Carl Heumann (19 March 1886 – 5 March 1945) was a German art collector persecuted by the

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 ...

because of his Jewish origins.

Early life

Carl Heumann was born on 19 March 1886 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

to Jewish parents. He converted to

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

in 1917 when he met and married Irmgard, who was a Protestant. He was a banker at Bankhaus Bayer & Heintze and consul in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

Art collector

As an art collector, he was interested in German art of the Romantic period. He collected drawings by German and Austrian artists from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Persecution under the Nazis

In 1938, Heumann was economically ruined by the Nazi's racial persecution: forced out of his own banking house, he had to pay the "

Judenvermögensabgabe The ''Judenvermögensabgabe'' ("Jewish Capital Levy") was an arbitrary special tax imposed on German Jews under the Nazi dictatorship. The tax was only a part of a larger series of actions taken by the Nazis to systematically plunder Jewish ass ...

" and was no longer allowed to manage his own financial affairs, as a "Sicherungsanordnung" had been issued over his assets. Heumann was regarded by the Nazis as a ”full Jew.” At first he was protected by his mixed marriage. After the death of his non-Jewish wife Irmgard in January 1944, his protection ceased. He was forced to sell artworks, including three

Fendi Fendi Srl () is an Culture of Italy, Italian luxury goods, luxury fashion house producing fur, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and accessories. Founded in Rome in 1925 by fashion designers Edoardo Fendi and ...

and

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is the largest architecture firm in the world by revenue and number of architects. In 2022, Gensler generated $1.785 billion in revenue, the most o ...

prints, to ensure the family's livelihood.

Death

Heumann was killed in a bombing raid in Chemnitz on 5 March 1945. Two of his children went to the United States after the war, where many of his descendants live today.

Legacy

Several German museums are researching Heumann. In recognition of his persecution, the Kupferstich-Kabinett der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the

Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (; SPK) is a German federal government body that oversees 27 museums and cultural organizations in and around Berlin, Germany. Its purview includes all of Berlin's State Museums, the Berlin State Library, ...

in Berlin and the Städtische Galerie im

Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing the Städtische Galerie (English: Municipal Gallery) art museum in Munich's ''Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between ...

und Kunstbau München, among others, approached Carl Heumann's descendants in order to find a just and fair solution regarding the artworks from his collection. In 2020, the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) restituted three graphic works from the Kupferstich-Kabinett to Heumann's family. For "Provenance Research Day" on 14 April 2021 Heumann's granddaughter, Carol Heumann Snider, talked with provenance researchers Dr. Katja Lindenau (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) and Melanie Wittchow (Lenbachhaus), about her grandfather and her father Thomas Heumann, describing how she preserves their stories and memories for her children and grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heumann, Carl 20th-century German art collectors Jewish art collectors 1886 births 1945 deaths 20th-century German Jews Subjects of Nazi art appropriations Art and cultural repatriation after World War II German civilians killed in World War II Deaths by British airstrikes during World War II Deaths by American airstrikes during World War II