John Horneburg
John Horneburg was a German-American antiquities dealer (1860-1951)
Life
John Ely Horneburg was born in New York on August 5, 1860. His parents were Lasse Philipp Horneburg and Sophie Horneburg, née Selke. His father, originally from Hamburg, moved the family back to Germany when John Horneburg was still a child. Horneburg became an upholsterer and paperhanger. From 1884, he worked as a photographer in Bergen on Rügen and had a photography business in Göhren. He was also active in the antiques trade and had contact with the provincial museum for Neuvorpommern and Rügen.[1] In 1888 he married Karoline Mars (1864-1947). From 1918, the family lived in Stralsund, where John Horneburg ran an antiques store in Semlower Straße. He bought a house in Mühlenstraße. The couple had ten children A30; like their mother Karoline Horneburg, they were also baptized Protestant.
Nazi era
When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Horneburg was persecuted under Nazi racial laws because of his Jewish heritage. He was forced to give up his business in 1938 due to the decree to eliminate Jews from German economic life and ultimately had to sell his two houses in Stralsund. John and Karoline Horneburg moved to Hamburg in March 1940; they returned after the war and lived in the house in Göhren until their deaths. John Ely Horneburg died on February 21, 1951.[2][3]
In 2025, the Stralsund Museum decided to restitute an object that had been looted from him due to Nazi persecution.[4][5]
References
- ^ "STRALSUND MUSEUM: John Horneburg als Geschäftsmann". www.stralsund-museum.de. Retrieved 2025-02-08.
Der gebürtige New Yorker, John Horneburg, kam 1879 als Jugendlicher mit den Eltern in ihre Heimat nach Hamburg. Nach seiner Ausbildung zum Polsterer und Tapezierer arbeitete er einige Jahre bei einem Antiquitätenhändler.
- ^ "John Horneburg". Gedenkbuch (in German). Retrieved 2025-02-04.
- ^ MV1 - Heimat bewegt (2021-03-26). John Ely Horneburg – Das Schicksal eines jüdischen Geschäftsmannes. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via YouTube.
{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Stralsund Moves to Return Nazi Looted Art and Cultural Property". www.lootedart.com. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
The city of Stralsund has announced a significant decision regarding the restitution of art and cultural property seized during the Nazi regime. Following a unanimous vote by the city council, the mayor is now mandated to return cultural artifacts that were unlawfully acquired between 1933 and 1945 to their rightful owners or their heirs, as well as to third-party states. Investigations have revealed that the Stralsund Museum holds items classified as Nazi looted art. Notable cases mentioned include objects belonging to John Horneburg, a Jewish antiquarian from Stralsund, alongside items associated with a Freemason lodge.
- ^ "STRALSUND MUSEUM: John Horneburg als Geschäftsmann". www.stralsund-museum.de. Retrieved 2025-02-08.