https://phaidra.kunstuni-linz.at/o:3745 Der Tisch, der uns nicht gehört : Ein Versuch des Zurückgebens am Beispiel der Familie Wertheimer Mayrhofer, Katharina Katharina Mayrhofer Barboza, Amalia Amalia Barboza text deu The subject of the following work is a black table which, according to the family narrative, came into my family‘s possession during the National Socialist era. Oral tradition and a provenance mark on the table indicate that it came from Ranshofen Castle near Braunau am Inn, which had belonged to the Wertheimer family. In my search for answers to the question of what forces took the table and how it ended up in my grandfather‘s attic of an inn for many decades, I came across a dark chapter of family history that I had never heard of before. Since then, I have been asking myself the question: How do you deal with presumed looted property from the Nazi era in your own family estate? A dialogue-oriented approach emerged from the very beginning through the joint exchange with the descendants of the Wertheimer family. This led to this project, the restitution of a table, which developed through joint historical research as well as participatory and artistic interventions. This artistic-scientific work aims to provide the impetus to sharpen the view and develop an awareness of objects in one‘s own family property that were presumably looted or taken from their former owners in various ways, such as through forced sales, confiscations, seizures and expropriations. Developing a critical eye is crucial to gaining deeper access to the past. This view is formed through careful research in academic libraries and archives as well as through the targeted discovery and comparison of letters, documents and photographs from the estates of both families. Such precise research can scrutinise entrenched family narratives, refute them if necessary or give them new substance. The object acts as a symbolic bridge to the past and makes it possible to visualise its history. As can be seen from the specific example of the table, this process can, under certain circumstances, also encourage an unbureaucratic return by private donation, provided that a counterpart is found who is willing to accept this gesture. This act has the potential to bring both families closer together and thus promote cultural understanding and reconciliation. Using this work as an example, I would like to show that such a process is worthwhile and that understanding the past is of central importance for consciously shaping the future. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://phaidra.kunstuni-linz.at/api/object/o:3745/download 10.57697/HDDS-6E74 application/pdf 2.70 MB 2026