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On Wednesday, 15 February 2023, the SPK restituted three works from the Neue Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin to the heirs of the lawyer Ismar Littmann. Littmann had died in 1934 as a result of an injury he had sustained during a suicide attempt due to his persecution by the National Socialists.

The works in question are "Die Ruhende" (1911) by Max Pechstein, "Selbstbildnis" (1925) by Wilhelm Schmid and "Doppelbildnis (Rabbi S. und Tochter)" (1925) by Carlo Mense. The latter remains in the Neue Nationalgalerie thanks to a donation from the heirs, where its history is explained in the object description. The works were part of a collection of over 4,000 artworks that the State of Prussia purchased from Dresdner Bank in 1935 and transferred to the National Museums in Berlin shortly afterwards. Since 2018, the SPK has been researching this collection, which can be attributed to a large number of previous owners, in its own provenance research project at the Central Archive of the National Museums in Berlin.

"Persecution by the National Socialists drove Ismar Littmann to his death. Even if we do not know all the details of the loss of the three works from his collection that had been in the Nationalgalerie's holdings since 1935, the circumstances are such that a fair and just solution in accordance with the Washington Principles seemed the only appropriate course. I would like to thank the heirs of Ismar and Käthe Littmann for their constructive cooperation," said Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

"The Littmann heirs have long sought the return of these important artworks and are extremely pleased that the SPK recognises that the loss of these works was unlawful and unjust," said Anna B. Rubin, Director of the Holocaust Claims Processing Office of the New York State Department of Financial Services, on behalf of the heirs. "Your willingness to return the paintings to Dr Littmann's heirs so quickly and unbureaucratically is highly commendable. It is a great pleasure for the heirs to make the Mense painting and its entire tragic history accessible to the public."

Ismar Littmann (1878-1934), a German lawyer and notary from Breslau, built up an extensive art collection in the 1920s with contemporary artists such as Lovis Corinth, Max Pechstein, Erich Heckel and Max Liebermann. He financed the acquisition of artworks primarily through loans, using works of art as collateral. Until 1933 - even during the Great Depression - Littmann was able to service the loans and, upon successful repayment, received the paintings used as collateral back at his free disposal.

His professional, financial and personal situation deteriorated massively from the start of the first persecution measures against Jewish lawyers and notaries. In April 1933, Littmann was forced to apply for readmission to the bar association. His law practice had to be suspended until he was re-admitted on 1 June 1933. In the period that followed, the previous success of the law firm could no longer be achieved. At the end of 1933, Ismar Littmann attempted suicide out of despair, which he survived but died as a result of on 23 September 1934.

With his death, his family lost any possibility of earning a living and finally got into financial difficulties. Against this backdrop, his widow, Käthe Littmann, and his son, Hans Littmann, were forced to sell large parts of the art collection at an auction at the Max Perl auction house in February 1935.

The paintings "Doppelbildnis (Rabbi S. und Tochter)" by Carlo Mense, "Die Ruhende" by Max Pechstein and "Selbstbildnis" by Wilhelm Schmid - consigned by Dresdner Bank - were also offered at this auction, but remained unsold. They were not sold until August 1935 as part of an en bloc sale of art by Dresdner Bank to the Prussian state. There is evidence that these three works had belonged to the Littmann Collection from 1930 at the latest. Despite several years of extensive research, however, it has not yet been possible to find any documents that describe the details of a possible transfer of ownership by way of security to the Dresdner Bank. It is therefore not possible to clearly reconstruct in what form the three paintings mentioned were still part of the Littmann family's assets at the time of the sale in August 1935. However, the overall circumstances suggest that the sale by Dresdner Bank led to a persecution-related loss of assets for the family.

A fair and equitable solution was found with the heirs of Ismar and Käthe Littmann in accordance with the Washington Principles: The SPK restituted "Double Portrait (Rabbi S. and Daughter)", "The Resting Woman" and "Self-Portrait" to the heirs, who in turn donated the painting "Double Portrait (Rabbi S. and Daughter)" to the SPK.

About the works:

Carlo Mense: "Double Portrait (Rabbi S. and Daughter)"
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Karl Mense (1886-1965), who came from a deeply religious Catholic merchant family and changed his first name to Carlo, initially painted in the Expressionist style and later turned to New Objectivity. The artist seems to have become interested in Jewish culture through his war service in Poland and Russia in 1916/1917. From 1925, he taught at the Academy of Art in Breslau, an important centre of Jewish life. However, the double portrait of a rabbi with his daughter probably dates back to a trip to Italy, as the green dress with a wide neckline is just as atypical for the daughter of a German or Eastern European rabbi as the black lace veil, which comes from Southern Europe. Without touching each other, the two sitters stand seriously at a table on which two books lie. The man's black kippah and full beard identify him as a Jewish scholar. In previous years, Mense had painted portraits of Catholic clerics, which, like the present one, are orientated towards the art of the 15th and early 16th centuries through symmetry and frontality.

Wilhelm Schmid: "Self-Portrait"
A IV 173

Trained as a draughtsman, Schmid came to Berlin from Switzerland in 1912 and worked in the architectural offices of Bruno Paul, Peter Behrens, Bruno Möhring and Paul Renner. He had been taking part in exhibitions with his own artistic works since 1910, exhibiting his works at the Berlin Secession in 1917 and from 1919 as part of the November Group at the annual "Great Berlin Art Exhibition". From 1924 to 1930, he lived mainly in Paris. The self-portrait, painted with loose brushstrokes, in which the artist shows himself in a bust portrait against a green and turquoise background, was probably created at the beginning of this period. In contrast to the statuesque nature of the figure and the calm gaze, the white and blue iridescent scarf wrapped around his neck seems to develop a life of its own. Stylistically, Schmid orientated himself on Giorgio de Chirico, Carlo Carrà and the Italian artist group Valori Plastici.

Max Pechstein: "The Resting Woman"
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There are many indications that this work was created during the Pechstein couple's first trip to Nidden together in the summer of 1911. It depicts the 18-year-old Charlotte Kaprolat, known as Lotte, who had married the artist in March of that year. The composition is a homage to the Norwegian Edvard Munch: the motif of the girl lying on the bed with her arm stretched out wide and her hair loose is an adaptation of his painting "The Day After" (destroyed by fire in 1892 and repeated in 1894; Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo) and the etching of the same name (1895). At the end of April 1912, Pechstein showed the painting as one of three entries at the 24th exhibition of the Berlin Secession; this participation in the show, which did not go down well with his Brücke colleagues, led to his exclusion from the community, which he had long since grown weary of, as it had of him, due to his success in the Berlin art scene.

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