Walter Farmer (1911–1997) was a captain in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He drafted the Wiesbaden manifesto, which led much of the artwork the US Army had collected during World War II to be returned to their countries of origin.[1]
Biography
Walter Farmer was born in Alliance, Ohio, and received bachelor's degrees in mathematics and architecture from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He went on to be active as a genealogist and was prominent in the museum field in Ohio and Texas. His marriages to Josselyn Liszniewska and to Renate Hobirk ended in divorce. Farmer died of cancer 11 August 1997 at the age of 86 at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati.[2] He had a daughter, Margaret Farmer Planton; two grandsons; and a sister, Evelyn Krickbaum.
Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program
As part of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, Farmer was put in charge of the Wiesbaden art collection point at the end of World War II. The collection points were Allied locations where artwork and cultural artifacts that the Nazi regime had confiscated and hidden throughout Germany and Austria were processed, photographed, and redistributed. In 1996, the German government honored Farmer with the crimson Commander's Cross of the Federal Order of Merit.[3]
References
- ↑ Lynn H. Nicholas (22 December 2009). The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 376. ISBN 978-0-307-73972-8. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
- ↑ Pace, Eric (1997-08-11). "Walter I. Farmer, 86 Architect; Protected German Art After War". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
- ↑ Cowell, Alan (1996-02-11). "Germany Honors G.I. Who Fought Art Looting". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 11, 2023. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
External links
- The Monuments Men
- Walter I. Farmer Papers at the National Gallery of Art Archives