August Lederer (3 May 1857 in Böhmisch Leipa (

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

) – 30 April 1936 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

), was an Austrian industrialist and art collector whose art collection was looted by

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. He helped promote the artists of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

, notably

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (14 July 1862 – 6 February 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement. His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe. Klimt is known for his paintings, murals, sket ...

Biography

In 1892, Lederer married Serena Pulitzer (1867–1943). With a business empire built on distilleries, the Lederer family became the second wealthiest in Vienna, using their fortune to support artists and acquire art, notable of the Vienna Secession. To complete the artistic claim, the furnishings of the residence had been entrusted to

Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill (2 April 1882 – December 1961) was an Austrian industrial designer, architect, and fashion designer. He was active in the first half of the 20th century. Wimmer is best known for his work in jewelry and garments for ...

und produced by the

Wiener Werkstätte The Wiener Werkstätte ("Vienna Workshop"), established in 1903 by the graphic designer and painter Koloman Moser, the architect Josef Hoffmann and the patron Fritz Waerndorfer, was a productive association in Vienna, Austria that brought to ...

founded by

Josef Hoffmann Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrians, Austrian-Sudeten Germans, Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architect ...

and

Koloman Moser Koloman Moser (; 30 March 1868 – 18 October 1918) was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art. He was one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werk ...

In 1912, the Lederers met

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painters, painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude sel ...

, who spent that year's

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

with them in Györ, becoming friends with their son Erich, whom he painted and drew several times.

Art collection

The Lederer's art collection was the largest and most important private collection of

. Lederer acquired the

Beethoven Frieze The ''Beethoven Frieze'' () is a painting by Gustav Klimt on display in the Secession Building, Vienna, Austria. Description In 1902, Klimt painted the ''Beethoven Frieze'' for the Fourteenth Vienna Secession exhibition in celebration of 75th a ...

from Carl Reininghaus in 1915. Their relationship with Klimt was very friendly, intimate to the point that Elisabeth Franziska Lederer, born in 1894, was able to affirm during the Nazi period to be the adulterous daughter of the painter and to receive in 1940 a certificate of filiation establishing that she was only "Half-Jewish", while her two brothers, Erich and Fritz, were considered full Jews.

painted ''Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer'' between 1914 and 1916 for the Lederer family.

Nazi persecution and looting

The Lederer's art collection was one of the first stolen by the Nazis in Austria. The

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

seized most of the Lederer's art collection. The "Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz" or so-called "Monument protection" and Vugesta were involved. The Lederer collection, confiscated in 1938, was stored mainly at Immendorf Castle in Lower Austria, where it would have largely burned in early 1945 under poorly clarified circumstances - which seems to contradict the fact that Isolated paintings resurfaced after the war, which were returned to the heirs.

Claims for restitution

In 1999, the Lederer heirs received the return of six works by Egon Schiele and a painting by Gentile Bellini. In 2013, the Lederer heirs initiated a lawsuit to claim restitution of the Beethoven Frieze which had been looted by the Nazis. Austria refused the claim. In 2018, a Swiss court in Geneva ordered that the

Galerie Kornfeld Galerie Kornfeld is a privately owned Swiss auction house in Bern and one of the leading auction houses in Switzerland in the fields of Modern Art (paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures) as well as Old Master prints and drawings. History ...

respond to questions asked by the Lederer heirs concerning artworks by Klimt and Schiele. Austria restituted a Klimt painting that was looted from the Lederers to the wrong family.

Bibliography

* Christian M. Nebehay, '' (Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele et la famille Lederer)'', Vienne, 1979. * Tobias G. Natter et Gerbert Frodl, '' (Klimt et les femmes)'', Cologne-Vienne, 2000.

References

External links

Beitrag über das Gartenpalais Huldenberg auf PLANET VIENNA mit historischen Abbildungen
Article sur les anciens palais et jardins Huldenberg à Vienne. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lederer, August Pages with unreviewed translations 1857 births 1936 deaths Austrian industrialists Austrian art collectors Jewish art collectors Jews from Austria-Hungary Austrian Jews 20th-century Austrian Jews Nazi-looted art Austrian patrons of the arts Subjects of Nazi art appropriations Businesspeople from Austria-Hungary