Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Staatssekretär Jürgen Walter Rede zur Überreichung der Staufermedaille in Gold an Herrn Harry L. Ettlinger am 15. Februar 2014 in Karlsruhe Es gilt das gesprochene Wort! Lieber Herr Ettlinger sehr geehrte Frau Müller-Tamm, meine sehr geehrten Damen und Herren, wie wir gerade gehört haben, ist Harry Ettlinger Baden-Württemberg und Karlsruhe in vielerlei Hinsicht entgegengekommen. Deshalb ist es mir ein großes Anliegen als Vertreter des Landes ihm heute auch entgegenzukommen. Die kleinste Geste des Respekts ist, ihn in seiner Landessprache ansprechen. Ich werde daher meine Rede auf Englisch halten. First of all I would like to thank three persons: Of course Mr. Ettlinger who even changed his travel plans to be with us today. And as he told me at lunch he had a heart surgery last year to be able to travel overseas. The second person I would like to thank is Dr. Tessa Rosebrock of the Kunsthalle. Without her we would not be here today. Because it was her who told me at a press conference on provenance research about the Monuments Men for the first time. Months later, when I heard that one of the last healthy living members of this group was born in Baden-Württemberg and that he will come to Karlsruhe, the idea to honor this person with the Staufer Medal came into my mind. To be true: This should have happened many years before.
- 2 - I also would like to thank Mr. Wiedemann of the Staatsministerium in Stuttgart. Usually it takes weeks and even months to get a Staufer Medal confirmed. He achieved it within a few days! Ladies and Gentlemen, every year, millions of people from all parts of the world come to visit Baden- Württemberg. What attracts them to our country is our hospitality, our beautiful nature and - more than anything - our overwhelming and rich culture. About 1300 museums are located in the south-west of Germany, and quite a few of them house gorgeous collections and enjoy world-wide renown - as for example the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe does. To whom do we owe these magnificent treasures? We owe them to the artists, of course, and to those who employed the artists. And no doubt we owe them to collectors, gallery owners and museum directors. But this is not the whole story. Thanks to a movie coming to the screens these days more and more people are getting aware of a fact that up to now was widely unknown: A great deal of Germany s and Baden-Württemberg s cultural richness is due to the care and the wisdom of the United States administration during World War II! Let us take a look back at the year 1943. World War II was raging through Europe, killing millions of people, devastating cities and regions, putting at risk our cultural heritage. Just think of the perverted idea of Hitler and the Nazis to destroy Paris! A story now told by Volker Schlöndorff in his latest movie. The movie was also shown at the Berlinale 2014.
- 3 - Cathedrals, castles and other historic monuments were threatened by bombing and gunfire, and so were museums, archives and libraries. German authorities had evacuated countless works of art and stored them in mines and caves - sites that were often unsafe or improper for these precious goods. The greedy Nazi regime had piled up masterpieces of unbelievable value in secret hideouts, after looting them from museums and private collections all across Europe. Briefly speaking: Europe s cultural treasure was in grave danger! This was when US-President Franklin D. Roosevelt took a prudent and far reaching decision: He launched the MFAA - the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section. So the American forces formed a group of 345 men from 13 different nations, the so-called Monuments Men, many of them art historians, curators or museum directors. Their task was easy to define - but hard to fulfil: To protect cultural and artistic goods from war damage, to track down hidden works of art and to return stolen objects to their rightful owners. Dear Mr. Ettlinger, you were one of those 345 men taking up a challenging mission. In January 1945, shortly before the end of the war, you came to Germany - you were nineteen years old at the time and a sergeant of the U.S. Army. After only a few months you became a Monuments Man. Being a member of Commander James Rorimer s group was more than a mere job to you. It was rather an emotional adventure.
- 4 - It was an emotional adventure because you were born into an art loving family. Your grandfather, Otto Oppenheimer, owned a fine collection of prints and ex libris - parts of it, as I heard, are still to be seen in your storage room. And it was an emotional adventure because you repaid evil with good. You committed yourself to saving the culture of a nation that years before had forced you to leave your home and emigrate. Let us make a step further back into the past. In 1926 you were born into a Jewish family, and your first name was not Harry, but Heinz. Your family lived in Karlsruhe, not far from the Kunsthalle, ran a women s fashion store and were well respected citizens. That sounds like a promise for a safe and happy life, one would say. But things turned out differently. Two days after your seventh birthday the Nazis seized power in Germany. It didn t take long before their insane racist and anti-semitic ideology affected you and your family. You suffered severe discrimination - in school, in the sports club, wherever you went. Your father was compelled to close down his business, and he soon realized that there was no future for a Jewish family in Germany. So the Ettlingers followed the example of the Oppenheimers, your grand-father s family: They packed bags - and in September 1938, one day after your Bar Mizwa, left the country. After an odyssey across Europe they finally reached the United States of America where they could live in freedom. The Ettlinger family settled in Newark,
- 5 - New Jersey, and adapted the American way of life. Heinz became Harry, went to high school and obtained U.S. citizenship. It was in 1944, when you, Mr. Ettlinger, a fresh graduate from high school, were drafted into the U.S military. They urgently needed servicemen being fluent in German. So instead of sending you into combat they ordered you to serve as a translator and interpreter in the liberated area of Germany. Being able to speak German may have saved your life. And then after seven years you were back, back to Germany. And you didn t hesitate a single moment to help rebuild German civilization - by joining the Monuments Men. And all this happened in a time when a lot of people in the free world doubted if Germany could ever be part of the civilized world again. The work in the salt mines in Heilbronn-Kochendorf was certainly your most important task when serving in the MFAA. As much as 40.000 boxes had been stored underground, a breathtaking number, and they were filled with works of art - most of them evacuated from museums, some plundered by the Nazis. Thanks to the United States and its great MFAA section all these works of art refound their rightful owners. The United States were the first nation in history to fight a war with a cultural doctrine. This doctrine was: Military operations have to respect the world s cultural heritage. Of course art does not fit into the usual categories of military thinking. But if art is destroyed all of mankind loses its heritage. Therefore if it comes to destruction of art there are no winners, only losers. Culture is worth preserving, even and especially in times of war when the values of human life and society are mistreated.
- 6 - And we should not forget that parts of the military were not amused of the Monuments Men s actions. Which made their job even harder. Nevertheless the MFAA managed to return about five millions works of art to their owners all over Europe. Ladies and gentlemen, after World War II the United States of America and its allies gave Germany a second chance. I think we took this chance. Germany today is a free, democratic and peaceful nation, a reliable partner in the international community. Dear Mr. Ettlinger, you yourself gave Germany a second chance, in a very personal respect. Being a Monuments Man you helped to safeguard our culture, to return stolen objects, to restore the rule of law. You were a soldier who did not come to destroy, but to preserve. Who did not come to oppress, but to encourage. Who did not come to take, but to give. Doing so you have set an example for peace and forgiveness, an example for reconciliation between Germany and its Jewish citizens. You once said in an interview: All I wanted was to do a good job. I can assure you: You did a great job. You did a great job for your new country - and for your old one. Therefore Ministerpräsident Winfried Kretschmann decided to present to you the Staufer Medal in Gold. It is a high and seldom awarded decoration. And it honors not only you but all of the Monuments Men. Many of whom have risked their lives to protect Europe s cultural legacy.
- 7 - I congratulate you, also on behalf of the government of Baden-Württemberg and Ministerpräsident Winfried Kretschmann, and I hope you can accept this medal as a symbol for your life coming to full circle. Concluding: I would like to ask you to do me a favor: Come back to Baden- Württemberg and the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe to look at your Rembrandt as often as possible. We would be honored! I hope we can welcome you again for the celebration of Karlsruhe s 300 th anniversary next year. I would like to ask you to come to me now. It is a great pleasure, thrill and honor to present to you the Staufer Medal in Gold! Thank you again for all you did for us. The Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg wants to thank Dr. Tessa Rosebrock from The Kunsthalle Karlsruhe for her support to this speech as regards content. Das Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg dankt Frau Dr. Tessa Rosebrock für die inhaltliche Unterstützung beim Verfassen dieser Rede.***