Historical Timeline


Experience the historical events that comprise this fascinating story. Click on the year below to display the corresponding details and events that took place during that timeframe.

1933

1935

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

1948

1951

  
1933

January 30
Hitler Hitler and Nazi Party come to power in Germany

1935

Nuremberg laws (anti-Semitic regulations) enacted

1937

July 1
Degenerate Art Exhibition “Degenerate Art” exhibition, Munich.
Across Europe, museums start to prepare a plan for the protection of works of art in the event of war with Germany. Lists of important works in the museums are made. The castles, churches and abbeys, usable as deposits, are located and evacuation routes are fixed.

1938

Britain develops plans for museum evacuations.
Franz Hofmann, president of the Committee for Confiscation in the German museums, declares the museums “purified.” Almost sixteen thousand works were withdrawn.
March 13
Anschluss Anschluss, or German annexation of Austria
May
Formation of a Commission for the Exploitation of Confiscated Works i.e. "degenerate art." Alfred Rosenberg, Robert Scholz, Adolf Ziegler, Heinrich Hofmann, Karl Haberstock are involved.
November 9
Anschluss Kristallnacht, “Night of Broken Glass” in all Germany: Jewish houses, synagogues and businesses are burned at the directive of the Nazis

1939

March 10
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
June 6
Anschluss Hitler appoints Dr. Hans Posse, director of the museum of Dresden, and also head of acquisitions (by purchases or seizures) for the future museum of Linz.
June 30
Anschluss Fischer Sale, Lucerne, of purged, “degenerate” art from German institutions
September 1
Invasion of Poland; start of WWII
September 3
Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.
November
Anschluss Louvre masterpieces stored in castle at Chambord

1940

Britain develops plans for museum evacuations.
Florentine Collections moved to Tuscan countryside
February
Anschluss Mühlmann Catalogue Created
April 9
Germany invades Norway and Denmark
May 10
Invasion of France
Invasion of Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg; Churchill becomes prime minister of England
May 11
Creation of Kunstschutz, the commission for the protection of works of art of the Wehrmacht (the German Army)
June 14
Occupation of Paris by the Germans
June 22
The French and German authorities sign the Armistice in Rethondes
July
ERR established in Paris.
July 10
Anschluss Battle of Britain Begins
August
Joseph Goebbels asks Dr. Kümmel, General Director of the Reich National Museums, to draw up a list of the works of art and invaluable objects of German origin in the occupied countries
October 28
Italy invades Greece
October 30
More than 400 cases of seized works, accumulated in the Louvre or still in the German embassy, are transferred to the Jeu de Paume, which becomes the principal repository of the works seized by the ERR.
November 3-5
Anschluss First visit of Hermann Göring to the Jeu de Paume. A selection of seized works is exhibited. Göring chooses 27 for his collection. He will return to the Jeu de Paume several times.

1941

June 22
Invasion of USSR- Operation Barbarosa
July 1
Hermitage Evacuated
August 12
Anschluss National Gallery works moved into Manod Quarry
August 20
900 day Siege of Leningrad begins
December 7
Pearl Harbor attacked

1942

June
Gassing at Auschwitz begins
July 29
The Germans seize the polyptych of the Mystical Lamb by the brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck
September
Anschluss Berlin Flak-Towers completed, museum collections stored here

1943

February 2
German forces surrender at Stalingrad
March 15
After the death of Hans Posse, Hitler names Hermann Voss as the director of the museum at Wiesbaben, with also the directorship of Linz.
April 19
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
July
Anschluss Creation in the United States of the Roberts Commission (American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas). The commission includes MFAA Officers (Monuments, Fine Arts and Officers Files) charged to assist the forces on the ground in the recovery of works of art.
July 25
Anschluss Mussolini arrested; fall of Italian government
October 13
New Italian Government declares war on Germany

1944

Works for Linz are hidden in the Austrian salt mines of Alt Aussee; Germans transfer artworks throughout Italy while trying to remove them to Germany
February 15
Anschluss U.S. bombers destroy Monte Cassino
June 6
Allied invasion of Normandy
July
The Parisian center of the ERR is closed by the Germans. The last report of the ERR, written in Berlin, lists from France: 203 seized collections and 21,903 confiscated art works.
August 3
Anschluss Florentine bridges destroyed
August 19
Uprising of Paris
August 22
Hitler's order to General von Choltitz to destroy Paris is not carried out
August 25
Liberation of Paris; Liberation of Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg
End of November
Establishment, within the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Service), of a unit for the survey of the plundering of art works, comprised of art historians advised by the Roberts Commission.
October 21
Aachen falls to the Allies- First major German city to surrender
December 26
General Patton marches the 3rd Army to relieve the 101st during the Battle of the Bulge

1945

January
Anschluss Göring destroys his country home of Carinhall. A number of works from his collection are transported in special trains, and arrive at Berchtesgaden and Unterstein in April.
January 26
Red Army liberates Auschwitz
February 4-11
During the Yalta Conference, Germany is divided in four zones of occupation (the United States, Great Britain, France, USSR)
March8
Berlin artworks evacuated to mines
April 7
Merkers mine discovered
April 12
Franklin D. Roosevelt Dies
April 16
Red Army assault on Berlin
April 25
Declaration of the United Nations
April 28
Mussolini executed
Neuschwanstein repository discovered
April 30
Hitler Commits Suicide
May 4
Anschluss The American army finds Göring's collection at Berchtesgaden.
May 7
Germany surrenders to the Allies
Friedrichshain Flak-tower burns, destroying some 500 paintings
May 8
VE (Victory in Europe) Day
The works intended for Linz are found by the American army in the Austrian mines of Alt Aussee.
May 20
An order from S.H.A.E.F establishes in Germany collecting points where the works of art located by the army will be gathered. The main "collecting point" will be installed in Munich.
June
Art returned to Florence
June 22
Wiesbaden Collecting Point established
July 17
Proposal of “202”
August 14
Japan Surrenders, End of World War II
August 15
VJ day
September 3
Anschluss Official restitution of the Van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece to Belgium: it is the first restitution of a work to its country of origin.
November 20
First hearing of the Nuremberg proceedings (trials, lawsuits).

1946

October 16
Göring commits suicide

1948

December 31
A decree puts an end to the activity of the Artistic Commission of Recovery and entrusts the management of the current and future cases to the Office of Private Goods and Interests.

1951

Closing of Munich Collecting Point

The Story in Pictures

The Rescuers: Monuments Men

Historical Timeline

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The Rape of Europa is made possible by:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Agon Arts & Entertainment, National Endowment for the Arts, The Burnett Foundation, The Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation, The Carol Franc Buck Foundation, The Mary P. Oenslager Foundation Trust, Eugene V. & Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust, Alexander M. and June L. Maisin Foundation, & The Fund for Jewish Documentary Filmmaking