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Description
‘Ein Rüstungswerk Entsteht’ (‘an Armaments Factory is Built’)
Biography: Erich Mercker
Displayed at the Great German Art Exhibition 1943 room 12.
Bought by Albert Speer for 5,000 Reichsmark.
With original GDK sticker at the back. At the back also the corresponding numbers from the CCP-München and Castle Hohenaschau. Original frame.
Size 120 x 100 cm.
According to documents from the Munich Central Collecting Point (below), Speer hung the painting in the building of the ‘Hauptamt für Technik’, Ehrhardtstrasse 36, Munich, the institution Speer headed since the death of Fritz Todt in 1942.
At the end of the war, the work was stored at the Castle Hohenaschau, south Bavaria. After 1945, the Allied Forces brought the work, together with stolen art also stored in Castle Hohenaschau, to the Central Collecting Point in Munich.
‘Ein Rüstungswerk Entsteht’ by Mercker, displayed at the Great German Art Exhibition 1943 room 12.
‘Ein Rüstungswerk Entsteht’ by Mercker, depicted in ‘Art in the Third Reich, Part IV’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRlSLTICi8k (at 4.50).
The remains of the original GDK-sticker at the back. The words ‘Hauptamt für Technik’ and ‘Ehrhardtstrasse 36’ can still be identified.
Property Card of the Central Collecting Point Munich. In the top right corner is written the place where the painting came from (Hohenaschau). Left, under ‘Identifying Marks’: ‘Haus d.d. Kunst 1943 … Kat. 573’, and ‘Rücksendung Hauptamt für Technik, München’. 
The numbers listed under ‘Identifying Marks’ (194/ 02139343) on the above CCP Card, are still on the back of the painting.
The identification number 43544 from Castle Hohenaschau at the back (also written on the CCP-card, right on top).
At the Great German Art Exhibitions, Albert Speer bought 5 works by Mercker. Below a letter with birthday congratulations from Albert Speer to Erich Mercker, 17 October 1944 (R3/1590, Deutsche Bundesarchiv-Lichterfelde, Record Group: R3 Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion, Series: 1590, Band 20, Volume 20).
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| – condition | : II |
| – size | : 140 x 120 cm; unframed 120 x 100 cm |
| – signed | : signed right, below |
| – type | : oil on canvas |
| – misc. | : with original GDK sticker at the back; original frame |
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