Benno Geiger (pseudonym: Egon E. Nerbig, born 21 February 1882 in Rodaun near Vienna; died 26 July 1965 in Venice) was an Austrian art historian, art dealer, writer and translator, and member of the Nazi party.
Early life
Benno Geiger was the son of the painter Pauline Geiger and grandson of the doctor Georg Julius von Schultz. He spent the first years of his life with his mother and her sister
Ella Adaïewsky
Ella Georgiyevna Adayevskaya (Ella Adaïewsky; russian: Элла (Елизавета) Георгиевна Адаевская; 26 July 1926) was a Russian Germans, Russian-German composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist.
Adayevskaya wrote vocal ...
in Venice. From 1884 to 1889 he lived with relatives in the Livonian village of Dorpat. He attended school in Venice and then a commercial college. From 1901 he studied art history, music and German at the University of Leipzig and the University of Berlin. In 1910 he received his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Berlin with a thesis on the painter
Maffeo Verona
Maffeo Verona (1576–1618) was an Italian painter of the late Renaissance period.
He was born at Verona in 1576, and was a pupil of Luigi Benfatto, but derived more advantage from the works of his kinsman, Paolo Veronese, than from his master. ...
. From 1910 to 1914 he worked as an assistant at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin.
Geiger later stayed mainly in Venice, working as freelance writer and art dealer in Italian art. He had contacts with Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Stefan Zweig. He was expelled from the Italian Ministry of the Interior in 1931 after which he then stayed in Oppenau / Black Forest, Switzerland and France.
Nazi-era 1933-1945
Geiger was a member of
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
's Nazi party (NSDAP). In 1935 Geiger returned to Venice. In November 1938 he was involved in the
Aryanization
Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...
of three watercolors by
Rudolf von Alt
Rudolf Ritter von Alt (; 28 August 1812 – 12 March 1905) was an Austrian landscape and architectural painter. Born as Rudolf Alt, he could call himself von Alt and bear the title of a Ritter (knight) after he gained nobility in 1889.
Biogra ...
and four watercolors by Jakob Alt from the property of the Viennese lawyer
Norbert Klinger. Since father and son Alt were among Hitler's favorite artists, Geiger also took artworks from Rudolf von Alts' daughter. In 1942 and 1943 he accompanied
Franz Kieslinger and
Kajetan Mühlmann
Kajetan "Kai" Mühlmann (26 June 1898 – 2 August 1958) was an Austrian art historian who was an officer in the SS and played a major role in the expropriation of art by the Nazis, particularly in Poland and the Netherlands. He worked with Arth ...
, director of the Nazi art looting organisation known as the Dienststelle Mühlmann, on their "procurement" campaigns in Italy. Their relations are under study by art historians.
After the end of the Second World War Geiger lived again in Venice. Geiger, a Nazi, was investigated by the Art Looting Investigation Unit and placed on the Red Flag List of Names for his involvement in dealing in looted art.
The Gurlitt stash of artworks found in the home of the son of Hitler's art dealer
Hildebrand Gurlitt
Hildebrand Gurlitt (15 September 1895 – 9 November 1956) was a German art historian, art gallery director who dealt in Nazi-looted art as one of Hitler's and Goering's four authorized dealers for "degenerate art".
A Nazi-associated art dealer ...
included three artworks that had previously belonged to Benno Geiger.
Postwar activities
In addition to essays on art history, Benno Geiger mainly wrote poems that were strongly influenced by his impressions in his adopted country of Italy and for which he often used classical forms. He also translated Dante and Petrarca into German. In 1959, he received the Johann Heinrich Voss Prize for Translation from the German Academy for Language and Poetry in Darmstadt for his translation work.
Honors
Geiger's daughter, Elsa Geiger Ariè, set up the “Benno Geiger” scholarship for studies on literary archives. "The Giorgio Cini Foundation offers one 3‐month residential scholarship to enable studies focused on the Benno Geiger Archive, which is preserved and developed on the Island of San Giorgio, as well as on other literary archives held by the Foundation".
Writings
* ''Ein Sommeridyll'', Berlin-Charlottenburg 1904
* ''Lieblose Gesänge'', Berlin 1907
* ''Maffeo Verona (1574-1618) und seine Werke für die Markuskirche zu Venedig'', Dissertation Berlin 1910
* ''Gesammelte Gedichte'', Leipzig 1914
* ''Das Fenster in der Mitternacht'', Leipzig 1919
* ''Sämtliche Gedichte'', Wien 1925
* ''Die Ferienreise'', Florenz 1929
* ''Der fünfzigste Geburtstag'', Bern 1932
* ''Werke'', Zürich
. a.** 1. ''Idyllen oder Die Gedichte in Terzinen'', 1939
* ''Also sprach Benno Geiger'', Venedig 1947
* ''Handzeichnungen alter Meister'', Zürich
. a.1948
* ''Sämtliche Gedichte'', Florenz
** 1. ''Idyllen, Lieder, Gesänge'', 1958
** 2. ''Kantaten, Mythen, Oden'', 1958
** 3. ''Legenden, Hymnen, Zeit- und Streitgedichte'', 1958
* ''Memorie di un Veneziano.'' Florenz 1958; Treviso 2009
* ''Die skurrilen Gemälde des Giuseppe Arcimboldi (1527-1593)'', Wiesbaden 1960
* ''Bestiarium hominis sapientis, das ist eine kurze Kultur- und Kunstgeschichte der Gegenwart''. Aus dem Nachlaß des Dichters Benno Geiger hrsg. von Egon E. Nerbig. Halbinsel-Verlag, Lugdunum 1965
; Editing and Publishing
*
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...
: ''Noten am Rande der Kunst in Novalis' Schriften'', Leipzig 1901
*
Alessandro Magnasco
Alessandro Magnasco (February 4, 1667 – March 12, 1749), also known as il Lissandrino, was an Italian late-Baroque painter active mostly in Milan and Genoa. He is best known for stylized, fantastic, often phantasmagoric genre or landscape sce ...
: ''Alessandro Magnasco'', Berlin 1914
; Translations
*
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
: ''Die göttliche Komödie'', Darmstadt
. a.** 1. ''Die Hölle'', 1960
** 2. ''Das Fegefeuer'', 1960
** 3. ''Das Paradies'', 1961
*
Giovanni Pascoli
Giovanni Placido Agostino Pascoli (; 31 December 1855 – 6 April 1912) was an Italian poet, classical scholar and an emblematic figure of Italian literature in the late nineteenth century. Alongside Gabriele D'Annunzio, he was one of the great ...
: ''Die ausgewählten Gedichte'', Leipzig 1913
*
Francesco Petrarca
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
: ''Die Triumphe'', Wien 1935
* Francesco Petrarca: ''Der Canzoniere'', Zürich
. a.1937
* Francesco Petrarca: ''Das lyrische Werk'', Darmstadt
. a.1958
Literature
* Leo Planiscig, Hermann Voss: ''Handzeichnungen alter Meister aus der Sammlung Dr. Benno Geiger'', mit einem Vorwort von Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Amalthea, Zürich / Leipzig / Wien 1920.
* Gabriella Rovagnati: ''Zwischen Rodaun und Venedig. Die doppelte Seele Benno Geigers.'' In: Jeanne Benay (Hrsg.): ''Österreichische Satire (1933–2000). Exil, Remigration, Assimilation.'' Lang, Bern 2003, ISBN 3-03910-090-4, S. 129–144.
* Francesco Zambon, Elsa Geiger Ariè (Hrsg.): ''Benno Geiger e la cultura italiana.'' Leo Olschki Editore, Florenz 2007, ISBN 978-88-222-5586-0.
* Marco Meli, Elsa Geiger Arié (Hrsg.): ''Benno Geiger e la cultura europea'' (''Collana Linea veneta.'' Band 21). Leo Olschki Editore, Florenz 2010, ISBN 978-88-222-6033-8.
* Meike Hopp: ''Kunsthandel im Nationalsozialismus: Adolf Weinmüller in München und Wien.'' Böhlau, Köln/Weimar/Wien 2012, ISBN 3-412-20807-8.
References
External links
* Konrad von Kardorff: ''Bildnis des Dr. Benno Geiger'', Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
smb.museum-digital.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geiger, Benno
1965 deaths
1882 births
Austrian art historians
Nazi Party members
German-language literature
Translators to German
Translators from Italian
Austrian art dealers