Provenance research at the Memmingen City Museum

The Memmingen City Museum holds a multi-departmental collection (large scale collection), which is made up of different collections. It has a strong connection to the Allgäu region and the city of Memmingen. Communicating the city's Jewish life - with a focus on coming to terms with the National Socialist era - is part of the city museum's extensive program.

From April to December 2022, an initial NS check was carried out by the state office for non-state museums in Bavaria. Some first suspected cases of cultural property confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution have already been identified. The aim of the research project, which has been running since March 2024, is the systematic inventory check and provenance research of around 250 objects that became part of the Memmingen City Museum's holdings between 1933 and 1945. Furthermore, various Judaica of unknown origin are being researched, some of which were only recently handed over to the museum by the public. A key document for the research dates from 1938/1939 and is now in the city archives: Confiscation of objects of historical and artistic value from Jews in the Memmingen urban area. It is a systematic record of the Jewish population of Memmingen and Fellheim from two city officials in Memmingen. Many of these objects found their way into the city museum's collection.

In addition to object-related provenance research and the identification and restitution of formerly Jewish property, the focus is on examining the cultural-political and personnel networks of the systematic local theft of cultural property in the Allgäu. Together with the Memminger and Allgäu society, we would like to discuss the stories and contexts of origin of everyday objects from private households in the city museum and work together to educate people about the history of the collection. The ongoing research findings are presented and made available for discussion in publications, guided tours, participatory events and via social media, among other things.

©Stadtmuseum Memmingen