3. Establishing the Facts
The Committee establishes the following facts on the grounds of the investigation into the facts in the file RC 3.190 and this file.
The Liebermann family
Max Martin Liebermann (hereinafter also referred to as Liebermann) was born on 20 July 1847 in Berlin. He was the second son of the industrialist Louis Liebermann and his wife, Philippine Liebermann (nee Haller). Max had an older sister, an older brother and a younger brother. From 1857 the family lived in Haus Liebermann at Pariser Platz 7 in Berlin. Max Liebermann grew up in an era when there was growing emancipation of Prussia’s Jewish population. After he had passed his final school exam at the Friedrichwerdersche Gymnasium (Friedrich Werder Grammar School), in 1866 Liebermann started a two-year period studying chemistry in Berlin. After that, he was admitted to the Großherzoglich-Sächsischen Kunstschule (Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School) in Weimar. Between 1871 and 1884 Max Liebermann stayed mainly in the Netherlands and France, after which he once again settled in Berlin and got married there on 14 September 1884 to Martha Marckwald (1857-1943). Their only daughter, Käthe (1885-1952), was born a year later. From 1892 the family lived on the second floor of the parental home Haus Liebermann in Pariser Platz in Berlin.
Max Liebermann’s career
Max Liebermann made a name for himself in Berlin as a champion of ‘modern’ art. In 1898 he became chair of the Berliner Secession art movement; and the year before he had been appointed a professor at the Königliche Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts). In 1914 Max Liebermann founded Freie Secession (Free Secession), with him as its honorary chair. A retrospective of his work was organized in 1917 in the Academy of Arts to mark his seventieth birthday. Three years later he was appointed president of the Academy. At this time, Max Liebermann concentrated on painting portraits. On his eightieth birthday he was awarded the Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches (Eagle Shield of the German Reich).
During the last years of his life, Max Liebermann witnessed the National Socialist takeover of power. On 7 May 1933 the National Socialists forced Liebermann – who had already stepped down from his position as president of the Academy of Arts – to give up his honorary presidency, senatorship and membership of this academy, which had become the Preußische Akademie der Künste (Prussian Academy of Arts) in 1926. After this, Max Liebermann withdrew from public life and died in Berlin on 8 February 1935.
Max Liebermann’s estate
During his lifetime Max Liebermann drew a lot and his collection of his own drawings was very extensive. According to art historian Sigrid Achenbach, Max Liebermann probably left many thousands of drawings. Many of them were in full sketch books. It is not known how many drawings there were in Max Liebermann’s estate in 1935 or how many of them were depictions of Martha and Käthe.
It emerges from a letter that Martha Liebermann wrote on 15 March 1935 in reply to a letter she received from the German art historian Max Lehrs, who lived in Dresden, that after her husband’s death she organized his works and applied estate stamps to them. Her reply also reveals that in his letter, Lehr had passed on a request from Prince Johann Georg of Saxony concerning an unspecified sketch book that might have been in Martha’s possession. Martha wrote in her answer of 15 March 1935 that she was at that moment making an inventory of the contents of her late husband’s studio, together with the art historian Erich Hancke, for the purposes of applying an estate stamp to the works left by her husband.
It is also apparent from her reply that Max Liebermann made a habit of removing the better drawings from his sketch books and putting them in mats. According to Achenbach, sketch books that were found to be still completely intact had only been stamped once with the estate stamp, on the inside of the cover. Such a stamp was applied to each of the separate drawings. The estate stamp applied to the front of the Drawing indicates that the Drawing was still in Max Liebermann’s studio after he died in February 1935. It can be deduced from the fact that the estate stamp was applied to the front of the sheet that the Drawing was no longer part of a sketch book at that moment.
Persecution of Martha by the National Socialists and her attempts to leave Germany
In 1935 Martha was forced to move to a smaller dwelling at Graf-Spee-Straße 23 in Berlin. The house at Pariser Platz 7 was maintained even though Martha no longer lived there. Her daughter Käthe, who had meanwhile married the non-Jewish German diplomat and philosopher Kurt Riezler, left for New York after the 1938 November Pogrom. Her husband had accepted a position with the New School for Social Research there. At that moment Martha still did not want to leave Berlin, where her husband was buried.
In February 1938 Martha tried to give the house at Pariser Platz 7 to her daughter, in order to avoid expropriation. However, the notarial instrument that would have enabled this transfer was not accepted by the authorities. Jews were prohibited from residing in Pariser Platz with effect from 6 December 1938. Martha was consequently no longer permitted to enter the house. In that same month she was obliged to surrender all her silver and jewellery. On 14 December 1940 Martha was forced to sell her mansion in Wannsee, which Max Liebermann had had built in 1909, to the German Reichspost for 160,000 reichmarks. The proceeds of the sale were deposited in a frozen bank account and were not at Martha’s disposal.
Starting in the autumn of 1941, Martha made various attempts to leave Germany. Both Sweden and Switzerland granted Martha entry visas after friends had guaranteed they would pay for her living expenses. The Reichswirtschaftsministerium (Reich Ministry of Economics), however, demanded 50,000 Swiss francs in Reichsfluchtsteuer (Reich Capital Flight Tax) in exchange for an exit visa. Despite attempts, Martha did not succeed in obtaining an exit visa and she was therefore not permitted to leave Germany.
At the end of 1942 Martha had a stroke and became bedridden. She continued to receive help from a small number of people in her circle. On 4 March 1943 Martha wrote to Erich Alenfeld, who also lived in Berlin. He had been her legal and financial adviser since 1942:
Verehrter, lieber Herr Alenfeld, Ich bin ganz auseinander! Die Bank hat nicht mal die kleine Summe gezahlt, ohne einen freundlichen Besuch wäre ich ohne Geld! – Dazu macht man mir von allen Seiten Angst wegen Abtransport! Ich erwarte Sie sehnlich, […] Dr. Landsberger sollte ja kommen!
Bitte, bitte Antwort
Ihre dankbare Martha L.
[Dear, dear Mr. Alenfeld, I am completely shattered! The bank didn’t even pay the small amount, without a friendly visit I would be without money! – In addition, I am being frightened from all sides about removal! I am eagerly awaiting you … Dr Landsberger should come!
Please, please answer
Your grateful Martha L.]
Underneath, in Erich Alenfeld’s handwriting, is the following:
Abgeholt 5.III.43
Morgens!
Gift genommen!
[Picked up 5.III.43
In the morning!
Took poison!]
Alenfeld’s poignant postscript makes it all too clear that Martha’s letter of 4 March 1943 was to be her last. On 5 March 1943 a police officer appeared at Martha’s residence with the objective of having her transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. But Martha had taken an overdose of sleeping pills and was in a coma. She was taken to the Berlin Jewish Hospital, where she died on 10 March 1943. Erich Alenfeld saw to it that Martha was buried on 23 March 1943 in the cemetery in Weissensee. All her belongings were confiscated by the German state on 26 March 1943. On 31 March 1943 the house in Pariser Platz was seized by the Gestapo, and on 4 September 1943 the dwelling in Graf-Spee-Straße was ‘emptied’.
On 10 May 1954 Martha Liebermann was reburied next to her husband in the Schönhauser Allee Jewish cemetery in Berlin.
Information about the Drawing
The Drawing is a black and white chalk drawing on paper by Max Liebermann with dimensions 368 x 296 mm, entitled Daughter and Wife of Max Liebermann, Reading at a Round Table, dated 1870-1935. The Drawing has been part of the Dutch National Art Collection since 1956 and is currently in the Rijksmuseum, under inventory number RP-T-1956-27(R). The Drawing was purchased in 1956 by the Rijksmuseum’s Print Room from Galerie Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland.
The front of the Drawing depicts a young girl and a woman: Martha Liebermann and daughter Käthe. Both figures appear countless times in Max Liebermann’s sketch books and drawings. On the back (verso) of the sheet there is a watercolour of a few houses and a tower. The Rijksmuseum labelled it Schets van een stadsgezicht [Sketch of a Townscape] with inventory number RP-T-1956-27(V).
An estate stamp has been applied on the lower left of the Drawing. This stamp is the same as the stamp depicted in Matthias Eberle’s catalogue raisonné of Liebermann’s paintings and oil studies. Such stamps were applied in order to confirm the authenticity of an artist’s works. It is the stamp that Martha Liebermann and art historian Erich Hancke used shortly after Max Liebermann’s death to authenticate Liebermann’s works on paper.
Provenance of the Drawing: 1935-1945
The presence of the estate stamp on the Drawing implies that the Drawing was the property of Martha Liebermann in 1935. It has also been established that the Drawing was in Switzerland after the war. Research has not revealed how and when the Drawing ended up in Switzerland. The Drawing was purchased on 16 April 1956 by the Rijksmuseum’s Print Room from Galerie Beyeler in Basel.
The investigation did, however, identify three routes along which Max Liebermann drawings could have found their way to Switzerland during the war. Although it is not known whether the Drawing arrived via one of these routes, they do provide insight into the circumstances in which works by Liebermann reached Switzerland during the war, and consequently the routes that might have been followed by the Drawing. The three routes are: (1) sale via the art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt; (2) sale by the Gestapo after confiscation of Martha Liebermann’s possessions; and (3) sale by Martha Liebermann herself.
Route 1: Sale via Wolfgang Gurlitt
Wolfgang Gurlitt was a German art dealer and a cousin of Hildebrand Gurlitt, a well-known museum director and art dealer who purchased art for Hitler on the instructions of the Sonderauftrag Linz (Special Mission Linz). Wolfgang Gurlitt also worked as an art dealer for Special Mission Linz but proved to be less competent in that position than his cousin Hildebrand. It emerged from the investigation that during the war Wolfgang Gurlitt was actively involved in the purchase and sale of Jewish property in Switzerland, where he maintained an extensive trading network. He had particularly close ties with the art dealer / auctioneer Theodor Fischer of Galerie Fischer in Lucerne. This Swiss gallery was well known for its wide-ranging auctioning of Jewish possessions in Switzerland during the war. From 1940 Wolfgang Gurlitt furthermore worked for the German Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propoganda (Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda). He was instructed by this ministry to sell artworks in Switzerland.
Wolfgang Gurlitt was particularly interested in the work of Max Liebermann. This interest was focussed primarily on the latter’s graphic oeuvre. He advised others, Theodor Fischer among them, in regard to buying and selling works by Max Liebermann, and he also collected them himself. In a letter to the art critic and publicist Karl Scheffler in the summer of 1948, art historian Erich Hancke stated that Gurlitt had purchased some 200 drawings by Max Liebermann from Martha Liebermann, shortly before her death:
Liebermann-Bilder sind hier sehr gesucht – sie waren es die ganze Zeit über, noch kurz vor Frau Liebermanns Tode hat ihr Gurlitt den Rest der vorhandenen Zeichnungen, ungefähr 200 Blatt, abgekauft. [Liebermann’s works are very sought after here – they have been so all along; shortly before Mrs Liebermann’s death, Gurlitt bought the rest of the existing drawings, around 200 sheets, from her.]
It is not known whether the Drawing was among them.
The investigation revealed that Wolfgang Gurlitt appears to have particularly appreciated Martha Liebermann as a person. For example, in 1947 he organized an exhibition in the Neue Galerie Linz to mark the centenary of Max Liebermann’s birth. The number of drawings in this exhibition’s catalogue that feature Martha Liebermann is striking. Gurlitt’s appreciation for Martha Liebermann is also apparent from the introduction he wrote for the catalogue:
Aber man kann den Meister nicht ehren, ohne auch seiner Frau – Martha Liebermann – zu gedenken, die ihm treueste Lebensgefährtin und Anregerin war. Von Hunderten seiner Arbeiten spricht ihr Gesicht und leuchter ihre schőne, ausgeglichene Menschlichkeit. Sie wurde nach seinem Tode Hüterin und Bewahrerin seines Werkes, und still und unbeirrt folgte sie ihm freiwillig wenige Jahre später ins Jenseits als das Leben in Deutschland für sie immer unträglicher wurde. Auch ihrem Gedenken sei diese Ausstellung in treuer Freundschaft gewidmet.
[But one cannot honour the master without also remembering his wife – Martha Liebermann – who was his most loyal companion and inspiration. Her face and her beautiful, balanced humanity speak volumes from hundreds of his works. After his death she became guardian and preserver of his work, and quietly and undeterred she voluntarily followed him into the afterlife a few years later when life in Germany became more and more unbearable for her. This exhibition is also dedicated to her memory in loyal friendship]
In 1949 Gurlitt organized a new exhibition about Max Liebermann, in which drawings with the theme of mother and daughter were the core. The exhibition was staged in the Munich art gallery of Wolfgang Gurlitt. Among the exhibited works was one with a description that contains striking similarities with that of the Drawing: ‘Arbeitende Mutter und Kind, Rücks: Holländisches Dorf’ [‘A working mother and child with a Dutch village on the verso’]. There were no images and so it is not possible to establish with certainty whether this work was the Drawing or another work on paper by Liebermann.
Works by Max Liebermann, predominantly from the stock of Wolfgang Gurlitt’s Munich art gallery, were also exhibited in 1954 in Berlin in the Bezinksamt Reinickendorf (Reinickendorf District Office) / Tempelhof Berlin. The investigation showed that this was a selling exhibition. Among the exhibited works were over 80 drawings, many of which featured Martha and/or Käthe Liebermann, often reading, and approximately 30 of them had an estate stamp. No further documents and/or images relating to this exhibition were unearthed. It is also not known what happened to the exhibited works.
Route 2: Confiscation by the Gestapo
After Martha Liebermann’s death on 10 March 1943, her entire estate was confiscated by the Gestapo, including ‘1 quantity of pencil drawings etc’ and ‘3 sketch books’. The seized drawings were not described in detail or depicted, and their value was not estimated.
According to research by the allied central collecting points, Martha Liebermann’s entire estate was sold shortly after confiscation. The items confiscated by the Gestapo that came into the possession of the allies in 1945 comprised solely shares and financial assets. It is not clear what happened to the other confiscated items, including ‘1 quantity of pencil drawings etc’.
According to Wilhelm R. Schmidt, an employee of the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture) at the time, there were plans during the war to sell the confiscated works by Max Liebermann in Switzerland. This emerges from a statement by Schmidt that was referred to in a letter from the Berlin Senator for Finance dated 15 July 1953:
Er glaubt aber sagen zu kőnnen, dass der seinerzeitige Staatsrat Hinkel von der NSDAP […] ihm gegenüber bei einer Rücksprache geäuβert hat, dass er (also Hinkel) die Bilder des Professors Max Liebermann nach der Schweiz verkaufen wolle. [But he believes he can say that the then State Councillor Hinkel from the NSDAP … told him during a consultation that he (i.e. Hinkel) wanted to sell the pictures by Professor Max Liebermann in Switzerland.]
It is not known whether the Drawing was part of the unspecified ‘1 quantity of pencil drawings etc’ and/or might have been sold after confiscation in Switzerland in accordance with the aforementioned plans.
Route 3: Sale by Martha Liebermann
A third possible route along which the Drawing may have ended up in Switzerland is via a sale by Martha Liebermann herself.
Anti-Jewish measures made it increasingly difficult for Martha, who was residing in Berlin, to cover her living expenses. After the war broke out, she was therefore forced to sell artworks from Max Liebermann’s estate to obtain money so she could survive. This is confirmed by several sources, including Irène Alenfeld, daughter of Martha’s good friend and financial advisor Erich Alenfeld. She described how her father helped Martha Liebermann to sell works from Max Liebermann’s estate to ‘Obtain cash and food’. Erich Alenfeld himself also confirmed that he had supported Martha Lieberman in selling objects in order to provide her with food and money:
Das Schicksal der schönen Möbel, Bilder, insbesondere der Familienbilder, (…) ist mir unbekannt. Einen Teil der Sachen hatten wir heimlich verkauft, um die Mittel für Barreserven zu gewinnen (…). [I do not know the fate of the beautiful furniture, pictures, especially the family pictures …. We had secretly sold some of the items to raise funds for cash reserves….]
It is known that Martha maintained contacts with art dealers and collectors in Switzerland, in particular with Walter Feilchenfeldt and Oskar Reinhart. Both were helpful when she applied for a visa for Switzerland. Feilchenfeldt was furthermore an old friend of the Liebermann family. Between 1926 and 1933 he ran the Paul Cassirer art gallery in Berlin, together with Grete Ring, a niece of Martha Liebermann. Feilchenfeldt emigrated to Amsterdam in 1933 and from there to Switzerland in 1940. While in Amsterdam he helped Jewish clients to transfer their possessions from Germany to Switzerland. In 1933 Feilchenfeldt accommodated 14 paintings belonging to Max Liebermann in the Zurich art gallery under the heading ‘Depot Liebermann-Riezler’. In 1939 Feilchenfeldt sent the paintings concerned to Käthe and Kurt Riezler in New York.
The possibility of selling works in Switzerland by Martha herself arises primarily from the contacts that Walther Feilchenfeldt and Oskar Reinhart maintained with the Jewish art dealer Fritz Nathan, who conducted business in Switzerland. Nathan was one of the most important art dealers for the sale of Jewish possessions in Switzerland during the war. He was also an acquaintance of Max Liebermann, who once referred to him as someone ‘exceptional among art dealers’. During the war Nathan acted as an advisor to other collectors, including Reinhart, and supported Feilchenfeldt in business matters. According to Fritz Nathan’s grandson, because Feilchenfeldt could not obtain a work permit in Switzerland, he conducted transactions through Fritz Nathan and his art dealership. Fritz Nathan’s business archive has not survived and therefore it is not known exactly which transactions these were. It is known, however, that during the war Fritz Nathan purchased a ‘Collection of drawings and prints’ by Max Liebermann from Theodor Fischer of the Fischer Gallery in Lucerne. It is not clear, though, which prints and drawings were involved.
Provenance of the Drawing between 1945 and 1956 in Switzerland
Possible exhibition of the Drawing in April/May 1945 in Galerie Aktuaryus, Zurich
During the investigation, the possibility emerged that the Drawing was exhibited at the Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Prints by Max Liebermann (1847-1935) in Galerie Aktuaryus in Zurich between 8 April and 2 May 1945. Lot 50 in this exhibition is described as Frau Liebermann lesend, rückwärts Dorfstraβe [Mrs Liebermann Reading, with Her Back to the Street]. There is no illustration of the drawing concerned in the catalogue, so identification is not possible. The drawing Mrs Liebermann Reading, with Her Back to the Street was offered for sale at the exhibition. However, it is not clear whether the drawing was indeed sold because Aktuaryus’s business archive has not survived. Research has revealed that Galerie Aktuaryus was owned by the Franco-German art dealer Toni Aktuaryus. He regularly exhibited art by Jewish artists and traded with both Walter Feilchenfeldt and Fritz Nathan. Oskar Reinhart was one of his clients.
Exhibition of the Drawing in April 1956 in Galerie Beyeler, Basel
The Drawing was exhibited between 13 March and 15 April 1956 at Galerie Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, in the exhibition Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Gouachen, Skulpturen von 1856 bis 1956 [Watercolours, drawings, gouaches, sculptures from 1856 to 1956] as Lesendes Mädchen, Kohle und Bleistift [Girl reading, charcoal and pencil], 36.5 x 29.5 cm. Mit Nachlassstempel. [With estate stamp.] There is an image of the Drawing in the exhibition catalogue. There is a note by the work in Galerie Beyeler’s internal documentation: ‘sold to Rijksmuseum Amsterdam’. The gallery stated that it had no further information about the provenance of the Drawing.
