By Oliver Ohmann
A book was stolen from the Berlin Philharmonic archives. Not just any book. It is an irreplaceable historical document, with a turbulent and moving past.
The background: Around 1900, Hermann and Louise Wolff kept a guest book in which many international celebrities immortalized themselves. Wolff was one of the founding fathers of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1882 as a concert agent.
Anyone who was a guest in the Wolff Salon signed up. A total of 1,200 autographs, including the most important artists of their time: Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schönberg and Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Wolff died in 1902 and his wife continued to run the agency successfully until her death in 1935. Her daughter Edith was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 as a Jew. She survived the Holocaust and also saved the guest book that she had taken with her to the concentration camp.
After the war, she gave it to her son Wolf, who in turn left it to his daughter Jackie Anderson. The Wolffs’ great-granddaughter lives in Washington, is a musician herself and was always aware of its preciousness. 20 years ago she traveled to Berlin and donated the guest book to the Berlin Philharmonic archives.
Louise Wolf (1855–1935) was an important concert agent; she was called “Queen Luise” in Berlin. Her husband is considered one of the fathers of the Philharmonic. In 2005, the choir hall of the Berlin Philharmonic was renamed the “Hermann Wolff Hall”. Photo: ullstein picture
“I was confident that the dearly loved and protected book would be safe there,” says Anderson. But a mysterious theft changed everything.
He came out in the fall of 2022 when Anderson’s sister traveled to Berlin with her children. She also wanted to show them the family heirloom and made an appointment at the archives. The book could no longer be found!
The police were called in, investigations were unsuccessful and the case was transferred to the public prosecutor’s office. The family then hired Berlin private detective Oliver Lietz (55).
Lietz to the BZ: “I found evidence that suggests that an insider must have stolen the guest book. Hardly anyone knew about its existence and certainly not where it was in the archives. No other books were stolen either.”
According to Lietz, the orchestra management hardly supported his research, on the contrary. “I am sure that the perpetrator can be identified. There is surveillance video on which the man can be identified.”
It is questionable whether the book still exists. Lietz: “It is possible that the pages were torn apart and the valuable manuscripts were offered for sale individually.” Jackie Anderson received the message from the State Criminal Police Office in March 2023: “The probability of finding the book again is not very high, but it is not impossible either.”
Jackie Anderson is the great-granddaughter of Louise and Hermann Wolff Photo: Private
Klaus Schubert, deputy chairman of the Friends of the Berliner Philharmoniker, explained when asked by the BZ: “The investigation is being continued by the public prosecutor’s office, the lawyer for the Friends of the Berliner Philharmoniker eV has been given access to the files.” Does not agree with the information given to the BZ by the spokesman The public prosecutor’s office received: “The investigation was discontinued on July 17, 2023.”