8 May 1945 not only marks the end of the Second World War and of the Nazi regime, but also stands for one of the greatest losses in cultural assets in Austrian history, triggered by a devastating fire that ravaged Immendorf Castle in Lower Austria. The 80th anniversary of these events occurs in 2025, reason enough for the MAK and the non-profit Klimt Foundation to mount an exhibition on the subject of Gustav Klimt, the MAK, and Immendorf Castle: Burnt, Destroyed, Vanished?
Even today, the events surrounding the fire in the country seat of the Freudenthal family, which served as a valuable and seemingly safe art storage depot in the Second World War, have not been fully clarified. The exhibition offers profound insight into the sheer scale of the disaster. First mentioned in the 13th century, the castle was used from 1942 onwards as a place to store works of art in need of protection from the effects of war. The owner at the time, Baron Rudolf von Freudenthal, made rooms available for this purpose.
Some sources suggest that the castle was deliberately set on fire by German troops—presumably the SS—in May 1945 in order to deprive the Red Army of the stored art objects. However, there is still no clear evidence of this to this day. Nor is it proven that Soviet soldiers were involved. Similarly—based on the facts as they stand—the occasional statements that individual Klimt paintings may have been removed from storage before the fire cannot be confirmed.
In addition to the three faculty paintings for the Main Ceremonial Hall of the University of Vienna with the corresponding composition designs, the works that were burned include the overdoor paintings Music (1897/98) and Schubert at the Piano (1899) from the Palais of Nikolaus Dumba on Vienna’s Ringstraße as well as the paintings The Golden Apple Tree (1903), Farm 2 Garden with Crucifix (1912), Portrait of Wally (1916), Women Friends (1916/17), Garden Path with Chickens (1916), and Leda (1917) from the expropriated collection of August and Serena Lederer. The State Arts and Crafts Museum in Vienna (now the MAK) lost to the flames: the Laxenburg Room stored in Immendorf Castle, various East Asian and Islamic objects, arts and crafts from the early modern period, over fifty pieces of furniture, leather wallpaper, twelve carpets, and the Möchling Tomb, a wooden shrine carved in the shape of a Gothic church from the 15th century.
Alongside original plans and a new architectural model of the castle, the exhibition will show a new film documentary on the events at Immendorf Castle with interviews with witnesses of the period. The film was directed and written by Peter Weinhäupl, Director of the Klimt Foundation, Vienna, and Stefan Kutzenberger, art historian and author. The film was made by the Danish filmmaker Rikke Kutzenberger. “Masterpieces of Reproduction Art,” which come from the valuable Klimt portfolios published in 1908–1914, 1917/18, and 1931, illustrate, partly in color, the inestimable loss of several original Klimt paintings.
The Klimt Foundation is making available these and other loans from its collection. Original documents such as recovery lists kept at the MAK and valuable archive material from the Austrian Federal Monuments Office, the archive of the Künstlerhaus Vienna, and the Lower Austrian Provincial Library provide further profound insights into the events surrounding the supposedly safe rescue site of Immendorf Castle and enable an overall picture based on facts.
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna
Photogravure from the portfolio The Work of Gustav Klimt, published by Kunstverlag Hugo Heller, Vienna/Leipzig, 1917/18
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna
Photogravure from the portfolio The Work of Gustav Klimt, published by Kunstverlag Hugo Heller, Vienna/Leipzig, 1917/18
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna
Photogravure from the portfolio The Work of Gustav Klimt, published by Kunstverlag Hugo Heller, Vienna/Leipzig, 1917/18
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna
Color collotype from the portfolio Gustav Klimt. A Review, published by Max Eisler, Druck und Verlag
der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei, Vienna, 1931
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna
published by Max Eisler, Druck und Verlag
der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei, Vienna, 1931
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna
Color collotype from the portfolio Gustav Klimt. A Review, published by Max Eisler, Druck und Verlag
der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei, Vienna, 1931
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna
