06.12.2024
Ethnologisches Museum
Returning cultural assets looted by the Nazis: A Chinese decorative ridge turret from the collection of the Ethnologisches Museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has been restituted to the descendants of Eduard Fuchs, a writer and cultural researcher who faced political persecution at the hands of the Nazis.
The ceramic object once served as an ornamental pediment on a building in China before coming to adorn the garden of Villa Fuchs in Berlin-Zehlendorf centuries later. Fuchs faced Nazi persecution due to his political views and was forced to leave behind all of his assets, including the ridge turret, when he fled to France. In 1952, the Staatliche Museen in East Berlin acquired the artefact for its Ostasiatische Sammlung, which was still in the process of being assembled.
The descendants of Eduard Fuchs are overjoyed that the ridge turret has been returned. This restitution constitutes an acknowledgment that Fuchs was only dispossessed of the artefact due to his early and fierce persecution at the hands of the Nazis because of his political opposition to the regime.
Standing almost half a metre tall and weighing nearly 29 kilograms, the decorative ridge turret (ID number 45823) dates from the Qing dynasty. Glazed in yellow, green, turquoise and deep aubergine, the ceramic object depicts a mythical creature with a man standing beside it and was originally used as an ornamental pediment.
Many of the ridges and curved roofs of historical Chinese houses and temples are embellished with figurative ornamentation, whether of glazed ceramic, metal or carved wood. The ends of roof ridges are often adorned with dragons.
Made of fired and glazed clay, the most common style of ornamentation features rows of small figures depicted running along the ridge of rafters, representing both mythical creatures and actual animals such as horses, elephants, hares, chickens and dolphins. The mythical creatures in question include depictions of the Immortals, the dragon (Chinese: lóng) and its female counterpart the phoenix (Chinese: fèng), lions, the flying horse and sea horse, the mythical creatures Suangyi and Xiezhai and a fish-like hybrid creature.