Initially, the Berlin art dealer Karl Haberstock served as Hitler’s art advisor, but by June 1939, he was replaced by the director of Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie Hans Posse, who served as the special representative for Linz. With almost unlimited financial resources, including foreign currency, Posse was able to continually expand the Linz holdings with acquisitions in the art trade, as well as drawing on expropriated holdings in the occupied/conquered territories. Permanent staff members of the Sonderauftrag Linz included the art historians Robert Oertel, Erhard Göpel, Gottfried Reimer, Hildebrand Gurlitt and architect Hans Reger, who was responsible for the cataloging. After Posse's death in December 1942 and an interim management by Posse's deputy Reimer, the museum director of the Nassauisches Landesmuseum, Hermann Voss took over the management of the Sonderauftrag Linz in March 1943. By the time Posse died, he had already assembled 1,200 paintings for the Führermuseum. Martin Bormann conducted all correspondence and organized contact with Posse, Voss, and their associates on behalf of Adolf Hitler.

The thousands of works of art intended for the Museum were stored in various depots: first in the Führerbau in Munich, from 1941 in the Reichskunstdepot in Kremsmünster, and finally in the mining galleries of Altaussee.

On 25 April 1943, Voss met with Lohse and Göpel, among others, to discuss the acquisition of the Schloss collection for the Sonderauftrag. A day later Göpel authored a lengthy telegram for Bormann, that emphasized the importance of the collection for Hitler’s museum. Following Bormann’s positive response, and after months of negotiations, the collection was finally purchased and on 19 November 1943 sent to the Führerbau. Hans Reger confirmed the receipt of the collection on December 2, and the collection was registered as Linz- Nr. 3108. In March 1944, two more paintings from the Schloss collection that surfaced on the French art market were purchased for the Sonderauftrag and subsequently sent to the Führerbau.

In May 1945, the Sonderauftrag’s depot was overrun by the U.S. Army, and the artworks were transferred to the Munich Central Collecting Point in Munich (MCCP).

Sources:

M1782-OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit Reports, 1945-46. Consolidated Interrogation Reports (CIR). Report Nr. 4: Linz: Hitler's Museum And Library. https://www.fold3.com/image/232002199. Accessed on 11 May 2021.

Schwarz, Birgit. Hitlers Museum. Die Fotoalben Gemäldegalerie Linz. Dokumente zum “Führermuseum“. Wien: Böhlau, 2004.

---. Auf Befehl des Führers. Hitler und der NS-Kunstraub. Darmstadt: Konrad Theiss Verlag, 2014.

Löhr, Hanns Christian. Das Braune Haus der Kunst. Hitler und der „Sonderauftrag Linz“. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 2016.

Iselt, Kathrin. „Sonderbeauftragter des Führers“. Der Kunsthistoriker und Museumsmann Hermann Voss (1884–1969) (= Studien zur Kunst, Band 20). Cologne: Böhlau, 2010.

Roxan, David, and Ken Wanstall. The Rape of Art: The Story of Hitler’s Plunder of the Great Masterpieces of Europe. New York: Coward-McCann, 1965.

Kirchmayr, Birgit. “Kunstmuseum Linz.” Lexikon der Österreichischen Provenienzforschung, January 2019. https://www.lexikon-provenienzforschung.org/kunstmuseum-linz. Accessed on 11 May 2021.

Database German Historical Museum. “Linzer Sammlung / Linz Collection” https://www.dhm.de/datenbank/linzdb/. Accessed on 11 May 2021.