ABSTRACT
Switzerland was the largest international market for German modernist art during the 1920s and 1930s. Maja Sacher-Stehlin was the widow of Emanuel Hoffmann, renowned art collector and heir to the Hoffmann–La Roche pharmaceutical concern. When it came to organizing Twentieth Century German Art, Irmgard Burchard once again reached out to Sacher-Stehlin. Heinrich Campendonk's Springendes Pferd was included in the first Der Sturm exhibition in March 1912. It was acquired by the Waldens shortly thereafter, appearing in shows from their personal collection staged at the gallery throughout the late 1910s. In many respects, the art-exhibiting institutions of German-speaking Switzerland were a natural choice of collaborator for the organisers of Twentieth Century German Art. From 1933 onwards, Swiss institutions had also seen their stores boosted by hundreds of modernist works from German private collections. There was, however, no guarantee Swiss curators would be prepared to use their holdings, and their knowledge of local collections, to assist the London organizers.
