In this richly illustrated book Alexander Krause investigates the varied history of No. 12 Arcisstraße, which is not only part of Munich’s cultural and intellectual history, but also of a sad chap- ter of world history. Alexander Krause, a lawyer, is Chancellor of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. edition monacensia Edited by the Monacensia Literaturarchiv und Bibliothek Dr. Elisabeth Tworek Alexander Krause No. 12 Arcisstraße

The Palais Pringsheim – The Führerbau – The Amerika Haus – The Hochschule für Musik und Theater (University of Music and Performing Arts) Translation: Kirsty Malcolm

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The Deutsche Bibliothek’s bibliographical information

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March 2010 Allitera Verlag An imprint of Buch&media GmbH, Munich © 2010 Buch&media GmbH Cover design: Kay Fretwurst, Freienbrink Production: Kessler Druck + Medien GmbH&Co. KG, Bobingen Printed in . isbn 978-3-86906-048-4 Contents

The Maxvorstadt district · 9 The Pringsheim family · 14 The Führerbau and the NSDAP (Nazi Party)’s Temples of Honour · 27 The interior of the Führerbau · 38 The Munich Agreement · 46 A warehouse for the Führermuseum · 48 The end of the War · 54 “The Greatest Theft in the History of Art” · 57 Central Art Collecting Point (CCP), the State Archive and other institutions · 60 The Amerika Haus · 62 The Hochschule für Musik (University of Music) · 68

Bibliography · 71

Appendix · 76 Concerts at the Amerika Haus 1948–1957 (selection) · 76 A selection of exhibitions in the Amerika Haus 1948–1957 (selection) · 79 Lectures, recitations and readings in the America Haus 1948–1957 (selection)· 81

Picture credits · 84

Acknowledgements · 84

I would never have believed that I’d ever address another letter to No. 12 Arcisstraße. For some 50 years it was my grandpar- ents’ address. writing to the President of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, in 1984.

In 1984 Diethardt Hellmann, the then President of the Hoch- schule für Musik in Munich, invited the historian Golo Mann to make a speech at the forthcoming matriculation ceremony. Golo Mann had to decline. He ended his friendly letter with the above postscript, which – twenty years later – inspired the research into the history of No. 12 Arcisstraße. As you’ll see from what fol- lows, important chapters of Munich’s history in the past century were played out at this address.

The Maxvorstadt district

rcisstraße in Munich’s Maxvorstadt district runs from south Ato north. It originally started at the Old Botanical Garden, until its southern section, between Sophienstraße and Brienner Straße, was renamed in honour of Hans Meiser1 in 1957. Nowa- days Arcisstraße runs from the intersection of Königsplatz and Brienner Straße up to the Elisabethplatz. The name Arcis recalls of the village of Arcis-sur-Aube, some 140 km east of Paris. Arcis, incidentally the birthplace of Georges Jacques Danton (1759 to 1794), Justice Minister during the French Revolution, was the site of one of the battles at which the Napoleonic Army was defeated with Bavarian participation, in 1814. Other battles were won near the villages of Brienne-le-Chateau and Bar-sur-Aube, after which Brienner Straße and Barer Straße were named. These vic- tories are still happily commemorated, although Bavaria owes its kingdom status to that same Napoleon. Oddly, Brienner Straße runs straight through Karolinenplatz, on which there stands an obelisk dedicated to the memory of the 30 000 Bavarian troops who died in 1812 during the Russian campaign, still at that time fighting on the side of Napoleon.

The Maxvorstadt district was the very first expansion of the city beyond its baroque city walls. The town planning concept for the new district, which lay north-west of the old fortifications, was developed from a design by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, the direc- tor of court gardens. The architect charged with its execution was Carl von Fischer. Sckell and Fischer worked with Nikolaus Schedel von Greifenstein from 1809 on the Board of Munich’s City Plan- ning Commission, under the Ministry of the Interior. Since the

1 1881–1956, Regional Bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Bavaria. For discussion of the renaming, see Klaus Bäumler, Kritische Gedanken zur “Entnennung” der Meiserstraße.

9 A section of the official map of Munich by Carl Schleich in 1812. The Maxvorstadt district is shaping up to the north-west of the old city. man in whose honour it was named, King Max I Joseph showed little initiative, in 1812, Crown Prince Ludwig, who had a lively interest in art and architecture, took a hand in the planning. In March 1816, the Commission invited the classical architect Leo von Klenze to join its ranks. When, in September 1818, Klenze was put in charge of all construction projects for Bavaria, the town planning for Munich also came under his responsibility. The then boundaries of the Maxvorstadt were Ludwigstraße2, named after Crown Prince Ludwig, to the east, to the north Adal-

2 These days the Maxvorstadt district also includes the Schönfeld-Vorstadt between Ludwigstraße and Königinstraße.

10 bertstraße3, the extension of Maillingerstraße and Lothstraße to the west, and Arnulfstraße to the south. The plan, with its largely grid-plan street layout, offered plots for badly-needed dwellings but also open spaces, for example such as the North Cemetery, the Alte4 and the Neue5 Pinakothek art museums, a military barracks6 and Königsplatz. This is where, from 1816, Ludwig, then still Crown Prince, had the Glyptothek built, using his personal fortune. This exhibition hall, which its architects Fischer and Klenze based on Grecian models, was completed in 1830 to house Ludwig’s collec- tion of classical sculptures. Between 1838 and 1845, an exhibition hall for art and industry designed by Georg Friedrich Ziebland was erected on the opposite side, which now houses the State Collection of Antiquities. The square was only completed in 1862 by Klenze, when he added the Propyläen. The area around Königsplatz, had been an attractive residen- tial area since the mid-19 th century. Here, those with the means and a need to live near the city, could acquire generous plots of land. Those living immediately around the square included Mo- ritz von Schwind7, Richard Wagner8, Franz von Lenbach9, Paul von Heyse10, Rainer Maria Rilke11, Karl Theodor von Piloty12 and Adolf Friedrich Graf von Schack13.

3 The present north limit of the district is Georgenstraße. 4 1826–1836 by Leo von Klenze 5 1846–1853 by August von Voit 6 On the site of the Pinakothek der Moderne stood the Türkenkaserne, which was home to the Royal Bavarian Infantry Regiment. joined up on 1 October 1900 but was released on 31 December 1900. (See Dirk Heißerer, Das Bild des Soldaten bei Thomas Mann, p. 5 ff. and ibid. Im Zaubergarten, p. 67) 7 Briennerstraße, immediately behind the Lenbachhaus. 8 No. 37 Briennerstraße, opposite the entrance to the present Richard- Wagner-Straße – plaque on wall. 9 Nos. 33–35 Luisenstraße 10 No. 47 Luisenstraße (now No. 22) directly behind the Glyptothek. A Nobel Prize-winner for Literature (1910) he lived here from 1873–1914, after the house (originally dating from 1830) had been rebuilt by Gottfried von Neureuther. 11 No. 48 Briennerstraße 12 Piloty’s studio was connected with the Schack Gallery. 13 Nos. 19–22 Briennerstraße thus a direct neighbour to the west of .

11 The Königsplatz with planting, c. 1930, before the Nazi Party’s crude inter- ventions.

The south-eastern corner plot, at the crossing of Brienner Straße and Arcisstraße was presented by King Max I Joseph in 1809 to the architect Carl von Fischer14, who built a palais there, to a square plan. In the north-eastern corner, the painter Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld15, a godson of King Ludwig I and father of the singer Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld, had a house built in the same style as that in the southern corner. The authorities insisted that their exterior appearances should be identical. Until 1934, these two palais provided an architectural conclusion to Königsplatz to the east and simultaneously a bourgeois contrast with the monumen-

14 No. 16 Brienner Straße (according to the Wenng Atlas of 1849 / 51 – No. 20, southern corner plot) see and hereafter Enno Burmeister, Das Palais Carl von Fischer in München. 15 No. 44 Brienner Straße (northern corner plot)

12 tal gateway of the Propyläen on the opposite side of Königsplatz. As a consequence they may not be substantially altered, as they are subject to a building preservation order. The National Socialists were only able to get around these conditions once they had seized power. The western sides of the houses facing Königsplatz, extender to the extreme limits of their plots, whereas on the Brienner Straße sides, about 7 metres of clearance remainer. The No. 12 Arcisstraße address hasn’t always stood at its present location. From 1849 to 1851, this address referred to a building on the south-eastern corner of the Alter Nördlicher Friedhof (Old Northern Cemetery). In it lived a certain “W. Himmelstoss, a day-labourer”16. On the site of the present No. 12 Arcisstraße, in 1849 there stood a town house of the “Sard. Minister, the Mar- quis of Pallavicini”17. In 1849 he also owned the Palais Bar- low, which later came to be known as the Brown House.18

The Palais Barlow, known as the Brown House since 1930

16 see Wenng Atlas, loc. cit. 17 In the Gallery of Beauties in Ludwig I’s Nymphenburg Palace hangs a por- trait of Irene, Marchioness Pallavicini, married name Countess von Arco- Steppberg, born 3 September 1811 in All-gyo, Hungary. The daughter of the Marquis Eduard de Pallavicini and Josephine, née Countess Hardegg- Glatz, Lady-in-Waiting at the Bavarian Court. Whether there are lines has yet to be established. 18 see Wenng Atlas, loc. cit.

13 The Palais Pringsheim address has the No. 12 Arcisstraße from 1889 to 1933. Alfred and ’s home welcomed “all of Munich to their grand receptions”, Bruno Walter reported.

The Pringsheim family19

n 1889, the Pringsheim family moved from their home at No. 6 I Sophienstraße – directly next to Annette Kolb and her family in No. 7 Sophienstraße – into a neo-Renaissance villa in Arcisstraße, in line with the southern end of the present building at No. 10 Mei- serstraße. The plot was renumbered No. 12, having been number 31 until that time. The house, which was designed by the firm of Kayser & von Grossheim, with interiors by Joh. Wachter and O. Fritsche, Court Furniture Manufacturer in Munich, was decorated with turrets and oriels, with a south-facing, tiled façade set well back from the street. The house was 24.20 metres wide, while its maximum depth was 25.48 metres. Its novelties included central heating and electric lighting, for the generation of which a special little “engine-house” was built in the garden.20

19 The following facts, unless otherwise credited, are taken from Peter de Mendelssohn, Der Zauberer, and Hanno-Walther Kruft, Alfred Prings- heim, Hans Thoma und Thomas Mann. 20 see Hermann Ebers, Erinnerungen, p. 11

14 was born 2 September 1850 in Ohlau in (now Oława, ) into a Jewish family21. His father, Rudolf Pringsheim (1821 to 1901) had made a large fortune in Up- per Silesia as a railway and coal-mining magnate, and had settled in Berlin. His son studied math- ematics in Heidelberg but hesitated at first be- tween music and . In a “Biographical sketch”22 published in 1915, he himself admitted he had, since his youth, taken music very seri- ously, and, later, art historical questions too. He was known in musical circles as a long-stand- ing and passionate advocate of Richard Wagner, whom he had met as a student. He is said to have been a guest at Wagner’s villa on several occasions. Pringsheim arranged various compo- sitions by Wagner for piano and chamber-music forces,23 and even bought some “certificates of pa- tronage”24 to finance the building of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre. He persuaded his father to buy a further one. In 1873 he published a pamphlet sup- porting Wagner25, in which, among other things, he defended the composer’s poetic qualities. Alfred and Hedwig Pringsheim

21 In the police registration form he completed 22.5.1919, he entered “con- fessionslos” (“not belonging in any religion”). His wife and children are registered as “prot.” For Hedwig Pringsheim, a hand-written note dated 3.11.1924 added: “Formally left the Protestant Church on 03.11.24”. “Jew” and “Jewess” was added later in thick pencil. 22 quoted from Albert von Schirnding, Thomas Mann, seine Schwiegerel- tern Pringsheim und Richard Wagner, in: Themengewebe – Thomas Mann und die Musik, p. 11 23 inter alia Seefahrt aus Tristan und Isolde for piano, violin and cello (Breitkopf & Härtel); Siegfried und der Waldvogel for piano, 2 violins, viola and cello (Schott); and several adaptations of Wagner’s music for four-handed piano 24 The certificates, numbered 100–102, are preserved in the Richard Wagner Archive, Bayreuth. 25 Alfred Pringsheim, Richard Wagner und sein neuester Freund. Eine Erwiderung auf Herrn Dr. Gotthelf Häbler’s “Freundesworte”, Leipzig 1873

15 He guarded Wagner’s letters as a precious treasure until the end of his life. His daughter Katia even mentions some fisticuffs: in 1876, at a Bayreuth inn, a certain Herr von Kaufmann was be- ing disparaging about Wagner, whereupon Pringsheim hit him on the head with a beer-glass. Pringsheim was challenged to a pistol duel, which ended without bloodshed. But the nickname “Schop- penhauer” (literally “mug-basher”)26 stuck. The Wagners were said to have been very shocked at the story, but wanted to avoid a scandal at all costs. Whether the relationship between Wagner and Pringsheim cooled as a result of this, or because of an anti- semitic remark which Wagner made in Pringsheim’s presence, is not clear. Yet Pringsheim remained an admirer of Wagner’s music for the rest of his life and continued to attend the Bayreuth Festi- val regularly, where, in 1882, the year before Wagner’s death, he attended the first performance of Parsifal. In 1877 Pringsheim qualified as a university lecturer at the University of Munich, where he taught until 1922, when he be- came professor emeritus.27 In 1894 he was elected a member of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Bavarian Academy of Sciences). He concerned himself with mathematical problems in many publications, particularly function theory.28 Pringsheim was said to be an excellent teacher and very funny, ingenious and full of life.29 In 1878 he married (born in Berlin, 13.7.1855) daughter of the editor-in-chief of the Kladderadatsch magazine, (1819–1883) and Hedwig Dohm, née Jülich,30 a ded- icated champion of women’s rights (1831–1919). Hedwig Dohm

26 Katia Mann, Meine ungeschriebenen Memoiren, p. 14 ff 27 By decree of Prince Regent Luitpold he received the title, rank and rights of a full professor on 28.1.1901. 28 Roland Burlisch, Alfred Pringsheim der Mathematiker, in: Kruft, loc. cit., p. 25 ff. 29 see Oskar Perron, Alfred Pringsheim, in: Jahrbuch der Bayerischen Akade- mie der Wissenschaften, and Hans-Rudolf Wiedemann, Thomas Manns Schwiegermutter erzählt, p. 36 (7.9.18): “healthy, fresh and always in love. Such men have it easy. They are always up for it”; p. 40 (10.2.21): “a really frisky old boy, you truly wouldn’t know he turned 70 this summer.” 30 Her mother Wilhelmine Henriette Jülich only married her father Gustav Adolph Schlesinger in 1838; they used the name of “Schleh” from 1851 onwards.

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