Georg Schäfer (industrialist)

BornSeptember 7, 1896

DiedJanuary 27, 1975 (aged 78)

KnownforLarge collection of paintings by 19th-century German artists

Georg Schäfer
Born	(1896-09-07)September 7, 1896 Schweinfurt, German Empire
Died	January 27, 1975(1975-01-27) (aged 78) Erlangen, West Germany
Occupation	Industrialist
Known for	Large collection of paintings by 19th-century German artists

Georg Schäfer (September 7, 1896, in Schweinfurt – January 27, 1975, in Erlangen) was a German industrialist and art collector. After his death, most of his art collection was housed in the Museum Georg Schäfer in Schweinfurt.

Upon the death in 1929 of his father (also named Georg Schäfer), Georg Schäfer (II) inherited a one-third interest in the Friedrich Fischer steel ball bearings firm.

Career

Friedrich Fisher Steel

At age 29 Schäfer became the commercial head of the firm, while his brother-in law Hermann Barthel directed the technical side. In 1929 the firm did not join a merger of Swedish and German ball bearing manufacturers.^[1] At first, this was seen as a setback. But as the government of Adolf Hitler prepared for war, the Fischer firm's independence allowed it to join the Nazi armament campaign, and this caused a rapid expansion for the firm.

Nazis and World War II

By 1933 Schäfer was a Nazi city councillor in Schweinfurt and leader of the "Sonderring Wälzlager" (Ball Bearing Special Circle) which oversaw the supply of ball bearings in the German armament campaign.^[2]

In 1939 Schäfer ousted Hermann Barthel from the firm. With his brother, Otto Schäfer, he expanded wartime production by the firm, which changed its name to "Fischers Aktien-Gesellschaft (FAG) Kugelfischer." Despite Allied bombardments of Schweinfurt during World War II, the Kugelfischer firm continued to make ball bearings, employing 11,700 employees at the end of the war, including thousands of enslaved laborers.^[1] Georg Schäfer supposedly shielded his Jewish sales director, Hugo Holzapfel, from detention by the anti-Jewish Nazis.

After the war

Georg and Otto Schäfer presided over the revival and expansion of FAG Kugelfischer during the Wirtschaftswunder era of the 1950s.

Death and legacy

Art collection

References

1 2 3 Müller, Uwe, "Schäfer, Johann Georg", Deutsche Biografie (in German), retrieved 2020-11-13
↑ DGB-Bildungswerk Kreis Schweinfurt, ed. (1984), "Nach dem Krieg war keiner Nazi gewesen …" : Arbeiterbewegung in Schweinfurt zwischen 1928 und 1945 (in German), Schweinfurt: Vorndran, p. 100
↑ "Provenienzforschung an der Kunsthalle zu Kiel Gemälde und Skulpturen" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-01-01. Anmerkungen zu Ankäufen aus der Sammlung Georg Schäfer. Das im Zuge der Forschungsarbeiten als kriegsbedingt verlagertes Kulturgut identifizierte Gemälde von Vasilij Dmitrievič Polenov (1844–1927) aus dem Jahr 1881 trägt den Titel Waldweiher. Das Werk wurde im Zweiten Weltkrieg unrechtmäßig aus dem Museum der südrussischen Stadt Taganrog verbracht als diese von der deutschen Wehrmacht besetzt war. Die Kunsthalle erwarb das Bild 1986 zusammen mit zwölf weiteren Gemälden russischer und polnischer Maler von den Erben des Schweinfurter Industriellen Georg Schäfer (1896– 1975). Am 26. September 2017 wurde das Werk im Rahmen einer öffentlichen Veranstaltung in Kiel an den rechtmäßigen Eigentümer, den Staatlichen Literatur- und Architekturhistorischen Museumspark Taganrog, zurückgegeben. Es handelte sich um die erste Restitution aus der Sammlung der Kunsthalle seit der unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit. 11 weitere Gemälde, die die Kunsthalle aus der Sammlung Georg Schäfer erworben hat, wurden als bedenklich eingestuft und als Fundmeldungen in Lost Art eingestellt. Sie stehen weiterhin im Verdacht des NS verfolgungsbedingten Entzuges und – sofern es sich um Gemälde russischer und polnischer Künstler handelt – auch im Verdacht der kriegsbedingten Verlagerung. Ausnahmen von dieser Einstufung bilden jene Werke, deren Herkunft in Ansätzen oder in weiten Teilen geklärt werden konnte.
↑ "Museum Georg Schäfer richtet Stelle für Provenienzforschung ein - Georg Schäfer Museum establishes provenance research post". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
↑ "She Tracked Nazi-Looted Art. She Quit When No One Returned It". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2021-04-15. BERLIN — For three years, Sibylle Ehringhaus, a veteran provenance researcher, worked with the Georg Schäfer Museum in northern Bavaria to examine the ownership history of its 1,000 oil paintings and several thousand drawings, prints and watercolors. Mr. Schäfer, the industrialist whose collection is displayed there, had bought much of the art in the 1950s in Munich, then a hub for dealers who had had relationships with the Nazis. Among those from whom he purchased works was Adolf Hitler's personal photographer. Ms. Ehringhaus's job was, in part, to determine just how much of the collection had a tainted provenance. But last year, she said, she began to ask herself why the city of Schweinfurt, which manages the museum, had bothered to hire her. After she had identified several plundered works, she said, no one seemed to have any plans to return them to the heirs of the original Jewish owners. Increasingly, she said, she began to feel her work was unwelcome. She was denied access to historical documents vital for her research, she said, and forbidden to contact colleagues at another museum with a research inquiry. So in December she rejected an offer to extend her contract for another year. "I got the impression they didn't want me there — they really made things difficult for me," Ms. Ehringhaus, 60, said at a meeting in a Berlin cafe. "They needed me for appearances. I felt as though I was being used as a fig leaf."

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