"Aryanisation" is the term used
to refer to the looting and expropriation - initially uncontrolled without a
legal basis, later on organised by the state - of Jewish property in the Nazi
era. In recent years this term has been used in public discussions only in
connection with spectacular cases of looted works of art. However, the
"Gestapo", the secret state police in the Nazi era, looted not only
works of art, money and other valuable assets. They also took away objects of
daily use from Jewish households: cutlery from kitchen drawers, linen kept in
cupboards, and photographs on the walls - nothing was safe.
Furnishings from eight "Aryanised"
Jewish households in Vienna were stored in the state-owned "Depot of
Movables" after the "Anschluss", the annexation of Austria by
Germany, in March 1938. Many of these objects were entered in the inventories
and thus became state property. Only few items were returned to their former
owners after the war had ended.
During the Nazi era and until 1998,
pieces of furniture from among these objects were lent -
in conformity with the basic function of
the "Depot of Movables" - primarily to offices of the public
administration. Until recently, these pieces of furniture were used in
government offices, Austrian embassies abroad, theatres, etc., the new users
unaware of where these objects came from. Since 1994, the "Depot of
Movables" has been doing research on these objects. Since 1998, on the
basis of the Austrian Federal Law on the Restitution of Works of Art, objects
have been returned to the families of their former owners.
This is the historical starting point of
the exhibition. Its subject is the "Aryanisation" of the households of
eight Jewish families in Vienna and the way in which the public institution
dealt with these household objects until recently. Although the cases presented
in the exhibition are only a small aspect of the extensive looting of Jewish
property, these examples show the mechanics of this violent process: e.g. the
transformation of looting and expropriation into a dry and formalised
bureaucratic process and the way in which such a process was made
"normal" and "legal" by the institutions involved.
A central part of the exhibition is the
display of photographs arranged by the photographer Arno Gisinger. A
comprehensive catalogue will appear when the exhibition opens. The project is a
contribution to the "Aryanisation debate" in Austria. This cannot be
left to politicians alone but must proceed at all levels of society: not least
within, and with, the institutions which were involved in what happened during
the Nazi era.
Location
Kaiserliches Hofmobiliendepot
(Imperial Furniture Collection)
Mariahilfer Strasse 88 / entrance
Andreasgasse 7
A-1070 Vienna
Organised by
MMD (Museen des Mobiliendepots)
AG theoretische und angewandte Museologie
/ IFF
Concept and direction
Ilsebill Barta-Fliedl
Herbert Posch
Arrangement of photographs
Arno Gisinger
Public relations
Eva Grabherr
Tel/fax ++43 1 4700819,
++43 664 1536536
e-mail: eva.grabherr@univie.ac.at
hagalil.com
13-09-2000
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