Exhibition event: Evening lecture with Florian Schwanniger and [...]

Part of the Looted: Two Families, Nazi Theft, and the Search for Restitution exhibition series.

This evening of lectures welcomes the two historians who have contributed essays to ‘Looted: Two Families, Nazi Theft and the Search for Restitution’ – Dr Birgit Kirchmayr and Mag. Florian Schwanninger.

Dr Birgit Kirchmayer will speak about art restitution in Austria from 1945 to the present day, considering the topic in relation to post-war Austrian memory culture and the successes and failures of legal attempts at restitution.

Mag. Florian Schwanniger will explore the history of Ranshofen and Braunau am Inn from the Anschluss onwards, situating the Wertheimer and Kaltenhauser family stories into the local social and political contexts.

About the Speakers

Mag. Florian Schwanniger is a historian, author, and director of the Schloss Hartheim Centre for Learning and Remembrance in Upper Austria. Schwanninger grew up in Braunau am Inn and his published writings have explored resistance, persecution, and extermination in Upper Austria during the Nazi era.

Dr Birgit Kirchmayr is a historian, associate professor of History at the University of Linz, member of the Austrian Art Restitution Advisory Board, and senior adviser of the Commission for Provenance Research in Austria. In 2023, she and editor Pia Schölnberger released the book ‘Restituted: 25 Years of Art Restitution Law in Austria’, published by Czernin Verlag.