Restitution of books belonging to the lawyer Ludwig Chodziesner

On 14 February 2024, books from the Ernst Wolff Book Collection at the Moses Mendelssohn Akademie Halberstadt will be returned to Ludwig Chodziesner’s descendant Paul Chodziesner on the premises of the Moses Mendelssohn Foundation Berlin. The restitution has come about in connection with the two-year research project The Ernst Wolff Book Collection – research into cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, which is funded by the Moses Mendelssohn Foundation Berlin, Manfred Wolff and the German Lost Art Foundation.

During clearing work for the reopening of the Fraenkelufer Synagogue in Berlin-Kreuzberg in 1945, a collection of more than 3,000 books came into the possession of film entrepreneur Ernst Wolff (1903-1963), who had survived the Shoah in hiding in Berlin. Wolff’s book collection was given to the Moses Mendelssohn Akademie in Halberstadt by his foster son Manfred Wolff for the purpose academic research. Based on name entries, bookplates and other annotations it is possible to identify the original owners and potential legal successors.

Paul Chodziesner is now the first descendant of a Jew expropriated by the National Socialists to whom the Moses Mendelssohn Akademie Halberstadt has been able to return books which originally belonged to his great-grandfather. “This is a very moving moment for us. By returning these books we are giving him back a piece of his family history,” said Julius H. Schoeps, Chairman of the Board of the Moses Mendelssohn Foundation Berlin.

Background:

After 45 years as a lawyer, Ludwig Chodziesner’s licence to practice was withdrawn in July 1936. In January 1939, at an advanced age, he was forced to move from his villa in Finkenkrug near Berlin to an apartment on Speyerer Strasse. The villa was put up for compulsory sale. Ludwig Chodziesner was deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942 and died there in February 1943. His daughter, the well-known writer and poet Gertrud Kolmar (legal name Gertrud Käthe Chodziesner), was deported just a few months after her father. Shortly before his deportation, Ludwig Chodziesner had to fill in a so-called declaration of assets. Bookcases were among the items of furniture listed in this 16-page document. The name “Gertrud Kolmar” appears in several of the books. These files from the Asset Reclamation Office have now been digitised and form the basis for research into the provenance of property looted from Jews during the Nazi era.

We previously reported on the project here in April 2023.