These relatives, a disappointment! Sigismund Streit, a merchant in Venice, had no illusions. “Solid thinking” – not to be found! He himself, the son of a blacksmith and a student at the Graues Kloster Gymnasium, had left his hometown of Berlin at the age of just 14 to learn the trade of merchant in Altona, and had then traveled to the lagoon city via Leipzig. Now, a good 25 years later, he was staying on the Spree for the last time as a very wealthy merchant, had weighed up his relatives and found them too light to accept his inheritance. He had no descendants of his own.
For Streit (1687 – 1775), squandering the money on worthless relatives was out of the question. Instead, as a merchant from Venice he was rather stingy by profession, but when he retired he was extremely generous.
Books, paintings and lots of coins
“I would like to help maintain and promote the reputation of this school, which has always been famous…” – this is what he wrote to the management of the grammar school in 1751. He soon sent the first 10,000 thalers, which were followed by more, as well as boxes full of books and a high-quality collection of paintings.
© State Museums of Berlin, Picture Gallery / Jörg P. Anders
The money has largely evaporated over the centuries, and there are gaping wartime gaps in the book and painting collection. But the Streit Foundation, which brought together all of these donations, is still a lavishly endowed institution in terms of culture, education, and the history of the city.
Canelettos Venedig-Images
A good impression of the abundance can be obtained in the special exhibition “From the Grand Canal to the Spree. The Streitsche Foundation for the Graues Kloster” that has just opened in the Gemäldegalerie – a cooperation between both institutions to mark the double anniversary of the educational institution: the former Berlin Gymnasium zum Graues Kloster in Mitte was founded 450 years ago, and the Evangelische Gymnasium zum Graues Kloster in Schmargendorf, which continues its traditions, was founded 75 years ago.
© State Museums of Berlin, Picture Gallery / Jörg P. Anders
The Streit show is divided into three parts, so a visit to the exhibition automatically becomes a tour of the museum: the most magnificent part is in Hall XII, where four Venice vedutas by the Rococo painter Canaletto, which the merchant had made especially for Berlin, hang as permanent loans from the foundation.
One shows the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge and to the left the Palazzo Foscari, which Streit lived in and is now used as a hotel. A magnificent picture, but the client had objections, as it left out the part of the building where money was earned: “The 2 circular windows and 2 more next to them that you can’t see were my office or office.”
The picture hung in the auditorium of the high school, which was destroyed in the bombing raids except for the ruins of the monastery church, close together with other paintings. This hanging was partially reconstructed on one wall of the hall under the direction of Susanne Knackmuß, historian of the foundation and now guest curator of the exhibition.
While Canaletto’s commissioned works celebrated Streit’s adopted home of Venice and probably also himself to a certain extent, gallery room 28 contains four paintings by his favorite painter Jacopo Amigoni, with which he decorated his home. They show biblical scenes such as “Susanna Bathing,” a painting that the school director wanted to discard in 1864 because its content was inappropriate for a higher education institution. He was thwarted by the foundation, which insisted on the contracts.
The third part of the exhibition in Cabinet 5 follows the development of the school, the foundation and the donor. Documents on display include the certificate of the main foundation from 1760, a letter signed by Frederick II, engravings with portraits or city views and even Streit’s private seal. He is also said to have left two hearing aids to the school. But they have long since disappeared.