Features Conference Reports GHI News THE OBJECT’S AFTERLIFE: NAZI-LOOTED PRECIOUS METAL OBJECTS, ART HISTORY, AND JEWISH HISTORY IN POSTWAR GERMANY 1 Brilling to Scheffl er, December 8, 1978, Wolf- Anna-Carolin Augustin gang Scheffl er Nachlass. The “Wolfgang Scheffl er GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE Nachlass” (WSN) is ad- ministered by the munici- pal museums in Hanau. “Your beautiful book, as well as your other works, contains rich ma- See Scheffl er, Wolfgang, terial for my special research, so that I can do further studies.” With Goldschmiede an Main und Neckar: Daten, Werke, Zei- these words, written in 1978, historian, archivist, and rabbi Bernhard chen: vorläufi ge Ermittlun- Brilling (1906–1987) praised a recently published book on goldsmiths gen (München, 1977). in the Rhine and Neckar region by art historian Wolfgang Scheffl er 2 See Helmut Richtering, 1 “Bernhard Brilling zum (1902–1992). Bernhard Brilling was one of very few experts on the Gedenken,” in Gedenkschrift history of the German Jews and Jewish archives in postwar West für Hermann Brilling, ed. Peter Freimark and Helmut Germany, with a keen interest in regional micro-studies on the history Richtering (Hamburg, of specifi c Jewish professions, such as printers and goldsmiths.2 For 1988), 9–13; Robert Jütte, Die Emigration der that reason Brilling had initially reached out to Wolfgang Scheffl er, deutsch-sprachigen “Wis- a well-known German expert on silver- and goldsmithery, in 1968. senschaft des Judentums;” Die Auswanderung jüdi- For more than a decade, Brilling and Scheffl er exchanged informa- scher Historiker nach Pa- tion and sent each other new publications from time to time.3 Their lästina 1933–1945 (Stutt- gart, 1991), 196–199; professional relationship and mutual interest was polite and at the Peter Honigmann, “Das same time distanced in tone. Projekt von Rabbiner Dr. Bernhard Brilling zur Err- ichtung eines jüdischen At fi rst glance, this exchange of information between two academics Zentralarchivs im Nach- from diff erent disciplines does not seem very noteworthy. Although kriegsdeutschland,” in Hi- storisches Bewusstsein im they had very diff erent approaches, both shared an interest in gold- jüdischen Kontext. and silversmithery. What makes their relationship remarkable is their Strategien — Aspekte — Diskurse, ed. Klaus Hödl backgrounds. One was a Jewish historian who had been expelled from (Innsbruck, 2004), 223–242; Jason Lustig, Nazi Germany in 1939 and re-migrated to West Germany already in the “Bernhard Brilling and the early 1950s, and the other was a non-Jewish German art historian who Reconstruction of Jewish Archives in Postwar Ger- had benefi ted from the evaluation of Nazi looting of precious metal many,” in Rebuilding Jewish objects. Their relationship can therefore serve as a revealing example Life in Germany, ed. Jay H. Geller/Michael Meng of a hitherto largely unexplored complex of themes: the Nazi looting of (New Brunswick/London, Jewish-owned precious metal objects, art-historical connoisseurship, 2020), 48–64. and a neglected aspect of Jewish historiography in post-war Germany. 3 The Scheffl er/Brilling cor- respondence is located The fi rst section of this article examines the biography and oeuvre in the WSN at Hanau and the Jewish Museum of the art historian Wolfgang Scheffl er, his development into a silver Frankfurt (JMF) holds the expert, and his involvement in the Nazi looting of Jewish-owned Bernhard Brilling paper. I would like to thank Linda silver and gold objects. Although Scheffl er’s art historical oeuvre Wiesner for fi nding Schef- remains well-known, his life and work has not yet been the subject fl er’s letters and gener- ously making them avail- of a scholarly article or monograph. The following section explores able to me. AUGUSTIN | THE OBJECT’S AFTERLIFE 31 Bernhard Brilling’s postwar cultural reconstruction of Jewish history in West Germany, focusing on his works on Jewish goldsmiths. Here too, his biography plays an important role, as no monograph has yet been dedicated to this almost forgotten Jewish historian either. The connection that initiated the relationship between Brilling and Scheffl er was research on goldsmithery, which is to a large extent based on objects. Consequently, this essay also focuses on material culture and the question to what extent objects — the knowledge of and about them, their ownership status and whereabouts — may have played a crucial role in the reconstruction of Jewish historiography in Germany aft er 1945 as well as for German so-called “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” (coming to terms with the past). Even though they played a negligible role in quantitative terms when compared to everyday objects, Jewish ceremonial objects made of precious metal will be my focus of attention because this specifi c type of object raises important questions about the connection of Nazi looting and anti-Jewish Scholarship during the Nazi era and because these objects played a distinct role both in postwar Jew- ish cultural reappropriation and in the later museumization of Jewish history in the context of German remembrance culture. Provenance research has focused on the history of individual Nazi- looted cultural assets and collections since the “Washington Princi- ples on Nazi-Confi scated Art” were agreed on in 1998. This research, however, has been largely dedicated to the period before 1945 and mostly on works of fi ne art. By reconstructing the biographies of Scheffl er and Brilling, their relationship, and analyzing the “aft erlife” of Nazi looted objects, this essay broadens the object-oriented approach of provenance research and aims to off er new insights into the post- 4 My post-doc project at GHI 4 with the working title “‘Rem- war history of Jews in Germany and Jewish-German relations. nants rescued from the fi re.’ A Transnational Cultural His- tory of Jewish Ceremonial Objects aft er 1945,” seeks to I. Wolfgang Scheffl er’s work with Nazi-looted objects: gather- close this research gap, among ing knowledge and building networks other things. Born on January 2, 1902 in Braunschweig into an educated middle-class 5 Wolfgang Scheffl er, Die gotische Plastik der Stadt family, Wolfgang Scheffl er studied art history in Göttingen, Berlin, and Braunschweig und ihre Stellung Munich and, in 1925, earned his doctorate with a dissertation on gothic im niedersächsischen Kunst- 5 kreis, (PhD. diss., Göttingen, sculpture. Subsequently he learned the practical side of museum work 1925). on-site, especially meticulous inventorying as an academic intern (wis- 6 6 His task was in particular senschaft licher Volontär) at the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Kassel. to reorganize several regional museums [“Heimatmuseen”] Scheffl er worked in Kassel alongside research assistant Rudolf Hallo in Hersfeld, Rinteln and Wanfried. (1898–1933), an expert on Judaica, and it is not unlikely that he participated 32 BULLETIN OF THE GHI | 66 | SPRING 2020 Features Conference Reports GHI News in the preparations for a special exhibition that opened at the Landes- Figure 1. Catalog cover for 7 the 1927 exhibition “Jü- museum in Kassel on April 10, 1927. This exhibition, called “Jüdische dische Kult- und Kunst- Kult- und Kunstdenkmäler,” presented a valuable collection of regional denkmäler” at Hessisches Jewish ceremonial objects and was thus an important step in the process Landesmuseum, Kassel, and page showing various of museumization of Jewish cultural assets and the professionalization of Jewish ceremonial objects. Jewish art history, which was still in its infancy at that time.8 The exhibi- tion also had a political impact: to enlighten and fi ght against antisemi- 9 8 On the beginnings of Jew- tism. Scheffl er defi nitely knew the exhibition and might also have learned ish art history and muse- from Hallo how to identify and inventory Jewish ceremonial objects. alization in Germany, see Jens Hoppe, Jüdische Geschichte und Kultur in Scheffl er’s next professional position was at the municipal Thaulow Museen: Zur nichtjüdi- Museum in Kiel, where he moved up the career ladder during the schen Museologie des Jü- dischen in Deutschland 1930s: from wissenschaft licher Hilfsarbeiter to Provinzialkustode to (Münster, 2002); Katharina wissenschaft licher Assistent. Around this time, he also started a family: Rauschenberger, Jüdische Tradition im Kaiserreich und in 1931 he married Martha Lasogga, and two children followed in der Weimarer Republik: in 1934 and 1937. During that time, he published many regional Zur Geschichte des jüdischen Museumswesens in Deutsch- art-historical articles in local journals, and inventoried local art land (Hannover, 2002). monuments in Schleswig-Holstein. In addition, he lectured and 9 See Ekkehard Schmid- berger, “Rudolf Hallo und 7 As the museum Rinteln it is likely that Scheffl er Kunstdenkmäler im Hes- das jüdische Museum in provided Jewish ceremo- acted as intermediary. sischen Landesmuseum Kassel,” in Juden in Kassel nial objects for this See Rudolf Hallo, zu Kassel (Darmstadt, 1808–1933 (Kassel, 1986), exhibition in Kassel, Jüdische Kult- und 1928), 26. 59–68. AUGUSTIN | THE OBJECT’S AFTERLIFE 33 gave guided tours. Scheffl er did these in the context of the political education work of the National Socialists, as becomes clear in a letter of recommendation in his personnel fi le: In spite of the high level of professional demands, Dr. Schef- fl er has unselfi shly placed himself in the service of cultural- political education and further training of interested national comrades in accordance with the demands of National Social- ism. Being inwardly attached to the Führer and his idea, he was a valuable and exemplary collaborator of the Deutsches Volksbildungswerk in Kiel, thanks to his outstanding pedagog- ical and methodical gift s.10 Due to limited sources, it is diffi cult to precisely determine Scheffl er’s attitude toward National Socialism. Despite his apparent commitment to the political education of National Socialism, he never became a party member of the NSDAP, unlike many others.