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Hermine Feist-Wollheim

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Hermine Feist drawn by Rudolf Grossmann
Grave in Friedhof Wannsee, Lindenstraße
Gedenktafel Am Großen Wannsee 59

Hermine Antonie Feist, née Wollheim (born December 20, 1855; died November 17, 1933 in Berlin) was a German porcelain collector. She is also known as Hermine Feist-Wollheim.

Life

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Hermine Wohlheim was the daughter of the Jewish coal wholesaler Caesar Wollheim and his wife Caroline, née Pollack. Her sister Martha (1857-1942) later married the ophthalmologist Max Reichenheim, while her sister Else (1858-1904) was married to the chemist and industrialist Franz Oppenheim, the chairman of the Agfa board. She married the merchant Otto Feist (1847-1912),[1] the son of a tradesman in Frankfurt am Main and had three children Paul (1882-1886), Ernst (1884-1939) and Hans (1887-1952). The latter died shortly after his release from the Oranienburg concentration camp.[2][3]

Art collection

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Hermine Feist and her husband inherited the property and the villa at Bergstrasse 5[2] in the Colonie Alsen on the Großer Wannsee in Berlin from her father.[4] Hermine Feist commissioned the architect Alfred Breslauer to redesign the villa so that it could be used both for residential purposes and for the museum presentation of the collection.[4] Hermine Feist's porcelain collection was considered to be one of the largest in Europe and offered an almost complete ovelrview of German porcelain. The collection included figurines, vases and tableware from the Meissen, Höchst, Frankenthal, Nymphenburg, Vienna, Ludwigsburg, Fulda and Limbach manufactories.[2] She also collected old lace and jewelry. Together with her husband, she also acquired a collection of paintings that included works by Joshua Reynolds, Jean-Baptiste Pater, Reinhold Lepsius, Joseph Highmore, Franz von Lenbach and Francisco de Goya.[2]

Hermine Feist donated porcelain objects to the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts. The museum received a small jug made of Meissen porcelain in 1908, a porcelain jug from the Nymphenburg manufactory in 1910, a Viennese porcelain cup in 1914 and a painted figure of a muse made of Nymphenburg porcelain in 1915.[2] She was a member of the German Society for East Asian Art and the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein.[2]

Her husband died in 1912, and Feist died in 1933 and was buried in the new cemetery in Berlin-Wannsee. The grave still exists today.[5] Parts of Hermine Feist's collection were transferred to Dresdner Bank and other creditors in 1933. The Free State of Prussia acquired the majority of these objects in 1935, as a result of which they became the property of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin.[2] Other parts of the collection were auctioned off in 1939 at the Berlin auction house Hans W. Lange[6][7] and in 1941 at Theodor Fischer in Lucerne.[8] Hermine Feist is commemorated by the bust of Madame X/Hermine Feist by Rudolf Großmann, created in 1929, which is now in the Jewish Museum Berlin.[9]

Claims for restitution for Nazi-looted art

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The Feist-Wollheim family was persecuted under the Nazis because of their Jewish heritage, and, as of 2024, the , heirs of Hans und Ernst Feist-Wollheim have registered 1550 search requests for art objects on the German Lost Art Foundation.[10] Of these five ceramic objects are listed as restituted.[11] In 2013 the Austrian Commission recommended against restituting a bronze statue.[12][13]

Literature

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  • Anna-Carolin Augustin: Berliner Kunstmatronage, Sammlerinnen und Förderinnen bildender Kunst um 1900. Wallstein, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3180-8.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Feist, Hermine | Lexikon Provenienzforschung". www.lexikon-provenienzforschung.org. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Anna-Carolin Augustin: Berliner Kunstmatronage, Sammlerinnen und Förderinnen bildender Kunst um 1900. 2018, P. 379.
  3. ^ "Kalliope | Union Catalog for Archival Holdings and National Information System for Personal Papers and Manuscript Collections". kalliope-verbund.info. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  4. ^ a b "Villenkolonien in Wannsee 1875 – 1945 Sonderausstellung der Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz, Mai 2000 – Januar 2006" (PDF).
  5. ^ Villencolonie Alsen am Großen Wannsee. Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-9813119-3-8, P. ?.
  6. ^ Lange, Hans W., ed. (1939). Gemälde und Kunstgewerbe aus einer bekannten Privatsammlung in Berlin-Wannsee, verschiedener Kunstbesitz: Versteigerung am 22. und 23. Juni 1939. Berlin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ "Restitutions: Hans W. Lange". upclose.christies.com. Retrieved 2024-11-20. Working and profiting from a close relationship with the Berlin tax authorities, Lange occupied a key position of the art market during the Nazi era. He auctioned many significant Jewish art collections, including that of the Hamburg-based collector Emma Budge, whose posthumous sale had been initiated under Graupe's aegis and was slated for 27–29 September 1937 but was postponed to 4 October 1937 due to Benito Mussolini's state visit; [FIGS. 3–6] the Meissen porcelain enthusiast Hermine Feist on 22–23 June 1939; and banker Jakob Goldschmidt (J. G.) on 25 September 1941.
  8. ^ "Galerie Fischer [Editor]: Auktion / Galerie Fischer: Sammlung Frau Hermine Feist, Wannsee, Mobiliar des Herrn M., Lausanne und der Frau B. W., Clarens, bedeutende Gemäldesammlung: italienische, französische und schweizerische Möbel des 16. und 19. Jahrhunderts, Tapisserien, Teppiche, Stoffe, Glas, Silber, Porzellan, Fayencen, ... ; italienische, französische, deutsche und holländische Schule, Schweizer Meister ; [20., 21., 23 und 24. Mai 1941] (Luzern, [Nr. 71].1941)". digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
  9. ^ "Jüdisches Museum Berlin – Sammlungen Online". objekte.jmberlin.de. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
  10. ^ "Search Feist-Wollheim, Hans und Ernst (Erbengemeinschaft) | Lost Art Database". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  11. ^ "Search | Lost Art Database". www.lostart.de. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  12. ^ Kommission für Provenienzforschung. "Beschluss_66_Otto_Feist.doc" (PDF). provenienzforschung.gv.at/beiratsbeschluesse.
  13. ^ APA (2013-05-03). "Beirat empfiehlt die Restitution von fünf Werken". Die Presse (in German). Retrieved 2024-11-20. Auch die Rückgabe einer Bronzebüste aus dem Kunsthistorischen Museum an die Rechtsnachfolger nach Otto Feist beziehungsweise dessen Söhne Ernst Feist-Wollheim und Hans Feist-Wollheim wurde nicht empfohlen.
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