Author ORCID Identifier:
Date of Graduation
5-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
History
Advisor/Mentor
Hare, Laurence
Committee Member
Sonn, Richard
Second Committee Member
Daily, Ruby
Keywords
Democracy; Democratization; Germany; Nazi-looting; Restitution
Abstract
This dissertation examines four prominent art restitution cases involving property seized from Jewish families by the Nazi regime to argue that restitution in the Federal Republic of Germany has operated as a cultural practice through which meanings of justice, responsibility, and democracy have been produced, contested, and revised over time. Focusing on Germany from 1949 to the present, the study traces how shifting approaches to restitution reflect broader changes in post-war Germany’s political culture, particularly the transformation of memory practices in the 1990s and their consequences in the early twenty-first century. Rather than treating restitution primarily as a matter of provenance or legal queries, this project analyzes restitution as a site of symbolic negotiation in which competing understandings of justice, responsibility, and democracy are debated. Through case studies involving the Pringsheim, Hess, and Emden heirs, as well as the Gurlitt Trove, this dissertation shows how restitution disputes repeatedly exposed tensions between legal mechanisms and moral accountability. It analyzes how these debates were framed, narrated, and mediated by the government, cultural institutions, advisory commissions, the press, and claimants themselves. The dissertation demonstrates that restitution disputes became moments in which Germany’s relationship to the Nazi past was publicly rehearsed and reinterpreted. Restitution debates have not followed a linear trajectory toward moral clarity or democratic consensus. Instead, they reveal an uneven and sometimes reluctant process in which the Federal Republic’s engagement with Nazi injustice was shaped by generational change, international pressure, and evolving historical narratives. Art restitution thus serves as a lens for understanding how democratic culture in postwar Germany has been constituted through ongoing struggles over the representation and remembrance of historical injustice.
Citation
Rozovics, K. M. (2026). Memory, Democracy, and the Restitution of Nazi Looted Art in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-2019. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/6109
