An Art Collection Established after the War: Unproblematic?

From 1952 onward, works of art were acquired for the City of Friedrichshafen’s art collection and were first exhibited in 1957 at the newly reopened Bodenseemuseum in the town hall. Because the collection was assembled after the end of the war, one might assume that researching the works’ provenances is unnecessary, since they were acquired only after the end of the Nazi dictatorship and therefore could not be “looted art.”

But the works have a history of their own; in the postwar period, their provenances were often deliberately concealed or even obscured. Neither the art trade nor cultural institutions experienced a clear break with the past, as is often claimed: after the war, many of those involved resumed their old contacts from the Nazi era.

The mayor of Friedrichshafen and the conservator at the State Office for Monument Protection in Tübingen were responsible both financially and in terms of content for the acquisitions made for the Zeppelin Museum. Both had enjoyed highly successful careers under the Nazi dictatorship and were deeply entangled with the regime. Mayor Grünbeck was even a member of the SS.

Art dealers such as Benno Griebert, from whom the mayor and conservator purchased works, had likewise often pursued successful careers in the authorities and museums of the Nazi state. After the war, Griebert settled as an art dealer near the Swiss border on Lake Constance. This room is dedicated to the old networks and contacts that he successfully drew upon in his postwar activities.

The supposed “zero hour” of 1945 proves to be a “perceived truth” that does not withstand scrutiny.