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Berlin to display art Nazis considered "degenerate"

Nazi Degenerate Art Rediscovered in Berlin

This unidentified sculpture is one of the 11 pieces recovered from a bombed out cellar in Berlin.

A treasure trove of sculptures banned by the Nazis has been uncovered from the bombed-out cellars of a Berlin house destroyed during World War II, German museum officials said on Monday.

Eleven bronze or terracotta statues, dating from the early 20th century and outlawed by the Nazis in the late 1930s as "degenerate art," will go on display Tuesday at Berlin's archeological museum, a kilometer (less than a mile) from where they were found just weeks ago.

Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit said he was delighted at the find, just outside his City Hall, adding that ownership of the art pieces had not yet been determined.

"We should just be happy that these pieces have been found. The question of ownership is relatively unimportant," he added.

Eight of the sculptures, some of which are damaged, have been identified as the works of German artists Otto Baum, Otto Freundlich, Karl Knappe, Marg Moll, Emy Roeder, Edwin Scharff, Gustav Heinrich Wolff, and Naum Slutzky.

The other three are as yet unidentified, according to Hermann Parzinger, head of the Institute of Prussian Culture.

The small-sized sculptures were among works seized from a number of museums in Germany in 1937 and then exhibited in Munich and other German cities by the Nazis as "degenerate art" which people were meant to laugh at.

The archaeologists found the artifacts as they were digging for medieval pieces in a trench which will form part of a new metro line in central Berlin.

Matthias Wemhoff, an archaeologist and director of Berlin's museum of early history, said a team had been looking for the remains of a 13th century town hall earlier this year when a worker found a bronze figurehead which had been dug up by a bulldozer.

"We thought we were digging for old 13th century remains and we came up with so-called degenerate art from the 20th century. Talk about being surprised," said Wemhoff.

More careful investigation of the remains of two cellars of a house destroyed by bombing in the late summer of 1944 revealed the other artifacts which, archeologists believe, tumbled down from the second or third floor of a house which collapsed after burning.

Specialists identified the sculptures, which all bore burn marks, from old photos showing some of the 20,000 objects confiscated by the Nazis from over 100 museums in the late 1930s.

Some of this art was sold abroad for hard currency, while much of the rest was destroyed or lost during the war.

Specialists believe the 11 sculptures, some of which were used in the making of a propaganda film in 1941, might have been saved by Erhard Oewerdieck, a tax inspector honored by the Yad Vashem holocaust museum in Israel for helping to save Jews during World War II.

Oewerdieck had an office in the destroyed building.

Achim Kleuker

The works were thought to have been lost forever. During construction work on a new subway line through the heart of Berlin, archeologists discovered 11 sculptures that were once part of the Nazis' Degenerate Art exhibition, pieces that the regime found too "un-German." This piece, "The Dancer" by Marg Moll from 1930, was among them. The face and arm have been polished to show its original condition.

REUTERS

The pieces are thought to have been in an apartment in a building on Königstrasse (King Street) when it was bombed in the late summer of 1944. All the works show fire damage. This piece is called "A Likeness of the Actress Anni Mewes" by Edwin Scharff.

REUTERS

Just how the pieces got to the Königstrasse building remain unclear. Historians think they may have been purchased by a tenant in the building named Erhard Oewerdieck, a government official who was honored after World War II for helping Jews escape the Holocaust. The taller piece in the foreground has not yet been identified. Behind it stands a piece by Gustaf Heinrich Wolff. The smaller sculpture on the right is "Female Bust," by Naum Slutzky.

Reproduktion: Benedikt Goebel

Königstrasse was once a bustling shopping street in the heart of Berlin, just in front of where the city hall now stands. It was destroyed during the war.

bpk/Herbert Hensky

Here, a view from the city hall tower to Königstrasse in September 1946. The building which housed the sculptures was destroyed in the late summer of 1944. The sculptures survived the fire that ensued.

Reproduktion: Zentralarchiv/ Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Degenerate Art was the term the Nazis applied to most early 20th century art that was considered to be too "Jewish" or "un-German." Many of the works thus branded were included in a travelling exhibition in 1937. The pieces were displayed in cramped, poorly lit rooms and were surrounded by insulting graffiti.

Landesdenkmalamt Berlin/ Martin Lengemann

An aerial view of the dig site in front of Berlin's city hall. "This confrontation with a period of time we hadn't expected, with these samples of degenerate art -- it is a small miracle," Berlin's Mayor Klaus Wowereit said at a press conference announcing the finds on Monday. "It is unique."

REUTERS

In total, the Nazis branded some 20,000 works of art as "degenerate." Many of them were sold to generate hard currency for Adolf Hitler's regime. Other works were simply confiscated by Nazi functionaries. Others were simply destroyed. Here, Moll's "Dancer" being admired by archeologist Matthias Wemhoff and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit.

AFP

"Pregnant Woman" (1918) by Emy Roeders. While the pieces have been largely cleaned up, most have been left unpolished to indicate the damage done by the fire that destroyed the building on Königstrasse where they were found. "One can see the fate they have lived through and the dignity which they still have," said archeologist Wemhoff on Monday.

REUTERS

All of the newly discovered sculptures can be seen in the New Museum as of Tuesday. Here, a piece which has not yet been identified.

Achim Kleuker

"Head," made in 1925 by Otto Freundlich. The lower part of the face was intact when it was found, but some fragments have since been replaced.

AFP

"Standing Girl" by Otto Braun. Many of the works of art on the Nazis' list of degenerate art have never been found.

Degenerate’ Art Unearthed From Berlin Bomb Rubble

November 08, 2010, 11:13 AM EST

By Catherine Hickley

(Updates with fate of ‘degenerate’ art in fifth paragraph.)

Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Eleven sculptures by artists condemned as “degenerate” by the Nazis were unearthed from World War II rubble near Berlin’s city hall, where building is about to start on a new underground train line.

The sculptures, including bronzes by Edwin Scharff, Marg Moll and Karl Knappe, survived both the vilification of the Nazis and Allied fire-bombing in the war. The last objects in the trove were unearthed at the end of last month in excavations aimed at finding remnants of medieval history. The works will be exhibited at Berlin’s Neues Museum from tomorrow.

“We thought we were digging up a 13th-century medieval town hall, and instead we found ‘degenerate’ art,” Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said at a news conference today. “Archaeology is always good for a surprise.”

In 1937, the Nazis seized more than 20,000 modern works that they saw as contrary to Aryan ideals from German museums. That year, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels staged the exhibition “Degenerate Art,” which first opened in Munich, where it attracted more than 2 million people before moving on to other German and Austrian cities.

The Nazis auctioned the seized artworks 1938, mainly abroad for hard currency. What couldn’t be sold was stored in Berlin by a department of the Goebbels Propaganda Ministry. It is not yet known how the sculptures found their way to Koenigstrasse 50, the house that once stood on the site of the discovery.

Protector of Jews

Matthias Wemhoff, Berlin’s chief archaeologist, said the 11 sculptures may have been preserved for posterity by a German tax adviser and business manager called Erhard Oewerdieck, who rented office rooms on the fourth floor of the house. Oewerdieck and his wife protected Jews from the Nazis, helping many to emigrate, and even hid a Jewish clerk in their own apartment.

The bronze works are largely undamaged, though coated with a patina from the fire-bombing and from their lengthy sojourn underground. Wemhoff said that the individual wooden floors of the house all burned, with the contents sinking to the cellar. After the bombing, the houses on Koenigstrasse -- once a busy shopping street -- were empty shells.

“The only things that survived are non-inflammable objects like bronze,” Wemhoff told today’s news conference. “It may well be that there were also wooden sculptures and graphics. We will try to find out more.”

Among the sculptures are Otto Baum’s 1930 work “Standing Girl,” Otto Freundlich’s 1925 “Head,” Knappe’s “Hagar,” Naum Slutzky’s “Female Bust,” Scharff’s “Portrait of the Actress Anni Mewes,” Gustav Heinrich Wolff’s “Standing Figure,” Emy Roeder’s terracotta sculpture “Pregnant Woman,” and Moll’s “Dancer.” Several featured in the Nazis’ “Degenerate Art” exhibition. Three sculptures have yet to be identified.

Two of the artists were Jewish: Slutzky managed to emigrate to London in 1933, while Freundlich was murdered at Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin.

Mayor Klaus Wowereit said at today’s news conference that the artworks are the property of Berlin, as is the case for any archaeological finds in the city. However, he said, the city is also talking to the original owners of the works.

--Editors: Mark Beech, Farah Nayeri.

To contact the writer on the story: Catherine Hickley in Berlin at chickley@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net.