On November 30, 2014, the former water tower, built in 1892 to contain water storage, an ice cellar, and storerooms, was reopened as the Amalie Redlich Tower. It was named in honor of Amalie Redlich, owner of the painting Litzlberg on the Attersee (1915) by Gustav Klimt, which was in the Museum der Moderne Salzburg’s collection until 2011. After an extensive investigation, the painting was returned to its legitimate owner, Amalie Redlich’s grandson and heir Georges Jorisch (Vienna 1928–Quebec 2012).
Amalie Redlich, née Zuckerkandl, had acquired Gustav Klimt’s painting Litzlberg on the Attersee (1915) from the estate of her brother Victor and his wife Paula Zuckerkandl before 1938. In 1941, Redlich and her daughter Mathilde were deported to Łódź and then murdered by the National Socialists. The painting and other artifacts were confiscated by the Gestapo. It passed to the Salzburg-based art dealer and collector Friedrich Welz; then, in 1944, to the Salzburger Landesgalerie; to the Salzburger Residenzgalerie in 1952; and finally, in 1982, into the holdings of the Moderne Galerie und Graphische Sammlung Rupertinum, the predecessor institution to today’s Museum der Moderne Salzburg. For many years, the painting Litzlberg on the Attersee occupied a prominent position in the museum’s collection. In 2011, provenance research ascertained beyond doubt that Georges Jorisch, Amalie Redlich’s grandson and sole heir, was the work’s rightful owner.
As a gesture of appreciation to the State of Salzburg and in recognition of the then director of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg Toni Stooss’s personal efforts to effect an expeditious and unbureaucratic restitution, Georges Jorisch generously provided funding for the conversion of the former water tower. Support from the Society of the Friends of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg and sponsors allowed for the completion of the interiors and technical installations. The restoration and interior construction of the tower were planned by the architects at Friedrich Poerschke Zwink Architekten + Stadtplaner BDA, Munich, who had previously designed the museum’s new building on the Mönchsberg (then under the name Friedrich Hoff Zwink). The Amalie Redlich Tower now houses offices, art education spaces, and a studio apartment for artists.
