| Abstrakt: |
German Jewish art dealers were driven out of their profession, persecuted and forced to emigrate during the National Socialist period. This contribution shows the displacement mechanisms, which eventually forced many German Jewish art dealers to emigrate. On the one hand, these include the establishment of the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture) in 1933, which from then on controlled the art trade within the German Reich in minute detail and banned Jewish art dealers from practising their trade. In addition to this, however, there were also political signals, such as the violent disruption of auctions or being summoned for interrogation. Furthermore, the treasury played an important roll in the "aryanization" and financial looting of these art dealerships. On the basis of several concrete examples, a brief overview of the persecution of German Jewish art dealers is provided. The second part of the contribution presents the attempts made by those concerned to claim "redress" after 1945 for the wrongs suffered. Depending on whether this concerned their own private collections or the company inventory, they chose different methods of claiming restitution or compensation. In particular, this professional group often claimed "Verschleuderungsschaden" (Dissipation Damages) in accordance with the German Federal Compensation Act. This claim was often asserted, when the Jewish art dealer had been forced to sell his inventory at auction or to other art dealers in a hurry. "Verschleuderungsschaden" were, however, legally capped, so that the real damages incurred were not always paid out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
