The administration and directorate of the Städel Museum have recently initiated a further research project which will complement the provenance-related efforts with a scholarly investigation of the history of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut during the period of the National Socialist regime. The two-year project will be carried out in cooperation with the "Entartete Kunst” ("Degenerate Art”) Research Centre (Berlin and Hamburg) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Uwe Fleckner, professor of art history at the Universität Hamburg and director of the Warburg Haus. Its aim is to publish the history of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut from the early 1930s to the early 1960s with a particular focus on the National Socialist era from 1933 to 1945. The research project will concentrate primarily on the role played by the Städel Museum in the cultural politics of the National Socialist regime, with a special view to the strategies pursued by the two directors Georg Swarzenski (who held the position of director of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut and the Städtische Galerie from 1906 to 1933, and of director of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut alone until 1937) and Ernst Holzinger (in office from 1938 to 1972). An in-depth look will also be taken at the history of the collection and its acquisitions as well as the losses incurred in 1937 through NS confiscations in the area of Classical Modern art. The study will moreover devote attention to the functions of collectors and art patrons and their relationship to the Städelsches Kunstinstitut. Finally, light will also be shed on the post-1945 period, during which the collection was reassessed, the losses declared, a number of the works confiscated in 1937 reacquired and restitution made for works purchased during the Nazi era.