Michael Berolzheimer (born January 22, 1866, in Fürth; died June 5, 1942, in Mount Vernon, New York) was a German entrepreneur, lawyer and art collector.

Life

Michael Berolzheimer was a son of the Fürth pencil manufacturer Heinrich Berolzheimer. After studying law, he worked as a lawyer for clients such as the Pinakothek in Munich and the German Orient Society. In 1902, he married Melitta Schweisheimer (* 1867), née Dispecker, and in 1904 moved with her and their two children to Untergrainau near

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

. An art collector, Berolzheimer became an expert in graphic art. In 1895, he bought th
Boguslaw Jolles
collection at auction from

Hugo Helbing Hugo Helbing (23 April 1863 – 30 November 1938) was a German art dealer and auctioneer. The Helbing art shop Born in Munich, Helbing was a son of Sigmund Helbing, who ran an antique dealer in Munich from the middle of the 19th century. Hi ...

. He joined the Munich Museum Society, founded in 1905, and was elected its treasurer. As a member of the acquisition committee of the

Alte Pinakothek The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinak ...

and the

Staatliche Graphische Sammlung The Pinakothek der Moderne (, ''Pinakothek of the Modern'') is a modern art museum, situated in central Munich's '' Kunstareal''. Locals sometimes refer to it as the ''Dritte'' ("third") ''Pinakothek'' after the Old and New. It is one of the world' ...

, he helped shape the development of their collections. He raised funds for the acquisitions of these museums and himself established a foundation for the benefit of 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 ...

. Berolzheimer collected prints and eventually owned about 600 pieces of graphic art as well as about 800 hand drawings by Dutch, Italian Baroque painters and from the German Romantic period, including an oil sketch of the Poor Poet by Carl Spitzweg.

Nazi persecution

After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Berolzheimer was persecuted as a Jew. In 1938, he fled to the USA via Switzerland in 1938. He was obliged to abandon the collection of hand drawings, which had been declared a national cultural asset by Ernst Wengenmayr, an associate of the Munich art dealer Adolf Weinmüller, who specialized in

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 ...

. Berolzheimer's stepson Robert Schweisheimer was forced to contract with Weinmüller who auctioned paintings and sculptures in 1938; the auction of the graphic art followed in March 1939. Berolzheimer received nothing from the proceeds of the auctions. After the Nazi attacks on Jews on Kristallnacht in November 1938, a special Jewish property levy of 80,000 RM was imposed on the Berolzheimer family. Berolzheimer's real estate in Grainau was also aryanized, that is, transferred to a non-Jewish owner.

Claims for restitution

After the end of the war, Berolzheimer's heirs sought the return of the looted art objects, which began in 1950 with the transfer of a dozen prints, including sheets by

Bonaventura Genelli Giovanni Bonaventura Genelli (28 September 179813 November 1868) was a German painter. Biography Genelli was born in Berlin in 1798. He was the son of Janus Genelli, a painter whose landscapes are still preserved in the Schloss at Berlin; and g ...

, from 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 ...

, followed by returns from the Germanisches Nationalmuseum 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 ...

and the

Kurpfälzisches Museum The Kurpfälzisches Museum (Palatinate Museum) is a museum of art and archaeology in Heidelberg, Germany. It is located in the Palais Morass. It was founded in the late 1870s, when the city of Heidelberg purchased the private collection of the ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, but the initiatives petered out with the refusal of the

Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. After the Washington Declaration on Looted Art in 1998, the family renewed its efforts. After the legal succession among the heirs was finally clarified in 2009, the

returned 29 drawings in 2010 that it had purchased at auction in 1939. The

Kupferstichkabinett Berlin The Kupferstichkabinett, or Museum of Prints and Drawings, is a prints museum in Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Berlin State Museums, and is located in the Kulturforum on Potsdamer Platz. It is the largest museum of graphic art in Germany, ...

returned 28 drawings. In 2013, a 1834 pen-and-ink portrait of a geographer by Reinier Craeyvanger was restituted by a Dutch antiquarian bookseller who had purchased it at a Sotheby's auction in 2005. The Kunsthalle Bremen in Germany returned a drawing it acquired in 1941 attributed to the 17th century Italian artist Giacomo Cavedone. In 2016 the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

reached a settlement with the Berolzheimer heirs for anamorphic drawing of a stag which had been gifted to the museum by

Janos Scholz János or Janos may refer to: * János, male Hungarian given name, a variant of John Places * Janos Municipality, a municipality of Chihuahua ** Janos, Chihuahua, town in Mexico ** Janos Biosphere Reserve, a nature reserve in Chihuahua * Janos ...

Writings

* ''Oscar und Cäcilie Graf, Maler-Radierer : Katalog ihres radierten, lithographierten und monotypierten Werkes''. München: Helbing, 1903

Literature

* Michael G. Berolzheimer (Hrsg.): ''Michael Berolzheimer: 1866 - 1942; his life and legacy.'' M. G. Berolzheimer, Stockton, Calif. 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-047128-5 * Ira Mazzoni: ''Vertrieben. Stück für Stück wird die Sammlung des Mäzens wieder rekonstruiert.'' Rezension. In: ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

'', 14. Februar 2015, S. 23. * Galerie Arnoldi-Livie: ''29 drawings from the Michael Berolzheimer Collection restituted by the Albertina.'' Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Wien 2010. * Galerie Arnoldi-Livie: ''Michael Berolzheimer Collection II: 24 drawings restituted by the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin.'' München 2012.

Links

*
''Berolzheimer, Dr. Michael''
im Verzeichnis ''Jüdische Sammler und Kunsthändler (Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung und Enteignung)'', bei

Lost Art Lost artworks are original pieces of art that credible sources indicate once existed but that cannot be accounted for in museums or private collections or are known to have been destroyed deliberately or accidentally, or neglected through igno ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berolzheimer, Michael 1942 deaths 1866 births Emigrants from Nazi Germany Subjects of Nazi art appropriations Jewish art collectors