61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

elsewhere – what enormous damage has been caused by the
unscrupulous machinations of certain foreign ‹art dealers›». 13
The recognition of the positive «side-effects» of immigration was thus
restrained by the observation that in recent years, a large number of outsiders
had unfortunately entered the world of art dealing, namely:
«all those people who abandoned the most devious occupations in order
to turn to the ‹milk cow› of art dealing and who are actually succeeding
– despite their complete lack of expertise – in doing business purely as
a result of their lack of scruples». 14
From 1933, part of the Jewish collections came onto the market before a
single work of art had been confiscated. Inevitably, the art dealers who had
emigrated to Switzerland played a key role in the transfer of Jewish-owned
art. As a result of their own personal experiences, they were ideally placed to
act as intermediaries between the German and the Swiss art markets. The
persecution of this group of people – and thus their problematical situation
– should not obscure the fact that the art dealers concerned often travelled to
Germany, at least until 1938, to visit their families who remained there and
in order to maintain contacts with art collectors who wanted to sell their
collections. This is well documented for a number of art dealers, such as Fritz
Nathan, Walter Feilchenfeldt, and Alfred Flechtheim.
Fiduciaries and banks
The banks and fiduciary companies initially were mere service providers for
other actors such as dealers and collectors; still, on some occasions – out of pure
financial interest – they also developed their own initiative in the business and
purchased art themselves. A notable example is the Zurich-based «Fides
Treuhand-Vereinigung», which had been a subsidiary of Credit Suisse (Schweizerische
Kreditanstalt, SKA) since 1928. Although any individual responsibility
is routinely denied today on the grounds that the company always acted only
on behalf of third parties, Fides played an active role in art dealing from 1934
to around 1943 by offering its services unsolicited and thus adding fresh
impetus to the sale of Jewish property and «degenerate art». The company
aimed both to reinvest a blocked German credit asset of 8 million reichsmarks
within Germany and to gradually reduce it via export purchases on behalf of
third parties. Bodenkreditanstalt, also a SKA subsidiary, 15 took steps similar to
the ones taken by Fides in art dealing, in that it bought up iron and sheet metal
for Switzerland in co-operation with German and Swiss industrial companies.
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