List of Arbitrators

The list of arbitrators comprises a total of 36 individuals with qualifications in the field of law or history/art history. The criteria for selection are set out in Annex 1 to the Rules of Arbitration. Legally qualified members must either be judges, qualified to hold judicial office in Germany, or demonstrate an equivalent international legal qualification. In the latter two cases, multiple years of professional experience in alternative dispute resolution is required additionally. Members with qualifications in the field of history shall have in-depth expertise in twentieth-century German history, in particular National Socialism or provenance research relating to Nazi-looted cultural property.

Appointment to the list of arbitrators is for a term of five years. This may be extended once for an additional five years. If proceedings continue beyond the end of a member’s term, that appointed member remains in office until the conclusion of the ongoing case.

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  • Historian

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Deputy Director of the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschichte München-Berlin), overall responsibility for the institute within the board of directors. Adjunct professor at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität München.

    Education / Academic Background
    Studied history, political science, and philosophy in Münster and Bonn; extended research stays for dissertation and habilitation in France, Great Britain, Poland, and the United States; doctorate in 1993/94 in Bonn, habilitation in 2002 in Munich. Erasmus visiting professor in Edinburgh in 2000; DAAD long-term lecturer and associate professor & reader in Nottingham from 2002 to 2012; returned to Germany in 2012 and has held his current position since then.

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Research focus on the history of National Socialism and its international relations with corresponding publications over the past three decades; member of the “Taskforce Schwabinger Kunstfund”.

  • Historiker

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Since 2013 Distinguished Professor of History and Seymour and Lillian Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies and Director of the Center for Israel Studies at the American University in Washington DC
    Since 1997 Professor of Jewish History and Culture at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (2024-2028 on leave)
    Since 2013 International President of the Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of German-Jewish History
    Member of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana in Mantua and the American Academy for Jewish Research.

    Education / Academic Background
    Ph.D., Columbia University, New York, Jewish History, 1993
    Master of Arts in Jewish Studies and History from the College of Jewish Studies and the Universität Heidelberg, 1988
    Visiting professorships at Berkeley, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Haifa, CEU Budapest, Vienna, Lucerne, Zurich, and Paris

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Research and numerous publications on 20th-century Jewish history
    Member of academic advisory boards of various Jewish museums, currently the Jewish Museum Berlin and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, previously also the Jewish Museums in Vienna, Fürth, and Augsburg, as well as the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial (KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg) and the Bavarian Memorial Foundation (Stiftung Bayerische Gedenkstätten)

  • Historian

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Director of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation (Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten)

    Education / Academic Background
    Ph.D., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (under Prof. Hockert). Studies of contemporary history, doctorate focusing on Jewish history and the history of Nazi crimes

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Ph.D. on tax authorities as a persecutor (“Der Fiskus als Verfolger. Die steuerliche Diskriminierung der Juden in Bayern 1933-1941“); studies on forced labor and publication of biographies of persecuted persons; in-depth work on legal, social, scientific and museological forms of reappraising Nazi legacy, as well as approaches regarding remembrance culture, which resulted in numerous publications, including on looted art and restitution. Since 2018, director of Memorials Foundation, responsible for seven memorial sites in the federal state of Brandenburg, which are primarily dedicated to the memory of the victims of Nazi crimes and their scientific and educational reappraisal (e.g., Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen Memorials); teaching students in these subject areas at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

  • Historian, Provenance research

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Historian and independent researcher

    Education / Academic Background
    Studied history, Doctorate in 2003 from FU Berlin

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Since 2006, collection of material on the Berlin auction house Hans W. Lange (1937-1945) and the Berlin art trade during the Nazi era, research on issues of confiscation and exploitation in the Nazi state, on the social history of the actors in the art market of the time, its participants, sellers, and buyers.
    2014 founding member of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung (Research Association for Provenance Research) as well as of the association Tracing the Past e.V., 2017/18 member of the board of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung
    Publications: https://carolineflick.de/wer/cs/

  • Historian

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Director of the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschichte München-Berlin),
    Chair for Contemporary History, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

    Education / Academic Background
    2023-2025: Chair for Contemporary History,  University of Bayreuth
    2019-2023: Professor for Contemporary History, University of Münster
    2009-2019: Associate Professor for Modern and Contemporary History, University of  Münster
    2015-2019: Principal Investigator, Collaborative Research Centre / SFB 1150 „Cultures of Decision-Making“ funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), University of Münster
    2018: Habilitation, University of Trier, Habilitation thesis: „Familienwerte im gesellschaftlichen Wandel: Debatten über Ehescheidung, Frauenarbeit und Reproduktion in den USA des 20. Jahrhunderts“
    2009-2016: PI of the DFG-funded Emmy Noether-Group “Family values in social change: The American family in the 20th century” at the University of Münster
    2002-2009: Research Associate, chair of Modern and Contemporary History, University of Freiburg im Breisgau2001: PhD in Modern and Contemporary History at University of Freiburg im Breisgau
    1998-2001: Research assistant, History Department, University of Freiburg im Breisgau

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Ph Dissertation: “Rasse, Siedlung, deutsches Blut: Das Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt der SS und die nationalsozialistische Rassenpolitik im besetzten Europa, 1939 – 1945“, numerous publications and research projects on Nazi racial and resettlement policy, Nazi forced labor, and the history of science under National Socialism, regular expert opinions inter alia for the Federal Office for Unresolved Property Issues (Bundesamt für offene Vermögensfragen), numerous advisory board activities, including for the Topography of Terror (Stiftung Topographie des Terrors) in Berlin and Villa ten Hompel, Münster

  • Jurist

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    President of the Bavarian constitutional court and the Higher Regional Court of Munich

    Education / Academic Background
    Studied law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München,
    First and Second State Examination in Bavaria, Doctorate at the Law Faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Active in the field of “remembrance culture,”
    Initially a member, since 2023 chairperson of the board of the Förderverein und Freundeskreis des NS-Dokumentationszentrums München

  • Historian

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and History Didactics at the Universität Erfurt. Main research areas: History of National Socialism and its aftermath, history of the GDR and the period of transformation, history of the modern welfare state in Europe, culture of remembrance / public history.

    Education / Academic Background
    Master's degree in history, political science, and economics at LMU München and research assistant at the History Department of LMU München. 2001 Doctorate with a study on the history of the welfare state after 1945 at LMU München. 2001-2004: Head of the working group for a research project on the fiscal plundering of Jews during the Nazi era at LMU, which resulted in, among other things, the monograph “Finanzverwaltung und Judenverfolgung. Die Entziehung jüdischen Vermögens in Bayern während der NS-Zeit“. Subsequently, from 2004 to 2011, temporary Academic Councillor (Akademische Rätin auf Zeit) at the History Department of LMU München, involved in the research project on the history of the Reich Ministry of Finance during the Nazi era at the Federal Ministry of Finance. 2011 Habilitation at LMU Munich with the monograph “Bürokratie und Verbrechen. Antisemitische Finanzpolitik und Verwaltungspraxis im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland“ (awarded the Ernst Fraenkel Prize by the Wiener Holocaust Library, London, among others). After two deputy chairs at the Universität Erfurt (2011-2012) and the Freie Universität Berlin (2012-2013), since 2013 Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and History Didactics at the Universität Erfurt. 2015 offer of appointment to the University of Leipzig (declined).

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Since 2001, research on Nazi state crimes and their consequences up to the present day, with a focus on the plundering of Jews. Research on the post-history of National Socialism, especially with regard to redress for Nazi injustices and developments in the culture of remembrance. Head of several research projects on this topic and publication of monographs, anthologies, and essays on Nazi art theft cases and persecution networks, expert opinions in cases on Nazi-looted art.

  • Art Historian, Provenance research

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Independent provenance researcher

    Education / Academic Background
    Dr. phil., Contemporary History, University of Vienna, 2015
    M. A., Art History, Columbia University, 1995
    B. A., Bryn Mawr College, 1992

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Art and contemporary historian specializing in provenance research. Key topics of academic work include: private art collecting and patronage in Vienna before 1938, Nazi art theft, and art restitution since 1945. Numerous publications, including the monographs »Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens« (2003) and »Feindliche Gewalten: Das Ringen um Gustav Klimts Beethovenfries« (2017). Knowledge transfer projects on remembrance culture and the politics of history, most recently, the design of the permanent exhibition »Schaltstelle des Terrors« (2025) on the former Central Office for Jewish Emigration (»Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung Wien«).
    In addition to her academic work, Lillie has about thirty years of experience in restitution practice. From 1995 to 2001, worked on restitution issues for the Jewish Community of Vienna (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien) as Director of its Holocaust Victims’ Information and Support Center. Since 2001, she has been working independently as a provenance researcher, advising private individuals, cultural institutions, and organizations, as well as serving as an expert and lecturer. From 2014 to 2016, member of the »Taskforce Schwabinger Kunstfund«.

  • Historian

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Fritz Bauer-Institute and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies

    Education / Academic Background
    Studied History and Philosophy at the Universität Bochum, from 2005 until March 2025 Director of the research department at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Research on the history of Nationalsocialism with a focus on the Holocaust. Until 2021, member of the advisory board of the Topography of Terror Foundation (Stiftung Topographie des Terrors); author, editor, and contributor to specialist publications on the Holocaust; recent publications include: “Gerahmte Gewalt. Fotoalben von Deutschen im ‘Osteinsatz’ und die Erinnerung an den Zweiten Weltkrieg, Berlin: Metropol, 2025; (ed. with Mary Fulbrook) and “Perpetrating the Holocaust: Policies, Participants, Places” (Cambridge History of the Holocaust, Vol. 2), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.

  • Historian

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Head of the international transdisciplinary research project Ideologies in National Socialism, www.ns-ideologies.org Editor of the ongoing publication “Politik, Ideologie und Wissenschaft”
    Publication series on the Diaries of the SS Scholary Department (Diensttagebücher des SS-Ahnenerbe), as well as an accompanying volume on their looting of cultural property. Department of History at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf – Contemporary history with a focus on National Socialism (until 2025)
    Department of International Relations at the Universität Stuttgart – History of international relations with a focus on looting of cultural property in the 20th and 21st centuries (since 2024)

    Education / Academic Background
    Doctorate (Dr. phil) on the history of National Socialism
    Doctorate (Dr. rer. med.) on pharmaceutical research in concentration camps
    Lecturer and researcher at various universities and scientific institutions in Germany and abroad, specializing in National Socialism since 2015

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Research focus on the history of National Socialism:
    Author and editor of numerous academic publications on Nazi history;
    Expert opinions in the context of restitution proceedings, with expertise in legal and economic issues (plausibility checks in the areas of corporate law, real estate law, trust structures, asset transfers, balance sheets, tax authorities, etc.),on the circumstances pertaining to the loss of cultural property as a result of Nazi persecution (plausibility checks of administrative responsibilities and patterns of action, reconstruction of processes of confiscation, auction, or forced sale, etc.), and in the assessment of the private and business financial situations of those affected in a historical context;
    Artistic exploration of the persecution of Shoah survivors – and exhibition of this work in various countries. www.wsh2022.de.

  • Historian, Provenance research

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Head of Provenance Research and Archives at the Städel Museum and Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main

    Education / Academic Background
    Studied art history, German literature, American literary history, and cultural history in Freiburg, Amherst (University of Massachusetts), and Munich. Doctorate in American cultural history on the reception of African art and jazz in Paris and New York in the 1920s and 1930s (LMU München). Research assistant at the American Institute at LMU München and at the Department of American Studies at FAU Erlangen.

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    2006-2014 Curatorial Assistant and Provenance Specialist at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since 2014 Head of Provenance Research at the Städel Museum and Liebieghaus. 2018 participant in the German-American Provenance Research Exchange (Los Angeles/München). Publications in exhibition catalogs and academic publications on the topics of provenance research and the history of objects, collections, and institutions, as well as involvement in exhibition projects.

  • Sociologist, Historian

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Professor Emeritus of Sociology
    Academic College Tel Aviv

    Education / Academic Background
    From 1977, studied sociology, psychology, history, and philosophy in Tel Aviv. In 1984, transferred to Columbia University in New York City, and in 1992 received his Ph.D. from Columbia University on The Sociology of Compassion. Taught at Columbia University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and LMU München. From 1996 to 2023 he was holding a chair in sociology at the Academic College of Tel Aviv, teaching courses on the sociology of the Holocaust.

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    More than 20 years of research on Nazi-looted cultural property, particularly on issues of legislation and restitution practices, against the backdrop that the genocide of the Jews in Europe was preceded and accompanied by looting and theft. Many years of research on the Jewish organization “Jewish Cultural Reconstruction,” which campaigned for the return of Nazi-looted cultural property, as well as on Hannah Arendt, memory, and the Shoah.

  • Art Historian, Provenance research

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Independent Provenance Researcher

    Education / Academic Background
    1995 Magister Artium, Universität zu Köln
    1998 Doctorate, Universität zu Köln

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Studied art history, classical archaeology, and prehistory and early history in Münster and Cologne.
    From 1999 to 2003, museum assistant and research projects on the Nazi era including provenance research at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne. International research projects on individual works and collections with regard to art and cultural property possibly lost as a result of Nazi persecution. Reconstruction of art collections and scientific research on collectors, institutions, intermediaries, and networks.
    Since 2000, independent provenance researcher in Cologne.
    2000 Initiator and founding member of the international Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V. (Research Association for Provenance Research)
    2001 Conception and organization of the colloquium “Museen im Zwielicht – Ankaufspolitik 1933-1945” in Cologne
    2011-2013 Spokesperson for the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V.
    2012-2014 Member of the advisory board of the Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg (now the German Lost Art Foundation (Stiftung Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste), Magdeburg)
    2014 to 2018 Lecturer in provenance research, Universität zu Köln, Institute of Art History, specializing in the art market.
    2018-2020 Managing partner of TERLAU & VOIGT, Cologne
    2021 Awarded the Order of Merit with ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens) by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier for services and commitment to provenance research.
    www.provenienzforschung.de

  • Art Historian, Provenance research

    Current Professional Position / Area of Responsibility
    Provenance researcher and art historian

    Education / Academic Background
    Studied art history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, the Sorbonne Université Paris and the Freie Universität Berlin. Earned a master's degree with a thesis on Gerdy Troost’s role in the art market under National Socialism, written at the Research Centre for ‘Degenerate Art’ at the Freie Universität Berlin.

    Relevant Experience / Specialization / Involvement in the subject area of the Court of Arbitration for Nazi-Looted Cultural Property
    Several years’ experience as a provenance researcher in the Restitution department at Christie's auction house. Most recently worked as lead provenance researcher for a project at the Museumsverband Thüringen investigating collection pieces illegally confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution. Member of the Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V. (Research Association for Provenance Research).