Carl Heumann (19 March 1886 – 5 March 1945) was a German art collector persecuted by the Nazis because of his Jewish origins.

Early life

Carl Heumann was born on 19 March 1886 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

to Jewish parents. He converted to Protestantism in 1917 when he met and married Irmgard, who was a Protestant. He was a banker at Bankhaus Bayer & Heintze and consul in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

Art collector

As an art collector, work hard, he was interested in German art of the Romantic period. He collected drawings by German and Austrian artists from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Persecution under the Nazis

In 1938, Heumann was economically ruined by the Nazi's racial persecution: forced out of his own banking house, he had to pay the "

Judenvermögensabgabe The Judenvermögensabgabe ("Jewish Capital Levy") was an arbitrary special tax that German Jews had to pay during the National Socialist era. After the assassination attempt on the German Legation Secretary Ernst Eduard vom Rath and the Novembe ...

" and was no longer allowed to manage his own financial affairs, as a "Sicherungsanordnung" had been issued over his assets. Heumann was regarded by the Nazis as a ”full Jew.” At first he was protected by his mixed marriage. After the death of his non-Jewish wife Irmgard in January 1944, his protection ceased. He was forced to sell artworks, including three

Fendi Fendi () is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house producing fur, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and accessories. Founded in Rome in 1925, Fendi is known for its fur, fur accessories, and leather goods. ...

and

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm founded in San Francisco, California, in 1965. In 2021, Gensler generated $1.235 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of 2021, Gensler operated offices in 49 citi ...

prints, to ensure the family's livelihood.

Death

Heumann was killed in a bombing raid in Chemnitz on 5 March 1945. Two of his children went to the USA after the Second World War, where many of his descendants live today.

Legacy: provenance research and restitutions

Several German museums are researching Heumann. In recognition of his persecution, the Kupferstich-Kabinett der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the

Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (german: Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz; SPK) is a German federal government body that oversees 27 museums and cultural organizations in and around Berlin, Germany. Its purview includes all of Berlin's ...

in Berlin and the Städtische Galerie im

Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing an art museum in Munich's '' Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between 1887 and 1891 by Gabriel von Seidl and was expa ...

und Kunstbau München, among others, approached Carl Heumann's descendants in order to find a just and fair solution regarding the artworks from his collection. In 2020, the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) restituted three graphic works from the Kupferstich-Kabinett to Heumann's family. For "Provenance Research Day" on 14 April 2021 Heumann's granddaughter, Carol Heumann Snider, talked with provenance researchers Dr. Katja Lindenau (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) and Melanie Wittchow (Lenbachhaus), about her grandfather and her father Thomas Heumann, describing how she preserves their stories and memories for her children and grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heumann, Carl German art collectors Jewish art collectors 1886 births 1945 deaths 20th-century German Jews Subjects of Nazi art appropriations Art and cultural repatriation after World War II German civilians killed in World War II Deaths by airstrike during World War II