The Lady in Gold (55 page)

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Authors: Anne-Marie O'Connor

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LOVE LETTERS FROM A BRIDE

  
1
“MY BELOVED FRITZL”:
Letter, Maria Altmann, Apr. 29, 1938. The 1938 correspondence between Maria Altmann and Fritz Altmann is courtesy of Maria Altmann.

  
2
“MY BELOVED DUCKLING
!
”:
Letter from Fritz Altmann to Maria Altmann, Apr. 28, 1938.

  
3
“FROM AN OLD AUSTRIAN”:
Maria Altmann, interviews; also private family memoir.

  
4
“MY BELOVED FRITZL”:
Letter from Maria Altmann to Fritz Altmann, Apr. 30, 1938.

  
5
“HAS PROBLEMS WITH HIS NERVES”:
Letter from Maria Altmann to Fritz, May 5, 1938.

  
6
“THE DUCKLING RUFFLES HER FEATHERS”:
Letter from Thea Bentley to Fritz Altmann, May 6, 1938.

  
7
SEVEN CLOSE FAMILY FRIENDS:
Maria Altmann, interviews.

  
8
“WE'RE THINKING OF YOU”:
Postcard, Therese Bloch-Bauer, Gustav Bloch-Bauer, and Maria Altmann to Fritz Altmann, undated.

  
9
“MY DEAREST FRITZL”:
Letter, undated, from Maria Altmann to Fritz Altmann, May 11, 1938.

10
BERNHARD HAD TRAMPED THROUGH:
Cecil Altmann, interview.

11
“I WENT AWAY QUITE DEPRESSED”:
Letter from Maria Altmann to Fritz Altmann, May 13, 1938.

12
“MY BELOVED WIFE”:
Letter from Fritz Altmann to Maria Altmann, May 15, 1938.

13
“WE BOTH HAVE TO BE PATIENT”:
Letter from Maria Altmann to Fritz Altmann, May 16, 1938.

14
“MY LOVE, TODAY”:
Letter from Maria Altmann to Fritz Altmann, May 18, 1938.

15
HE WAS BORN IN 1910:
Jerzy Ficowski,
Regions of the Great Heresy: Bruno Schulz, a Biographic Portrait
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2003), p. 164.

16
WHEN HITLER ROSE TO POWER:
Ibid.

17
RELEASED IN 1937, LANDAU HEADED:
Ibid.

18
LANDAU WAS PLAYING A STEALTHY GAME:
Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos.”

19
“FROM THE POST I GET”:
Letter from Fritz Altmann to Maria Altmann, May 22, 1938.

20
THE NUREMBERG LAWS:
Bukey,
Hitler's Austria,
p. 135.

21
THERE WERE 170,000 JEWS IN VIENNA:
Ibid., p. 131.

22
“I CAN HEARTILY RECOMMEND”:
Ernest Jones,
The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963), p. 506. Freud was rephrasing the slogan of a Vienna ad.

23
“DEAREST WIFE”:
Letter from Fritz Altmann to Maria Altmann, May 22, 1938.

24
“DESPERATELY BEGGING FOR INFORMATION”:
Letter from Maria Altmann to the Dachau administration, May 24, 1938.

WORK MAKES FREEDOM

  
1
“THE GANGSTER'S METHOD”:
Fritz Altmann,
My Adventures and Escape from Nazi Germany,
undated. Courtesy of Maria Altmann.

  
2
THEY SET UP A MEETING IN PARIS:
Ibid.

  
3
AS THE AFTERNOON WORE ON:
Dirk Riedel, research associate, Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial.

  
4
“EVERYTHING IN DACHAU IS PROHIBITED”:
Paul Cummins,
Dachau Song: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper
(New York: Peter Lang, 1992), p. 77.

  
5
SOME OF THE FIVE HUNDRED MEN:
Ibid., p. 76.

  
6
THE DEPOSED MAYOR OF VIENNA:
Giles MacDonogh,
1938: Hitler's Gamble
(London: Constable, 2009), p. 109.

  
7
ALSO IN DACHAU, UNBELIEVABLY, WERE ERNST AND MAXIMILIAN HOHENBERG:
Ibid. See also Cummins,
Dachau Song,
pp. 86–87.

  
8
“JEWS AND JEW LACKEYS”:
Marie-Therese Arnbom and Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz,
Grüss mich Gott! Fritz Grünbaum 1880–1941: Eine Biographie
(Vienna: Christian Brandstätter Verlag, 2005), p. 78.

  
9
“YOUR MOTHER CROAKED”:
Cummins,
Dachau Song,
p. 81.

10
“MY BELOVED GOOD WIFE”:
Letter from Fritz Altmann to Maria Altmann, June 1, 1938.

11
“I'M FIT AS A FIDDLE”:
Letter from Fritz Altmann to Maria Altmann, June 6, 1938.

12
ON THIS LEVEL PLAYING FIELD:
Cummins,
Dachau Song,
p. 87.

13
“THAT I WAS THE PERSON”:
Altmann,
My Adventures and Escape.

14
“MY BELOVED HUSBAND”:
Letter from Maria Altmann to Fritz Altmann, June 17, 1938.

15
“AFTER YOUR LAST LETTER”:
Letter from Fritz Altmann to Maria Altmann, July 3, 1938.

16
HE HELD UP A NEWSPAPER OBITUARY:
Maria Altmann, interviews, 2001.

17
AS HE WORKED, HE BEGAN TO SING:
Maria Altmann, private family memoir.

18
“WHEN YOUR HEART WITHIN YOU BREAKS”:
Franz Liszt,
The Schubert Song Transcriptions for Solo Piano/Series II: The Complete
Winterreise
and Seven Other Great Songs
(New York: Dover, 1996).

THUNDER AT TWILIGHT

  
1
“THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT NOW”:
Maria Altmann, interviews, 2006.

  
2
“WHERE IS FRITZL?”:
Maria Altmann, interviews, 2006.

  
3
ONE OF THE RICHTHOFEN BARONS:
Rinesch, memoir.

  
4
“I'M IN LOVE WITH MY HUSBAND”:
Maria Altmann, notes to herself while under house arrest, Sept. 29, 1938. Courtesy of Maria Altmann.

  
5
“YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE A JEW”:
Rinesch, memoir.

  
6
“I HAVE FOUND A WAY”:
Maria Altmann, interviews, 2006.

  
7
“GO WITH GOD”:
Maria Altmann, interviews, 2006.

  
8
“I WAS ADMIRING YOUR RAINCOAT”:
Maria Altmann, interviews.

  
9
THEY ARRESTED JAN HONNEF:
Letter from Jules Huf to Maria Altmann, June 6, 1999.

DECENT HONORABLE PEOPLE

  
1
“ALL THE JEWISH STUDENTS”:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

  
2
“YOU DON'T LIKE ME”:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

  
3
“WE HAVE TO GET OUT”:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

  
4
“TODAY GERMANY BELONGS TO US”:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

  
5
“WE'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE”:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

  
6
ONE DAY THERE WAS A KNOCK:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

  
7
GUSTAV RINESCH HAD WARNED THE FAMILY:
Thea Bentley, private family memoir.

  
8
THE OBSTETRICIAN CAREFULLY EXAMINED:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

GAY MARRIAGE

  
1
SOME GAY MEN MARRIED JEWISH WOMEN:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006. Thea Bentley also had an account in a draft of the collective family memoir, as does the Rinesch memoir.

  
2
ADA FOUND A DUTCH “FIANCÉ”:
Rinesch, memoir.

  
3
“NATURALLY,” GUSTAV RINESCH OBSERVED:
Rinesch, memoir.

  
4
ADA BOUGHT A SOLITAIRE:
Rinesch, memoir.

  
5
“NOT A WORD ABOUT SENTIMENT”:
Rinesch, memoir.

  
6
“VERY DECENT”:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

THE ORIENT EXPRESS

  
1
RINESCH HELPED THEA AND ROBERT:
Rinesch, memoir.

  
2
LUISE SENT SERVANTS:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006; Rinesch, memoir.

  
3
THEN THE TRAIN SLOWED:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

  
4
SOON THE CARABINIERE WAS GALLANTLY FETCHING:
Thea Bentley, interview, Aug. 9, 2006.

  
5
MEN ROUNDED UP JEWS:
Alan E. Steinweis,
Kristallnacht 1938
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009), p. 94.

  
6
THREE DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS, THERESE BEGAN:
Claims Resolution Tribunal, Timeline of Events Re: Account of Österreichische Zuckerindustries AG Syndicate, Exhibit C, p. 4 (“December 22: Therese Bloch-Bauer renounces her late husband's legacy in an effort to gain permission to leave Austria”).

THE AUTOGRAPH HUNTER

  
1
“WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO LEAVE”:
Emile Zuckerkandl, interview, June 24, 2006, and subsequent telephone interviews.

  
2
FERDINAND PROVIDED FINANCIAL HELP:
Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos,” p. 43, citing Ruth Pleyer.

  
3
AMALIE'S ARRESTING UNFINISHED KLIMT PORTRAIT:
Ibid., pp. 24, 42.

  
4
“ANY NONSENSE CAN ATTAIN IMPORTANCE”:
Albert Einstein, inscription in the autograph book of Emile Zuckerkandl, 1937–38, trans. Emile Zuckerkandl. Courtesy of Emile Zuckerkandl.

  
5
“IF HUMANS, NOW THAT AT LONG LAST”:
Zuckerkandl autograph book.

  
6
“FOR EMILE ZUCKERKANDL”:
Zuckerkandl autograph book.

  
7
“SO, YOU ARE AN AUTOGRAPH HUNTER”:
Zuckerkandl autograph book.

  
8
“A DESCENDANT OF NOBLE LINEAGE”:
Zuckerkandl autograph book.

  
9
“ONE WILL ALWAYS FORGET”:
Zuckerkandl autograph book.

10
“HAS NOT EVERYTHING”:
Zuckerkandl autograph book.

11
“FOR KIND REMEMBRANCE”:
Zuckerkandl autograph book.

12
IF I HAD A GUN:
Emile Zuckerkandl, interviews.

13
“BURN YOUR DIARY”:
Emile Zuckerkandl, interviews.

14
HE PULLED IT OFF THE WALL:
Emile Zuckerkandl, interviews.

15
FRIEDELL HAD ONCE SUGGESTED:
Szeps,
My Life,
p. 318.

16
“A DICTATORSHIP WITHOUT A GOSPEL OF HATRED”:
Ibid.

17
HE WALKED TO HIS OPEN WINDOW:
Mahler and Ashton,
And the Bridge Is Love,
p. 220.

STEALING BEAUTY

  
1
“THOUSANDS OF JEWS WERE FLEEING”:
Czernin,
Die Falschung,
pp. 166–67.

  
2
NOW HE COULD GET HIS HANDS ON:
Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos,” p. 12.

  
3
LEOPOLD RUPPRECHT REPRESENTED:
Ibid.

  
4
“DEGENERATE ARTISTS”:
Magdalene Magnin-Haberditzl,
Familien-Chronik aus dem europaweiten Österreich, 1678–1982
(Vienna: Christian Brandstätter Verlag, 2008), p. 435. Also see Stephan Koja, interview, Oct. 2006.

  
5
HIS WIFE'S JEWISH HERITAGE:
Magnin-Haberditzl,
Familien-Chronik,
p. 17.

  
6
“RELIEVED OF HIS DUTIES”:
Anselm Wagner, “Integrating Photography into History of Art: Remarks on the Life and Scientific Estate of Heinrich Schwarz,”
Photoresearcher,
no. 11 (April 2008): 15 (publication of the European Society for the History of Photography, Danube University Krems).

  
7
HE CLOSED THE MODERNE GALERIE:
Magnin-Haberditzl,
Familien-Chronik,
pp. 17, 435. The Moderne Galerie opened July 15, 1929, and closed Mar. 22, 1938.

  
8
KAJETAN MÜHLMANN, A NAZI AESTHETE:
Jonathan Petropoulos,
The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany
(London: Penguin, 2001), p. 182.

  
9
“HE HAS NO CONSCIENCE”:
Ibid., p. 198.

10
FOR NOW, ONE OF HIS FIRST TASKS:
Petropoulos, “Report of Professor Jonathan Petropoulos,” pp. 11, 12.

11
“NEGOTIATION BETWEEN AGENCIES”:
Ibid., p. 13.

12
“ALT AKTION”:
Lillie and Gaugusch,
Portrait,
pp. 68–70.

13
HERMANN GÖRING:
Ibid., p. 70.

14
“MOMENTARILY LORD OF THE WORLD”:
Sultano and Werkner,
Oskar Kokoschka,
p. 12.

15
“I WOULD LIKE TO DO SOMETHING”:
Letter from Carl Moll to Oskar Kokoschka, undated, early 1938, quoted in Sultano and Werkner,
Oskar Kokoschka,
p. 51.

16
“THERE ARE 75 MILLION PEOPLE”:
Ibid.

17
“UNCLE FERDINAND HAS LEFT VIENNA”:
Ibid.

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