Provenance Research on the Art Collection of Kurt and Gertrud Schülein, Stuttgart and Bopfingen

The entrepreneur Kurt Schülein and his wife Gertrud assembled an art collection that included paintings by 19th-century artists.

The objective of this research project is threefold: firstly, to reconstruct the art collection of Kurt and Gertrud Schülein, Bopfingen and Stuttgart; secondly, to document the circumstances of the loss; and thirdly, to determine the whereabouts of the works of art and to research the fate of the family's persecution. Facts & Files is collaborating with Kurt and Gertrud Schülein's family.

Kurt Schülein was born in Munich on December 16, 1891, the son of Josef and Ida Schülein. He served in the First World War as a soldier. His sister, Franziska, married Theobald Heinemann, a Munich-based art dealer and the son of the founder of the Galerie D. Heinemann. Kurt Schülein married Gertrud Weil, the daughter of the factory owner Carl Weil. Kurt Schülein subsequently assumed a position at his father-in-law's company, Leim-Collagen und Degras Werke Veit Weil, located in Bopfingen near Stuttgart.

The family was subjected to persecution as Jews from 1933 onwards. From 1933 onwards, the companys shares and real estate were compulsorily sold. In 1938, Kurt Schülein and his family were able to flee Germany via the Netherlands to the USA. They took up residence in New York City in October 1938. As part of the household effects accompanying their emigration to the USA, Kurt and Gertrud Schülein also packed some paintings, which were apparently confiscated in Amsterdam in 1941. After their emigration, there were furnishings in both of the Schüleins' houses in Bopfingen and Stuttgart that had not been packed but had been confiscated there.