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aphspain-pure · 4 years ago

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Spanish Gold in Moscow

@hetaliamondaychallenge September 28: “Chaos isn’t meant to be understood”.

Category: Fanfic.

Pair: RusSpa (Russia x Spain).

Words: 2.073.

Genre: Historical, Drama, angst, shounen-ai.

Note(s): During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the Sencond Spanish Republic was completely ignored by Europe, while the fascist that had rebealed were helped by some militar forces. Spain was basically used as a test game of the military armament and strategy before the 2WW. The only country that gave real help to the Republic was the USSR. To finance the war, the government spent all the Spanish gold.

1938

With an absolute ill look in his face, Spain, who still liked to considerate himself as the Second Spanish Republic, moved his gaze to the door that opened a few seconds before.

Nations could perceive other nations in a certain rate, so he wasn’t really surprised when the other entered the room; he had sensed him from far away, knowing he was leading to his position. Weary eyes without the so-called typical Spanish shine looked at the other, a little smile crossing his feverish face.

- Buenos días, Rusia.

Right in front of him, heavy, enormous and clearly powerful, the actual leader of the giant Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Russia, stared back at him with his famous sweet smile. Spain didn’t have known him till a pair of centuries ago, but he knew about this certain characteristic even before personally meeting him. He heard from France, England, Prussia, Austria and even Denmark about this “gentle look monster” that was so big and terrifying in the east.

Anyway, Spain didn’t have really hated this guy even once; he was actually grateful for his performance during the Napoleonic wars, though. If it wouldn’t have been for the Russian forces, France’s troops wouldn’t have retired from his vital territory and he wouldn’t have regained his independence. He sighed, trying to get rid of the thoughts of the past.

He was now, currently, going to lose his independence against his own people, in the middle of the worst civil war he had ever have –and Spain was certainly a country that had endured quite some civil wars-.

A strong ache tortured his mind while he suffered a new wave of deaths. Every time his people died, his body would burn and a painful sensation split him in two. They were dying at that very moment, out there, in the valley of the Ebro, killing each other in a battle that had been going on for months. He nearly cried, but couldn’t afford doing it in front of the power that was standing over there, staring at him with a complicated look in his eyes.

After a few moments, Russia, still smiling even if Spain’s looks were terrible, spoke with a calmed voice. – How are your wounds? –he had asked.

A quick smile was formed in the Spaniard’s mouth, quite ironic.

- Well, my right arm has grown up again, so I can’t complain.

Russia stared at the renewed arm, where a few days ago only a stump could have been appreciated. They, nations, received wounds just like humans but their bodies weren’t actually the same. If they were cut, they would recover; if they lost blood, after resting for a while they’d be up again; if they were burn till ashes, they would start to be reborn just like a Fenix. If they were killed, they wouldn’t die.

Only another nation could kill one.

Even if Spain had lately started to question if a nation could kill itself, just like how he was feeling during these days in which he thought he was actually going to be destroyed by his own people.

Russia’s hand reached him and touched his back. He jumped for a moment, sored. He then relaxed, looking far away and not giving attention to the hands that touched his still bleeding injuries.

When a certain happening was so bad, so traumatic, that it gave the nations nearly-coma state, the injuries would still remain bleeding some time. Sometimes it lasted days, sometimes centuries. Those were produced by the bombing, the Biltz, in Guernica, and they still bleed after a year.

He trembled, just by remembering it. The hand in his back made him shiver in pain, but it was the most comforting thing he could afford to have those days, so he didn’t say anything.

Then, he gained composure and faced the other. - What are you doin’ here, anyway? I thought you were going back at your place for some bureaucracy stuff.

Russia remained silent.

That silence made Spain worry.

He didn’t hate Russia at all. He was nice to him, and every time they had met he could only see a true innocence behind the brute and scary dude everyone saw. He liked him quite a bit, and he lately, during his few peaceful years with a Republic, found out that he was such an intelligent and interesting chat partner. Thanks to the leftist ideology of his government the relations with the Soviet Union had been pretty good, so they had become nearly friends at this point.

He even had became the only nation helping him in this suicidal situation.

During civil wars Spain, normally, stayed apart and watched his people decide his fate. He disliked choosing between his beloved people, so que stayed aside.

This time, he couldn’t.

He had seen what happened with Italy after the Great War. The fascism grow up and ate Ita-chan and Romano completely. The brutality that came with it made Spain shiver from his position in the neighbour peninsula. He didn’t recognise his cute Italian brothers with those black shirts and that dark look in their face. Then it expanded to Germany and developed into the National Socialism, which happened to be even worse. A virus was expanding all over Europe and even reached his brother, Portugal.

Spain could have seen it coming. He even spoke with a few general of the army and old requetés, he tried to create a flexible government just to evade the incoming clash. But it was all in vain.

The military coup happened, and while it wasn’t effective, war broke out.

It may be pathetic coming from a country that used to be a world power but, this time, Spain feared his people. That’s why he stayed with the republicans. That’s why he suddenly started dying from the insides.

And while Spain was in that desperate situation, Europe didn’t mind at all and, trying to avoid a Second World War, signed a No Intervention Pact in which 27 countries swore not to intervene in his civil war. That had broken Spain’s heart, who found himself suddenly isolated and left apart, left to die alone. It was even worse when, even if knowing it, the United Kingdom looked away while the Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy broke that pact and helped the rebels. He couldn’t believe England’s coward attitude.

But it was kinda worst when he watched his closest friends actually attack him, help the fascist rebels.

First, the Italian brothers; then, Germany, Austria and Prussia under the name of the Third Reich. Portugal also attacked the Republic by sending his Viriatos and even the American self-proclaimed Hero’s Ford Company sent help to destroy him. All his old friends were against him. He, on the other hand, only received some fusils from Mexico and a few airplanes from a very scared France, who refused to send more help. The only one who lent him it’s power was the Soviet Union, or preferably Russia.

He still remembered when he had met Romano in the site of Toledo. Romano had been excited, he spoke about autarchy, about having a great colonial empire, and about things such as war being the way through the future. His golden eyes sparkled when he had, for the first time in centuries, hugged Spain.

If you join us I promise we’ll bring this to an end. –he had whispered, while speaking about how great it was being a fascist country.

He had been then, suddenly, pulled apart by a giant body that happened to be his ally, Russia, who looked at Romano with electric violet cruel eyes. Spain could have said something to stop a conflict, but, when he looked at Roma, he couldn’t longer see his cute tomato-like crybaby. In the past Romano would have cried and call him to save him but, then, he held his gaze prideful, strong and dangerous in front of the terrible Russia.

A bombing had made them react and, when he came to himself, he was with the International Brigades heading to Madrid.

Remembering all of that made him feel sick and hided half of his face while looking at the floor with a tired smile.

He suddenly had an urge to vomit, but he managed to stay calm and recover a moment later. – Sorry, I beg you excuse me. My house is total chaos now, no, wait… EUROPE is a total chaos now, haha…! I don’t understand how or why, but it makes me think things a way too much.

- Chaos isn’t meant to be understood.

That statement made Spain stay quiet and, then, he looked with his nearly dead green eyes at the other.

- I’m going to ask again, Russia. –he said, this time, cautious-. Why are you here?

- You haven’t paid me to help you lately.

And if he had frozen before, this time Spain had lost all the blood of his veins.

He started sweating. He wanted to cry, but he couldn’t.

- Y-yeah, I-I know… It’s just that all the gold that I’ve been keeping in my reserves has been already taken to Moscow, so I-I…

Russia’s voice was sweet but cold as ice. – You’re not going to pay for my services.

The Spaniard’s eyes opened at his full.

- No! Don’t even think ‘bout that! I’ll pay, I swear it! It’s just that, right now, my people are starving, we don’t have armament and the industry it’s all stopped. I can’t now but, when we win, I’ll return what I owe! A-and I’ll even make it double…! I’ll work hard, I swear. But, now, with all my old gold gone, I…

- So you’re not paying.

The calmed voice made Spain feel like if he were to hyperventilate. He felt like crashing. Like glass about to break.

- I’m not. –he confirmed then.

The taller man stood up, and Spain followed him, clearly desperate.

- Y-you can’t leave me, Russia! If I don’t have your help I’m lost! –after hearing those words the Slavic turned around and faced him, with his so-typical smile in his face.

- So you’ll pay me?

The brunette looked away, clearly ashamed. – I have… nothing to pay you with. B-but I promise..!

- Нет. You can pay me. –response that took an ¿hah..? out of Spain. Russia laughed in a calmed way and then, explained. – Even if you don’t have anything you still possess your body, da?

And Spain’s eyes darkened.

Ah, true. Nation prostitution.

It had been a while.

It used to be so common in the past that he didn’t know why he felt so surprised when Russia suggested it. It may have been ‘cause Russia is fairly younger than himself, or ‘cause the times have changed. He had been so accustomed to it even when he was a child that it wasn’t so much of a surprise finding out that some new power wanted to take advantage of his position to appeal to this. Spain could easily remember when he was forced to be Rome’s or the Islamic Empire’s sex-boy, or even Turkey’s or France’s. Well, he had also been like that with some nations; but, well, let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and he was also a sinner after all.

He looked back at Russia and sighed. – Is this old damaged body worth all the gold I could have had afford to pay you weeks before? –and Russia’s aura became surprisingly pink, just like a happy kid’s.

- And much more! I’m happy so I’ll help you.

And leaned forward to kiss Spain’s forehead. Spain rised an eyebrow, but let him be, anyway. He needed help and Russia was eager to help him only receiving some affectionate touches here and there in return. There were worst things he could have had to do.

Another wave of pain drove him crazy sored and let himself drown in the straw bed he had been using before. He took a deep breath.

Then, when the fever started to be stable again, spoke directly to Russia.

- Well, then, how about a quickie? I have to go back to the battlefield in 30 minutes and I think I could come back quite worse than now, ha ha. –he had laughed, with his shiny –and now tiny- smile.

Russia smiled back, getting rid of his Soviet general military hat while getting closer to the sun-burned skinned nation. He sat, and grabbed the other’s cheeks with a gloved strong hand. That tranquil smile crossed his happy face.

- Let me tell you this is going to be a payment in instalments.

#hetaliamondaychallenge #hetalia #ruspa #russispa #russia x spain #APH Spain #APH Russia #APH Germany #aph romano #APH Italy #aph portugal #implied spamano #Spanish History

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askthegermans · 4 years ago

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Welcome to Ask The Germans!

Welcome! this post holds DNI, who’s going to be in the blog, ships, the last comic and what the blog is going to be about!

LETS START DNI +Anit-Countryhumans +Anit-BLM +MAPS(pedo’s) +Pro-Nazi’s(yes i know Third Reich is here but that does not mean me and the other mods like nazi’s)

What the blog is about! This blog is an ask blog There won’t be a lot of pictures just mostly words so sorry! So like ex. Germany: Yeah, Poland is my uncle and yes I know people ship us, Do I like it, no but I can’t stop shippers(this is my headcannon so please don’t be mad at me) There will be 3 mods(I’m adding myself as a mod even tho I made the account) running this account! We will have are own posts of introducing ourselves, now back to the blog itself. Countries with come and go, every time there is a new person you can ask, you will see a post, this will be updated and the description will be updated as well, same with every time a character leaves.

Who’s in the blog(that we know of) Germany(Male) Third Reich(Male) Poland(Fem) German Empire(Male) America(Male) UK(Male) France(Fem) Canada(Male) New Zealand(Fem) Australia(Male) Denmark(Fem) Greenland(Male) USSR(Male) Russia(Male) Ukraine(Fem) Italy(Male) Fascist Italy(Male) Japan(Fem) Japan Empire(Fem)

Ships!(will be added to) America x Greenland x Russia UK x France Canada x Ukraine Fascist Italy x Japan Empire

Last Comic Part (x)

#ask the germans #ask blog #germany #countryhumans #third reich #poland #german empire #america #greenland #russia #uk #france #canada #ukraine #fascist italy #japan empire #mod onyx

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italianartsociety · 5 years ago

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CFA: Raubkunst at the Ringling: A Catalogue in Absentia

A researcher and writer is being sought to investigate the provenance of a quartet of quirkily shaped, sized, and framed 18th Century oil paintings associated with the work of Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). The genre pastoral scenes are in the collection of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, having been purchased by the museum in 1949. The destination for this research is the collaborative book project Raubkunst at the Ringling: A Catalogue in Absentia, commissioned by Hirmer Verlag and scheduled for publication in 2021. Contributing authors museum curators from Germany, Italy, the United States, and Great Britain.

The works were sold to the Ringling by the German-Jewish art, antique, and textiles dealer Adolph Loewi, who operated galleries in the Veneto as well as New York City and Los Angeles. In 1939 Loewi fled Italy with his family, losing some of his files in the process. Whether the documentation for the Piazzetta-adjacent works was among those documents is not clear; in any case, no record of their provenance exists prior to the Ringling purchase.

Because the Modern Art that had been declared entartete– degenerate – by the Third Reich was seized by the Germans from German government-sponsored museums it is – technically – not considered Raubkunst, stolen art, though certainly the Nazis profited from its sale. Works that were stolen from private owners and collectors, or procured through forced sales, aretruestolen objects, and subject to return to the families of their original owners.

Even in seemingly clear-cut cases, this process can be challenging. In many instances, entire families were murdered their homes or in concentration camps, and no heirs exist to lay claim upon what should have been prized heirlooms. The few remaining survivors of Nazi art theft or their descendants must file official claims with the German government or bring private litigation against museums and auction houses. Claims to works must be substantiated by proof of ownership – a paradox that ends many legal proceedings before they begin since receipts, ledgers, diaries, and documentary stamps were often destroyed, dispersed, or concealed by those who had stolen the artworks in the first place.

Recent books such as Simon Goodman’s The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis (2016) and The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (2015) by Anne-Marie O’Connor detail the eventual triumph of the resourceful Goodman and Altmann families pitted against adversaries in museums and galleries over the course of lengthy and expensive court battles. Some cases turn less flamboyantly but more emotionally. The Austrian art dealer Lea Bondi-Jaray lost her beloved Portrait of Wally, a 1912 painting by her friend Egon Schiele, in the Anschluss in 1939. She went to her grave fighting to have the painting returned from private gallerist Rudolph Leopold who had acquired the painting in collusion with the Austrian government in 1954. Bondi-Jaray’s family continued the battle, eventually taking on no lesser adversaries than Ronald Lauder, the Museum of Modern Art, and Austria’s Leopold Museum. The case turned when the family produced pre-war photographs of Portrait of Wallyin Bondi-Jaray’s Vienna apartment, convincing the United States Customs Service to seize the painting and United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Loretta A. Preska to allow the case to proceed to trial. The Leopold Museum settled with the family in 2010.

Because of their appealingly peculiar nature and the seeming completeness of the grouping of four, it seems likely that the Piazzetta workshop paintings came from a private collection. But whose? The task of the writer-researcher who takes on this investigation will be to unravel this mystery. The outcome may be as simple as a lost receipt establishing a chain of custody that puts the Ringling in the clear, or as profound as reuniting the quartet with a family who thought them lost decades ago.

I began this project in 2016 when I discovered two woodblock prints by the Blaue Reiter artist Franz Marc (1880-1916) in the Ringling collection, identified them as Raubkunst, and eventually traced them back to their original owners in Stuttgart and Mannheim. My findings were accepted as a “closed case” this past February by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. So the investigation has since expanded in scope, to say the least. I would welcome collaboration with, as well as questions and advice from, researchers and connoisseurs with expertise in both provenance, authentication, and 18th Century art. Please contact me at jeanmarie.carey [at] gmail.com.

Images: Circle of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta 1682 -1754), Pastoral Scenes, c. 1750.Oil on canvas; (approximately 56.5 x 92.7 cm).The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Object numbers: SN627-SN630.

– Jean Marie Carey

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abandonment-is-my-story · 5 years ago

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You can do it whatever order you want, I wanna see that list.

Well okay then, I’m gonna do OTP to NOTP:

OTP’S:

USSR x Third Reich

America x Russia

America x China

Mexico x Russia

America x Japan

Australia x Madagascar

UK x France

China x North Korea

Australia x Brazil

Sweden x Thailand

Russia x Germany

BROTP’S:

America + Canada + Australia + New Zealand

Russia + Ukraine

North Korea + South Korea

Czechia + Slovakia

Third Reich + Japanese Empire ((possible OTP))

Italy + France

NOTP’S:

My NOTP’S tend to vary, along with my opinion and knowledge of what I’ve learned about the individuals involved; so for now, I’ll just say I don’t really have any, seeing as I’m very open minded and I wanna give everything a chance.

#qna #answered #countryhumans #list

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ikarus-angel · 2 months ago

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DAY 28. - STOP

The gays are fighting :(

oh no

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praximeter · 7 years ago

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I personally love fake history style fics and the level of detail you use in night war (along with amazing well thought out description of Bucky's inner monologue) really pulls me in and enhances the raw feelings Bucky has. I really want to get across that I love your style of writing as it gives a better understanding of all the stakes at play in buckys situation from major incidents to little asides about social expectations etc. 1/2

So what I’m trying to get at is that I admire the amount of research you do for this series and was wondering if you had any favourite resources (documentaries, books, forums, sites) or anecdotes about ww2 era that you found useful/ interesting or enjoyed most? Any recommendations at all to check out for this era/subject thankyou. 2/2

Hey anon! Thanks for writing in, and thanks for your kind comments! 💕 I’m so happy you’re enjoying the story.

Let me apologize in advance for the absurd and hilarious length of this answer. I’ve been meaning to do a “research, sources, and methods” post for a while for meta reasons, and, well, here it is.

My primary source of research material is definitely books, but there are a lot of amazing resources online including material published by the U.S. Government (reports, publications, etc.) that helps me be as accurate as possible when it comes to troop movements, etc. There are about a thousand documentaries out there about the war, but you can’t go wrong with Ken Burns’ The War or World War II in Color.

My favorite single-volume history of WWII is probably Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings. It covers all theaters and it draws very heavily on primary source material–journals and messages and even letters taken from the bodies of soldiers. Its focus is on the human experience of the war rather than on a detailed military history (X brigade of Y Corps marched Z kilometers to fight a pitched battle…etc.). One of my favorite bits from that book (of which some parts made it into The Night War) is this:

“The ground for fifty yards outside is MUD—six inches deep, glistening, sticky, holding pools of water,” gunner office John Guest wrote home. “Great excavations in the mud, leaving miniature alps of mud, show where other tents have been pitched in the mud, and moved on account of the mud to other places in the mud. The cumulative psychological experience of mud… cannot be described.” [p.447]

As much as I wanted to just plagiarize this entire letter, I tried to evoke the horrible exhaustion of the mud in a few places in The Night War, such as:

I want is quiet, just some quiet and rest and to be warm with no fucking rain and no mud and no mortars but most of all I want this to be over. [September 27, 1943)

Freak accident with mortar tube in Harry’s squad and we have two dead because of I think a malfunction with mud or something I don’t know. [October 11, 1943]

Short on rations as it has been impossible conditions—this fucking mud—and we did not get resupplied before this assault so me, Glenn and Castellano have been going to each foxhole to take stock of what we have and split the difference as needed. Which means my own foxhole is a mud pit, these little shits better be grateful. [October 13, 1943]

Another great resource for writing about Bucky’s Sicily/Italy campaign was The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw, who is really more of a pop historian than an academic like Hastings. Nonetheless, he writes on a lot of different WWII-era subjects that are all focused on individual stories, and his works are great gateway books into more rigorous nonfiction about the war.

I’m including below a list that is not comprehensive but rather represents some of the works I’ve either found most helpful in writing The Night War or I just plain enjoyed. I’m so sorry anon, this is not what you were probably looking for!

[holy hell is there a lot under this cut]

Military History

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

A definitive history by a guy who was the CBS reporter stationed in Berlin in the late 30s.

Inferno: The World At War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings

My personal favorite single-volume history, and one that inspired a number of the Commandos’ experiences, such as their encounter with the Czechoslovakian family (Jan and Alžběta) near Kozmice (Operation Umbrella). The focus on Alžběta’s fear for her daughters and the risk of violence she perceived to them came directly from some of the stores in Inferno about Italian civilians who were brutalized and raped by “liberators.”

The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring by Albert Kesselring

Interesting to read the German perspective, though I admit I mostly skimmed this. Kesselring is one of those guys who got bizarrely recast as a “Good German” after the war, like Rommel, but he committed war crimes in Italy. And he was a Nazi, so.

The Few: The American “Knights of the Air” Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain by Alex Kershaw

Again, more pop history, but there was some good stuff in this one about the day-to-day experiences of RAF pilots, though almost none of that made it into The Night War.

With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda

A pretty good, quick primer on the Battle of Britain. Some details from this book made it into The Night War but only in terms of things that Bucky observes (like signs being missing at railway stations).

Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Max Hastings

Hastings is a really superb writer. I didn’t read this cover to cover but I did take some inspiration from it for the Commandos’ Normandy campaign (June 1944 to July 1944).

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan

Another classic about D-Day.

The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson

Another great history - this is the third in his three-volume history of the war.

Soldiers’ Experiences

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen A. Ambrose

A classic for a reason. This is the basis for the wonderful HBO series Band of Brothers, which is highly recommended and probably kickstarted my love of the era way back when I saw it at 11 years old.

Citizen Soldiers: the U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen A. Ambrose

Another classic. A great look at the individual experiences of the actual men who fought the war.

Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, At Home and at War by Linda Hervieux

This is a primer on the institutionalized racism of the segregated U.S. armed forces and the experiences of black soldiers, though it is by no means comprehensive as it focuses on a single unit. Still, I took some inspiration from this book about what Gabe may have witnessed or experienced himself during his training.

The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw

Focuses on a specific commander in the 45th Infantry Division (The “Thunderbirds”) who had a remarkable journey through the war that in some ways mirrored Bucky’s. Kershaw writes pop history but there were some amazing details in this book I used to help flesh out the campaigns in Sicily and Italy especially.

The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of Race and World war II’s Red Ball Express by David P. Colley

Understanding the convoy system was helpful for logistical reasons but also, it gave some flavor to Gabe’s experiences as well. There is one mention of the Red Ball Express in The Night War, after Bucky is injured during Operation Goodwood and is back in England (July 29, 1944):

Thank god for the best friend anybody ever had. Steve busted me out of the clink (this makes the second time)—the sappy bastard tried to carry me like I was his fainting dame. I said no dice pal and hopped along as best I could until we made it outside and there was Gabe with a truck waiting like he was my own personal red ball express.

Politics

Never Surrender: Winston Churchill and Britain’s Decision to Fight Nazi Germany in the Fateful Summer of 1940 by John Kelly

Honestly, had nothing to do with The Night War but I read it because Summer 1940 is one of my favorite stretches of the war and this was a really interesting way to imagine the “what if?” had Britain not held fast against the Nazis.

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson

One of my favorite WWII historical books ever. It does a stunning job at “setting the stage” of London during the early days of the war.

Resistance Efforts

A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead

Probably my favorite book written on the French resistance, full stop. The character of Geneviève Marcel was strongly inspired from some of the incredible women featured in this book.

Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead

Did not like this as much as Moorehead’s other work, but it did inspire a really fun Commandos mission that never made it to the final story - basically, the Commandos found themselves in a remote French village in the fall of 1944 and had to organize an ad hoc defense of the village along with several French maquis, who were mostly just boys aged 15-20. Naturally, the Commandos kicked ass and there were some great scenes with Bucky teaching the boys to box and to shoot a rifle. Sadly, it had to get cut for logistics reasons.

Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family’s Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France by Alex Kershaw

This book was a little weak on its sources (in my opinion) but it did a good job of evoking what it was like to live and operate in Occupied Paris, which obviously became important in March 1944 for the Commandos.

Sabotage, Espionage, Code-Breaking, & Special Operations

The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in The Second World War by Marcus Binney

This book isn’t that well-written, but it gave me some great ideas for Howling Commandos missions. Sadly, several of those ideas – sabotaging a submarine, for example – never made the final cut. I read this book because I was fleshing out my headcanon for Peggy, whom I imagined to have been part of the SOE prior to joining the SSR. In my headcanon, she’s the one who extracted Dr. Erskine from the Continent, and she got a lot of her training from the various SOE training stations.

Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling

Honestly, this book was just fun. I liked the little window into German operations and resistance efforts and it also gave me some great insight into the backstabbing, lack of trust, and unhealthy rivalries inside the Reich, which I used in determining how the Hydra organization might function had it been real.

Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben McIntyre

Some good stuff on how small special operations units actually operated during the war.

The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: the Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay

The inspiration for Peggy’s sister Gwendolyn came from this book. Plus, it’s a very easy, readable primer on codebreaking and Bletchley Park as compared to some of the other tomes that are out there.

Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War, 1941-1945 by Leo Marks

The Cost of Courage by Charles Kaiser

This was the inspiration for Geneviève Marcel’s family’s story.

The Holocaust

So, I studied the Holocaust a little in college and so I don’t have a list of all my sources for it (though the Holocaust doesn’t really play a role in The Night War until February 1945), but here are a few good ones:

Art from the Ashes, edited by Lawrence L. Langer

An amazing collection of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written about the Holocaust and by Holocaust survivors.

Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

One of the best memoirs on the subject.

The Night Trilogy by Elie Wiesel

This had an enormous impact on my understanding of survivor’s guilt and the exploration of one’s psyche following traumatic experiences.

War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust by Doris L. Bergen

Kapò, an Italian film about a young Jewish woman in a concentration camp.

Conspiracy, a film about the Wannsee conference.

Miscellaneous

When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Win World War II by Molly Guptill Manning

Learned from this book that the single most-read book by American GIs was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which, fittingly, I had Bucky read in September ‘43 and send a letter to his mother asking her to buy it for Curly for her birthday.

The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America At War by A.J. Baime

There’s a pithy saying about the war that goes like this: “The war was won because of Russian blood, British Intelligence, and American Industry.” Something like 40% of all American industrial output went to arming the other Allies. It’s CRAZY. And the story of how that industry ramped up from 1940 through the end of the war is really interesting, and this one in particular I really enjoyed. Anyway, the only thing from this book that really ended up in The Night War was this:

I remember Castellano in my face yelling “whatever fucking happened to a goddamn bomber an hour?” right after another stuka strafed us not even twenty yards away and Harry yelling “bombers are expensive Frank, you aren’t!”

Fiction

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

Amazing contemporaneous fiction written about the French experience in the early years of the war and occupation. The author was a Russian Jew immigrant and was ultimately deported and killed in Auschwitz. Her daughter discovered this unfinished manuscript and published it in the early 2000s.

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

A fictional account of a German married couple plotting and executing their own small resistance.

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

One of my favorite books of all time, and one that does an incredible job at imagining the effect of warfare on the human psyche.

Redeployment by Phil Klay

Short stories set in the modern OIF/OEF era.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

One of the most important books ever written about war (WWI).

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Another of the most important books ever written about war (Vietnam).

#asks #world war ii - research #the night war meta #the night war research and sources #book recommendations #the night war

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godssea7-blog · 6 years ago

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“From the birth of popery … it is estimated by careful and credible historians that more than 50 millions of the human family have been slaughtered for the crime of heresy by popish persecutors ….”—John Dowling

After Otto the Great died in 973, his German Empire—which he patterned after Charlemagne’s and built with the moral and spiritual support of the Catholic Church—continued as Europe’s most formidable empire. After several generations, however, it decayed into a severely weakened and fragmented state.

During the 13th century, Europe entered the valley between the third and fourth resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire.

The demise of Otto’s Germanic kingdom created a power vacuum in Europe. Before long, some of Europe’s other royal houses began positioning themselves to replace the Ottonians as the power brokers of the Continent. Following the path that Charlemagne and Otto had taken before them, the first step they took in seeking to dominate Europe was to secure the support of Europe’s ultimate spiritual authority.

The seeds of the fourth resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire were sown in the 13th century, when the Habsburg family stepped up its cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church.

The Habsburgs

The Habsburg dynasty is ancient—so old that its origins are somewhat of a mystery. Early on, the Habsburgs seemed more concerned about the legacy of their own dynasty in Germany and Austria than about world dominion. But after the decline of the German Reich founded by Otto the Great, they began cooperating more with the Vatican, with the intention of resurrecting, yet again, the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1273, the Austrian king, Rudolf of Habsburg, was crowned king of the Romans by Pope Gregory x in Aachen, the seat of Charlemagne’s authority. In order to receive this recognition from the church, Rudolf had to renounce his imperial rights and his claims to territory in Italy, and to issue a promise to wage a crusade. Quid pro quo, the pope persuaded Alfonso xof Castile, a rival for the imperial throne, to recognize Rudolf. Thus, the relationship between the Habsburgs and the pope began.

Although Rudolf had been declared king of the Romans, the official title of emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was not bestowed on the Habsburg rulers for another couple of generations. In 1452, Frederick iv, king of Austria, was crowned Frederick iii, the “holy Roman emperor.” That title remained in the family until the dynasty officially ended in 1806.

The greatness of the Habsburg dynasty lies more in its duration than in its dynamic leaders. Yet it did produce at least two outstanding kings who reigned successively in the 16th century: Maximilian i (1493-1519) and Charles v (1519-1556). Both these kings drastically expanded the power and influence of the Habsburgs and, of course, the Roman Catholic Church.

Maximilian I

Maximilian laid the groundwork for an international empire encompassing most of Europe and Latin America. He did this by arranging two marriages with the Spanish houses of Castile and Aragon. In one marriage, Maximilian’s son Philip married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. This union united Spain and its colonial possessions in the Americas with the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation.

Like many before him, Maximilian frequently allied with and fought for the pope. When Charles viii of France invaded Italy, Maximilian joined an alliance to drive him out. At one point he demonstrated his allegiance by turning down an offer to be made pope himself.

Encyclopedia Britannica concludes, “Great as Maximilian’s achievements were, they did not match his ambitions; he had hoped to unite all of Western Europe by reviving the empire of Charlemagne.” Though he personally failed at that task, it would continue to be pursued by his descendants.

Charles V

In 1520, Charles, the son of Philip and Joanna, was crowned as Roman Emperor Charles v. Philip died before Maximilian, so Charles ended up succeeding his grandfather. Like Charlemagne and Otto, Charles was crowned in Aachen.

Before his coronation, Charles was asked the traditional questions by the archbishop of Cologne: “Wilt thou hold and guard by all proper means the sacred faith as handed down to Catholic men? Wilt thou be the faithful shield and protector of the holy church and her servants? Wilt thou uphold and recover those rights of the realm and possessions of the empire which have been unlawfully usurped? … Wilt thou pay due submission to the Roman pontiff and the Holy Roman Church?” (emphasis added throughout).

To these questions, Charles responded, “I will.”

After his coronation, he conducted himself in accordance with the conviction that the emperor reigned supreme. He went on to become one of the greatest emperors in history.

At age 19, Charles became ruler over Spanish and German dominions, including Germany, Burgundy, Italy and Spain, along with sizable overseas possessions. His kingdom became known as “the empire on which the sun never sets.”

Ten years later, in 1530, Charles was officially crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Clement vii, after Charles’s armies defeated the pope’s in 1527. In his youth, Charles was taught by Adrian of Utrecht, who went on to become Pope Adrian vi.

During Charles’s reign, vast territories in Latin America were converted to Catholicism. This began before Charles ascended to the Spanish throne. Spanish and Portuguese explorers, encouraged by the Vatican, claimed new territory for their home nations. In 1493, Pope Alexander vi gave much of the new land to Spain and, in exchange, asked Spain to convert the natives to Catholicism. Encyclopedia Britannica records that Spanish and Portuguese rulers “recognized the obligation to convert the indigenous population as part of their royal duty.” Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and Jesuits traveled with the European ships. Much of the conversion of the natives took place under the reign of Charles v and his son Philip ii.

The Catholic Church quickly became the most powerful institution in Latin America. Priests were held in such great respect that they could be relied on to control the masses if the army failed. The Jesuits even had their own private armies. When the Spanish government tried to reform the Catholic Church hundreds of years later, the priests turned the population against Spain. They led Latin America to independence. The fact that this vast territory became Catholic still affects geopolitics today.

During the reign of Charles v, the fourth resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire reached its apex. Not since the days of Charlemagne had a holy Roman emperor ruled over such an immense territory.

The Vatican’s Instrument

Charles v reached the height of power while the Spanish and Roman inquisitions were raging in Europe. Although the Spanish Inquisition was started by his grandparents, Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles took it to new levels. He became a deadly weapon of the Catholic Church.

At first, the Inquisition forced the conversion of Jews and Muslims. All Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. Then the majority of Moriscos—converted Muslims living in Spain who had retained some Islamic practices—were killed.

Charles v became king of Spain in 1516 (known as Charles i). The following year, Martin Luther produced his 95 Theses, and the Protestant Reformation began. The Spanish Inquisition was aggressively expanded into Europe and brought to full fury during the Protestant Reformation. The Inquisition proved to be an effective Counter-Reformation weapon.

Many thousands across Europe were made to convert to Catholicism or were tortured and executed by the church at this time. In his 1871 book, The History of Romanism, author John Dowling wrote, “From the birth of popery … it is estimated by careful and credible historians that more than 50 millions of the human family have been slaughtered for the crime of heresy by popish persecutors ….” Halley’s Bible Handbook corroborates this figure: “Historians estimate that, in the Middle Ages and Early Reformation era, more than 50 million martyrs perished.”

That is more than twice the population of Australia—tortured and killed for not converting to Catholicism.

Charles fought forcefully against Protestantism. In 1545, he presided over the Council of Trent, which initiated the Catholic Counter-Reformation. This reformation was the Vatican’s response to the Protestant Reformation. This response was brutal, using torture and imprisonment to bring wayward Catholics back into the fold. Germany’s Protestant princes formed the Schmalkaldic League, which Charles defeated in 1547.

However, Charles was too distracted by other wars to prevent Protestantism from getting a powerful hold over Germany, though he fought hard to stop its spread. By 1547, Lutherism had grown so strong within Germany that he was forced to recognize it.

Charles v abdicated in 1556. After his reign, the Habsburg dynasty severed along Spanish and Austrian lines. The Austrian Habsburg line still assumed the title “Roman emperors of the German nation” like their predecessors five centuries before, except they no longer pilgrimaged to Rome to be crowned by the pope. The imperial office became hereditary within the Habsburg line.

By the early 17th century, the power and might of the Habsburg empire—the fourth resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire—had begun to wane. The Protestant Reformation had considerably weakened the once-dominant church in Rome. On the secular side, the tide of power was beginning to shift toward France.

The fourth revival of the “Holy” Roman Empire was on its last leg, but the inevitable fifth revival of the Holy Roman Empire was on its way!

Selling Spiritual Favors

The origins of the Roman Catholic Church can be traced back to when the Apostle Peter spurned Simon Magus for attempting to buy the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:18-21). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the religion that Simon Magus founded eventually became extremely rich by selling spiritual favors.

The most famous of these was the selling of indulgences, a practice especially popular during the Middle Ages.

The church taught that men could reduce the time they would have to spend suffering in purgatory by giving money to the church. The sale of indulgences operated like a franchise, like Subway or McDonald’s: A local bishop would buy the right to sell indulgences from the papacy. This gave him permission to use the Catholic “brand,” and he then worked to profit from this purchase by selling indulgences to those in his district.

The Middle Ages version of the practice began with the Crusades. In 1095, Pope Urban iidecreed that all those who went on a crusade would have their sins forgiven, and their time in purgatory would be wiped out. At the start of the 13th century, this practice was expanded so that those who helped with money and advice were also eligible to have their sins forgiven. From then on, the church seized on indulgences as a means of gathering wealth and power. By the end of the century, it had become a political tool, given to princes to win their favor.

Indulgences were a potent method for raising money. The church profited greatly from people’s sins. Those on their deathbed could buy indulgences and go straight to heaven. Indulgences could be purchased by contributing money toward a cathedral. “Thus a period of pillage and lawlessness might also be characterized by a luxuriant crop of new monasteries, like the England of Stephen’s reign,” Paul Johnson writes in A History of Christianity. Encyclopedia Britannica notes, “From the 12th century onward the process of salvation was therefore increasingly bound up with money.”

Eventually the practice became so widespread that it became financially painful, a major grievance among the people, and one of the catalysts of the Protestant Reformation. Thus the church lost its spiritual monopoly, and with it the power to demand that its followers hand over money or suffer for untold years in purgatory. Responding to the Reformation, Pope Pius v canceled all indulgences that involved financial transactions in 1567.

However, indulgences were not the church’s only revenue raisers. One of the most hated was the death duty. When someone died, tradition dictated that an item of value be handed over to the local priest. The price varied. In some places, it was the person’s bed; for others it was his best garment; in still others it was his second-best possession (the local lord sometimes took the best). For some districts, the church’s price was as high as one third of all the man’s possessions.

This death duty was often collected no matter how poor the parishioner. And the church had a powerful tool to enforce their collection: In many cases, the church would not bury a man unless the duty was paid.

Imagine the position this would put a grieving mother or widow in. The main provider of the household may have just died, and the family would be told that unless they made significant gifts to the church, their husband and father would not be buried. He would be deprived the prayers and blessing of the church and would therefore have to suffer longer in purgatory or perhaps even burn forever in hell. The new widow would be forced to choose between risking the survival of her family or the soul of her husband.

If the family refused to pay, the church would often help itself to what it felt it was due.

For a time, the Catholic Church was the most successful protection racket in history. “During the Avignon regime, the central machinery of the church turned itself primarily into a money-raising organization,” Johnson writes. “In England, the clergy, with 1 percent of the population, disposed of about 25 percent of the gross national product. This was about average. In some parts of France and Germany the church was wealthier and owned one third to half of all real estate.”

The Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest institutions on Earth. Millions of people marvel at its magnificent possessions and awesome material splendor. But how many realize how it came by its wealth?

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olwog · 7 years ago

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So Peeps, today our two intrepid superheroes take us to Monaco, we also learn that for some people no amount of money is enough and for others they wouldn’t know how much they had to make that decision. Oh, and we also learn that art and technology can combine into beautiful but very expensive objects of serious desire.

BatHarry and BatZak are incognito today. You’ll see that in the pictures. We’ve left their working clothes at home along with the ‘toy’ (you know the secret) plastic phone that is anything but a toy so they’re not contactable even for Trump.

We leave the villa and after about half an hour of driving through the most beautiful Provençal countryside we realise the movement detector has been left out of the pool and to leave it unsupervised without such a device would attract a fine. I must admit that I’m somewhat cavalier about it until Lewis has a look on the web to see what the damage would be if we’re busted. I’m in the middle of a sentence that offers to pay the fine should it be noticed when he informs us that the fine is €45,000 so a hand brake turn that would impress Gene Hunt in the Quatro and we’re on our way back. I’m regretting not having the Batgear with us as the superheroes could have been back in seconds but heyho.

/* Here’s a few facts and figures. Monaco has been around since about 600 BC which makes it about the same age as a Democratic Unionist’s Earth. Apparently, Hercules passed this way and turned away all previous gods as a result they built a temple, The Temple of Hercules Monoikos, hopefully you’re ahead of me with the final word. After a bit of ownership by The Holy Roman Empire, the Genoese, France, Italy, Sardinia and The Third Reich all of the time the Grimaldi family retained an interest. It’s now an independent country with zero income tax and low business tax and has a small but vibrant finance sector that’s expanding apace as Britain loses elements of the London institutions in response to Brexit. It has voting rights at the United Nations and is the most populous country in the word by surface area. Monaco is the second smallest country by area in the world. It is 2.02 square kilometres in surface area. The land border is only 3.4 miles and just over a mile at it’s widest. */End of facts and figures.

Our second attempt sees us in Monaco in an hour and a half and parked in a multi-storey car park that goes down. In fact, it goes very down. It goes down a story, then several more. During this time the directions as to where to go in a labyrinth of pillars and parking cells are somewhat limited and consist more of where we we’re not allowed rather than directions to where we are. After another several downs and a noticeable increase in temperature we arrive at the bottom. We couldn’t get any deeper if Lucifer himself were walking in front of us with a red flag but at least there is a space interestingly, considering we’re in Monaco, marked F1 – Even with this prompt I really don’t trust memory so I do as I normally do, I photograph it and register is on my map app. on the ‘phone.

If you’re a car lover then Monaco, especially Monte Carlo, is a dream come true and if you’re an art lover then some of the buildings are very special but the cars are also for you.

If you love cars AND art then I’m afraid you’ll need to wear a condom!

We walk the length of several jetties where men in suites and dark glasses are, not too discretely, watching us as we pass. There are interesting notices at the entry to some of the very posh gang planks, “No unauthorised weapons or explosives to be taken on board”. It makes me wonder just who approves the authorised ones and it all seemed a bit sinister to me.

Vicky looks up one of the boats that has a very pleasant looking Roller with its wheel hubs and RR motifs all aligned the right way up, I thought this had been done intentionally until Lewis tells me that the hubs remain like that even at speed! It’s standing adjacent to a gangplank and Google reports that the yacht is owned by the Balrclay brothers who are worth six billion pounds. Just to help you with this figure (£6,000,000,000). I’m using the American Short Billion which is internationally(ish) recognised, if we use the long billion that was in use until Harold Wilson redefined it for the UK then you can add another three zeros (£6,000,000,000,000). Either way, if you want a billion pound yacht, it’s still going to be out of all but a few (but increasing) number of people in the world’s reach. When you get to these telephone number figures it does beg the question, just how much money is enough?

The superheroes are impressed and try to decide which yacht they’d like when they grow up. BatZak likes a very sleek Black number that looks a little bit sinister but very impressive whilst BatHarry likes the one that we were admiring at £3.5M, modest but also very impressive at the same time.

Monte Carlo Casino

We decide on a trip up to Monte Carlo which is easily accessible via lifts and after Lewis asks a local in his best French where the casino and plaza are he gets a reply in almost undecipherable Scottish dialect that leads us directly to the square. Here, there are cafes selling ice cream for €14 to €32 a boat but we’re in Monte Carlo, you’re not paying for the ice-cream, it’s all to do with location.

Looking around the square there are exotic cars a plenty and also, rather amusingly, a Volvo V40 that’s causing some consternation with the security people. It’s not the fact that it’s been left in violation of parking regulations, it’s because it’s a V40 sandwiched between Ferraris, Rollers (all with RR motif vertical), Bentleys and a Zonda Pagani. We’re highly amused but they’re not and as the owner is located they’re asked to move it forthwith. It’s all happening here!

The superheroes decide on their form of future transport and before we leave the square they’ve changed their minds, not matter though, there’re sufficient exotic cars here to satisfy Jeremy Clarkson.

Back down in the marina area and we take a round trip across the harbour on the solar powered ferry. Apparently this boat was commissioned by Prince Rainier himself and moves 110,000 people a year, it’s definitely worth doing at €2 per round trip and you get a great view of the principality.

This is a great trip out and certainly lets you see how the other half live and the cars and yachts, well they’re astonishing!…G..x

Enjoy the snaps.

Monaco, Art and Very Exotic Cars So Peeps, today our two intrepid superheroes take us to Monaco, we also learn that for some people no amount of money is enough and for others they wouldn’t know how much they had to make that decision.

#France #Monaco #Monte Carlo #Photographs #Photos #Pictures #Provence

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ikarus-angel · 2 months ago

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Italy <3 - Highschool AU

My drama boys 😔

Also Reich, stop being jealous and posessive after breaking his heart and shouting at him for harming himself! What a jerk! 😭😭😭

Also that's Greece- you can't see her whole flag because it's always one side of her head- but it's Greece 🙏

#tw sh #countryhumans #art #countryhuman #countryhumans art #digital art #countryhumans reich #illustration #digital illustration #countryhumans hs au #countryhumans greece #countryhumans poland #third reich x Italy

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ikarus-angel · 3 months ago

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DAY 6. - LOVERS

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italianartsociety · 6 years ago

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The Piazzetta Provenance Project CFA: Raubkunst at the Ringling: A Catalogue in Absentia

Raubkunst at the Ringling: Franz Marc’s Schöpfungsgeschichtehas got a lot of attention. Surprisingly many responses have come from people who think they might be in possession of some Raubkunst themselves. I confer with two trusted colleagues on these tips, but we keep this information to ourselves. We’ve been tantalizingly close to some long-missing works we would all love to see returned to the public view.

I have found though that what most inquirers are seeking is not absolution but verification. I have been asked to authenticate two works by Franz Marc just in the past year. I am reluctant to do so in these conscience cases. For one thing, as the recent book by Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm, Falsche Bilder Echtes Geld: Der Fälschercoup des Jahrhunderts - und wer alles daran verdientemakes clear, art forgers have become increasingly wily and technically proficient. The current interest in Provenienzforschunghas created almost as many opportunities for grift as the thieves and opportunist of the Third Reich did in the 1930s and 1940s. The well-meaning art historians who mistakenly declared the fakes by Wolfgang Beltracchi to be long-lost works by Georges Braque, Max Ernst and others have had their careers and reputations destroyed. There is a movement toward creating a professional standard for authenticating lost works, likely by a panel of experts in the work of the artist in conjunction with the formidable forensics of the Doerner Institut.

But for the moment in this respect we keep a low profile and our ears to the whispers in the wind.

While avalanches roar above, business continues below, on the tasks that canbe accomplished: reuniting artworks whose authenticity is unimpeachable with the families or museums to whom they once belonged. To that end, a researcher and writer is being sought to investigate the provenance of a quartet of quirkily shaped, sized, and framed 18th Century oil paintings associated with the work of Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). The genre pastoral scenes are in the collection of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, having been purchased by the museum in 1949. The destination for this research is the collaborative book project Raubkunst at the Ringling: A Catalogue in Absentia, scheduled for publication in 2020. A worthy publisher and esteemed contributors are already aboard, though like me, their expertise is in Modernist art, hence our quest.

The Piazzetta-esque works were sold to the Ringling by the German-Jewish art, antique, and textiles dealer Adolph Loewi, who operated galleries in the Veneto as well as New York City and Los Angeles. In 1939 Loewi fled Italy with his family, losing some of his files in the process. Whether the documentation for the Piazzetta-adjacent works was among those documents is not clear; in any case, no record of their provenance exists prior to the Ringling purchase.

As I’ve noted, because the Modern Art that had been declared entartete– degenerate – by the Third Reich was seized by the Germans from German government-sponsored museums it is – technically – not considered Raubkunst, stolen art, though certainly the Nazis profited from its sale. Works that were stolen from private owners and collectors, or procured through forced sales, are truestolen objects, and subject to return to the families of their original owners.

Even in seemingly clear-cut cases, this process can be challenging. In many instances, entire families were murdered in their homes or in concentration camps, and no heirs exist to lay claim upon what should have been prized heirlooms. The few remaining survivors of Nazi art theft or their descendants must file official claims with the German government or bring private litigation against museums and auction houses. Claims to works must be substantiated by proof of ownership – a paradox that ends many legal proceedings before they begin since receipts, ledgers, diaries, and documentary stamps were often destroyed, dispersed, or concealed by those who had stolen the artworks in the first place.

I began this project in 2016 when I discovered two woodblock prints by the Blaue Reiterartist Franz Marc (1880-1916) in the Ringling collection, identified them as Raubkunst, and eventually traced them back to their original owners in Stuttgart and Mannheim. My findings were accepted as a “closed case” this past February by the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. So the investigation has since expanded in scope, to say the least. I would welcome collaboration with, as well as questions and advice from, members of the “Raubkunst Research” community. Contact me and I’ll get back to you. – Jean Marie Carey

Circle of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta 1682 -1754), Pastoral Scene, c. 1750. Oil on canvas, (56.5 x 92.7 cm). The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Object number: SN627-SN630.

#Giovanni Battista Piazzetta #raubkunst #nazi looted art #john and mable ringling #ringling museum #sarasota #provenance #provenance research #cfa #cfp #art #art history #italian art #18th Century #rococo art #painting #collaboration #book project

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