Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Marie-Anne von (geb. Friedlaender-Fuld)

Marie-Anne [Marianne] von Goldschmidt-Rothschild was born on 17.01.1892 in Berlin as the only child of Friedrich "Fritz" Victor von Friedlaender-Fuld (30.08.1858 Gleiwitz - 16.07.1917 Gut Lanke near Bernau) and Milly Antonie von Friedlaender-Fuld, née Fuld (05.01.1866 Amsterdam - 28.09.1943 Cannes). She died on 30.11.1973 in Paris. According to a list from 1913, the family was considered one of the wealthiest families in Germany. In 1906 Friedrich Friedlaender was ennobled and from then on called himself "von Friedlaender-Fuld" after his wife's family. In 1895/96, he had the architect Ernst von Ihne build him the palace at Pariser Platz 5a, which Marie-Anne von Friedlaender-Fuld inherited to a large extent after his death.

Marie-Anne von Friedlaender-Fuld's first marriage was to John Mitford, son of Lord Redesdale (1885-1963). The marriage, which took place in 1914, was later declared null and void. The second marriage, to Richard von Kühlmann (1873-1948), was consummated in 1920 and divorced after three years. From this marriage came their daughter Antoinette "Nina" von Kühlmann, née Miness (born 1923). Marie-Anne married Rudolf von Goldschmidt-Rothschild (1881-1962) for the third time on 28 June 1923. Their son Gilbert von Goldschmidt-Rothschild was born in 1925. The marriage was divorced on 8 August 1938 in Berlin.

Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, also called "Baby" or "La Baronne" by friends, was an art-loving, wealthy and attractive woman and the projection screen and fixed star of "Berlin society". Since the days of her mother's "salon", the Palais am Pariser Platz had been a meeting place for visitors, friends and acquaintances of different origins and professions, to which she lent new accents with her interests. She maintained numerous contacts, including friendly ones, with artists such as the writer Rainer Maria Rilke, the actor Curt Bois and the painter Eugen Spiro.

Her collection of Impressionist French as well as modern art included paintings by van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, Renoir, but also by French Impressionists such as Manet and Monet. The focus on modern paintings, mainly of French provenance, was in stark contrast to the "classical" collections of her milieu - especially those of women collectors - who placed an emphasis on 18th-century art objects, especially furniture, porcelain and textiles.

The majority of Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild's personal collection was saved from confiscation by the National Socialists - at least in Berlin - by the production of duplicates, which are said to have been later hung in the Palais am Pariser Platz to mislead the National Socialist authorities. The indication that parts of her collection were auctioned off at Cassirer-Helbing (resp. Helbing) could not yet be verified for the period after 1933.

In 1938, Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, who from 1933 onwards preferred other residential addresses, mainly for security reasons, finally moved out of the Palais at Pariser Platz 5a. The Palais, which also contained the collection of her mother Milly Antonie von Friedlaender-Fuld (see separate article), was vacated. The Berlin art dealers Hans W. Lange and Ferdinand Knapp are said to have acquired as yet unidentifiable and "not inconsiderable parts at an auction of the estate", although it remains unclear whether this refers to an auction or even confiscation in the Berlin Palais and whether it was the property of Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild or that of her mother. Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild emigrated before October 1938. She was deregistered by the police in October 1938, when she was already no longer in Germany. The properties on Pariser Platz belonging to her and her mother were forcibly sold to Albert Speer, the Director General for German Roads, on behalf of the German Reich in August and September 1939 respectively, after a threat of expropriation.

After her forced emigration, Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild lived in her residences - already acquired in the 1920s - at 33 Rue de la Faisanderie in Paris and the summer residence "Le Vaisseau" in southern France. At that time, she no longer had access to her assets in Germany. From 1939 she sold some paintings in France and later in the USA. Whether these were so-called "escape goods" is still the subject of further research. In May 1940, she fled Paris with her children and most of her art collection, initially to Estoril in Portugal. After the war, Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild gave information to the French authorities about the loss of cultural property in her flat in Paris, including drawings and watercolours by Auguste Rodin, Marie Laurencin and paintings by Raoul Dufy, Maurice de Vlaminck and Eugen Spiro.

On 9 August 1940, Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild and her children managed to leave Lisbon by ship for Veracruz, Mexico. Her children reached the USA in September 1940, Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild and the remaining parts of her art collection twenty days later.

Selected sources

• Anne-Carolin Augustin: Berliner Kunstmatronage. Sammlerinnen und Förderinnen bildender Kunst um 1900. Göttingen 2018. (Milly von Friedlaender-Fuld) S.124-131; (von Goldschmidt-Rothschild) S.259- 271.

• Anonym: Fastnacht im Hause Rudolf von Goldschmidt-Rothschild. In: Sport im Bild. (1930)6, S.25-27.

• D - BArch, B 323/424, Treuhandverwaltung von Kulturgut bei der Oberfinanzdirektion München, Restitutionsanträge aus Frankreich, Bearbeitung von Einzelfällen (Eigentümer/Antragsteller A-Z), Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, früher Berlin

• D - BArch, B 323/370, Treuhandverwaltung von Kulturgut bei der Oberfinanzdirektion München, Rück- und Freigabe von Kunstwerken; Rückerstattungs- und Wiedergutmachungsverfahren, Marie-Anne von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Max von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Rudolf von Goldschmidt-Rothschild

• D - BADV, Finanzamt Moabit-West, 906 II 59, Friedlaender-Fuld, Milly von

• D - BADV, Finanzamt Moabit-West, 907 II 380, Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Marie-Anne von

• D - BADV, Reichs-Vermögensteuerakte, 109/1252, Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Marie Anne von

• D - BADV, 21 WGA 289/51, Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Marie Anne von, 5 Waggons Kunstgegenstände

• D - BADV, 21 WGA 290/51, Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Marie Anne von, Verlust von Einrichtungsgegenständen.

• D - BADV, 2 WGA 6863/59, Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Marie Anne von, Umzugsgut

• D - BADV, 2 WGA 10230/59, Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Marie Anne von, Kaufpreisforderung Pariser Platz

• D - LAB, B Rep. 025-02, Nr. 934/55. Marie-Anne Baronin von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, geb. von Friedlaender-Fuld (*17.01.1892), 31 Rue de la Faisanderie, Paris 16 gegen das Deutsche Reich. Milly von Friedlaender-Fuld, geb. Fuld (Mutter), verwitwet. Einrichtungsgegenstände aus dem schlossähnlichen Haus Pariser Platz 5a-6, Berlin.

• D - LAB, B Rep. 025-02, Nr. 1044/51. Marie-Anne Baronin von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, geb. von Friedlaender-Fuld (*17.01.1892), 31 Rue de la Faisanderie, Paris 16 gegen Ferdinand Knapp. Einrichtungsgegenstände, die von Herrn Knapp ersteigert worden sind.

• D - LAB, B Rep. 025-02, Nr. 10230/59. Marie-Anne Baronin von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, geb. von Friedlaender-Fuld (betr. Grundstück Pariser Platz).

• D - LAB, Heiratsregister der Berliner Standesämter 1874 - 1920. (ancestry.de)

• Fotografie Frau Marie Anne von Kühlmann geb. von Friedländer-Fuld. In: Wiener Salonblatt. 52(1921)13, S.4.

• D - SMB-ZA, IV/NL Bode 1915, Friedlaender-Fuld, Fritz von

• D - SMB-ZA, IV/NL Bode 1916, Friedlaender-Fuld, Milly von

• Christel H. Force: Rolled Canvases Across Borders. The Collection of Marianne de Goldschmidt-Rothschild. Unter doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00007517.

• FR - MAE, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, 209 USUP, Services français de récupération artistique, CRA Dossier 46.451.1475, Madame von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Paris

• Gilbert, Marianne: Le tiroir entr'ouvert. Paris 1956.

• Veronica Grodzinski: French impressionism and German Jews - the making of modernist art collectors and art collections in imperial Germany 1896-1914. London 2005. S.222.

• Harry Graf Kessler: Das Tagebuch 1880-1937. Stuttgart 2010.

• Werner Menzendorf: Reitsport. Ein Bildband 1900-1972. Berlin Hamburg 1972. S.31.

• Der Querschnitt. 7(1927)4; 9(1929)5.

• Christina Tillmann: Mein Cousin Balthus. Peter Spiro erinnert an seinen Vater, den Maler Eugen Spiro - und an eine Berliner Kindheit in den Zwanzigern. In: Tagesspiegel. 01.01.2011. Unter www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/mein-cousin-balthus/3686106.html

• US - AAA, Jaques Seligmann & Co. Records, General Correspondence de Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Mrs. R. 1940-1961, Box 29, Folder 16.

• Rudolf Vierhaus (Hrsg.): Deutsche biographische Enzyklopädie. Band 3, Einstein-Görner. München 2006.

• Wilko von Abercron: Eugen Spiro. 1874 Breslau-1972 New York. Spiegel seines Jahrhunderts. Alsbach 1993.

• fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_de_Goldschmidt

• de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Anne_von_Goldschmidt-Rothschild

• www.beatricevierneisel.de

• www.errproject.org

• www.eugen-spiro.de/

Esther Sabelus