Provenance Research

The Klassik Stiftung Weimar anchored provenance research as one of its central activities in its mission statement of 2011. Since 2020, researchers turn their attention to items acquired after 9 May 1945 and thus extend their investigation to other unlawful seizures during the years of Soviet occupation and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Since 2014, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar has been advised and evaluated by an external advisory board in the fulfilment of its tasks in the field of provenance research. The following individuals are currently members of the advisory board:

• Prof. Dr. Guido Fackler, Professor of Museology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
• Prof. Dr. Jörg Ganzenmüller, Professor of Comparative Research on European Dictatorships at the Historical Institute of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and Chairman of the Board of the Ettersberg Foundation, Weimar
• Dr. Jens Hoppe, Head of archives at the Central Archives for Research on the History of the Jews in Germany, Heidelberg
• Jana Kocourek, Head of the Department of Manuscripts, Early Printed Books and Regional Studies at the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library
• Gabriele Körner, retired Head of Department C 2 / C 3 at the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (BADV), Berlin

Current status

The investigation of the objects acquired by the predecessor institution of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar between 1933 and 1945 has been largely concluded. Since 2020, acquisitions made during the Soviet Occupation Zone and GDR era are being checked for problematic accessions. A legal advisor is responsible for locating potential heirs and preparing restitution agreements.

All the objects in the collections, which have been positively identified as Nazi-confiscated property, are listed in a database maintained by the German Lost Art Foundation. These items can be found via search query at  www.lostart.de. Books in the collections of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, which researchers suspect were acquired as a result of Nazi persecution, can be found in the online catalogues of Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek “NS-Raubgut” (Nazi-confiscated property) and “Kulturgutentziehungen 1945–1990” (Seized Cultural Assets 1945–1990).

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