From Cézanne to Kirchner.
Jewish Art Collectors of Modernism in Germany

11.9.2026 — 29.3.2027

The exhibition From Cézanne to Kirchner. Jewish Art Collectors of Modernism in Germany reconstructs 15 important art collections assembled by German Jewish citizens before 1945. It brings together many of their modernist masterpieces, now scattered around the world. Around 100 works are presented, spanning from Realism and Impressionism through to Expressionism and New Objectivity, by artists such as Paul Cézanne, Lovis Corinth, Ferdinand Hodler, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Milly Steeger, and many others.

The show honours and commemorates the decisive role of Jewish art collectors in the establishment, promotion, and defense of modern art since the turn of the twentieth century. Fifteen families, couples, and individuals are highlighted as representative examples of this collecting activity, including the Hirschland family, Paul and Clothilde Schüler, Max Meirowsky, Rosa Schapire and Margarete Mauthner. Their lifes, marked under National Socialism by exclusion, dispossession, persecution, exile, and murder, are brought into focus through historical documents and photographs.

Visitors are invited to experience the exhibition’s themes in multiple ways: They can encounter unique and iconic works of modern art – from Cézanne to Kirchner – presented within their historical context. Each collection is given its own dedicated room, creating an intimate and powerful engagement with the original works.

Through documents, photographs, letters, and contemporary testimonies, the exhibition offers insight into the personalities of the collectors and their stories. In doing so, it retraces both the human fates behind the collections and their destruction, as well as the subsequent journeys of the individual artworks up to the present day.

The exhibition From Cézanne to Kirchner. Jewish Art Collectors of Modernism in Germany is held under the patronage of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).

The exhibition is sponsored by

Ursula Garbe Stiftungsfonds für Kunst und Kultur in Hamburg

The educational programme for the exhibition is funded by