Murder in Art Nouveau

By Rolf Esser

Why are the director of the Hagen Osthaus Museum and his deputy murdered? Why is a well-known art forger reactivated? On which wise disappeared valuable paintings from the museum during the Nazi era? And what has the Naples Camorra to do with all this?

Questions upon questions that lead to a real confusion. In any case, the murders are causing excitement in Hagen. The police is initially faced with a mystery. Can this complicated case be solved?

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Oct 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9783347754737

Rolf Esser

Rolf Esser, Jahrgang 1948, ist im Hauptberuf Lehrer und inzwischen pensioniert. Er unterrichtete an einer integrierten Gesamtschule in den Fächern Deutsch, Gesellschaftslehre, Kunst und Musik. Seit etwa 1990 war er für verschiedene Verlage als Autor im Bereich Unterrichtsmaterialien tätig. Darüber hinaus war er immer künstlerisch und musikalisch aktiv. Neben der Ausstellung seiner Kunstwerke (zuletzt im Osthaus-Museum Hagen) spielte er viele Jahre als Schlagzeuger und Gitarrist in Bands seiner Heimatstadt. Rolf Esser hat inzwischen drei Jugendromane, einen Roman für Kinder, zwei Kriminalromane, eine Kurzgeschichtensammlung, ein Sachbuch für Musiker und eine Reihe von verschiedenen Unterrichtsmaterialien veröffentlicht.

Book preview

Chapter One

Death with style

Visitors are not yet to be seen this Wednesday. The Kunst-quartier will not open for another half hour. The caretaker is making his morning rounds. Is everything all right? Nothing is in order!

The caretaker is heading for the stairs down from the upper floor of the Osthaus Museum. He must have been surprised, because the light was still on upstairs. Had someone forgotten to turn it off last night? Then he looked over the beautifully crafted banister down into the hall with the marble Art Nouveau fountain and its five bowing male figures and the small fountain in the middle. The fountain has undergone a gruesome transformation. The white marble and the water are coloured red, and the five figures have been joined by another. A human body hangs above them. One of the figures has bored its way through this body.

Driven by horror, the caretaker rushes down the stairs, stumbles and almost falls on the last landing. Who is that lying there across the well in his blood? Then the caretaker is downstairs and can see it from the side. There lies the museum director Ricardo Sommer, pierced by Art Nouveau, and as dead as dead can be.

Shocked by the sight, the caretaker almost throws up. Then he runs up to the cash desk and shouts to the cashier already sitting there: Call the police! Call the police!

The cashier doesn't know what's happening to her, but well, if the caretaker wants it, she calls the police.

The police arrive quickly, because the police station is in the neighbourhood, on Prentzelstraße. The caretaker leads the two officers to the fountain. For them, too, such a sight is not an everyday occurrence. They are also shocked, because they know the museum director, he is well-known in the city.

This is a case for the CID, one of the officers states, it doesn't look like a natural death to me.

He pulls out his duty mobile phone and calls the relevant office: Criminal Investigation Department 11, Homicide, Death Investigations. It takes time for the investigators to arrive, because they first have to drive from the police headquarters on Hoheleye to the city.

Chief Inspector Günter Etsch has already seen a lot in his criminal career, but the bloody scene he now has before his eyes is new to him in its extremely bizarre nature. A corpse in the midst of a highly artistic environment, pierced by a marble statuette as if by a torpedo. And of course he also knows the dead man.

My God, what happened there? he muses aloud. Did the man lean too far over the railing?

Then he instructs the two policemen, who are still standing there dumbfounded: Block off this part of the building! Searchers have no business here.

The policemen call for more help and equipment from the police station and practically seal off the entire museum building with the typical red and white police cordon tape with the words Polizeiabsperrung (police cordon) in big letters.

In the meantime, the police doctor has put on his latex gloves and begun an initial examination of the body. Even he has never experienced such a strange death.

Can you say anything yet, doctor? asks Etsch impatiently.

But yes, my dear, the man is quite clearly dead, the doctor says seriously, but can hardly stifle a laugh. The investigators always want results, results, results, and preferably yesterday.

Etsch already knows these medical sayings and can no longer laugh about them. He needs facts, the sooner the better. The perpetrator or perpetrators have a head start that needs to be caught up. Otherwise it will become increasingly difficult to solve the case.

The police doctor, however, can already contribute insights.

The man has been dead for about eight to nine hours, Chief Superintendent. And he did not fall of his own accord. He clearly received a hard blow to the back of the head. Without wanting to prejudge the forensic investigation, it was probably the contact with this fountain figure that caused his death. Of course, the blow could already have been fatal. We will find out.

Günter Etsch turns to his colleague standing next to him, Inspector Katharina Weil: Then it must have happened at midnight, right? But what is a museum director doing in the museum at midnight?

If I knew, Katharina Weil shrugs. I'm not familiar with the psyche of museum directors.

The two criminologists are now organising the forensics. The specialists have to examine practically the entire building for traces. How did the perpetrator(s) get into the building? Are there signs of a break-in? If not, did the director let them in? Otherwise, the search is on for possible fingerprints.

Fingerprints are still an essential means of evidence. Dactyloscopes, which are specially trained employees, compare fingerprints with fingerprints of suspects. This comparison is made possible by an identifying evaluation of the individually characteristic and unchanging features of the skin waves on the fingertips. Years ago, the experts had to painstakingly and very time-consumingly evaluate and record the results by sight.

Today, they are read in electronically on the computer and compared with the existing data. This procedure is called Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). In AFIS, an independent nationwide comparison is made with the stored fingerprints of all unsolved crimes and with all fingerprints stored for the purpose of the identification service. This has made it possible to multiply the speed of the comparison of traces.

On site, however, manual labour is still necessary. With a brush and special powder, all possible surfaces have to be dusted and the fingerprints that become visible have to be transferred onto adhesive foil. These are later scanned and entered into the computer.

However, only solid and smooth materials are suitable for trace investigation. The perpetrator does not always leave usable fingerprints. He could also have worn gloves.

In addition to fingerprints, DNA traces are also needed. The North Rhine-Westphalian police use the latest scientific findings and examination methods. Even the smallest amounts of body cells, such as saliva, blood or skin, are sufficient for the scientists at the State Criminal Police Office to conduct a molecular genetic examination and determine the DNA identification pattern of a crime scene trace or a person. In this analysis, only sections of the noncoding, i.e. the area of the DNA that does not contain genetic information, are examined. Individual external characteristics of the person thus remain protected.

Within a very short time, the results can be directly checked for consistency with the comparison material of suspected persons or the data stock of the DNA analysis file kept at the Federal Criminal Police Office.

The successes of recent times, especially in solving serious homicides and sexual offences, have confirmed the expectations of the police and justify the use of this procedure. Not infrequently, it has also been possible to exclude suspicion of a crime against a specific person beyond doubt by means of a DNA analysis.

The problem with all trace searches is that in a museum the existing traces can also come from the museum staff or from the visitors. It will be very difficult to narrow things down. You cannot assume that you will necessarily find clues in the databases.

But all this is routine and Etsch and Weil let the specialists do their work.

We have to question the museum staff, Katha-rina Weil notes with unease. She doesn't like doing this work. Always the same questions: Did you see anything? Did you notice something? Do you know more about it?

Weil and Etsch go into the connecting entrance hall of the museum. All the employees seem to have gathered there. The shock is written all over their faces. The museum director Ricardo Sommer was popular with them. He was highly competent in art history and also enjoyed international recognition, but he did not wear his nose high at all. He often chatted with the supervisors and inquired about their personal circumstances. And he was not above occasionally sweeping away the leaves in front of the entrance in autumn, which fell in masses from the two tall trees in the museum courtyard. When the caretaker reproached him that as director he didn't have to do that, he regularly received the answer that without real life, all art was worthless.

The questioning of the museum employees does not yield any usable insights. How could they, none of them stay at their workplace at night.

If you want to know what the director was doing in the museum that night, you'd better ask his deputy, says the second cashier.

That's right, Etsch thinks, there's also the deputy director, Dr Karin Schmitt. She is supposed to be a strange woman. He hasn't met her personally yet.

Has the deputy director arrived yet? Etsch asks the cashier.

I don't know, she comes and goes as she pleases. She doesn't think much of a regular service, like the ones we have to run. Go over to the office above the restaurant. If you're lucky, she'll be there.

The cashier's voice sounds rather contemptuous, Katharina Weil thinks. The woman obviously doesn't care much for the deputy director.

Etsch and Weil make the short walk over to the museum office. When they step outside through the museum's automatic swinging door, the reporters are already waiting there. How do they know that something has happened here, Etsch wonders. The museum staff must have tipped them off. But no matter, it won't be possible to conceal it anyway. So he gives the most necessary information in scant words, while the photographer captures the two police officers in the picture.

We are just starting the investigation. You will understand that we cannot tell them more. The di-rector of the Osthaus Museum was probably murdered, we found him dead.

Can you tell us anything about the crime scene? a reporter wants to know.

For investigative tactical reasons, we don't give out any further explanations, says Etsch, while Katharina Weil rolls her eyes. Always the same thing!

Can we at least look around the museum?

That's not possible. We are still searching for clues and the old building of the museum is closed until further notice.

Günter Etsch turns around, gives his colleague a sign and they make their way to the museum office. When they open the door on the office floor, a woman is taking off her coat.

She's arrived early, Etsch thinks, it's only 12 o'clock.

Are you Mrs Schmitt? he asks.

Dr. Schmitt, says the woman, Frau Dr. Schmitt.

Katharina Weil has just been waiting for that. If there's one thing she can't stand, it's arrogance.

Well, Dr. Schmitt, she says, emphasising the title, it seems that you have a flexible working time. Perhaps you haven't even noticed any drastic events in your museum.

My working hours are none of your business, Dr Schmitt snaps audibly. Who are you, anyway?

My name is Katharina Weil. I'm a detective with the Hagen CID and this is my colleague, Chief Inspector Günter Etsch.

The CID in the museum? That's new. But what could have happened here? Did someone steal something, did I park wrong?

You're not going to be happy, Katharina thinks.

We don't know if anyone stole anything, says Etsch, but maybe we can find out something from you. What is certain, however, is that your superior, museum director Ricardo Sommer, was murdered. The crime happened around midnight. Do you have any idea what Mr Sommer was doing in the museum at that time?

Dr Schmitt's face remains expressionless. No trace of horror or even regret. Inside her it looks different.

Am I the director's minder? Mr Sommer could do whatever he wanted, even go to the museum at night. If he was murdered during such a walk, that was just his risk. Someone could also kill me if I went for a walk at night.

Schmitt is certainly right about that, but it's certainly not normal in a museum, thinks Katharina Weil.

If someone is murdered in a museum in the middle of the night, that's something else, isn't it? she reproaches the deputy director. Can't you say anything else about it? Did the director have any enemies? Who could he have met that night?

I already told you, I was not interested in what Sommer did. Therefore, I can't give you any information about his friends or enemies. I do the scientific work here at the museum, Sommer was the figurehead. Full stop. That's all I want to say about that.

You don't seem to be interested in helping us with the investigation, Günter Etsch notes. But I think we will have to question you more than once. For the time being, I would like to ask you to make an inventory. Have any works of art been stolen? That would at least be a motive for the murder.

Yes, what do you think? agitated Schmitt. I can't waste my time with an inventory.

Now Etsch has his coffee on.

If you don't comply with my request, I'll charge you with obstructing police work, he threatens her. Otherwise, have a nice day. You don't seem too sorry about your dead director.

The two detectives leave the office and Katharina Weil slams the door emphatically behind her.

✓✓✓

When it comes to art in Hagen, the Osthaus Museum is the first address. It can look back on a long tradition and many confusions. Its founder, Karl Ernst Osthaus, associated his Folkwang idea with the idea that art and life could be reconciled.

The Folkwang School of Painting was founded as early as 1901. Artists such as Christian Rohlfs, Emil Rudolf Weiß, Jan Thorn Prikker and Milly Steger were invited to Hagen by Osthaus and had the opportunity to develop their talents here, freed from economic hardship. Emil Nolde called the museum a sign of the heavens in western Germany.

In 1902, the Museum Folkwang in Hagen was opened as the world's first museum of modern art. The interior of the building was designed by Henry van de Velde. Karl Ernst Osthaus organised numerous exhibitions in the Museum Folk-wang, such as that of the Brücke in the summer of 1907, and maintained intensive contacts with artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde and Alexander Archipenko.

In addition to works by Paul Cézanne, Anselm Feuerbach, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Ferdinand Hodler, Henri Matisse, George Minne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, it was above all the collections of European decorative arts and non-European art that made the museum's reputation in the early years.

Osthaus also endeavoured to shape social life through art in a broader sense. Thus he encouraged the founding of an artists' colony, workshops and a teaching institute. In this context, the Hagen Silversmiths' Workshop and the Hagen Handicraft Seminar were founded under the direction of J. L. Matthieu Lauweriks.

After the death of Karl Ernst Osthaus in 1921, his heirs sold the collection and the rights to the name to the Folk-wang-Museumsverein Essen and the city of Essen in 1922. The museum building in Hagen was converted into an office building by the Mark Municipal Electricity Works, so that a large part of the important interior furnishings were also lost. However, the painter Christian Rohlfs and his wife were able to keep their flat in the attic, as they were entitled to a lifelong right of residence.

The re-foundation of an art museum in Hagen was initiated by the artists' association Hagenring and the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Bund. Initially, this became a Christian-Rohlfs-Museum. For the first time, a museum named after a living modernist artist was dedicated to him. The municipal art museum in the rooms of the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Bund on Hochstraße opened on Saturday, 9 August 1930. At the end of 1934, however, at the instigation of the Nazis, the name Christian Rohlfs was removed and the museum was now only called Städtisches Museum - Haus der Kunst.

In connection with the purges of German museums after the Degenerate Art exhibition, the Hagen Art Museum also lost a large part of its holdings, including about 400 works by Christian Rohlfs. Further holdings were lost in bombing raids during the Second World War and through looting at the end of the war.

When the museum reopened under the name Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum at the end of 1945, the collection had to be rebuilt. In 1955, the old Folkwang building on Hochstraße could be occupied again. A restoration or partial reconstruction of the Art Nouveau interior by Henry van de Velde was financed by donations and completed by the time the large Henry van de Velde exhibition opened in 1991. At the same time, a reorientation of the museum took place.

The Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum was closed from 2006 until the end of August 2009. During this time it was spatially expanded. The reopening under the name Osthaus Museum Hagen took place together with the completion and reopening of the Emil Schumacher Museum located right next door. Since then, both museums have formed the Kunstquartier Hagen.

The Kunstquartier Hagen is a place of contrasts. On the one hand, there is the Osthaus Museum, characterised by Art Nouveau, with its paintings of classical modernism and contemporary art; on the other, there is the hypermodern glass cube of the Emil Schumacher Museum with Emil Schumacher's informal works.

The new building of the Emil Schumacher Museum in particular is causing the financially weak city of Hagen a great deal of concern. New problems keep cropping up. The air conditioning doesn't work, the water supply has a legionella problem. On top of that, the number of visitors is extremely low, and not even the name Emil Schumacher can really inspire them. So the city administration came up with the idea of closing the two museums on Tuesday in addition to the traditional Monday. In the end, the visiting hours were cut. Instead of 10 a.m., it starts at 11 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. The long Thursday, well established in other museums, was cancelled.

✓✓✓

Jakob Bender reads the newspaper. He reads the newspaper every morning when he is on duty, because Jakob Bender is the city archivist. He has to track down and archive everything that can be attributed to the city's history.

The Hagen City Archives were founded in 1929. In the years that followed, the holdings were considerably expanded. Today, the Stadtarchiv Hagen is one