Evangelical Academy Tutzing has dark chapters dealt with

The Evangelical Academy Tutzing is one of the first church-supported institutions in Germany to receive funding from the German Loss of Cultural Property Center.

The aim of the research is to examine past and current art objects in the palace against the background of the Nazi era.

Tutzing

- Did high-ranking Nazis or big business figures associated with the Nazi regime use works of art from Tutzing Castle? Were works from it sold well below price during the time of the Third Reich, from 1938 at the latest? There are conjectures, so far there has been no evidence. Those in charge of the Evangelical Academy Tutzing around director Udo Hahn are now hoping for a research project that a historian will start next month.

At the end of last week, the German Center for the Loss of Cultural Property made a total of 2.1 million euros available for twenty projects with the aim of researching illegally confiscated cultural property in museums, libraries and the like. One of these projects deals with Tutzing Castle, which has belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church since 1949 and which houses the Evangelical Academy. This makes it one of the first church-supported institutions in Germany to take part in this research and receive funding.

"We are concerned with clarity, truth, justice and enlightenment," emphasizes Udo Hahn in an interview with Starnberg Mercury.

The academy had been sensitized to the topic through two conferences on provenance research (research into the origin and history of cultural goods).

“There are no property claims,” he emphasizes.

"We want to bring light into the darkness, into perhaps the darkest chapter of the castle."

The research focuses on three previous castle owners

The research focuses on three former owners of the palace: the Hungarian-Jewish art collector Marczell von Nemes (1866-1930), the entrepreneur Albert Hackelsberger (1893-1940) and the Oetker owner Richard Kaselowsky (1888-1944).

At the beginning of the 20th century, Marczell von Nemes put together a huge collection: he owned paintings, drawings, graphics, sculptures, furniture, silverware, jewelry, wall hangings, carpets, fabrics and church gowns. Many of the works of art were in Tutzing Castle, which Nemes bought in 1921 and subsequently had it lavishly decorated. But a lot is no longer there. Because when Nemes died in 1930, he left behind not only his collection, but also a mountain of debt. In order to remove these and pay off the creditors, the bankers, primarily Dresdner Bank, also used the works of art.

Albert Hackelsberger and his family used the palace as a summer residence from 1936 to 1938, before he was arrested and abused by the Gestapo and died two years later as a result.

Richard Kaselowsky finally acquired the castle in 1940. He belonged to the influential "Friends of Heinrich Himmler" in the sphere of the SS Reichsführer.

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Udo Hahn, director of the Evangelical Academy Tutzing

© private

When the Academy says that there are only about 49 to 53 exhibits from the Nemes collection, the question inevitably arises: To whom, when and, above all, at what price were the works of art sold? In any case, the existing works would "no longer bear any relation to the original size of the art collections and facilities of the castle, neither during the time of Marczell von Nemes nor the Hackelsberger family," says Udo Hahn.

In the opinion of the academy director, the fact that the academy was selected by the German Loss of Cultural Property Center proves the need for clarification.

The research work is scheduled to run for one year and requires a lot of research work - in archives, but also, for example, in auction catalogs from the 1930s and 1940s.

Hahn lets wander a “cautious look” into the future.

“I believe that sales did not redeem what could have been redeemed.

My suspicion: pressure was exerted. ”How, when, by whom and to what extent?

Those involved also hope for answers to this.

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