Franz Ullstein
{{Short description|German Jewish publisher (1868–1945)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
File:Ullstein-Thorak-Mutter Erde fec.jpg
Franz Ullstein (16 January 1868 – 12 November 1945) was a German Jewish publisher and art collector persecuted by the Nazis
Life
Franz Edgar Ullstein was born on 16 January 1868, in Berlin, Brandenburg, Prussia, Germany into the famous Ullstein publishing dynasty, which published the Ullstein Verlag, the most important publishing house in Germany prior to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi dictatorship. Ullstein was a publisher and art collector.{{Cite journal |last=Hung |first=Jochen |date=2018 |title=The 'Ullstein Spirit': The Ullstein Publishing House, the End of the Weimar Republic and the Making of Cold War German Identity, 1925–77 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26416682 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=158–184 |doi=10.1177/0022009416669419 |jstor=26416682 |hdl=1874/362112 |issn=0022-0094|hdl-access=free }} When Leopold Ullstein died in 1899, his five sons, Louis, Hand, Franz, Rudolf and Hermann, took over the business. Each son had an area of specialization. Franz was responsible for newspapers. Together, they brothers built the publishing house into a modern media company employing around 10,000 employees in 1930.{{Cite web |title=Like father like son |url=https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/like-father-like-son |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=www.axelspringer.com |language=en-GB}} Franz Ullstein's first wife Lotte died in 1928. They had a son, Kurt.{{Cite web |title=A love story captures the headlines |url=https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/a-love-story-captures-the-headlines |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=www.axelspringer.com |language=en-GB}} The Ullsteins were a Jewish family, which led to their persecution, the loss of their publishing house and exile when the Nazis came to power in Germany.
Art Collection
Ullstein was a well-known art collector.{{Cite web |last=Läubli |first=Martina |date=26 August 2023 |title=Kunsthaus Zürich: Die Geschichte eines Bildes |url=https://magazin.nzz.ch/nzz-am-sonntag/kultur/kunsthaus-zuerich-das-schicksal-der-familie-ullstein-hing-an-einem-bild-ld.1753103 |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=NZZ |language=de}}
Artworks he once owned are now in major museums, such as Monet's Garden at Giverny, and Gustave Courbet's Portrait du sculpteur Louis-Joseph Lebœuf, at the collection of the Fondation Emil Bührle.{{Cite web |title=Monet's Garden at Giverny · Claude Monet · Stiftung Sammlung E.G. Bührle |url=https://www.buehrle.ch/en/collection/?tx_buehrlewerkliste_werkliste%5Bwerk%5D=88&tx_buehrlewerkliste_werkliste%5Baction%5D=show&cHash=60abe53931780734de6b8656d245f2d7 |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=www.buehrle.ch}}{{Cite web |title=Altlasten im Neubau - Contamination in the new building |url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=REYY1H264181 |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=www.lootedart.com}}
Nazi era
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Ullstein family was persecuted because of their Jewish heritage. Ullstein Verlag was "Aryanised" in 1934, that is, forcibly transferred to a non-Jewish owner.{{Cite web |date=5 November 2013 |title=Mediengeschichte: Wie die Nazis den Ullstein-Verlag unterwanderten - WELT |url=https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article121546133/Wie-die-Nazis-den-Ullstein-Verlag-unterwanderten.html |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=DIE WELT |language=de}} The company was renamed Deutscher Verlag in 1937 and affiliated with the Nazi's (NSDAP's) central publishing house. Ullstein emigrated to the United States in 1941.{{Cite news |date=13 November 1945 |title=DR. ULLSTEIN DIES IN STREET ACCIDENT; Former German Publisher, 77, Came Here in 1941 After Flight From Nazis |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/11/13/archives/dr-ullstein-dies-in-street-accident-former-german-publisher-77-came.html |access-date=29 January 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The Ullsteins were persecuted and plundered of their assets through anti-Jewish racial laws that imposed special confiscatory taxes on Jews as well as outright expropriation.{{Cite journal |last1=Ladewig |first1=Heid |last2=Ullstein |first2=Herman |date=1944 |title=The Rise and Fall of the House of Ullstein |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40084249 |journal=Books Abroad |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=77 |doi=10.2307/40084249 |jstor=40084249 |issn=0006-7431|url-access=subscription }}
Postwar
Claims for restitution
The efforts of the Ullstein family to obtain restitution of the properties stolen from them under the Nazis encountered many obstacles and were extremely difficult.{{Cite web |title=The Ullsteins against the rest of the world |url=https://www.axelspringer.com/en/inside/the-ullsteins-against-the-rest-of-the-world |access-date=29 January 2024 |website=www.axelspringer.com |language=en-GB}} The author Juliane Berndt wrote a study on the process entitled, Die Restitution des Ullstein-Verlags (1945–52).{{Citation |last=Berndt |first=Juliane |title=Die Restitution des Ullstein-Verlags (1945–52): Remigration, Ränke, Rückgabe: Der steinige Weg einer Berliner Traditionsfirma |date=8 June 2020 |work=Die Restitution des Ullstein-Verlags (1945–52) |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110630503/html?lang=en |access-date=29 January 2024 |publisher=De Gruyter Oldenbourg |language=de |doi=10.1515/9783110630503 |isbn=978-3-11-063050-3}}
In popular literature
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ullstein, Franz}}
Category:German publishers (people)
Category:Vossische Zeitung people
Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States