Anna Caspari (16 May 1900 – 25 November 1941) was a German Jewish art dealer who was deported from Germany and murdered by the Nazis in Kaunas in 1941.

Early life

Daughter of Hugo Naphtali of Breslau and Olga Naphtali (née Bielski), Anna Caspari studied art history in Munich and married the art dealer Georg Caspari.

Galerie Caspari

On 20 June 1913, Georg Caspari opened a commercial art gallery in the Palais Eichthal on Brienner Straße 52 across from the Café Luitpold. He dealt in old masters and modern art, antiquities and drawings. Artworks included works by Rottenhammer and

Maulbertsch Franz Anton Maulbertsch (7 June 1724 – 8 August 1796) was an Austrian painter and engraver, one of the most renowned exponents of Rococo painting in the German and Hungarian regions. Maulbertsch was born in Langenargen and studied in the Acad ...

old masters, 19th century works by

Feuerbach Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach (; 28 July 1804 – 13 September 1872) was a German anthropologist and philosopher, best known for his book ''The Essence of Christianity'', which provided a critique of Christianity that strongly influenced gener ...

, Böcklin, Leibl and Thoma as well as more modern works by

Max Liebermann Max Liebermann (20 July 1847 – 8 February 1935) was a German painter and printmaker, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany and continental Europe. In addition to his activity as an artist, he also assembled an important ...

Wilhelm Trübner Wilhelm Trübner (February 3, 1851 – December 21, 1917) was a German realist painter of the circle of Wilhelm Leibl. Biography Trübner was born in Heidelberg. He was the third son of a silver- and goldsmith, Johann Georg Trübner, and h ...

, Max Slevogt, Edouard Manet,

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

and

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

. Artists ranges from locals like Maria Caspar-Filser and Oskar Coester to international stars like

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

, Kokoschka, Lehmbruck, and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. In the evening there were public readings by Wedekind, Heinrich Mann,

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

, Werfel. In 1930, Georg Caspari was killed in a car accident. Widowed, Anna had to look after the children Ernst (* 1926) and Paul (* 1922) alone. In 1935 the gallery was relocated to 6 Ottostraße.

Nazi looting and deportation

On 19 January 1939, the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

went to the "widowed Jewess" to "seize cultural property" under the guise of protecting it. Caspari's residence at the Hotel Continental and art warehouse on Briennerstraße 52 were ransacked and the Nazis looted 22 paintings, 140 books and numerous prints and drawings. The stolen art was then given as a "gift" to the Bavarian National Museum, the State Library and the State Graphic Collection . Before she was deported by the Nazis and murdered, Caspari managed to get her sons to safety in London. From 1938, she desperately tried to join her two sons, however her requests for permission to emigrate were repeatedly rejected by the German authorities. On 20 November 1941, Anna Caspari was deported to Wehrmacht-occupied Lithuania during the first episodes of mass deportations of Jewish citizens from Munich. She was murdered on 25 November in Kaunas. Her mother Olga Naphtali was deported to

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

Restitution claims

Many of Galerie Caspari's clients were Jewish, and like all Jews in Germany they were persecuted, their property Aryanized and their belongings including art collections were plundered during the

Nazi era Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. As a result, in addition to claims filed by Caspari's family, Caspari's clients have filed restitution claims for art looted or sold under duress in Nazi Germany. One of the most famous cases involves the collection of

Max Emden Max James Emden (28 October 1874 in Hamburg – 26 June 1940 in Muralto, Switzerland) was a German chemist, wholesale merchant, art collector and from 1926 owner of the Brissago Islands on Lake Maggiore. Some of Emden's properties, including valu ...

Bibliography

* Stadtarchiv München, ''Biographisches Gedenkbuch der Münchner Juden'', 1933–1945 * Münchener Neue Secession, ''Graphische Ausstellung 1918'', Frühjahr 1918, München 1918 Digitalisat * Stephan Kellner, ''Forschung nach NS-Raubgut an der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, Ein Zwischenbericht'', München 2008 * Alexandra Lautenbacher, ''Raub jüdischer Kunstsammlungen'' – onesprime.de * Horst Keßler/Vanessa Voigt, Die Beschlagnahmung jüdischer Kunstsammlungen 1938/39 in München. In: Regine Dehmel (Hrsg.), NS-Raubgut in Museen, Bibliotheken und Archiven, Frankfurt am Main 2012, S. 119–132. * Lynn Rother: ''Kunst durch Kredit : Die Berliner Museen und ihre Erwerbungen von der Dresdner Bank 1935''. Berlin : De Gruyter, 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caspari, Anna 1900 births 1941 deaths German Jews who died in the Holocaust German art dealers Art and cultural repatriation after World War II Jews and Judaism in Germany Subjects of Nazi art appropriations