Hugo Helbing

[3] Helbing's auctions, which lasted several days and were held in collaboration with Paul Cassirer from 1916 until the 1920s, were considered social events and were "a piece of cultural history of our century".

Rudolf died as an infant; his son Fritz, born in Munich on 16 December 1888, was married three times but remained childless.

[1] In March 1933, shortly after the seizure of power by the Nazis, the auction Gemälde alter und neuer Meister was held in Düsseldorf Breidenbacher Hof[6] which had been organised by Helbing together with the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim and the Galerie Paffrath, was broken off by the Sturmabteilung.

The gallery owner was forced into this demolition because of Helbing's and Flechtheim's Jewish origins, and the works Degenerate Art were confiscated.

The Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen [de] writes: "Such disturbances against art dealers were common after the National Socialists came to power.

[7] In 1935, Helbing's membership in the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste [de] was revoked because he was Jewish, and with it his auction licence expired.

He had previously been actively involved in the Gesetz über das Versteigerungsgewerbe (Law on the Auction Trade), which aimed to systematically eliminate Jewish art dealers and antiquarians.

At the reading of the will, Heiss had declared that the company would be closed down within a few hours on behalf of the NSDAP if Lydia Helbing and her son Fritz accepted the inheritance.

[14] He sold art objects, also from Helbing's private property, to Martin Bormann, among others, such as the painting Straße am Golf von Neapel by Oswald Achenbach for the Residenzschloss Posen intended as "Führer Residence".