Charlotte Gräfin von Wesdehlen

https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/raub-kunst-kunstmuseum-will-rousseau-b...

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Charlotte Countess von Wesdehlen (1877–1946) came from a very wealthy Jewish family.Her parents Margarete Oppenheim and Georg Reichenheim lived in Berlin's upscale Tiergarten district and collected, among other things, French Impressionists.With her husband, the wealthy and art-loving banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Charlotte built a collection of exquisite works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, Monet, Renoir, known far beyond Berlin, in the first two decades of the 20th century. Derain and Henri Rousseau.

Charlotte and Paul by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy were generous supporters of architecture, painting and sculpture and regular hosted social events in their huge palace at Alsenstrasse 3/3a in Berlin, not far from the Swiss embassy (the Mendelssohn building was torn down by the Nazis). Festivities.The couple divorced in 1927.

In 1930, Charlotte married the retired Swiss captain of the Prussian army Georges Frédéric Petitpierre Count of Wesdehlen from NeuchÃ3tel (1869–1959).Through this marriage she became a Swiss citizen and emigrated to Geneva in 1938, with Count von Wesdehlen remaining in Berlin.During the move, the countesss lost almost all of her assets because of the imperial flight tax, which was imposed on Jews who want to leave the country, and other reprisals.