Sigfried Asche

Sigfried Asche (26 June 1906 – 16 February 1985) was a German art historian and museum director.

Career Born in Dresden, Asche attended the Kreuzschule in Dresden. Afterwards, he studied history of art, classical archaeology, history and German studies first in his native city of Dresden, later in Vienna and University of Leipzig. In 1934 he received his doctorate in Leipzig. In 1933 he became director of the Kunstsammlungen Zwickau and in 1936 director of the Städtische Kunstsammlungen Görlitz. Together with Cornelius Müller Hofstede, he operated "decisively and actively the exploitation of former Jewish art possessions". "So we don't have to go by our unreal funds," After Prague was occupied by the German Wehrmacht, Asche became museum director there. Furthermore, he had the neo-Gothic windows with the painted panes from the 16th century torn out of the west wall of the Dürnitz, the wall bricked up and smaller windows inserted. A false ceiling was inserted into the armoury hall, which was to be stabilised, so that the upper half could be added to the Wartburg Museum, while a sales room for souvenirs and tickets could be set up below. Hans-Joachim Rehm and Renate Sabrowsky commented on this measure as follows: "The former armoury had thus finally been extinguished, it was its second death."

In 1960, Asche left the GDR and went to the Federal Republic. In an eleven-page letter, Asche explained the reasons to Minister President of the GDR Otto Grotewohl. For him, the Wartburg was a symbol of an undivided Germany and could not be misused for ideological purposes. He also saw the Wartburg Foundation as being restricted in its freedom of action by the GDR leadership. However, there were also rumours that Asche had been confronted with his past in Prague by the visit of two Czechs two days before his escape and had therefore absconded to the West. Asche retired in 1970 and died in 1985 in Staufen im Breisgau at the age of 79.

Publications Sächsische Barockplastik von 1630 bis zur Zeit Permosers. Leipzig 1934 (Dissertation). Malerei und Graphik der Oberlausitz. Städt. Kunstsammlung, Görlitz 1940. Drei Bildhauerfamilien an der Elbe. Acht Meister des 17. Jahrhunderts und ihre Werke in Sachsen, Böhmen und Brandenburg. Rohrer, Wien/Wiesbaden 1961. Die Wartburg. Geschichte und Gestalt. Rembrandt-Verlag, Berlin 1962. Balthasar Permoser und die Barockskulptur des Dresdner Zwingers. Weidlich, Frankfurt, 1966. Balthasar Permoser. Leben und Werk. Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, Berlin 1978.