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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 8286381, member: 110350&quot;]I just saw this discussion, and, as noted, a lot of this is discussed in my original thread about my Arcadius solidus. See <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-first-ancient-gold-coin-a-solidus-of-arcadius.378975/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-first-ancient-gold-coin-a-solidus-of-arcadius.378975/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/my-first-ancient-gold-coin-a-solidus-of-arcadius.378975/</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The only thing that made me feel a bit uneasy was the fact that Karl Kreß (Kress) was the coin&#039;s dealer in 1960. See this Dec. 2019 post by [USER=83845]@Curtisimo[/USER] (at <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/curtisimo%E2%80%99s-top-10-of-2019.352186/#post-3955142" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/curtisimo%E2%80%99s-top-10-of-2019.352186/#post-3955142">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/curtisimo’s-top-10-of-2019.352186/#post-3955142</a>):</p><p><br /></p><p>&#039;Otto Helbing Nachf. was a prominent Jewish family run auction house based in Munich which was founded in 1878. In the mid 1930s the family was forced to flee Germany and the firm was seized by the Nazis and transferred to Karl Kress at some point before 1938 (a process often referred to as aryanizing). Until 1944 Kress continued to use the Otto Helbing name. A look through restitution claim records show that some of these auctions were populated with material seized by the SS and sold through the Kress-run auction house. This coin was part of an auction in November 1942 held under these circumstances. My research leads me to believe that this coin was unsold in that sale and that it and the other unsold lots were retained by Karl Kress for the rest of his life. Kress died in 1969 but his firm continued until 1986. These WWII era unsold lots as well as the rest of the Karl Kress inventory were purchased as a group and sold by Gorney &amp; Mosch at auction in 2016.&#039;</p><p><br /></p><p>A couple of further notes based on my own brief research: At the time the Otto Helbing firm was &quot;Aryanized&quot; -- which, as I know from my own family&#039;s experience, usually meant a forced sale at an extortionately low price that sometimes wasn&#039;t even paid -- it was &quot;owned by Heinrich Hirsch, father of Gerhard Hirsch, who founded the still active Münzhandlung Gerhard Hirsch Nachf.&quot;</p><p>See <i>The E-Sylum</i> for 9/11/2016 at the Newman Numismatic Portal (<a href="https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/periodical/512844" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/periodical/512844" rel="nofollow">https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/periodical/512844</a>). We don&#039;t know exactly why Karl Kreß was given the opportunity to acquire the firm and its inventory -- although of necessity he must have been a Nazi party member himself or otherwise a supporter of the regime -- but it seems that he was not even a numismatist by trade before the sale. See <a href="https://nnp.wustl.edu/Library/AdvancedSearch?page=3&amp;fullsearchterm=hess%20leu&amp;contenttype=Periodical" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://nnp.wustl.edu/Library/AdvancedSearch?page=3&amp;fullsearchterm=hess%20leu&amp;contenttype=Periodical" rel="nofollow">https://nnp.wustl.edu/Library/AdvancedSearch?page=3&amp;fullsearchterm=hess leu&amp;contenttype=Periodical</a> for an abstract of the article published after his death in <i>Coin World</i> [02/11/1970] (pg. 65), stating that &quot;Mr Kress had been a printer by trade then had purchased the Munich numismatic firm of Otto Helbing.&quot; See also <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Messen-Pr%C3%BCfen-Gewinden-Werkstattb%C3%BCcher-German/dp/3662406136/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&amp;qid=1618339690&amp;refinements=p_27%3AKarl+Kress&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-2" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.amazon.com/Messen-Pr%C3%BCfen-Gewinden-Werkstattb%C3%BCcher-German/dp/3662406136/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&amp;qid=1618339690&amp;refinements=p_27%3AKarl+Kress&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-2" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Messen-Prüfen-Gewinden-Werkstattbücher-German/dp/3662406136/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&amp;qid=1618339690&amp;refinements=p_27:Karl+Kress&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-2</a>, a link to a copy on Amazon, with a photo of the cover, of Karl Kress&#039;s 1938 book <i>Messen und Prüfen von Gewinden (Werkstattbücher, 65) </i>(in translation, &quot;Measuring and testing threads (workshop books, 65)&quot; -- nothing to do with numismatics, I think).</p><p><br /></p><p>What gives me comfort, though, and leads me to feel that there&#039;s nothing &quot;tainted&quot; about the coin (at least, not directly), is that I think it&#039;s extremely unlikely that any coin that was in the Otto Helbing inventory at the time Kress acquired the firm circa 1938 was still in inventory in 1960. Especially a gold solidus. Of course it&#039;s true that Kress benefited financially from the sale of this very coin, but there&#039;s nothing I can do about that. And better that the coin is in my hands now than in his.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>See also the various responses in that thread on the subject.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is extremely clear to me that the Karl Kreß who acquired the Otto Helbing firm -- certainly under dubious circumstances -- was not the same person as the Nazi photographer and POW Karl Kress. See the interrogation report regarding the latter, with biographical information, at <a href="https://www.dfs.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2019/02/karl_kress.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.dfs.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2019/02/karl_kress.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.dfs.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2019/02/karl_kress.pdf</a>, as well as the biographical information at <a href="https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2014/08/21/karl-kress/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2014/08/21/karl-kress/" rel="nofollow">https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2014/08/21/karl-kress/</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Kress was born February 6, 1900 at Dotzheim, Kreis Wiesbaden. He served in the German Army from the end of World War I until June 1930, when he became technical assistant to the State Art Collections at Kassel. There his primary duty was that of a photographer.&nbsp; In 1939 Kress was called to active duty with the Luftwaffe as photographer, and assigned to a photographic unit, with the rank of Feldwebel (Staff Sergeant). The unit was transferred to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the western suburbs of Paris, in June 1940.</p><p><br /></p><p>In November 1940 Kress was ordered by his commanding officer to proceed to Paris with three assistants for the purpose of photographing art objects.&nbsp; These art objects he learned had been confiscated by the ERR and were stored near the Louvre at the Jeu de Paume a museum in the Jardins des Tuileries. The ERR, formed under the direction of Alfred Rosenberg, had originally as its primary function the collection of political material in the occupied countries, for exploitation in the “struggle against Jewry and Freemasonry.”&nbsp; The Western Office (Amt Westen) of the Rosenberg-headed Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories became operational in July 1940, with headquarters in Paris.&nbsp; Amt Westen was directed at the outset by Stabsfuehrer Dr. Georg Ebert, assisted by Baron Kurt von Behr.</p><p><br /></p><p>Starting in October 1940, on Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering’s instigation, the ERR began taking over almost all of the seized art in France—not only paintings and works on paper, but also antique furniture, carpets, tapestries, objects d’art, and antiquities.&nbsp; Goering was anxious to enrich his own collections, and could offer Luftwaffe and other assistance for seizure, processing arrangements, and transport, while he manipulated further ERR art-looting operations in France. The initial collections brought to the German Embassy in Paris were moved first to several rooms in the Louvre, but space there was too limited.&nbsp; By the end of October, the ERR set up shop for processing at the Jeu de Paume.&nbsp; On November 5, a Goering order issued in Paris extended formally the authority of the ERR to include the confiscation of “ownerless” Jewish art collections, and, thereby altered the emphasis of the ERR mission so as to make such activity its primary function.</p><p><br /></p><p>When Kress reported to the Jeu de Paume the museum was already full of art objects.&nbsp; There he met Drs. Gunther Schiedlausky, Hans Ulrich Wirth, and Heinrich Jerchel.&nbsp; They worked for the Paris Dienststelle of Amt Westen.&nbsp; This office, in addition to a staff of photographers, consisted of a small group of professional art historians who worked as a unit designated as the Arbeitsgruppe Louvre. The function of this unit was the methodical preparation for transport to Germany of all works of art received through confiscation, and a comprehensive inventory thereof.&nbsp; At the outset, this group comprised Drs. Schiedlausky, Hans Ulrich Wirth, W. Esser, Heinrich Jerchel, Friedrich Franz Kuntze, and several research assistants.&nbsp; Schiedlausky, was a leading member of the ERR art staff from November 1940 to December 1941, and chief custodian of the German deposits of the ERR from July 1942 until April 1945.&nbsp; Wirth, joined the Paris art staff of the ERR in November 1940 as one of the assistants to Schiedlausky. He was responsible for preparing inventories of important collections which had just been confiscated.&nbsp; Jerchel, who originally served with the Kunstschutz (the Wehrmacht’s Art Protection Office), was transferred to the ERR in November 1940 with duties similar to that of Wirth.&nbsp; Once situated at the Jeu de Paume, Kress was assigned the task of photographing a large number of paintings that had been confiscated by the ERR.</p><p><br /></p><p>Kress’ first photographic assignment was to take about forty photographs for Dr. Hermann Bunjes, who was not connected with the ERR.&nbsp; Bunges, who wore several hats while in Paris, including being the&nbsp; Director of the German Art Historical Institute, a member of the Kunstschutz, and an advisor to Goering, later told Kress the art works he had photographed had been flown to Germany and given to Adolf Hitler.</p><p><br /></p><p>Von Behr quickly recognized Kress’ ability as a professional art photographer, and sought to have him transferred to the ERR.&nbsp; Von Behr was the Deputy Director of Amt Westen, Director of the Paris ERR Kunststab, and subsequently Director of Dienststelle Westen and the confiscated furniture operation, the Möbel-Aktion (M-Action).&nbsp; As part of the Kress transfer process, in 1941 he was ordered to the Cultural Photographic Unit in the Air Ministry, and then transferred to the ERR.&nbsp; He was returned to Paris from Berlin, and put to work in the Jeu de Paume. At this time, Kress met and worked under Drs. Bruno Lohse and Friedrich Franz Kuntze.&nbsp; Lohse was a member of the Paris art staff from February 1941, subsequently its Deputy Director, and special art representative of Goering in the ERR.&nbsp; Kuntze, both a painter and art historian by profession, was assigned to duty with the ERR in Paris in February 1941. He arrived simultaneously with Lohse and occupied a position entailing research and the compiling of inventories, but appears to have been somewhat more independent than the other research assistants in that he occasionally proposed works of art for exchange and for acquisition by Goering.</p><p><br /></p><p>In conformity with Adolf Hitler’s order of November 18, 1940, the greater part of the material confiscated by the ERR was sent to Germany for safekeeping and for Hitler’s ultimate disposition. The first shipment of ERR material from France to Germany took place in April 1941.&nbsp; Between that date and July 1944, 29 shipments were sent into the Reich. The shipments comprised 138 freight carloads, containing 4,174 cases of work destined for six separate protected deposits. These deposits were: Schloss Neuschwanstein (Kreis Füssen); Schloss Chiemsee (Herreninsel, Kreis Traunstein); Cloister Buxheim (Kreis Memmingen); Schloss Kogl (St. Georgen/ Kreis Vöcklabruck); Schloss Seisenegg (Kreis Amstetten); and, Schloss Nickolsburg (Kreis Nickolsburg).</p><p><br /></p><p>During the summer of 1941, just months after the German invasion and occupation of Greece, Kress was ordered to Salonika to accompany Professor Franz Dölger on an expedition to Mount Athos.&nbsp; Dölger, a distinguished professor of Byzantine studies at the University of Munich since 1931, was to focus on historical and theological issues.&nbsp; His expedition was officially sponsored by Alfred Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, and was supported by the Wehrmacht.&nbsp; Kress was to later recall that the purpose of the expedition from his perspective was to make cultural propaganda photographs.&nbsp; Kress spent six months on the project and subsequently Dölger’s account of his visit to Mount Athos was printed in the book Mönchsland Athos (Munich: 1943).&nbsp; After completing this mission, Kress returned to Paris in 1942 to resume work under Lohse.</p><p><br /></p><p>When Kress returned to Paris he found that Luftwaffe corporal Heinz Simokat had been installed by Lohse as the ERR’s chief photographer.&nbsp; Thus with little photographic work to do, Kress set himself the task of compiling an orderly set of negatives, inasmuch as he had found the files in a state of disorder on his return from Greece.&nbsp; He also began spending more time in the photographic section of the Amt Rosenberg (Rosenberg’s headquarters) in Berlin than with the ERR in Paris.</p><p><br /></p><p>At some point, in 1943 or 1944, Simokat, at his own request, was returned to active military duty, and Rudolf&nbsp; Scholz became the leading ERR photographer, responsible to art historian Dr. Walter Borchers (Obergefreiter in the Luftwaffe) who had become head of the Arbeitsgruppe Louvre.&nbsp; Rudolf was a nephew of Dr. Robert Scholz – Bereichsleiter (Divisional Director) of the Rosenberg Amt Bildende Kunst (Office for Pictorial Arts), Berlin; and, responsible for the professional conduct of the Paris art staff of the ERR.</p><p><br /></p><p>Kress, at some point in 1943, was sent to Riga and Kiev on short photographic missions, and also worked in the ERR deposits at Neuchwanstein/Fussen and Chiemsee, in Bavaria.</p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile, ERR shipments continued to be sent to the ERR deposits in Germany and Austria through February 1944, at which time the Reichschancellery (because of the increasing danger from air raids) ordered the major deposits evacuated and their contents brought to Alt Aussee, Austria, for storage in the salt mine there.</p><p><br /></p><p>Shortly before the heavy air raids on Berlin began in 1944, Kress was given the responsibility of assembling the entire ERR file of photographic negatives and moving it to Neuchwanstein/Fussen for safekeeping.&nbsp; Subsequently, he was ordered to move the entire file to the ERR center at Schloss Kogl/St. Georgen.&nbsp; Shortly before the American entry into the area, the files were once again moved from Kogl to Fussen.&nbsp; The final transfer of material was undertaken by Lohse, acting under Scholz’s orders.</p><p><br /></p><p>During 1944 Kress made a number of short trips to Paris in order to bring photographic material from the Luftwaffe unit station to Germany.&nbsp; In addition, he was given the assignment by Robert Scholz of bringing Baron von Behr’s Dienststelle Westen household effects (china, linen, silver, etc) confiscated in the M-Action, to Germany for the use by ERR personnel.</p><p><br /></p><p>As late as the night of May 3-4, 1945 Scholz and Kress were at Schloss Kogl.&nbsp; Scholz then sent Kress to the Alt Altssee deposit very shortly before U.S. troops occupied the area.&nbsp; When the troops captured the mine at Alt Aussee on May 8, Kress, then a Stabsfeldwebel (Master Sergeant) was made a prisoner of war.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>The Karl Kress who was in the Weimar army until 1930 and then in Kassel was not the same Karl Kreß who printed this Otto Helbing catalog in Munich in 1924 (see bottom left), and remained in Munich through the 1930s!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1464056[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Nor was the Mr. Nazi photographer Karl Kress who was running around all over Europe through 1944 (Greece, Paris, Berlin, etc.) the same one who ran a coin company in Munich at exactly the same time (still using the Helbing name), as with this November 1942 auction:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1464066[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;By 1944, he had moved his company to Salzburg:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1464062[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Forget the different birth dates; the idea that they were the same person is ludicrous for innumerable other reasons.</p><p><br /></p><p>I do find it curious that Kreß, by now back in Munich, was still using the Otto Helbing name at the time of the 1960 auction at which my Arcadius solidus was sold -- long after the rights to and ownership of the Otto Helbing firm were apparently returned to the Hirsch family, certainly no later than the 1950s:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1464071[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, here is a link to a list of Otto Helbing auctions from 1888-1942 at rnumis.com: <a href="https://www.rnumis.com/house_auctions.php?house=HLBG&amp;db_minyr=1844&amp;db_maxyr=2022&amp;dbcountry=All%20Countries" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.rnumis.com/house_auctions.php?house=HLBG&amp;db_minyr=1844&amp;db_maxyr=2022&amp;dbcountry=All%20Countries" rel="nofollow">https://www.rnumis.com/house_auctions.php?house=HLBG&amp;db_minyr=1844&amp;db_maxyr=2022&amp;dbcountry=All Countries</a>.&nbsp; The last one without the Kress name on it is from 1935, and the first one produced by Kress was in 1939. 1936-1938 are missing. The 1944 Kress auction in Salzburg is indexed separately, rather than under the Helbing name.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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