In search of lost cultural property in the Stasi files

German Lost Art Foundation and the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records publish a new research tool for provenance research.

10. March 2020

Contact

Do you have any questions?

Do feel free to get in touch with us directly – whether at the Foundation’s headquarters in Magdeburg or at our branch office in Berlin.
See here for answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ)

German Lost Art Foundation

Humboldtstr. 12
39112 Magdeburg

Germany
Phone:  +49 (0) 391 727 763 0
E-mail:  kontakt@kulturgutverluste.de
Social:

German Lost Art Foundation Berlin Branch Office

Seydelstr. 18
10117 Berlin

Berlin
Phone: +49 (0) 391 727 763 0
E-mail: kontakt@kulturgutverluste.de

The Help Desk offers advice and assistance to victims of the Nazi regime and their descendants on questions relating to Nazi theft of cultural property. Serving as a central and initial low-threshold point of contact in Germany, it is aimed in particular at people whose place of residence is outside Germany and who are unfamiliar with German procedures, especially in connection with cultural federalism. The Help Desk seeks to provide support in taking initial steps as well as providing further contacts and information. We will also be happy to help initiate discussions with museums and other institutions.

German Lost Art Foundation, Branch Office
Dr. Susanne Meyer-Abich
Head of Help Desk

Seydelstr. 18
10117 Berlin

Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 391 727 763 0
E-mail: helpdesk@kulturgutverluste.de

Not only were valuable works of art taken from their original owners during the National Socialist era, they were also seized in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR. For the first time, the German Lost Art Foundation and the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records (BStU) teamed up for a joint research project to search the Stasi files for evidence of the seizure and transfer of such cultural goods.

The aim of the collaboration was to facilitate reliable access to the relevant files from the GDR Ministry for State Security (MfS) and thus open the doors to further research. The extensive 110-page inventory by authors Ralf Blum, Helge Heidemeyer and Arno Polzin describes ways to access the files that had been archived by the MfS up until 1990. It lists over 450 documents that were viewed in this search for evidence and arranges them according to their informative value. This paves the way to understanding the numerous confiscation procedures practiced in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR.

The inventory is supplemented by a further directory of over 550 pages—a collection of around 2,000 additional archive references that may provide information on possible seizures of cultural goods. These are derived from searches of documents that were opened up and archived by BStU archivists after the Stasi was disbanded and that are documented in the internal BStU database “SAE”. A comprehensive overview of sources can thus be obtained. The additional directory is automatically included in the electronic version of the special inventory that can be downloaded from the BStU website. The printed version of the special inventory is available without the directory.

Ralf Blum, Helge Heidemeyer and Arno Polzin: “Auf der Suche nach Kulturgutverlusten. Ein Spezialinventar zu den Stasi-Unterlagen” (€2, 110 pages plus 556-page document directory) is available for download and to order in German now at www.bstu.de/kulturgutverluste.

The book will be presented in a panel discussion with Arno Polzin, Ralf Blum and Uwe Hartmann on Friday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the “Runde Ecke” Memorial Museum in Leipzig.