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Art Stolen From the Jews in Vienna Around 1938

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Nazi looting organization

The Vugesta (also VUGESTAP) for "Vermögens-Umzugsgut von der Gestapo" ("Property Removed past the Gestapo") was a Nazi looting organization in Vienna that from 1940 to 1945 seized the possessions of five,000-6,000 Viennese Jews.[1] [2] It was a key role player in the aryanization of Jewish holding, redistributing private belongings stolen from Jewish Austrians to not-Jewish or Aryan Austrians during the Nazi reign in Austria. [3]

Creation [edit]

On Baronial 22, 1940, the Reich Minister of Justice issued a decree to the Reichsverkehrsgruppe Spedition und Lagerei (Reich Transport Group Forwarding and Storage). Jews who fled lost their citizenship and their property was seized and resold.[4] Proceeds went to aircraft companies, warehouses and regional tax authorities in Vienna and Berlin.

The Vienna Gestapo founded the VUGESTA to auction off Jewish property beginning on September 7, 1940.

Karl Herber managed the Vugesta, headquartered in the "Reichsverkehrsgruppe Spedition und Lagerei / Ostmark" (formerly Key Association of Freight Forwarders for Austria, Vienna one, Bauernmarkt 24).[5] A collaboration between Austrian freight forwarders, Austrian warehouses and the Gestapo, the Vugesta employed 12 people.

The Gestapo, the Vugesta and the Dorotheum [edit]

In the beginning few years, the VUGESTA full-bodied on property stolen from Jews fleeing Nazi terror or deported to camps.[6] Jews were obliged to hand over their packed removal goods (so-chosen "lifts") to forwarding agents before they left. After the beginning of the 2nd Globe War, however, these "lifts" were no longer forwarded, simply remained with the freight forwarders or at intermediate stations.

Freight forwarders were too obliged to written report on Jewish clients. In these cases, the Vugesta and Gestapo confiscated the property. The looted property was auctioned off through the Dorotheum, in Vienna.

Legitimation card for the Vugesta sale, May 1941

Nazi party members, soldiers and local government could purchase the looted property along with war invalids, and people who had lost their homes. The Nazi Party controlled the seizures and the auctions.

By the end of 1943, most of the property looted from Jews had been resold. Later on that, the Vugesta full-bodied on selling off the deported Jews' home effects. To this end, the Krummbaumgasse piece of furniture recycling eye (headed by Bernhard Witke and Anton Grimm) worked closely with the Central Office for Jewish Emigration initiated by Adolf Eichmann. The appraisers were given addresses and keys to the apartments, which were then cleared past forced laborers.

Valuables and works of art [edit]

All artworks and appurtenances with an estimated value of over 1,000 Reichsmarks were auctioned through the Dorotheum- unless the Führer reserved them for himself. Hans Posse, the special representative for the Linz Führer Museum, had showtime pick. Museums had right of starting time refusal and purchased many artworks looted from Jews.[7] [8] Later that, the Vugesta appraisers such as Bernhard Witke or Anton Grimm, had admission. Merely when Nazi officers, fine art dealers and other favorites showed no involvement were the goods sold to museums, dealers and private individuals via public auctions.

Business volume [edit]

Vugesta'south gain for the years 1941 and 1944, are estimated at xiv million Reichsmarks, of which 10 meg Reichsmarks came from the Dorotheum auction house.[9]

From the early autumn of 1940 until the stop of the war, the Vugesta seized and sold the belongings of around v,000 to half-dozen,000 Jews and the home effects of at least 10,000 Jewish families[vii] who fled or were deported for over five meg Reichsmarks. In addition, the Vugesta made a further ten million Reichsmarks by selling items through the Dorotheum auction business firm. The profit from these sales financed the Nazi Reich.

Whitewashing theft [edit]

The legal-looking transactions at the prestigious Dorotheum were used to whitewash the Nazi-looting of the objects sold. In 1997, Oliver Rathkolb described the mecanism in From 'Legacy of Shame' to the Auction of 'Heirless' Art in Vienna: Coming to Terms 'Austrian Style' with Nazi Artistic War Booty in a chapter called "the whitewashing problem"[10]

In her study of Nazi looting of fine art collections in Vienna (Was einmal war Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens [eleven]) Sophie Lillie detailed the mecanism by which theft was bearded as repossesion for repayment of debt. The Art Newspaper summarized this process in a review of her book:

When a Jew applied to emigrate, in theory only 25% of his appurtenances went to the State. An inventory was submitted and the Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz decided which works of art were of national importance and these were "made secure", ie; confiscated. It was rare, however, for what was left to exist reunited with the owner, who had usually already fled to an unknown destination. Instead, it sat in Nazi-owned warehouses, which sold the goods to pay the "storage charges" that the owner plain could not comprehend. A frequent penalty for emigrating was to be stripped of citizenship, and at this point all appurtenances fell to the State, which would sell them as "belongings of a Jew" through the State-owned auction firm, the Dorotheum, or the dealership of VUGESTA, the co-operative of the Gestapo responsible for the valuation of emigré goods.[12]

Examples of looting by the Vugesta [edit]

  • The Kraus Family ("When the National Socialist authorities deprives all Jews living away of their German citizenship, the property of the Kraus family is classified as 'belongings of the enemy'.  Equally a outcome, it is administered past the 'Verwertungsstelle für jüdisches Umzugsgut der Gestapo' (Gestapo Agency for Jewish Property, or Vugesta), which auctions the looted objects in the Dorotheum auction house or sells them by exhibiting them in Vienna.")[13]
  • "144 acquisitions past museums from the Vugesta (the Gestapo function for the disposal of the belongings of Jewish emigrants) and with regard to more than than 200 "aryanised" works caused past Julius Fargel, the art restorer of the municipal collections and good assessor of paintings for Vugesta."[fourteen]
  • Erich Wolfgang Korngold: "The ANL concluded after its investigation that its Korngold holdings had been confiscated and transferred to the ANL by the Vugesta. Amidst these materials were 2,122 messages to Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and his father Julius, the prominent Viennese music critic; other important Korngold music library materials remain unaccounted for today.[15]
  • Bruno Jellinek: "The original owner of the painting, the Czech businessman Bruno Jellinek, fled Austria following the "Anschluss" in 1938; his art collection was confiscated by the Nazi regime and sold, partly to private individuals, partly to country collections. The Ostade painting was confiscated by the VUGESTA (Secret State Constabulary Administration Bespeak for Jewish Removals) and brought to the Dorotheum sale house; however, information technology was sold to the Art History Museum on two December 1941 for 16,000 Reichsmark before its planned sale at sale."[sixteen]
  • Bernhard Altmann, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Hugo Blitz, Oscar Bondy, Caroline Czeczowiczka, Hans Engel, Ernst Egger, Josef Freund, Elsa Gall, Robert Gerngross, Daisy Hellmann, Bruno Jellinek, Siegfried Kantor, Gottlieb Kraus, Klara Mertens, Moriz und Stefan Kuffner, Stefan Mautner, Oskar Reichel, Louise Simon oder Siegfried Trebitsch.[17]

Restitution [edit]

On 29 April 1999, the Vienna Urban center Council decided that fine art acquired by questionable means (theft, confiscation, expropriation) during the Nazi era by the city'due south museums, libraries, archives and collections should to exist returned to their original owners or their legal successors.  Vugesta purchases between1940 and1945 was ane of the iii categories recognised by the Vienna Museum as looted property.[18]

The Vienna Museum published a list of artworks it had purchased from the Vugesta that had been looted from Jews.[nineteen]

See also [edit]

  • Nazi plunder
  • The Holocaust in Austria
  • Unser Wien

References [edit]

  1. ^ "The Vugesta - The Gestapo Office for the Disposal of the Property of Jewish Emigrants - Art Database". Kunstdatenbank.at. Archived from the original on 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2021-03-25 .
  2. ^ "IKG VIENNA - Section FOR RESTITUTION AFFAIRS - Research Guide". Restitution.or.at . Retrieved 2021-03-25 .
  3. ^ "The Vugesta - The Gestapo Office for the Disposal of the Property of Jewish Emigrants - Art Database". 2020-01-13. Archived from the original on 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2021-03-25 .
  4. ^ "The Vienna Athenaeum: Musical Expropriations During the Nazi Era and 21st Century Ramifications" (PDF). In Baronial 1940, the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, "RSHA") divested Jews who had emigrated from Austria of their citizenship and ruled that whatever belongings left behind by Jews in warehouses in Austria was to be offered for auction. Objects packed for shipment out of Austria by exiles and held by transporters and forwarding agents were seized with the interest of the Vugesta (Gestapo Function for the Disposal of the Property of Jewish Emigrants), established in September 7, 1940.45 {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "Books and Publications: Robert Holzbauer, "The Seizure of Avails of Enemies of the People and the State in Austria". The "VUGESTA": The Gestapo's Office for the Disposal of the Property of Jewish Emigrants ("Einziehung volks- und staatsfeindlichen Vermögens im Lande Österreich". Die "VUGESTA" - die "Verwertungsstelle für jüdisches Umzugsgut der Gestapo), 2000". Lootedart.com . Retrieved 2021-03-25 .
  6. ^ "Von der "wilden Arisierung" zur VUGESTA - From 'Wild Aryanisation' to the Vugesta". Lootedart.com . Retrieved 2021-03-25 . {{cite spider web}}: CS1 maint: url-condition (link)
  7. ^ a b "Restitution : WIEN MUSEUM". Wienmuseum.at . Retrieved 2021-03-25 .
  8. ^ "Looted Cultural Property in the Wien Museum". Lootedart.com . Retrieved 2021-03-25 .
  9. ^ "1.ii Nazi Agencies Engaged in the Looting of Cloth Civilization" (PDF). Art.claimscon.org. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-condition (link)
  10. ^ "From 'Legacy of Shame' to the Auction of 'Heirless' Art in Vienna: Coming to Terms 'Austrian Style' with Nazi Artistic War Booty" (PDF). An illustrative example is Baldur von Schirach, the former Hitler Youth leader and later Reichsleiter and Gauleiter in Vienna. In 1942 he had bought from the Vugesta (Verwaltungsstelle für Umzugsgüter jüdischer Emigranten), an agency of the Gestapo, confiscated Jewish property to the value of Reichsmark 42,092[19] (apparently partly through the Dorotheum, the state owned Austrian auction house, which was heavily used for "whitewashing" and selling machinery for looted fine art objects which were not under "Führervorbehalt," beingness reserved for Adolf Hitler). Amidst other objects he "bought" was a Lucas Cranach, Madonna with Child, from the confiscated Gomperz collection - which is still missing. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Lillie, Sophie (xix February 2003). Was einmal war Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens. OCLC 231981591. Retrieved 19 February 2022 – via Open WorldCat.
  12. ^ "A portrait, person by person, item by item, of a club wiped out". Theartnewspaper.com. July 2004. Archived from the original on 2021-03-27. Retrieved 2021-03-27 .
  13. ^ "Munich'due south Looted Art Bazaar". Lootedartcommission.com . Retrieved 2021-03-25 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ "Restitution study past the City of Vienna". Wien.gv.at . Retrieved 2021-03-25 .
  15. ^ Shapreau, Carla J. "The Vienna Athenaeum: Musical Expropriations During the Nazi Era and 21st Century Ramifications" (PDF). Static1.squarespace.com. {{cite spider web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ "Painting Restituted Post-obit Publication in the Fine art Database of the National Fund - National Fund of the Democracy of Republic of austria for Victims of National Socialism". Nationalfonds.org . Retrieved 2021-03-25 .
  17. ^ "VUGESTA | Lexikon der österreichischen Provenienzforschung". Lexikon-provenienzforschung.org. Archived from the original on 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2021-03-25 . Dice heutige Provenienzforschung steht vor dem Hintergrund der dürftigen Quellenlage und der gigantischen Umverteilungsvorgänge durch die Vugesta vor einer schwierigen Aufgabe. Dice Vugesta war maßgeblich an der "Verwertung" unzähliger Wiener Kunstsammlungen beteiligt, etwa an jenen von: Bernhard Altmann, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Hugo Blitz, Oscar Bondy, Caroline Czeczowiczka, Hans Engel, Ernst Egger, Josef Freund, Elsa Gall, Robert Gerngross, Daisy Hellmann, Bruno Jellinek, Siegfried Kantor, Gottlieb Kraus, Klara Mertens, Moriz und Stefan Kuffner, Stefan Mautner, Oskar Reichel, Louise Simon oder Siegfried Trebitsch. Beinahe alle österreichischen Bundes- und Landesmuseen bzw. -sammlungen erwarben oder erhielten während der NS-Zeit Kunstwerke von der Vugesta, und im Kunsthandel tauchen bis heute Objekte auf, die aus Umzugslifts geflohener Jüdinnen und Juden stammen.
  18. ^ "Looted Cultural Property in the Wien Museum". Lootedart.com . Retrieved 2021-ten-17 .
  19. ^ "Historisches Museum Wien". 2004-eleven-03. Archived from the original on 2004-11-03. Retrieved 2021-ten-17 .

External links [edit]

  • Media related to Vugesta at Wikimedia Commons
  • Listing of items at Vugesta
  • kunstrestitution.at: Vugesta
  • demokratiezentrum.org: Vugesta
  • yadvashem.org: Vugesta - Verwaltungsstelle der Gestapo, welche jüdisches Eigentum veräusserte
  • Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten, Kunstsammlungen Wiens (Czernin Verlag, Vienna, 2003) 1,440 pp, 354 b/due west ills, €69 (hb), ISBN 3707600491

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vugesta

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