at the company headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, where an estate administration of the family looks after them. The tax office is confiscating a masterpiece of Chinese art there: the more than 1,000-year-old bust of a man (Lohan) made of ceramic.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Bust of a man (Lohan) made of ceramic, 10th century AD. From the Fuld Collection, today displaced due to the war in St. Petersburg. <\/div>

From Leo Parth: Harry Fuld. A life sketch, n.d. (1932)<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Statement by the Director-General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin to the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Public Enlightenment, 1 October 1943.<\/div>

Central Archive, National Museums in Berlin, I\/MV, OAK 7, Bl. 207v \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to zoom <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Lohan Bust from the Fuld Collection: Museums as Beneficiaries<\/div><\/div>

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In September 1943, the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Public Instruction request the State Museums of Berlin's opinion on the Lohan bust. The Director General immediately goes to work trying to acquire the outstanding work of art for his collections. He is fully aware of its provenance: \u201eIt may be true that the former Jewish owner once intended to donate the bust to the city of Frankfurt. However, his wishes should no longer carry weight today.\u201c He added that the Berlin museums \u201ehave hitherto been completely bypassed in the disposal of Jewish art property.\u201c<\/p>\n

Correspondence follows, in which both Berlin and Frankfurt fiercely claim the piece for themselves. Eventually, the Reich Minister decides in favour of Berlin. The National Museums in Berlin acquire the bust in January 1944.<\/p>\n

However, the work also does not find peace after the rule of the National Socialists: after the end of the war, it was taken to St. Petersburg by Soviet troops, where it is still located today.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Restitutions<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Restituted in 2012, retained by the Museum of Applied Arts through purchase: Fabric fragment from the Harry Fuld Collection.<\/div>

State Museums of Berlin, Museum of Decorative Arts \/ Barbara Schr\u00f6ter<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia: Saint Clare Rescues Shipwrecked People, c. 1455. From the Harry Fuld Collection, restituted to the heirs in 2019.<\/div>

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gem\u00e4ldegalerie \/ J\u00f6rg P. Anders \ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image to zoom <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The heirs of Harry Fold applied for restitution and compensation for their losses after the war. However, some of the artworks confiscated due to persecution are only identified decades later in various museum collections.<\/p>\n

The National Museums in Berlin \u2013 Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation also return several works from the Fuld Collection from 2009 onwards, or reach just and fair solutions with the heirs.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Daniel Burger, Head of MDA UK, recounts the story of Fuld during a film shoot in Berlin, December 2025.<\/div>

Photo: Ralph Etter <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The heirs of Harry Fuld junior<\/h3>\n

Before Harry Fuld Junior dies childless in 1963, he names Gisela Martin as his heir. We do not know what connected the two: were they friends or a couple? Did she run his household? In any case, Gisela Martin later bequeaths her possessions to a support organisation in Great Britain, which belongs to the Magen David Adom (Red Star of David) ambulance service in Israel. The organisation is part of the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Blood Centre of Magen David Adom (MDA) in Ramla, Israel.<\/div>

MDA UK<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The estate saves lives<\/h3>\n

Martin's inheritance initially comprises no valuable possessions. However, it then emerges that hidden within are artworks from the significant Fuld collection, which was confiscated and dispersed during the Nazi era. With the first restitutions, Gisela Martin's inheritance, and therefore Harry Fuld Junior's, suddenly becomes a very big deal.<\/p>\n

The MDA (Magen David Adom) finances, among other things, the construction of an important building in Israel with this: the blood donations stored there decide between life and death \u2013 regardless of the religious background of those in need.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Plaque in memory of Harry Fuld.<\/div>

MDA UK<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Today, a plaque in the building commemorates Harry Fuld Sr. and the fate of his art collection.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Fuld Files: Film about Harry Fuld<\/h2><\/div>

With English and German subtitles<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>