The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main, Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann
The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main
DE
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Max Beckmann

The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main, 1919


Dimensions
89.8 x 140.4 cm
Physical Description
Oil on canvas
Inventory Number
SG 1239
Acquisition
Acquired in 1972 with means provided by the City of Frankfurt am Main and private Donors
Status
On display, 1st upper level, Modern Art, room 9

Texts

About the Work

Its buildings lurching and swaying, the unsettled townscape seems almost to devour a small group of people. It is the painter himself, dressed in black, and his friends Ugi and Fridel Battenberg on their way home from a night out celebrating Carnival. They are passing the synagogue with its onion-shaped dome on Frankfurt’s Börneplatz square. The windows are brightly lit: morning prayers are in progress inside. The scene symbolizes the threatening circumstances of the period following World War I, which for Beckmann himself was one of existential crisis. The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main was the first of a series of cityscapes he painted in Frankfurt between 1915 and 1933.

About the Acquisition

A depiction of a house of worship that would be set on fire during the November Pogrom of 1938, the painting would later prove to be as important to the city as it was to the artist. It entered the Städel Museum collection in 1972, having been purchased with municipal support and funds from private donors. Public street collections – for example at Hauptwache – had given the local citizens opportunities to contribute.

Audio

  • Basic information
    01:01
  • Focus on Frankfurt
    01:42
  • Focus on religion
    01:57

Work Data

Basic Information

Title
The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main
Painter
Production Place
Period Produced
School
Object Type
Physical Description
Oil on canvas
Material
Technique
Label at the Time of Manufacture
Signiert und datiert oben links: Beckmann 19.
Work Catalogues
  • Göpel 2021, Nr. 204

Property and Acquisition

Institution
Departement
Collection
Creditline
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Picture Copyright
Public Domain
Acquisition
Acquired in 1972 with means provided by the City of Frankfurt am Main and private Donors

Work Content

Iconclass

Primary
Secondary

Research and Discussion

Provenance

Object History
Max Beckmann (1884-1950), Frankfurt am Main
verkauft durch I.B. Neumann, Berlin an Paul Multhaupt (1884-1933), Düsseldorf
Günther Franke, München
verkauft an Hildebrandt Gurlitt (1895-1956), Hamburg, 1. Juli 1937
verkauft an Herbert Kurz (1892-1967), Meerane/Wiesbaden/Wolframs-Eschenbach, 3. Juli 1937
Nachlass Herbert Kurz, 1967
Marta Kurz, München
verkauft an die Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt am Main, 1972.

Information

Since 2001, the Städel Museum has systematically been researching the provenance of all objects that were acquired during the National Socialist period, or that changed owners or could have changed owners during those years. The basis for this research is the “Washington Declaration”, also known as the “Washington Conference Principles”, formulated at the 1998 “Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets” and the subsequent “Joint Declaration”.

The provenance information is based on the sources researched at the time they were published digitally. However, this information can change at any time when new sources are discovered. Provenance research is therefore a continuous process and one that is updated at regular intervals.

Ideally, the provenance information documents an object’s origins from the time it was created until the date when it found its way into the collection. It contains the following details, provided they are known:

  • the type of acquisition and/or the way the object changed hands
  • the owner's name and place of residence
  • the date on which it changed hands

The successive ownership records are separated from each other by a semicolon.

Gaps in the record of a provenance are indicated by the placeholder “…”. Unsupported information is listed in square brackets.

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Last update

25.04.2024