Otto Siegried Julius was born in 1883 in Krojanke, West Prussia, German Empire.
He grew up with the Swiss archaeologist Robert Forrer (1866-1947) in Strasbourg. [1] He married Lina Julius.
Otto Siegfried Julius owned antique, medieval and modern works of art, which he kept in his home. In addition to a Greek marble head, medieval sculptures, Renaissance furniture, ivory objects, bronze statuettes, carpets, porcelain and silver, he collected paintings by Nolde, Pechstein, Nesch, Bossányi, Modersohn-Becker, Daubigny and others, a sculpture by Kolbe and owned a large graphic art collection with works by Nesch, Modersohn Becker, Kolbe and Schmidt-Rottluff, and Toulouse-Lautrec). He also had a book collection. Most of his collections are considered lost today. [2]
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Julius was persecuted due to his Jewish heritage even though he had converted to Christianity. A doctor, he was stripped of his medical license and his assets were frozen (30.09.1938) The Julius couple escaped Hamburg in 1938 and on February 1, 1939, they traveled from Basel first to Georgia and then at the end of 1939 to New York, where Julius' brother lived (14.09.1938).
Dr. Otto Siegried changed his name to Dr.Fred Julius. He died Oct 5, 1967. [3] [1]
In 2014, after a long struggle, his heirs were able to obtain the restitution an Emil Nolde painting from the Austrian city of Linz. [4] [5]
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Zu ihnen zählten ein griechischer Marmorkopf, mittelalterliche Skulpturen, Renaissance-Möbel, Elfenbein-Objekte, Bronzestatuetten, Teppiche, Porzellan und Silber. Zu seinen wertvollsten Stücken gehörte eine Riemenschneider-Madonna. Darüber hinaus besaß er moderne Gemälde u. a. von Nolde, Pechstein, Nesch, Bossányi, Modersohn-Becker, Daubigny, eine Skulptur von Kolbe sowie eine große grafische Sammlung (u. a. das gesamte grafische Werk von Nesch, Zeichnungen und alle Radierungen von Modersohn Becker, Arbeiten von Kolbe und Schmidt-Rottluff, Radierungen von Toulouse-Lautrec)
The Nolde painting, dated 1915 and called "May Meadow", was owned by Jewish physician Fred Julius of Hamburg, a major patron of Nolde's "Bruecke" (Bridge) group. The oil painting disappeared en route to his home in exile in Switzerland in 1939, Lillie said. Linz bought it in 1953 from another collector known to trade in artworks seized by the Nazis, she added.