The Dehn Collection: Creating transparency, assuming responsibility

FAU revisits another part of its legacy from the Nazi era

At first glance, the pottery shards from the Dehn Collection that are kept in the Antique Collection at the Institute of Classical Archaeology at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) appear to tell stories from antiquity, stories of everyday life, values, rituals and art. However, if you take a closer look, another, darker story appears: the story of how the fragments found their way to the collection during the National Socialist regime. This aspect of the past of the fragments is the focus of a research project that has now been completed.

A controversial inheritance

When the archaeologist Dr. Georg Gerleigner was researching objects in the magazine of the Antique Collection of the Institute of Classical Archaeology at FAU in 2019, his attention was drawn to a number of pottery fragments, all approximately 2,500 years old and from a private collection from Munich known as the Dehn Collection that had not yet been the focus of any research. According to the inventory documents, they were purchased in 1939, a time during which many artifacts changed hands under dubious circumstances.

Georg Gerleigner’s curiosity was sparked. He began to check the origin of the objects and to cast a light on possible problematic backgrounds. The first investigations corroborated his suspicions: The pieces did not originate from Wiltrud Dehn or from her husband’s inheritance, as stated in the documentation. It was the collector Georg Dehn himself, classified as a “non-Aryan” according to the racist criteria of the Nazi ideology, who sold the pieces. His wife only formally acted as the seller, probably because the ownership of the collection had been transferred to her name (as she was “Aryan” according to the Nazis’ criteria). “The circumstances I investigated soon indicated that Georg Dehn sold the collection because he had to leave the country under persecution from the National Socialist regime,” Georg Gerleigner explains. Six months after the sale the family escaped to Ecuador.

The collection was purchased by Georg Lippold, who was at the time Professor of Classical Archaeology at Erlangen University. He knew Georg Dehn from the time they spent together at Munich University before the First World War. Lippold acquired several pieces for the Antique Collection, that he was in charge of, and other pieces for his own private collection before selling them on to the Antique Collection a little later as well. “The documents show that Lippold sold the objects he bought privately to the Antique Collection without any profit, or even at a slightly lower price, which certainly suggests that he did not intend to make money for himself from the sale,” says Georg Gerleigner. “It also appears that Georg Dehn found a benevolent purchaser in his friend or acquaintance Lippold, whom he didn’t feel exploited by either at the time or later on in spite of the fairly low prices for which the objects were sold.”

Sensitive items

Georg Gerleigner’s research also revealed that the collection was not involved in any restitution proceedings after the Second World War. He contacted the descendants of Georg and Wiltrud Dehn at an early stage and entered into intense discussions with them. “No-one in the family knew about the collection. In May 2022, the Dehns’ son and one of the two daughters of the deceased elder son visited the Antique Collection to discuss the future of the collection with representatives of FAU. They agreed that the pieces would remain at FAU, without demanding compensation or their return. However, they requested the permanent right to access the objects,” reported Georg Gerleigner.

“We are very happy with this arrangement,” explains Dr. Udo Andraschke, curator of the university collections. “In the meantime, the Dehn family and FAU have signed a contract stipulating the conditions for the pieces to stay at FAU. The contract includes a clause stipulating that FAU will inform the public about the collection’s history. With this initiative, the University would like to create transparency and assume responsibility for handling cultural heritage.”

The Dehn Collection

The collection includes a mixed batch of 483 fragments of antique pottery, mostly decorated with figures, with the Greek, Etruscan and Italian pieces dating from between the 6th and the 4th century BCE and the Roman pieces dating from the centuries around the start of the first millennium. The other approximately 70 pieces include a mixture of fragments and completely preserved objects of different categories: bronze and lead objects, ceramic vessels, terracotta figures, reliefs and lamps, and fragments of marble sculptures. The objects range in date from the archaic period (7th to 6h century BCE) to the time of the Roman Empire. Only a few are older, including an approximately 5000 year old receptacle from Egypt and one from the Mycenaean bronze age (approximately 1350 BCE). There is no proof of where Georg Dehn got most of the pieces from. The majority seems to come from the German and Italian art trade before the First World War. Nonetheless, thanks to their diversity, they shed light on many various aspects of the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean region, and are ideally suited for being incorporated into university teaching.

The FAU Collection of Classical Antiquities

Antique vases, sculptures and everyday objects: There is a lot to discover in FAU’s Antique Collection. If you would also like to find out more about the birth of European civilizations, the changes they underwent over the course of history, the material circumstances and spiritual foundations on which they were based, please feel free to come and visit FAU’s Collection of antiquities (original and plaster cast collection).

To the website To Instagram To the Dehn Collection research project

Further information:

Dr. Georg Gerleigner
Institute of Classical Archeology
georg.gerleigner@fau.de