The Significance of the Feldberg Collection

Siegbert Feldberg was a German-Jewish clothing manufacturer and art collector who bartered clothing with struggling artists of the Weimar Republic in exchange for their paintings. By 1933, he had amassed over 50 self-portraits, including those of Käthe Kollwitz, Max Liebermann and Oskar Kokoschka, as well as many Jewish artists the Nazis declared ‘degenerate’. When the Feldbergs fled Berlin, they preserved this unique art history collection. Generously co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Toronto.

Guest speakers: University of Toronto professors Peter Harris and Pia Kleber 

Siegbert Feldberg was a German-Jewish clothing manufacturer and art collector who bartered clothing with struggling artists of the Weimar Republic in exchange for their paintings. By 1933, he had amassed over 50 self-portraits, including those of Käthe Kollwitz, Max Liebermann and Oskar Kokoschka, as well as many Jewish artists the Nazis declared ‘degenerate’. When the Feldbergs fled Berlin, they preserved this unique art history collection. Generously co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Toronto.

Dr. Peter Harris is the former Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science of the University of Toronto. A former senior lecturer in the University’s German Department, Dr. Harris has also served as a Special Lecturer in the new Vic One Program at Victoria College. In these different capacities, he has lectured on topics ranging from German Film to Expo ’58, from the German Reichstag Building to Rosie the Riveter. Peter was the Program Coordinator and Lecturer for U of T’s Later Life Learning. He has lectured for the George Brown Seniors Association, LifeLong Learning Mississauga, Bluewater Association of Lifelong Learning in Owen Sound, Life Long Learning in Retirement at Glendon College, and at Hot Docs Curious Minds series. At the Miles Nadal JCC, Peter has given the lectures “From The Binoculars Building to Bilbao & Beyond: The Starchitecture of Frank Gehry” and “The Bauhaus: 100 years of Architecture, Art and Design”. Last fall, Dr. Harris brought us the virtual series Design Movements in the 19th and 20th Centuries and we are very pleased to welcome him back to the virtual Miles Nadal JCC!

Dr. Pia Kleber, Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, is the co-founder of the BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies and AI.  She spent 20 years as the Director of the University College Drama Program at University of Toronto, and was appointed the first chairholder of the Helen and Paul Phelan Chair in Drama in 1999.  Dr. Kleber has published extensively on Bertolt Brecht, Roger Planchon, Giorgio Strehler, Robert Wilson and Robert Lepage. For her exemplary work fostering cultural collaboration between Canada and Germany/Europe, the President of Germany awarded her the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2002 and the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse in 2015 (officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Germany).

The Consulate General of Toronto has consular jurisdiction for the whole of Canada; the administrative district for all other duties includes the  provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. Consul General Thomas E. Schultze represents the Federal Republic of Germany in these two provinces. For more information, please visit https://canada.diplo.de/