Museums in totalitarian Systems

On the history of the Staatlichen Sammlung für Wissenschaft und Kunst (State Collections for Science and Art), respectively Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections) since 1918

In June 2004, the project, which was supported by the foundation Fritz Thyssen-Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung to examine the history of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden since 1918, was launched. Aim was to research on the history of one of the largest European museum institutions. The hypothesis, that this complex history cannot be looked at chronologically, but is characterized by overlapping breaks and continuities, was laid as a starting point. Some data appeared on which the dichotomy of breaks and continuities can be observed the best.

EIn 1924, the signing of the contestation contract between the Free State of Saxony and the house of Wettin, which reigned until 1918, regulated in detail the transfer of the former royal collections into the possession of the state, meaning the distribution of the art works. The establishment of a cultural foundation created the legal conditions for the new Staatliche Sammlungen für Kunst und Wissenschaft (State Collections for Science and Art) in 1926. In 1933, the museums in Dresden – just as all the other museums in Germany – were confronted with major interventions by the Nazi party, which happened against art works as well as against employees. Dramatic changes did not transpire at first; they occurred in the following years, e.g. through the removal of degenerate art.

Only in 1933 through the appointment of Hans Posse, director of the Dresden galley, as Hitler’s special commissioner for the installation of the “Führermuseum” in Linz, the collections in Dresden were comprised closely in the Nazi art theft and dislocation system. The end of World War II in May 1945 marked a radical break: the museums in Dresden lost the majority of their holdings, which were brought to the USSR as a compensation for war looses. In 1946 in the course of a radical, politically motivated new beginning, the last employees, who worked until 1945, were dismissed. In 1955, the surprising announcement of the USSR to return the paintings to Dresden opened a new chapter of post-war history – not only for Dresden, but for the entire GDR. The structure of the museums in Dresden changed as well. With the return of most of the art works from the USSR in 1958, the collections went back to normal.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Gilbert Lupfer, scientific director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Email: Gilbert.Lupfer@skd.museum
Dr. Thomas Rudert, scientific assistant
Email: Thomas.Rudert@skd.museum