Gustav Kirstein

[2][3] Kirstein actively campaigned on the issue of copyright in the years from 1927 onwards for the retention of the 30-year term of protection for literature, and even conducted a collection of signatures for this purpose, to which more than 800 well-known personalities gave their signatures.

[6] Together with his wife Cläre "Clara" Therese (née Stein, 18 May 1885, to 1939), he was also active as an art collector.

During his lifetime Gustav Kirstein accumulated a large art collection by such artists as Max Klinger, Max Liebermann, Edouard Manet, Adolph Menzel, Lovis Corinth, Käthe Kollwitz, Georg Kolbe, Carl Spitzweg and Hans Thoma.

[8] After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Kirstein was forced to give up all public offices.

[10][11] Therese Clara Kirstein committed suicide in 1939 after her escape to the United States was blocked.

[14] However, in 1998 44 countries endorsed guidelines to re-examine museum collections and archives to search for the lost assets of Nazi Holocaust victims at the Washington Conference On Holocaust-Era Assets and the attitude of the authorities changed.