Ludwig Pollak

Ludwig Pollak ( born September 14, 1868 in Prague, † 1943 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was an Austrian- Czechoslovakian classical archaeologist and art dealer, who lived in Rome.

Life

Ludwig Pollak grew up in Prague's Josefov at Goat Square. He studied from 1888 at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, first law, starting from the beginning of 1889 Classical Archaeology and Art History of Wilhelm Klein and from 1891 at the University of Vienna with Otto Benndorf and Eugen Bormann. On May 20, 1893, he became the Dr. phil. doctorate. In the autograph collection of Fritz Donebauer he made in 1890 first professional experience and assorted whose collected autographs of the musician Johann Wenzel Tomaschek. As a reward he received his first Goethe autograph, later he had a collection of 40 autographs and two locks of hair of Goethe. 1893/94 he undertook as the Austrian State Scholarship trips to Greece and Italy. In February 1895 he settled as a private scholar and art dealer in Rome. In 1898 he became a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, in 1901 the Austrian Archaeological Institute. In 1900 he traveled to Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor. He married in 1902 Margaret of Bronneck ( 1878-1915 ), with whom he children Wolfgang (* 1902), Angelina ( b. 1905 ) and Susan (* 1910) got. In his second marriage he was married from 1921 with Julia Süßmann. From 1903 he lived in the Palazzo Bacchettoni ( Via del Tritone 183), from 1927 in the Palazzo Odescalchi ( Piazza SS Apostoli 77).

In 1904 he became honorary curator of the newly established Roman antiquities museum Museo Barracco. In Rome Pollak identified in 1905 in the marble stock a stonemason's workshop the missing right arm of Laocoon - but the final proof succeeded posthumously in 1957, Pollak was appointed for the Commendatore of the papal Gregory the Great. . By Pollak art dealer activity was, inter alia, a Roman copy of the Athena of Myron to the Liebighaus in Frankfurt, a Hermes statue at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen and a Vulneratus deficiens ( wounded warriors ) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

During the First World War Pollak Italy had to leave In May 1915 and returned in May 1919 back. 1934 renamed the National Socialist German Reich from anti-Semitic reasons, the Bibliotheca Hertziana to Leo Bruhns was her regime faithful director, who Pollak in 1935 denied the access. Pollak replied with a consideration of the Jewish foundations in Rome and patronage of Henriette Hertz, while Bernard Berenson criticized the deutschtümelnde naivety of Hertz.

With the arrest of Roman Jews on October 16, 1943 Ludwig Pollak was arrested with his whole family. Although offered through the mediation of pages German friends from the Vatican a refuge, he rejected this because he felt obliged to accept the fate of his people. Pollak's whereabouts and his family after the deportation of the Roman Jews is not known, the railway train left Rome - Tiburtina on October 18, October 23, 184 able-bodied from the concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele at Auschwitz were selected, the other 839 people were gassed immediately.

Pollak's estate, in art objects, books, and in 2000 the autograph collection, was of his sister Margaret Süssmann Nicod († 1966) in 1951 and 1958, the city of Rome founded and is now preserved in the library of the Museo Barracco.

Writings (selection )

• Two vases from the workshop of Hieron. Hiersemann, Leipzig 1900
• Classic antique gold work in the possession of His Excellency AJ of Nelidov. Hiersemann, Leipzig 1903
• The right arm of Laocoon. In: Roman releases 20, 1905, pp. 277-282
• Pièces de choix de la collection du Comte Gregoire Stroganoff à Rome. 1 Les antiques, Unione Editrice, Rome 1912.
• Augusto Jandolo: Goethe in Rome. Four episodes from the life of the Great. In XMT 's German. by Ludwig Pollak. Modes, Rome 1914
• Oggetti d' arte antichi egiziani, etruschi, Greci e Romani. Smalti, terrecotte, vetri, ori, Argentinian, ambre, pietre incise e Bronzes; la vendita avra ' luogo all'Excelsior -Hôtel Roma dal 26 al 28 marzo 1923. Rome 1923 ( collection Arturo de Sanctis )
• In memoria di Giovanni Barracco (28 apr 1829 -. Gen. 14 1914) nel centario della sua birth. Governatoria di Roma, Rome 1929
• Mars Ultor. In: Annual Reviews of the Austrian Archaeological Institute 26, 1930, pp. 136-143
• For the hundredth day of death of Goethe. Argentieri, Spoleto 1932. Privately printed, also in an Italian edition.
• Roman memoirs. Artists, art lovers and scholars 1893-1943, ed. by Margarete Merkel Guldan. " L' Erma " di Bretschneider, Rome 1994
• Auction catalogs of the collections: Woodyatt; Sarti; Barsanti;

See the complete list of publications at Margarete Merkel Guldan: The Diaries of Louis Pollak. Connoisseurship and the art market in Rome, 1893-1934. Vienna, 1988, pp. 387-390.