User:Eli185.2/Galerie Würthle

Galerie Würthle was an Austrian art gallery, aryanized under the Nazis, that existed from 1881  to 1995.

Located at Weihburggasse 9 in Vienna, not far from Stephansplatz, names associated with the gallery include Lea Bondi, Otto Brill as a partner, Luise Kremlacek, the collector couple Fritz Kamm and Editha Kamm-Ehrbar, the artist Fritz Wotruba, the curator Heimo Kuchling, the exhibition organizer Otto Breicha and the last owner, publisher Hans Dichand. The name of Friedrich Welz, who aryanized the gallery under the Nazis in 1938, is also closely associated with the gallery.

The gallery has regularly participated in Art Basel since 1990.

Owners

 * 1908–1916 Thekla Würthle
 * 1916–1926 Ulf Seidl, Prokuristen Lea Bondi und Otto Nirenstein
 * 1926–1938 Lea Bondi
 * 1938–1945 Friedrich Welz took over under the Nazis in an Aryanization
 * 1945–1948 Luise Kremlacek als kommissarische Leiterin
 * 1949–1953 Lea Bondi
 * 1953–1965 Fritz Kamm, Galerist Fritz Wotruba
 * 1976–1995 Hans Dichand, Galeristin Johanna Dichand

History
The institution was founded as a branch of the Würthle and Spinnhirn publishing house and art dealership in Salzburg, which in turn had been founded by Gregor Baldi and Friedrich Würthle in 1862. In the spring of 1908, Thekla Würthle registered the company "Würthle & Sohn Nachf." with the Salzburg Commercial Court. The head office was in Salzburg, the branch office at Mariahilferstraße 88a in Vienna. Thekla Würthle was the owner and managing director. At the turn of the year 1915/16, the main branch in Salzburg was closed and the Viennese company, which was now located at Weihburggasse 31, was sold to the k.k. Oberleutnant d. R. and painter Ulf Seidl (1881-1960). The company was entered in the Vienna Commercial Register on February 23, 1917 under Reg. A 34, 88, and the object of the business was now the art trade.

before WWII
On June 6, 1919, Lea Bondi was entered in the Vienna commercial register as an authorized signatory of Würthle & Sohn Nachfolger. On June 22, 1920, the sole power of attorney was transferred to Otto Nirenstein (1894-1978), later known as Otto Kallir, and the company name was changed to Verlag Neuer Graphik. The aim of the company expansion was to publish contemporary and modern original graphic art from Austria. Among others, works by Faistauer, Itten, Jungnickel, Kubin and posthumously by Schiele were published. Nirenstein's power of attorney was revoked on May 26, 1922. He subsequently founded the Neue Galerie in Grünangergasse. Bondi became an open partner in the Würthle art dealership. In 1926, the owners Leopoldine and Ulf Seidl retired and Bondi became the sole owner of the gallery on August 13, 1926. According to the database of Jewish collectors and art dealers, the manufacturer and collector Otto Brill (1881-1954) is said to have been a partner.

In the interwar years, Lea Bondi cooperated with important art dealers throughout Europe - Alfred Flechtheim (Düsseldorf), Paul Cassirer (Berlin) and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (Paris) - and established Galerie Würthle as an important center for contemporary art in Vienna. It showed both Austrian artists and representatives of the international scene.

Aryanization
With the merger of Austria with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss of 1938, anti-Jewish race laws were enacted, prohibiting Jews from selling to so-called "Aryan" customers. Lea Bondi, who was called Lea Jaray after her marriage in 1936, fled with her husband fled to London in 1939. Shortly before their departure, the gallery's "Aryanizerr", Friedrich Welz, extracted the Portrait of Wally from her, a picture from her private collection, which hung in her apartment.

After the "Aryanization" of Galerie Würthle (on 3 April 1938), the name was changed to Galerie Welz until the fall of the Nazi regime and for another three years.

Postwar
Friedrich Welz was arrested by the US Army in May 1945, then released and finally imprisoned again in November 1945. He was sent to the Glasenbach camp for war criminals, where he was held by the occupying forces until April 14, 1947. Through various documents and during interrogations, he distinguished himself as a master of confusion, according to the title of a book by Gert Kerschbaumer. He continued to make a profit in the post-war years by moving, hiding and exchanging paintings. Lea Bondi-Jaray also fell victim to his machinations in the post-war period - in more ways than one. The rightful owner of the gallery, now living in London, had chosen Emmerich Hunna, the president of the Vienna Bar Association, as her legal representative, unaware that he himself had been involved in Aryanizations. The gallery was returned to her, but without the allegedly "lost" works of art. For example, at least 47 works by Anton Kolig were missing. Not only did she receive no compensation and no loss of profit, as her lawyer failed to sue for this, but on August 17, 1949 she was ordered to pay 9,000 schillings to the aryanizer Friedrich Welz - as compensation for his expenses, payable within 14 days. The Schiele painting Wally, which Welz had extorted from her, was sold and moved several times behind her back. It was never returned to her.

From 1953, the sculptor Fritz Wotruba, with the support of the collector couple Kamm, was able to reposition the project as a house of Austrian contemporary art and Viennese modernism, occasionally with guest performances by the international avant-garde. Fritz Kamm, owner of the gallery, and his wife Editha Kamm-Ehrbar, a native of Vienna, did not appear in public and gave Wotruba a free hand. In its opening year, the gallery showed works by French artists - Johnny Friedlaender, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Jacques Villon. Wotruba also exhibited works himself, for example in 1954 works in stone and bronze, watercolors and drawings.

During the Dichand era, his daughter Johanna Dichand gradually took over the management of the gallery. The gallery slowly lost customers and reputation. The art gallery was closed in 1995. The luxury brand Prada then rented the former gallery premises. In July 2015, after Prada had moved into the Goldenes Quartier, the Salzburg clothing company Dantendorfer took over the business premises.l.

Art Collectors
Over the course of its history, the gallery has worked with numerous later famous collectors, such as Heinrich Rieger, who lent works for the first major Egon Schiele exhibition in 1925, Otto Brill, Viktor Fogarassy, Rudolf Leopold, the Kamm couple and Hans Dichand.



Literature
Luise Kremlacek, Hans Dichand (Hrsg.): 60 Jahre Galerie Würthle 60 Jahre moderne Kunst in Österreich Band 1 und 2, Galerie Würthle, Wien 1981

Weblinks

 * Baldi, Würthle und Co. - Die Firmengeschichte, auf der Website des Salzburg Museums
 * „Arisierung“ am Beispiel der Firmen Halm & Goldmann und Verlag Neuer Graphik (Würthle & Sohn Nachf.), Dokumentation von Stefania Domanova und Georg Hupfer
 * Wien-Zug und zurück, Fritz Wotruba, die Familie Kamm und die Entwicklung einer Sammlung
 * Galerie Würthle in: ArtFacts