Villa Leo Lewin

Leo Lewin (born 1881 in Breslau; died 1965) was a German merchant, art collector and horse breeder who was persecuted by the Nazis due to being Jewish.

Family

Portrait of Carl Lewin (by Max Liebermann)

Lewin was the eldest of six children of the Breslau textile manufacturer Carl Lewin (1855-1926).[1] The business C. Lewin was located at 7 Gartenstrasse (today's Piłsudskiego Street). During the First World War, the company delivered to the German army and equipped soldiers and horses, making the company prosperous.

Lewin married Helene Kosewski in 1917. The couple moved into a villa at Akazienallee 12 in Breslau; this was extensively rebuilt by Oskar Kaufmann[2] with the help of numerous artists such as César Klein.[3]

Horse breeding

After the First World War, Leo Lewin leased the Römerhof stud established by Georg von Bleichröder in Erftstadt and had the war damage repaired. Under Lewin, the mare population comprised up to 80 animals, at that time the largest population in Germany.[4] From 1925 Lewin successfully organized yearling auctions. After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, the estate was leased to Rudolf von Skrbensky.

In 1921 Lewin also leased Otto von Goßler's run-down stud in the old fishing village of Bindow near Königs Wusterhausen. Here he planned to set up a stud specializing in trotters. Success soon set in, Homer, Zora and Lebenskünstler won the Blue Ribbon from 1924 to 1926. In 1927 Lewin relocated breeding to the Stauffenburg domain. Lewin also produced some of the winning horses that racing stable owner Emil Perk from Berlin started on all German racetracks.

Art collection

Leo Lewin had an important art collection.[5][6][7][8]

He was a member of the Künstlerbund, which promoted Silesian artists.[9]

The collection consisted of from many paintings and drawings by Max Slevogt and Max Liebermann (Bügelnde Dame), who was a friend[10] and created portraits of the Lewin family. The sculptor August Gaul created the Kleiner Tierpark for Lewin,[11] consisting of fifteen tiny bronze and silver figures, and also a fountain with goose statues, which stood in the villa garden on Akazienallee. In the villa there were paintings by Hans von Marées, Wilhelm Trübner, Lovis Corinth (Walchensee im Herbst),[12] Hans Thoma and Carl Spitzweg, as well as sculptures by Georg Kolbe and Ernst Barlach. Lewin also owned some drawings by the painter Adolph von Menzel, such as the procession in Hofgastein, which is now in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.

In 1921 he acquired two landscape paintings at Edvard Munch's exhibition in the Cassirer gallery in Berlin. He also acquired still lifes by Pablo Picasso, which are now in the Tate Gallery in London, as well as works by French realists such as Camille Corot (for example poetry, now in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne), Honoré Daumier.[13] He owned a work by Édouard Manet, which shows a young bull in a meadow and was created in Versailles in 1881,[14] as well as portraits by Renoir, a landscape painting by Camille Pissarro, a painting by Paul Cézanne and a painting by Claude Monet, the snow-covered vineyards at Moulin d'Orgemont shows.[15] Before Max Silberberg purchased it, Lewin was the owner of the Courbet now at Yale University Art Gallery entitled, "Le Grand Pont".[16]

In April 1927, Lewin auctioned some of his collection at Paul Cassirer.[17]

Nazi persecution and emigration

When Hitler came to power, the Lewins were persecuted because of their Jewish heritage.[18] Forced pay the special taxes that Nazis imposed on Jews, he had to auction his print collection at Max Perls. Lewin was able to take the remaining works of art, especially the holdings of the extensive library, with him when he emigrated to the north of England, where they appeared in second-hand bookshops in the following years, recognizable by a conspicuous bookplate by Max Slevogt.[19] Lewin's horse breeding estate was leased to Rudolf von Skrbensky.

Soccer

In 1910 Lewin took over the leadership of the football club SC 1904 Breslau, later renamed United Breslauer Sportfreunde, which he also supported financially.[20]

Legacy

Lewin's name appears in lists of Jewish art collectors targeted by Nazi persecution.[21][22] However, it is not known what became of many of the paintings in his collection or his activities after the war.

Literature

  • Paul Cassirer, Hugo Helbing: Sammlung Leo Lewin Breslau. Deutsche und Französische Meister des XIX. Jahrhunderts. Gemälde, Plastik, Zeichnungen. Berlin 1927 (Versteigerungskatalog).
  • Marius Winzeler: Jüdische Sammler und Mäzene in Breslau – von der Donation zur „Verwertung“ ihres Kunstbesitzes. In: Andrea Baresel-Brand, Peter Müller (Hrsg.): Sammeln. Stiften. Fördern. Jüdische Mäzene in der deutschen Gesellschaft. Magdeburg 2006, S. 131–150.
  • Ramona Bräu: „Arisierung“ in Breslau – Die „Entjudung“ einer deutschen Großstadt und deren Entdeckung im polnischen Erinnerungsdiskurs. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-8364-5958-7, S. 81 (3.4.2 Die großen jüdischen Kunstsammlungen in Schlesien – Kunstraub.)

References

  1. ↑ "Hampel Auctions: Max Liebermann Portrait de Textilfabrikanten und Kunstsammlers Carl Lewin". hampel-auctions.com. Archived from the original on 2011-04-24.
  2. ↑ "The Objects with the Most Intriguing Provenance at TEFAF Maastricht". Galerie. 2020-03-06. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  3. ↑ Kahn, Eve M. (2015-11-05). "Furniture Designers With Fates Tied to the Nazis". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2022-02-15. Retrieved 2022-02-15. Markus Winter, the gallery's owner, said that only a few of the show's pieces have a clear provenance trail. The Klein windows and the Kaufmann chairs belonged to Leo Lewin, a Silesian textiles magnate, who saved some of his possessions from the Nazis.
  4. ↑ "Gr. I-Sieg für weiße Stute Sodashi in Japan | Turf-Times Deutschland". www.turf-times.de. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  5. ↑ "Beyond the Bauhaus Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany" (PDF). Four Breslau Jews assembled particularly important, nationally recognized collections: Carl Sachs, Leo Lewin, Max Silberberg, and Ismar Littmann.
  6. ↑ "OPC4 - results/shortlist". lhwei.gbv.de. Retrieved 2022-02-15.
  7. ↑ "BADANIA PROWENIENCYJNE MUZEALIÓW POD KĄTEM ICH EWENTUALNEGO POCHODZENIA Z WŁASNOŚCI ŻYDOWSKIEJ" (PDF).
  8. ↑ "The Railway Hospital in Wrocław / Aleja Wiśniowa 36 — Survival. Archive". archiwum.survival.art.pl. Retrieved 2022-02-16. Among Lewin's favourite artists were the German impressionists Max Slevogt and Max Liebermann – he owned several dozen of their works and over the years developed close friendship with both of them. Leo Lewin's collection also contained paintings by Trübner, Corinth, Munch, Picasso, Corot, Daumier, Courbet, Manet, Monet and at least two paintings by van Gogh. Lewin also collected works on paper, including prominently among them original drawings by Rembrandt, Delacroix, Menzel and Cézanne. His villa was adorned with numerous sculptures, many by his favourite sculptor August Gaul. In just over a dozen years, Lewin managed to assemble a unique collection of artworks that could well match those of museums.
  9. ↑ "Beyond the Bauhaus Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany Kathleen Canning, Series Editor" (PDF). The lifetime members were Guidotto Fürst Henckel von Donnersmark, Jakob Molinari, Otto Nicolaier, Carl Sachs, Ernst Schlesinger, and Otto Schweitzer. Von Donnersmark was a local aristocrat and avowed conservative who was quite active in the Breslau cultural scene, Molinari was a prominent Breslau businessman, and Carl Sachs was a successful entrepreneur and well-known collector. The membership included other distinguished art patrons known for their contemporary collections, like Emil Kaim, Leo Lewin, Ismar Littmann, Max Silberberg, and Leo Schmoshewer, to name just a few.
  10. ↑ "Bonhams : Max Liebermann (German 1847-1935) Running man 36 x 25 cm. (14 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.)". www.bonhams.com. Retrieved 2022-02-16. Leo Lewin was a friend of Max Liebermann
  11. ↑ "Seelöwe - Lot 420". www.lempertz.com. Retrieved 2022-02-15. The series of 15 sculptures "Kleiner Tierpark" was exhibited in its entirety for the first time at the Galerie Paul Cassirer in Berlin in 1919, where the art collector Leo Lewin from Wroclaw acquired it.
  12. ↑ Corinth, Lovis, Walchensee im Herbst, retrieved 2022-02-15
  13. ↑ Barnstone, Deborah Ascher (2016). "Dissemination of Taste". Dissemination of Taste: Breslau Collectors, Arts Associations, and Museums. Cultural Modernity in Breslau, 1918-33. University of Michigan Press. pp. 108–132. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1gk088m.8. ISBN 978-0-472-11990-5. JSTOR j.ctt1gk088m.8. Retrieved 2022-02-15. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  14. ↑ "Edouard Manet, Junger Stier auf der Wiese (Sammlung Leo Lewin).jpg - Wikipedia". commons.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 2022-02-15.
  15. ↑ "Search | Proveana Lewin, Leo (Breslau) Lewin, Leo (Breslau)". www.proveana.de. Retrieved 2022-02-15.
  16. ↑ "Yale Bulletin and Calendar". archives.news.yale.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-16. The confirmed history of "Le Grand Pont" is that it belonged to the Marczell de Nemes collection until 1913, but by the 1920s was held in Breslau, first in the collection of Leo Lewin and then Max Silberberg. It remained in the Silberberg collection until 1935, from which it was sold at auction by Paul Graupe of Berlin.
  17. ↑ Lewin, Leo, Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer, Hugo Helbing (1927). Sammlung Leo Lewin, Breslau : [Voranzeige]; deutsche und französische Meister des XIX. Jahrhunderts; Gemälde, Plastik, Zeichnungen; Barlach, Cezanne, Daumier, Delacroix, Feuerbach, Gaul ... ; Versteigerung: Dienstag, den 12. April 1927 (in German). Berlin: Cassirer. OCLC 971481537.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ↑ "Silesian Art Collections: Leo Lewin, 1927". silesiancollections.eu. Archived from the original on 2011-02-19. After the Nazis took over the government Lewin was subject to anti-Jewish persecutions. In 1941 the collector left the city with his family, taking with him a part of the collection.
  19. ↑ "Magdalena Palica, Od Delacroix do an Gogha. Żydowskie kolekcje sztuki w dawnym Wrocławiu, Wrocław 2010, Oficyna Wydawnicza ATUT – Wrocławskie Wydawnictwo Oświatowe, ss. 150, il. 49, ISBN 978-83-7432-648-3" (PDF).
  20. ↑ Fußballvereine und ihre Geldgeber. 2017. p. 31. ISSN 2365-3175.
  21. ↑ "zur Umsetzung der "Erklärung der Bundesregierung, der Länder und der kommunalen Spitzenverbände zur Auffindung und zur Rückgabe NS-verfolgungsbedingt entzogenen Kulturgutes, insbesondere aus jüdischem Besitz" vom Dezember 1999 vom Februar 2001 überarbeitet im November 2007" (PDF).
  22. ↑ "Jüdische Sammler und Kunsthändler (Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung und Enteignung) Lewin, Leo". lostart.de/. Stiftung Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste - 2020. Archived from Leo.html?nn=5144&cms_lv2=95490&cms_lv3=8930 the original on 2020-09-24. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
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