Person
Robert Scholz
Robert Scholz
- Life dates
- 9 February 1902 - 15 January 1981
- Active
-
Berlin
- Occupation
- art historian
Robert Scholz was a German art historian, art journalist, and by 1935 head of the "Fine Arts" office in Rosenberg’s DBFU (Beauftragter des Führers für die Überwachung der gesamten geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP). In 1940, he became director of ERR’s office Bildende Kunst (Pictorial Art) and gained the position of Rosenberg’s personal advisor on art matters. After the 1940 establishment of the Amt Westen in Paris, Scholz assumed the position of directing policy and research matters while at the same time remaining in Berlin. Eventually, however, his Paris position was taken over by Kurt von Behr who garnered the support of Hermann Göring. By 1942, Scholz reorganized the Sonderstab Bildende Kunst and appointed Lohse and Borchers as his deputies in Paris and continued remaining largely in Berlin.
Towards the end of the war, by February 1945, Scholz received the order to move Hitler’s art objects to the Austrian salt mine in Altaussee and became responsible for ERR’s depot in Neuschwanstein.
After the war, Scholz was arrested by the American allies and stood trial in Paris in 1950. And although he was sentenced to ten years in prison, he never served any time.
Sources:
Petropoulos, Jonathan. T_he Faustian bargain. The art world in Nazi Germany_. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
---. Göring’s Man in Paris. The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021.
Hüneke, Andreas. “Der Fall Robert Scholz – Kunstberichte unterm Hakenkreuz.” Schriften zur Kunstkritik. 11 (2001).
M1782-OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit Reports, 1945-46. Detailed Interrogation Reports (DIR). Report Nr. 3: Robert Scholz. https://www.fold3.com/image/231995906. Accessed 20 June 2021.