Provenance Research

The goal of the project is to research the art collections of Johann Ludwig and Mary Jacoby and Ernst and Cäcilie Holländer, Berlin, to investigate the circumstances of their loss and to determine the whereabouts of the works of art.

Provenance Research

This research project aims to research the art collection of Kurt and Gertrud Schülein, Bopfingen and Stuttgart. We will document the circumstances of the loss, determine the whereabouts of the artworks, and research information on the family’s persecution.

Provenienzforschung

The project on Dr. Walter Blank’s collection began in June 2024 and will end in May 2025. The origin and whereabouts of the artworks in the collection are being researched.

Cataloguing of Objects and Museum Concept

Facts & Files was commissioned by Dokumentationszentrum Perleberg Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts in der Prignitz e.V.  with cataloguing of the Hans-Peter and Gisela Freimark’s collection in 2023.

Provenance Research

The research project aimed to reconstruct the art collection of the Wiesbaden pediatrician Georg Koch and his wife Lotte, née Seeligmann. The project started in January 2021. The works of art, among them works by Alexej Jawlensky, Christian Rohlfs and Emil Nolde, were packed into the lift vans, and “disappeared” in the port of Hamburg in 1942.

Archival Services

Facts & Files was commissioned by the Berlin Museum of Natural History from 2021 to 2023 to inventories archival records and coordinate the archive project.

Facts & Files was commissioned by the Robert Havemann Association in 2021 with a concept for a feasibility study for the “Forum for Opposition and Resistance”.

Facts & Files was commissioned in 2021 by the Berlin Commissioner for the Study of the SED Dictatorship to conduct a study on archives from the SBZ or GDR in Berlin.

Facts & Files was commissioned in 2020 by the district office Steglitz-Zehlendorf to archive the papers of Karl Fischer and to compile an exhibition concept on it.

From February 2020 to July 2022 Facts & Files had been commissioned by Ralf von Jacobs to conduct provenance research on the art collection of August, Serena and Erich Lederer.

Provenance Research

The aim of the project at four East Frisian museums was to reconstruct the provenance of over 600 objects, which have so far mainly been classified as “seafarers’ souvenirs” from China.

From August 2020 to February 2022, the provenance of objects from the collection of Julius Riemer, which is no part of the Municipal Collections of Lutherstadt Wittenberg was researched. The objects belonged to the Berlin zoologist and mammalogist Oscar R. Neumann before.

Provenance Research

The project on the collection of David and Lola Leder, Chemnitz/Berlin, began in June 2021 and ended in August 2022. The project aimed to reconstruct David and Lola Leder’s art collection, research the provenance and whereabouts of artworks from the collection, and identify artworks.

Facts & Files conducted research on the provenance of the painting “Women at the Flower Garden“ from January 2015 to June 2015. Since 1958, the painting was with the collection of the Lehmbruck-Museum in Duisburg. Until 1942 it was in the art collection of Eduard Müller. In 2017, the painting was restituted to the heirs of Eduard Müller.

Launched in 2011, the “Europeana 1914–1918” project is a pan-European collection of personal memorabilia from the First World War

Facts & Files was handling press relations and organised the collection days during which documents and other objects could be digitised.

commissioned by the Berlin State Archive

Starting January 2020, Facts & Files had been investigating the provenance of the holdings of the Berlin State Archive’s library. This academic reference library contains about 150,000 records.

Facts & Files was conducting archival services for the General Secretariat of the German Red Cross from 2013 to 2022.

On behalf of the University of Cologne, Facts & Files had prepared a report which looks at the entanglement of the National Socialist regime with the university’s charitable foundations, honorary titles and grants awarded to academics and institutes.

Facts & Files was conducting research on the provenance of automobiles, motorcycles, trucks and busses which are in the collection of the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin.

Provenance Research on 323 art objects of the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen (April 2016 to September 2019)

In cooperation with universities Facts & Files offers seminars for archival research.

Since January 2015 Facts & Files had been conducting research on sources about the history of the Court of Auditors of the German Reich on behalf of the Federal Court of Auditors. The aim of the survey was to locate sources related to the activities of the Court of Auditors of the German Reich.

Archive Project

From 2019 to 2022, Facts & Files was commissioned by the Berlin State Archives to inventorise the record group of minutes of meetings of the Berlin Senate, the municipal administration of Berlin.

commissioned by Professor Michael Wala of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Facts & Files conducted research on intelligence and counterintelligence operations of the Ministry for State Security for the research project of Professor Wala. His study was published in October 2023.

Facts & Files authored articles in the Putzger Atlas and Chronicles of World History on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the PUTZGER collection.

This  expanded edition was an unique work of reference and compilation of maps concerning world history.

During the first half of the twentieth century; the official representatives of the British-Indian Government for Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet compiled comprehensive data on the society of Tibet. Frank Drauschke has collected copies of all ten versions of “Who’s Who in Tibet” from different archives in India, the United Kingdom and the United States. The aim of this project was to compile data from all the different versions into a database.

The Foundation for Examination of the Dictatorship in East Germany funds several collections and archives which were established by opposition groups and the citizen-movement of the GDR. Commissioned by Stiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Facts & Files made an evaluation of their holdings and made suggestions for the conservation and proper registration of archival materials.

“Myth Führerbunker”, published in September 2003 by the publishing house Giebel Verlag, is a study by the journalist and historian Sven Felix Kellerhoff. Facts & Files assisted the author with the research on historical documents regarding the “Führerbunker”.

Facts & Files did research for the project “History of the Commerzbank from 1870 until 1958” of the Chair of Contemporary History of the Humboldt University, Berlin, at German archives and the “Special Archive Moscow”.

Facts & Files was commissiond by the graphical designers Wangler & Abele to do research on Moses Mabhida. Facts & Files researched Mabhida’s biography, quotations, and photos of him.

In 2010, the city of Berlin celebrated the sciences with an exhibition at the Martin-Gropius-Bau.

 Facts & Files conducted research on scholars and scientists who had worked in Berlin. We traced their papers, footage and audio material and researched exhibits.

Research at German Archives

Facts & Files inventories records for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Washington D.C. within the framework of the “USHMM International Acquisitions Program”.

Facts & Files searched for files which contain new information about the background and the protagonists of the confiscation of Jewish property in Austria after the 1938 annexation.

German Victims of Stalinism at the Moscow Cemetery Donskoje 1950-1953 The Exhibition In addition to the book the travelling exhibition is designed to introduce to the public for the first …

The Interactive Map of Europe – German Life in Middle and East Europe provides an insight in regions, in which Germans were settled – often since the Middle Ages. This multitouch table shows 58 single animations with a duration time of three hours.

Founded in 1872, the Munich based Galerie Heinemann was one of the most important German art dealing companies until it got “aryanized” by the National Socialists in 1938.

The German victims of Stalinism

“Shot in Moscow…” was an international project funded by the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany, Berlin. In 2024, we published an online edition of the biographies.

Research Project on German Victims of Stalinism

“Shot in Moscow…” was an international research project, supported by the Foundation for Examination of the Dictatorship in East Germany.

Facts & Files conducted background research for the novel by Johannes K. Soyener  in several German archives on the sinking of the “Pamir” in 1957.

commissioned by the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” and the Federal Archives

Facts & Files researched the backgrounds of Jewish emigrants, who were forced by the National Socialists to leave the German Reich after 1933.

Facts & Files conducted research at German archives on the persecution of Jews in North Africa during World War II. The American scholar and author Robert Satloff used these information for his study on Arabs who helped to save Jews from persecution.

Facts & Files conducted research on the German tax authorities and the looting of Jews in Hesse and Berlin during the Nazi Era for an exhibition at the German Historical Museum in Berlin.

Facts & Files was commissioned by the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum to conduct research on prisoners of the special camps.

Facts & Files was commissioned by Professor Dr. Constantin Goschler and Professor Dr. Michael Wala of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum to conduct research on biographies of former staff members of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz).

Since August 2002 Facts & Files has been inventorizing objects of the collection of the Jewish Museum Berlin.

As part of the application for recognition as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2012, Facts & Files prepared a study of the area’s High Middle Ages history. In 2018, the Naumburg Cathedral became World Heritage site.

www.wga-datenbank.de

The WGA-Files online project on records of the Berlin restitution offices started on September 1, 2012. This project aims to provide information about restitution cases, in order to facilitate provenance research. The Berlin State Archive (Landesarchiv Berlin) supports provenance research since many years.

The Tutankhamun exhibition breaks new ground in the presentation of acient Egypt history.

Facts & Files researched footage, illustrations and photographs, and created educational material, such as student work sheets.

Facts & Files was commissioned by the Hannah-Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism, Dresden, to conduct an archive survey on records of the Dresdner Bank.

Provenance Research

Herbert M. Gutmann (1879-1942) collected paintings, porcelain, tapestries, and antiques. Mr. Gutmann was a collector of Dutch landscape as well as French and German Rococo paintings. Mr. Gutmann also collected Asian porcelain, Persian sculpture and porcelain.

Facts & Files was commissioned by the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) to research information on life insurance policies purchased by European Jews before WWII. The project started in 2000 and was finished in 2003.

In 2008, Facts & Files was commissioned by the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (BADV) to conduct provenance research on 181 water colours, drawings, sculptures, and paintings.

Facts & Files was commissioned by the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” to produce expert reports on Jewish forced labor during the time of National Socialism in various European and North African states, such as Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

Facts & Files compiled a database on Berlin auctions of art and cultural assets between 1933 and 1945. The auction files are preserved at the Berlin State Archives.

Commissioned by the Federal Agency for Political Education and Robert Havemann Society, Berlin, www.jugendopposition.de is a German multimedia website focused on resistance and opposition of young people against the repressive East German government.

Citizen Science & Crowdsourcing

Europeana Transcribe is the crowdsourcing platform for European cultural heritage on Transcribathon.eu to for enriching, transcribing, annotating or geo-tagging of historical documents.