The Collector’s Heir: Käthe Rehfeld (Previously Grote, Neé Hahn)

Tarras, Peter (2023): The Collector’s Heir: Käthe Rehfeld (Previously Grote, Neé Hahn). In: COMSt Bulletin, Bd. 9, Nr. 1-2: S. 115-128

Abstract

In 1922, Käthe Rehfeld (previously Grote, née Hahn) inherited from her deceased husband Friedrich Grote (1861–1922) what was one of the largest and most impressive private collections of Eastern Christian manuscripts. Particularly outstanding about this collection was the fact that most, if not all, of it derived from the library of Saint Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai, Egypt. Grote was one of the main people responsible for the dislocation of manuscripts from this unique archive. The dispersion of Sinaitic manuscripts was continued by Rehfeld (then Grote-Hahn) after the collector’s death. His heir, however, appears to have had no interest in his collectibles whatsoever, apart from their monetary value. This affected the biographies (object lives) of a great number of Sinaitic manuscripts that we now find in European public and private collections. Next to nothing has so far been published about Rehfeld’s life and the way she handled the Grote collection. The aim of this paper is to provide some basic biographical information on Käthe Rehfeld and describe the way in which she influenced the fate of the collection after Grote’s death. This research is based to a large extent on archival sources. It shows how in looking for potential buyers Rehfeld made use of academic and institutional networks established by Grote. Most importantly, it contributes to the largely unexplored provenance history of Sinaitic manuscripts in European collections.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Publikationsform: Publisher's Version
• Fakultät: Kulturwissenschaften > Department für Kulturwissenschaften und Altertumskunde > Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten ; Kulturwissenschaften > Department für Kulturwissenschaften und Altertumskunde > Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten > Judaistik
• Themengebiete: 900 Geschichte und Geografie > 920 Biografie, Genealogie
• ISSN: 2410-0951
• Sprache: Englisch