Erhard Göpel: Levensschets van een kunstrover

Summary
Erhard Göpel (1906-1966). Life sketch of an art art thief

Erhard Göpel is born on June 3 1906 in Leipzig. He stems from a middle-class family with two children. Göpel
grows up in a turbulent time in which the First World War and its aftermath penetrate deep into the pores of
German society. After secondary school, a higher civic school, he chooses to study art history. In doing so,
he continues his interest in art that manifests itself at a young age in the form of visits to museums and art
auctions.
During his university studies, the National Socialist ideology gains an increasingly strong foothold. In order
to finance his studies, he looks for student jobs. Study trips and an assistantship with the art collector Frits
Lugt enable Göpel to become acquainted with various social and political views in countries other than
Germany. But gradually, probably partly fuelled by his university teachers, he also comes under the influence
of the new rulers in his own country. He graduates cum laude. During his school and student days, he already
writes articles for various newspapers and magazines. In doing so, he also lays the foundation for his later
professional career. His capacity as an art journalist takes him to the novelist Edita Klipstein in Laubach, where
he establishes lasting contacts.
In October 1939 he goes into military service. In 1942 he seizes the opportunity to start working for the socalled Sonderauftrag Linz.
As part of the National Socialist art policy, Hitler wants to establish a large, leading museum in Linz, the city
where he grew up. In order to fill it with high-quality works of art, a special department is being established.
This Sonderauftrag Linz is headed by Hans Posse and Hermann Voss respectively.
As of 1 May 1942, Göpel is officially appointed to collect works of art in the Netherlands, Belgium and France
from his base in The Hague and on behalf of the Sonderauftrag Linz. Upon his arrival in the Netherlands,
Göpel steadily expands his contacts with art dealers, auction houses, private individuals and museums. Where
necessary, he exerts pressure or has it exerted in order to force hesitant parties involved to make a decision to
sell (favourably). In the meantime, he makes an effort to protect a number of Jewish people who are useful to
Linz from deportation. He is involved in the exchange of works of art and human lives.
He prevents Beckmann from being deployed to work and provides him with assignments, including
illustrations for Goethe’s Faust II. Göpel ensures that a number of paintings from the confiscated collection of
Frits Lugt are sent to Linz.
All in all, in the two and a half years that Göpel is active in The Hague, he transports approximately 950 Dutch
works of art to Germany for the planned Führermuseum.
The role that Göpel can play in Belgium from the beginning of 1943 remains clearly limited, partly due to the
fragmentation of his activities across several countries and the necessity to work largely with intermediaries.
He does orient himself on the Belgian art market during a few business trips to various cities, but he has
to leave many of the contacts with art dealers and private individuals to others. Including the works of art
that Göpel acquires on commission, he withdraws approximately thirty-five of them, mostly from Belgian art
dealers.
As in Belgium, Göpel only turns his attention to France towards the end of 1942. And just as in the
Netherlands, Göpel proves to be a driving, experienced and self-confident force behind the construction of the
Führermuseum in Linz. He succeeds in building up a network of art dealers, private individuals and the Drouot
auction house, including the contacts he makes through intermediaries.
Göpel is indirectly involved in the acquisition of various private collections. Moreover, for the first time, he is
clearly involved in looted art in 1943 when he plays a central role in the acquisition of the collection of Adolphe
Schloss, the settlement of which takes more than half a year.
During one of his working visits to the German embassy in Paris, Göpel meets his future wife Barbara Sperling,
a young secretary at the embassy.

Compared to the Netherlands, the number of works of art that he mainly acquires in France in 1943 for the
Führermuseum that is to be established remains limited. But when the 262 paintings from the Schloss
collection are added to that, the total still comes to almost 400.
When the office from which he operates in The Hague is closed in September 1944, Göpel considers his
options: return to the army or hide until the war is over. Instead, he is transferred to Vienna.
When Göpel starts working in Vienna, the best works of art have already been removed from the market. His
network is almost entirely limited to the Dorotheum auction house. Initially, Göpel is still actively involved
in the Sonderauftrag Linz. From the beginning of 1945, fewer and fewer funds become available, meaning
that Göpel can hardly make any purchases of any size. When he leaves Vienna, the number of works of art he
purchased there amounts to just under a hundred.
The way in which Göpel seeks his way back into German society is characterised by caution. Fear of being
arrested and convicted for his war past plays an important role in this. He chooses to more or less hide in
Laubach for a period of over four years. When he shows his face again more slowly than others, he picks up
his journalistic work from before the war. Art, especially modern art, forms the common thread in his further
professional career. Gradually he expands the number of newspapers, magazines and broadcasters for which
he can work as a freelancer. His network grows steadily, as does his reputation. But his ambition lies elsewhere.
He would prefer a position in a museum. He makes inquiries and applies for jobs several times, but he does
not succeed in being hired because of his war past.
Göpel’s most important and lasting contribution consists not so much of the many articles for newspapers and
magazines, but rather of the art historical book editions he provides on Max Beckmann.
A number of art dealers who have been involved in looted art during the war continue their activities after a
brief interruption in Munich. They form a network. Others with a war past in the service of the Nazis, including
Göpel, are also part of it.
It is not until 1960 that Göpel visits the Netherlands again and makes a short tour of friends and business
contacts from the war period. The experiences are mixed and after returning to Germany, he feels
misunderstood and unappreciated.
His war past continues to haunt him. In order to prevent a repetition of the damage to his reputation he
intervenes in 1966 when a German translation of an English-language book from 1964 threatens to address
this war past too emphatically.
Göpel suffers from diabetes. It is not known from what age exactly. In the late autumn of 1966, no sanatorium
or hospital can help him get back on his feet. He dies on the evening of October 29, 1966.
In her will of March 2018, Barbara bequeaths a number of works of art – mostly by Max Beckmann – from
the private collection that Göpel has built up over the years to the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. She had set a
condition for the donation: an exhibition should be held in Berlin that would tell the whole story, both Göpel’s
close ties to the Nazis and the other side: through his connections he was able to save Jewish restorers and
frame makers from deportation.