Lecture Series: Art History(ies) of the Tiergarten District
The painting *Eisenwalzwerk* by Hans Baluschek, dated 1910, depicts a newly built rolling mill hall belonging to the coal and steel company ‘Hahnsche Werke’ in Großenbaum (now Duisburg). It belonged to Heinrich Eisner, who had been Albert Hahn’s founding partner and the first chairman of the Jewish Community of Berlin.
Image gallery
Hans Baluschek, Eisenwalzwerk, 1910
Today, the painting forms part of the Bröhan Museum’s collection and is currently the subject of restitution proceedings.
The headquarters of ‘Hahnsche Werke AG’, as well as several residences of the Hahn and Eisner families – who were directors of the company – were located in the Tiergarten district. The addresses are Bellevuestraße 14 and 6a, Tiergartenstraße 21, Matthäikirchstraße 2, Große Querallee 2 and Sigismundstraße 6.
Research into the provenance of the painting required the reconstruction of the company’s history and its ‘Aryanisation’ (forced sale) to Mannesmannröhren-Werke, and sheds light on the biographies of both highly respected families and their social commitment. Dr Georg and Frida Hahn, for instance, were among the co-founders and financial backers of what was initially the private Museum of Folk Art, later the Royal Museums of Berlin, whilst Kommerzienrat Dipl. Ing. Paul Eisner owned valuable carpets, furniture and paintings, including Hans Thoma’s ‘Gefilde der Seligen’ (The Fields of the Blessed). The families fled Nazi persecution in 1938 and 1939. Their possessions were expropriated or destroyed, and the names of both families fell into oblivion.
A lecture by Dr Sabine Meister, Bröhan Museum
- Free admission. Booking recommended.
Additional information
Dates
November 2026
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