Abraham Adelsberger (April 23, 1863 in Hockenheim – August 24, 1940 in Amsterdam) was a German toy factory owner, councilor of commerce and art collector.

Toy manufacturer

Adelsberger settled in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

in 1897 with his wife Clothilde née Reichhold (1872-1954), who came from

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the t ...

. The couple had two children, Paul and Sofie. Adelsberger operated a shop until the 1930s. He created one of the first toy factories in the world, "Heinrich Fischer & Cie". The export-oriented company with about 300 employees mainly manufactured movable toys with flywheel or clockwork drive. In 1909, he was admitted to the Nuremberg Masonic Lodge Albrecht Dürer.

Art collector

His thriving business enabled Adelsberger to build a villa and to collect art, including porcelain and 19th century works as well as valuable paintings by

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

, Gustav Schönleber, Georg Jakobides,

Carl Spitzweg Carl Spitzweg (February 5, 1808 – September 23, 1885) was a German romanticist painter, especially of genre subjects. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era. Life and career Spitzweg was born in U ...

, Paul Weber. The painting "Jupiter and Antiope" by the Dutch painter

Hendrick Goltzius Hendrick Goltzius, or Hendrik, (; ; January or February 1558 – 1 January 1617) was a German-born Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, lauded for his ...

was also in his collection.

Nazi persecution

When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Adelsbeger and his family were persecuted due to their Jewish heritage. His son Paul emigrated to America in 1934. His daughter Sofie fled to Amsterdam with her husband, Adelsberger and his wife remained in Nuremberg. In 1937, Adelsberger had to sell his house and other real estate; his toy factory was Aryanized. In 1939 they fled to Amsterdam to join their daughter. Adelsberger carried a few works of art with him when he fled, including the painting by Goltzius. In August 1940, Abraham Adelsberger died in Amsterdam. In 1941,

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

took possession of the painting through a forced sale in order to decorate his country estate Carinhall with it. Adelsberger's wife was deported to the

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concent ...

in 1943. She survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

and applied for reparations after the Second World War, in which her husband's art collection played only a minor role. She did not get back the painting "Jupiter and Antiope"; it remained in the Netherlands. In 2009, it was returned to Adelsberger's heirs by the Dutch government, and in 2010 it was auctioned off by the

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

auction house for $6.8 million.

Restitution of Nazi-looted art

In 2020, the

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen The Bavarian State Painting Collections (german: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen), based in Munich, Germany, oversees artwork held by the Free State of Bavaria. It was established in 1799 as ''Centralgemäldegaleriedirektion''. Artwork includes ...

restituted an oil painting by Joseph Wopfner, ''Fischerboote bei Frauenchiemsee'' (fig. 1), to the heirs of Adelsberger's son in law, Alfred Isay (1885-1948). In 2019 the German Lost Art Foundation has approved a new research project at

Freie Universität Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

to research Adelsberger's art collection.

Literature

* ''Die Geschichte der Adelsbergers.'' In Frank-Uwe Betz: ''Verfolgte, Widerständige, Ausgebeutete – über die Nazizeit in der Region Schwetzingen – Hockenheim.'' HRSG. Arbeitskreis Freundliches Schwetzingen – Verein für regionale Zeitgeschichte e.V. Verlag Regionalkultur, Ubstadt-Weiher 2015, ISBN 978-3-89735-924-6. Text online hie

*

Manfred H. Grieb Manfred H. Grieb (6 February 1933 – 20 February 2012) what a German entrepreneur and art collector as well as the editor of the ''Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon''. Life Born in Würzburg, Grieb completed a commercial apprenticeship from 1947 to ...

(Hrsg.): ''Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon: Bildende Künstler, Kunsthandwerker, Gelehrte, Sammler, Kulturschaffende und Mäzene vom 12. bis zur Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts.'' Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-5981176-3-3.

External links

* Birgit Ruf
Raubkunst aus Franken

Nürnberger Nachrichten The Nürnberger Nachrichten (NN) was originally a local daily in the Nuremberg-Erlangen-Fürth area. With its regional editions, it covers the whole of Middle Franconia and parts of Upper Franconia and the Upper Palatinate and is one of Germany's ...

, 27. Februar 2010 * Frank-Uwe Betz
Ein bekannter Hersteller von Blechspielzeug
Hockenheimer Tageszeitung, 25. Februar 2014.

* Martin Thiele Freie Universitaet Berlin 5 June 2019 in Newsletter von Looted Art com
''Raubkunst auf der Spur - On the trail of robbery. Am Kunsthistorischen Institut wird die Sammlung des Unternehmers Abraham Adelsberger erforscht und rekonstruiert. Ein Teil war während der Weltwirtschaftskrise an Banken verpfändet und im Nationalsozialismus aufgelöst worden.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adelsberger, Abraham 1863 births 1940 deaths German Freemasons German art collectors Emigrants from Nazi Germany Jewish art collectors Subjects of Nazi art appropriations