Shopping in the GDR
Purchases made in the GDR by the West Berlin Museum of Transport and Technology
Eine virtuelle Ausstellung von
Exhibition table of contents
01 A Museum Is Built
02 The Bohnsdorfer Windmill
03 Die Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH
04 Visit to Mühlenbeck
05 Intermediary Antique Shop in West Berlin
06 A Car Is Purchased
07 Artificial Flowers and Artificial Flower Workshop
08 The Search for a Cash Register
09 GDR Injustices at the Museum?
10 Further Acquisitions from the GDR
11 How Does the Research Proceed?
12 We Acknowledge Our Gratitude!
>> Deutsche Fassung
01
A Museum Is Built
Founding year 1982
The Deutsches Technikmuseum was founded in 1982 as the "Museum für Verkehr und Technik" (MVT). The painting by the Berlin artist Klaus Büscher shows what the founding director Günther Gottmann and his team set out to do: build one of the largest transport and technology museums in the world.
In order to procure a large number of exhibits as quickly as possible, the museum purchased extensive collections. These included the Zündapp motorcycle collection and the collection of machines and vehicles belonging to the architect couple Ralf Schüler and Ursulina Schüler-Witte. It also accepted numerous donations from Berlin citizens.
Between 1982 and 1989, the museum was able to collect more than 10,000 objects. Around 160 of them have a special German-German history: They were purchased from the GDR. How provenance research goes about investigating these is presented in "Shopping in the GDR".
Provenance Research
Provenance researchers closely examine the origin of all objects in the exhibitions and depots. The goal is to clarify instances where unjust contexts pertain. In particular, cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution (in short: Nazi-looted property) is to be identified and a fair and just resolution found for the victims or their descendants. The online exhibition Lithographic Stones Speak is an example of such research.
Objects from colonial contexts as well as items expropriated in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) are scrutinized as well.
Further information about this research at the museum can be found here.
02
The Bohnsdorfer Windmill
The first purchase from the GDR
One of the last post windmills in Berlin can be found in our Museum Park. Built in Köpenick in 1820, it was moved to Bohnsdorf in 1874, where it was in operation until 1938. By the beginning of the 1980s it was on the verge of complete collapse, but two mill specialists wanted to save it. Such an undertaking, however, was fraught with difficulties: Bohnsdorf was in the GDR, but the windmill was to be restored in West Berlin, in the newly founded MVT. The specialists thus contacted the owners, who then submitted an application to the East Berlin magistrate to export the windmill. It is therefore safe to assume that they sold voluntarily; additionally, there is the fact that part of the purchase price was paid out by the MVT to a West Berlin relative of the owners without the knowledge of the GDR authorities.
The disassembly
In December 1983, the dismantling work was done with the participation of the local residents, who were not enthusiastic about the removal of "their" windmill. The Office of Historical Monuments also spoke out in favor of retaining it, but was unable to prevail against the economic interests of the GDR.
The job of handling the sale was given to the Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH (KuA). This GDR company oversaw all the business between East and West until reunification in 1989.
In the Museum Park
The disassembly of the post windmill from Bohnsdorf took until 1991 to complete. The MVT's first purchase from the GDR shows what was important to each side: The KuA was prepared to ignore many concerns in order to obtain currency from the West. And the MVT wanted to save technical cultural assets and outstanding objects from possible deterioration and acquire them for its collection.
03
The "Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH"
The KuA system
The sale of the windmill was handled through the Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH (KuA). It was part of the GDR working group titled "Kommerzielle Koordinierung" (KoKo), one of the main responsibilities of which was generating foreign currency. Indeed, the GDR had a pressing need for income in Western currencies such as dollars, Swiss francs and German marks in order to be able to purchase goods in "capitalist foreign countries" that it could not produce itself.
The KuA obtained its sales goods in various ways: On the one hand, it made purchases from private individuals and dealers. On the other hand, it sold the property of so-called Republic fugitives and private collectors who had been robbed through sham tax proceedings. Even museums were sometimes forced to involuntarily give up holdings.
Central warehouse in Mühlenbeck
The MVT was located in the West Berlin district Kreuzberg. It is still housed there under the name Deutsches Technikmuseum. The KuA's central warehouse was located north of Berlin in the town of Mühlenbeck. It was only about 23 km away from the museum, but was located on the other side of the border, in the GDR.
Customers from the West were able to buy from there directly. An old advertising brochure shows both the goods for sale and the route to Mühlenbeck.
04
Visit to Mühlenbeck
Collaboration
MVT employees not only visited the sales rooms in Mühlenbeck, but also inspected the rest of the inventory. Photos taken of the saleable goods seen during those visits have been retained in our archives. Today these are use to help identify objects in the museum's depot.
In 1986, the MVT proposed to KuA that they visit the museum themselves so that they could get a clearer sense of which objects were still needed by the museum. Whether this reciprocal visit ever took place is not known.
05
Intermediary Antik-Shop in West Berlin
The Antik-Shop in Berlin´s KaDeWe
What the MVT was looking for was in the GDR: Functioning and thus demonstrable technology of the 19th and early 20th century. However, as an institution from the state of (West) Berlin, the MVT did not have a purchasing license for the GDR.
This is where the West Berlin businessman Wolfgang Böttger came into play. He was an honorary consul of Haiti and owner of numerous companies. Among other things, he sold the products "Algemarin" shower gel and the "Hormocenta" cream. He had supported the museum through donations and gifts since its inception and eventually became its most important patron in the 1980s.
Böttger's support made it possible for the MVT to benefit from KuA's array of goods because he had great contacts in the GDR and regularly made purchases there. He sold the goods he bought in the GDR in his "Antik-Shop" (Antik-Shop Antiquitäten Galerie GmbH & Co. KG) located in a prime location in the Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe). The majority of the objects purchased in the GDR in the 1980s were obtained by the MVT via Böttger's Antik-Shop, which served as an intermediary.
Photo Kurfürstendamm: State Archives of Baden-Württemberg, Willy Pragher
06
A Car Is Purchased
Wartburg Sport Coupe
The document displayed here shows which vehicles were of interest for the Road Transport Collection in 1986. In the 1980s, the museum staff's efforts were primarily focused on building up a comprehensive collection. They developed concepts for the future exhibitions and then searched for the corresponding objects.
Using the example of a Wartburg Sport Coupe, the following pages show how the purchases were handled between the MVT, the Antik-Shop and the KuA.
The KuA offers items for sale
In 1988, the KuA offered various objects to the museum, including a Wartburg Sport Coupe. As far as vehicles were concerned, an employee of the museum noted on February 2, 1988 that "KuA only enters into negotiations with owners if we show a fundamental interest in a vehicle." The museum's interest was confirmed in writing on the document.
In this instance, the vehicles on offer were private vehicles whose owners were willing to sell them.
VEB Automobilwerk Eisenach
VEB Automobilwerke Eisenach (AWE) was created in 1952/53 through the nationalization of various companies, including the former Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach (founded in 1896).
AWE launched the Wartburg 311 in 1955. The Wartburg Sport or Wartburg 313/1, which was produced from 1957 to 1960 and purchased by MVT in 1988, was also based on this model.
Perusal in Mühlenbeck
Before the purchase, MVT employees inspected the Wartburg Sport Coupe at the KuA sales warehouse in Mühlenbeck. These Polaroid photos were taken at that time.
KuA to the Antik Shop
The execution of sales to the West included the KuA documents referred to as a "specification". These have been retained both in the files of the MVT and in the Federal Archives in Berlin.
In the "specification" for the Wartburg Sport Coupe, the buyer is not MVT, but instead Wolfgang Böttger's Antik-Shop. He purchased the vehicle from KuA in 1988 for 18,500 UA. In 1985, Böttger entered into a global contract for goods worth DM 500,000 to be purchased annually, making him one of KuA's major customers. Invoicing was carried out in so-called units of account/value units (UA), which were settled at 1:1 against the German mark in the GDR's foreign trade.
Antik Shop to the MVT
The Antik-Shop sold the Wartburg Sport Coupe directly to the MVT for DM 20,345. The Antik-Shop thus took on the role of a middleman. This meant that the MVT, which could not buy directly from the GDR itself, was able to choose goods from the KuA and order them via the Antik-Shop.
Documentation
The purchase of the Wartburg Sport Coupe is verified by a number of documents. There are records in various places in the Deutsches Technikmuseum (the former MVT): in the object file, in the records of purchases from the GDR and in the budget documents, such as seen here in the list of purchases from 1988.
Correspondingly, the record of sale is also found in KuA documents. These records are kept in the Federal Archives in Berlin under the reference number DL 210 (Commercial Coordination Companies). Signatur DL 210.
It is not, however, clear from the documents just who owned the vehicle in the GDR and sold it to KuA.
07
Artificial Flowers and Artificial Flower Workshop
08
The Search for a Cash Register
Looking for clues
During the early enlargement phase of the MVT, not every item was fully documented. Furthermore, some of the inventory labels that were affixed to objects at the time have become detached over the years. Using the example of a "cash register" - which is the vague description in the KuA specification list - can demonstrate how one goes about distinguishing the sought after cash register from among the dozens that are in the depot.
Purchase of a "cash register"
There is a KuA specification list in the Federal Archives in Berlin that has not been retained in the MVT. It details the sale of an unspecified “cash register” to the MVT.
Two letter-number combinations are entered in the specification list's comments field:
"ZL 88 562" and "HOR 803 36".
Cash Register from the National Krupp company
The corresponding cash register in the MVT depot could be identified by means of these letter-number combinations. It is a cash register from the National Krupp company from the 1930s, which the MVT purchased from the Antik-Shop in 1989.
Stickers
These letter-number combinations are referred to as “sticker numbers” because the KuA marked its merchandise with the corresponding stickers. Four stickers have survived on the MVT cash register:
- A green sticker "ZL 88-562", which stands for the KuA central warehouse in Mühlenbeck.
- A white sticker "89/1" certainly refers to the year 1989; the marking at the top right cannot yet be interpreted.
- A yellow sticker "Mus.f.T.u.V. 3". The KuA almost always referred to the Museum of Transport and Technology as the Museum of Technology and Transport. The cash register was the third item in the specification list.
- A red sticker "HOR 803 36", which could refer to the Rostock Antiques-Used Goods trading organization.
Deciphering
The sticker numbers contain information about an object's origin, but often they only refer to the central warehouse ("ZL"), an automobile exchange transaction ("AT") or the purchasing agent such as a trade organization ("HO"). However, they only contain information about the original owners of the objects in exceptional cases. In addition, the meaning of the letters probably changed several times over the years or they were used, for example, differently in the various KuA warehouses.
In 2023, the Federal Archives compiled information on the breakdown of the numbers Hinweise zur Aufschlüsselung der Nummern. In the Deutsches Technikmuseum, 50 sticker numbers have so far been identified in specification lists or on the objects themselves.
09
GDR Injustices at the Museum?
A textile machine
In the museum's depot there is a 12-meter long "cotton machine" that was used to make gloves. In 1986 the MVT purchased it from the KuA using, as usual, the Antik-Shop as an intermediary.
The textile machine, built in 1925, was taken out of service by VEB Polar in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) after decades of use. MVT employees dismantled it on site and transported it to West Berlin.
The museum needed assistance in order to reconstruct such a complicated machine back into its functional state. They finally managed to find the former owner, who was able to help with the repairs. As a pensioner, he had moved from the GDR to West Berlin in 1984.
Nationalized company
The former owner was also able to provide the MVT with original documents, including the manufacturer's invoice from 1925. These were evidence of continuous possession during the Nazi era, which is why a National Socialist expropriation can be ruled out.
At the end of 1987, he unexpectedly approached the museum with a request: When his company was nationalized in 1972, the cotton machine had been taken away from him without adequate compensation. He demanded a "mitigation payment" from MVT for the loss. He had come up with this idea through reading press reports about an on-going court case. That case was centered around a valuable grandfather clock.
The lawsuit
The restorer and art collector Werner Schwarz was charged with alleged tax offenses in the GDR in 1982 and sentenced to several years in prison. The tax office seized his art collection and handed it over to KuA for sale. The Federal Republic paid for Schwarz's release at the end of 1984. His wife subsequently discovered a grandfather clock from the family's seized property in Wolfgang Böttger's Antik-Shop in KaDeWe. Werner Schwarz decided to sue for restitution before the Berlin Court of Appeal in 1986 and was successful. On September 29, 1987, an attempted appeal was dismissed and thus the collector had won, at least for the time being. The proceedings were reported in numerous newspaper articles.
The ruling jeopardized KuA's business model. Böttger appealed to the Federal Court of Justice and was joined in the appeal by the GDR's Commercial Coordination department (KoKo), to which the KuA belonged. The KoKo contributed to the legal costs and strengthened Böttger's team with additional lawyers.
On September 22, 1988, the Federal Court of Justice did indeed overturn the judgment of the Court of Appeal and dismissed the action. The Federal Constitutional Court confirmed the judgment on January 9, 1991.
A campaign against the GDR?
However, when the owner of the cotton machine made his demand, this outcome was not yet foreseeable. The fact that another case had arisen at the same time as the Schwarz v. Antik-Shop trial worried the GDR authorities. It was even suspected that there was a targeted campaign by former GDR citizens to disrupt the hitherto smooth German-German business dealings. In December, the head of the KuA, Joachim Farken, wrote to his superiors that the MVT was no longer considering purchasing goods in the GDR.
Nevertheless, the MVT did acquire around 60 further objects and groups of objects in seven purchases - including the previously presented artificial flower workshop.
Reactions
The director of the MVT, Günther Gottmann, wrote a letter to the Senate to report on how the machine was acquired and the uncertainties that had now arisen as a result of the process surrounding the grandfather clock. Due to a lack of foreign currency, the KuA has "intensified the sale of cultural assets, including duplicates from museums, which benefits the MVT, the Historical Museum and other museums". The complete document can be downloaded here hier .
In consultations between MVT and the Berlin Senate, which was in charge of supervision, and including presumably the KuA, an agreement was reached on how to proceed. The lead senator informed the former owner of the cotton machine that a final decision would have to wait for the outcome of the grandfather clock trial.
The question of ownership was only cleared up after 1990 with the advent of the Property Act. The former owner of the cotton machine was able to buy back his previously nationalized (1972) company from the Treuhand state holding company. He received a discount on the purchase price based on the amount that MVT had paid to the Antik-Shop, which in turn had been passed on to the KuA.
10
Further Acquisitions from the GDR
"Arkona" ship model
Most of the acquisitions from the GDR are above suspicion with regard to Nazi expropriation or GDR injustice. This model of the ARKONA rescue cruiser is a typical example. The model maker sold it to VEB Antikhandel Pirna in 1988, which was one of the KuA's buyers. The MVT acquired it via the Antik-Shop in the same year.
The Reichsbahn locomotive
The GDR's Reichsbahn still had old locomotives and railcars that had long since been scrapped by the Bundesbahn. The KuA readily assisted in the search for specific types and sent inquiries to the individual Reichsbahn directorates.
This electric passenger locomotive E 44 131 from the Deutsche Reichsbahn was brought to the MVT in 1988 via the KuA and the Antik-Shop. The properties taken over from the Reichsbahn are generally unobjectionable in terms of Nazi expropriation or GDR injustice: They had no other previous owners and are also well documented.
Kettenkrad half-track motorcycle
Wolfgang Böttger donated this World War II era Kettenkrad to the MVT in 1997. He had acquired it from the KuA in 1988. Between 1971 and 1988, the Kettenkrad was part of the collection of the Army Museum of the GDR in Dresden. The museum had given it to the KuA in 1988 in exchange for other objects.
This acquisition is an example of the fact that objects added to the collection after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 must also be examined in terms of their previous history.
11
How Does the Research Proceed?
Existing collection and new acquisitions
To date, around 160 objects and collections purchased in the GDR have been identified in the existing collection of the Deutsches Technikmuseum. Information on the previous owners could only be found for around 30 of them, including the Reichsbahn or nationalized companies. The difficulties in identifying previous owners on the basis of the specification numbers used by the KuA have been covered in the exhibition.
However, the objects acquired after 1990 could also have originally come from sales by KuA. In the case of the Kettenkrad, its origin could be established through files in the Federal Archives. In many cases, however, this will be impossible or very difficult due to a lack of documentation. Today, the provenance research team examines all planned acquisitions with regard to Nazi looted property, colonial contexts and Soviet/GDR injustice before the objects are transferred to the collection.
The existing objects in the collection will continue to be systematically examined for these contexts of injustice, and the results will be documented and published in a transparent manner. In the case of Nazi-looted property, the Deutsches Technikmuseum will seek fair and just accommodation with the injured parties and their heirs in accordance with the Washington Principles.
There are as yet no comparable guidelines for dealing with the injustices of the Soviet Occupation Zone/GDR.
We Acknowledge Our Gratitude!
Our special thanks go to our former colleague Elisabeth Weber (now at the Jewish Museum Berlin), who worked intensively on acquisitions from the GDR at the Deutsches Technikmuseum.
We would also like to thank our colleagues from the archive, library, collection management and depot for their support.
Many thanks also to our colleagues from the Bundesarchiv Berlin, the Landesarchiv Berlin and the archive of the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin.
We would also like to thank all those who have supported and advised us in our research, not all of whom can be listed here by name.
Thanks also go to Barry Fay, our translator, for his fine collaborative work.
Eine virtuelle Ausstellung von
Team
Katja Boegner, Nina Kubowitsch, Peter Prölß
Katja Boegner, Nina Kubowitsch and Peter Prölß, Provenance research at the German Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum)
Impressum
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