Walter Passarge (born May 23, 1898 in Erfurt; † July 30, 1958 in Mannheim) was a German art historian and Director of the Städtischen Kunsthalle Mannheim.

Career

Passarge studied art history and received his doctorate in 1923 at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

under Wilhelm Pinder with a thesis on the German Vesper image in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. He initially worked as an art historian at the Museum in Erfurt from 1922 to 1925, then until 1927 as a lecturer at the State Art Academy in Kassel and until 1936 as assistant director at the Thaulow Museum and as a lecturer at the craft school in Kiel. From July 1, 1936 until his death, he was director of the city art gallery in Mannheim ( Städtischen Kunsthalle Mannheim). During his time at the Kunsthalle Mannheim there, he was mainly concerned with the second wave of Nazi confiscations in 1937 and their influence on the selection of the art on display. He shifted the focus of the Mannheim Kunsthalle to the politically less sensitive arts and crafts. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it was up to him to rebuild the Kunsthalle, which had been greatly reduced by the effects of

National Socialism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

and World War II, with a special focus on German and modern art as well as the collections of the 19th and 20th centuries. He published widely on a wide variety of art-historical topics.

Literature

* Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub: ''Walter Passarge †.'' In: ''Mannheimer Hefte.'' 1958, 2, S. 38–39.

References

External Links

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Provenance Research Kunsthalle Mannheim
{{DEFAULTSORT:Passarge, Walter 1958 deaths 1898 births Directors of museums in Germany German art historians