Short biography/ History of the Institutiongeb. 26.04.1885 Neuwied (Rhineland) - died 05.07.1940 French Pyreneesafter broken off bank apprenticeship 1904 Study of philosophy, art history, history and classical philology in Berlin; 1907 first stay in Paris, acquaintance with Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris; first publications, literary works and art studies; 1914 volunteer for war; 1916 wounded, transfer to Brussels, there acquaintance with Gottfried Benn, Carl Sternheim, Otto Flake; 1918 Berlin, collaboration with journals; At the beginning of the 1920s he was confronted with Russian Constructivism and after 1928 with Surrealism in Paris; 1936-1939 he participated in the Spanish Civil War; 1940 he was interned in the Pyrenean camp Gurs, dismissed; as a Spanish fighter he was barred from fleeing Spain; suicide in the river Gave de Pau; he was one of the first to devote himself anthropologically to African art; in 1915 his book "Negerplastik", 1926 "Die Kunst des 20. Description of the holdingsArchives and collection, manuscripts and notes of works, preparatory work for major projects: "Handbuch der Kunst", "Histoire de l'art" and "Bebuquin II", few personal documents and photographs; collections of portraits, including a drawing by Rudolf Großmann, secondary publications and testimonials, some from the provenance of Sybille Penkert; few letters, including to Tony Simon-Wolfskehl and Maria Einstein.