13 Facts About Fritz Mannheimer

Fritz Mannheimer's collection was bought by Hitler in 1941, but it was returned to the Netherlands after the war.

Fritz Mannheimer attended the University of Heidelberg where he obtained a Doctor of Law and became a Dutch citizen in 1936.

Fritz Mannheimer began to buy antiques, among them the valuable Eucharistic Dove stolen from Salzburg's Cathedral.

Fritz Mannheimer was too skeptical to have any truck with Ivar Kreuger or any private financier.

Fritz Mannheimer's was the last Jewish-owned bank allowed to do business in Germany.

Fritz Mannheimer raised eyebrows by maintaining two lavish homes: a 1913 redbrick mansion at Hobbemastraat 20 in Amsterdam, which was derogatorily nicknamed "Villa Protski", and Villa Monte Cristo near Vaucresson, France.

Fritz Mannheimer's offices were located in a palatial 17th-century mansion in Amsterdam, at Herengracht 412.

At his home in Vaucresson, on 1 June 1939, Fritz Mannheimer married Marie Jane Reiss.

The couple had one child, Anne France Fritz Mannheimer, later known as Anne France Engelhard.

Fritz Mannheimer was born on 24 December 1939, six months after her parents' marriage and four months after her father's death.

On 9 August 1939, two months after his wedding, Fritz Mannheimer reportedly was in his Amsterdam office when he received a phone call from an unidentified party, left the office, boarded a train for France, and joined his wife at their house, where he died the same day.

Contemporary observers quickly speculated on the manner of death, with many newspapers suggesting suicide; but Fritz Mannheimer's health had always been precarious, due, in part, to his excessive weight.

The lion's share of Fritz Mannheimer's collection was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1952, when it was repatriated from Germany; the museum was forced to sell half of the collection by the order of the Dutch Ministry of Finance.