Karl Haberstock (born 19 June 1878 in Augsburg; died 6 September 1956 in Munich) was a Berlin art dealer who trafficked in Nazi-looted art.[1][2] Haberstock's name appears 60 times in the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945–1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index.[3][4]
Aryanization
editAmong Haberstock's many spoliation activities documented by the ALIU was the aryanization, with the assistance of Baron von Poellnitz and Roger Louis Adolphe Dequoy, of the Wildenstein firm which then continued to trade.[5]
According to historian Jonathan Petropoulos "Haberstock, despite selling works to Göring and other Nazi elite, owed his status to Hitler alone."[6]
Arrest for Nazi art looting
editAt the end of World War II Haberstock was arrested for his Nazi art looting activities, however he testified against Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg Trials and was subsequently released.[7] In the 1950s he opened a gallery in Munich living in the apartment below that of the director of Göring's art collection, Walter Andreas Hofer.[8]
Haberstock's role in trafficking artworks looted from Jews was not generally known until reports that had been classified secret were published at the end of the twentieth century, in particular the ALIU Final Report[4]and the ALIU Detailed Interrogation Report (DIR) No. 13 Karl Haberstock May 1946[9]
Donations to Augsburg
editHaberstock donated forty paintings to the Augsburg Municipal Art Museum[10] in Augsburg. Haberstock's portrait (shown in this entry) hangs prominently in the city's leading art museum, the Schaezlerpalais, and a minor residential street bears his name. After the declassification of the intelligence reports on Nazi looting, however, the museum was criticized for "glorifying" a notorious Nazi looted art dealer. “What we have here is a museum that glorifies the most notorious Nazi art dealer,” says Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress, who has demanded that the local cultural authorities strip the galleries of grateful references to the Haberstock Foundation.[11]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Petropoulos, Jonathan (2017). "Art Dealer Networks in the Third Reich and in the PostWar Period". Journal of Contemporary History. 52 (3): 546–565. doi:10.1177/0022009416637417. ISSN 0022-0094. JSTOR 44504062. S2CID 159830753.
- ^ Petropoulos, Jonathan. (1996). Art as Politics in the Third Reich. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 318. ISBN 978-0-8078-4809-8.
- ^ Michael Hussey, Michael J. Kurtz, and Greg Bradsher. "Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945-1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index". LootedArt.com. USS Office of Strategic Services. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b "Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945-1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
- ^ Michael Hussey, Michael J. Kurtz, and Greg Bradsher. "Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) Reports 1945-1946 and ALIU Red Flag Names List and Index". LootedArt.com. USS Office of Strategic Services. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Petropoulos, Jonathan (30 March 2000). The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany. Penguin Books Ltd. p. 86. ISBN 978-0140290356. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ^ Bohlen, Celestine (21 November 2000). "National Gallery to Return a Family's Painting Looted by the Nazis". New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ^ Petropoulos, Jonathan (29 January 2014). "Inside the Secret Market for Nazi-Looted Art". Art News. Art News. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
- ^ "Art Looting Investigation Unit Detailed Interrogation Report (DIR) No. 13 Karl Haberstock May 1946" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-12-08.
- ^ "German Museum's Collection Drawing Some Harsh Critics". Los Angeles Times. 2000-05-26. Archived from the original on 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ^ "German Museum's Collection Drawing Some Harsh Critics". Los Angeles Times. 2000-05-26. Archived from the original on 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
External links
edit- http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/hildebrand-gurlitt-and-his-dubious-dealings-with-nazi-looted-art-a-940625.html
- 1946 Detailed Interrogation Report N° 13 Karl Haberstock - United States War Department
- Bridges from the Reich: The Importance of Émigré Art Dealers as Reflected in the Case Studies of Curt Valentin and Otto Kallir–Nirenstein
- Hermann Goring and the Nazi Art Collection: The Looting of Europe's Art Treasures and Their Dispersal After World War II
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