As Josef Haubrich of Cologne after the end of the second World War, in 1946, handed directly his art collection, it seemed the people of Cologne as a message from a better world. Long-lost images of German Expressionists and other representatives of Classical Modernism, who were persecuted during the war and as “degenerate” were suddenly among the citizens of the city. That he should thus lay the foundation for the collection of the Museum Ludwig – and thus for one of the most important museums of modern and contemporary art in Europe – was still in the distant future.

