The impulse for establishing a collection of Jewish everyday and ceremonial objects at the museum came in 1913 from a permanent loan from the Society for Jewish Folklore. For two decades, it was displayed as the “Jewish Section” in the museum’s permanent exhibition and expanded with additional objects. During the Nazi era, it was removed in 1935 following a change in museum leadership. Objects owned by the museum disappeared into storage, and the Society for Jewish Folklore—already under pressure from Nazi persecution—withdrew its loan.
With the exception of ten objects, the Society’s collection is today considered lost, and yet it remains at the heart of the exhibition. It is supplemented by objects that have been assigned to the museum’s “Jewish Collection” over the decades and that are also linked to personal life stories. The exhibition presents the findings of provenance research on Nazi-looted art, which has been ongoing since 2021, and offers a critical examination of the museum’s role during the Nazi era. In doing so, it sheds light on how the museum positioned itself under political pressure and how it profited from the circumstances of the time.
