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  3. Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting

Drehscheibe für Flucht- und Raubgut

English translation: a hub for stolen goods as well as goods belonging to refugees

15:03 Jan 23, 2004
German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting
German term or phrase: Drehscheibe für Flucht- und Raubgut
Mit dem Einmarsch der deutschen Truppen begann der Bildersturm in allen besetzten Gebieten. Der größte Kunstraub der Geschichte nahm seinen Lauf. Bis heute befinden sich mehr als 2.000 Kunstwerke aus der Hinterlassenschaft der Nazis im Besitz des Bundes. Die rechtmäßigen Besitzer sind noch immer nicht ermittelt. Das Dilemma der Erben: Auf juristische Ansprüche können sie sich nicht berufen. Alle Fristen sind längst abgelaufen. Erst jetzt haben die Museen damit begonnen, die Geschichte ihrer Archivbestände aufzuarbeiten, nicht nur in Deutschland. Viele Spuren führen in die Schweiz - **Drehscheibe für Flucht- und Raubgut** während des Zweiten Weltkriegs, wie die aufwändige SWR-Produktion zeigt.
Olaf Reibedanz
Colombia
Local time: 18:11
English translation:a hub for stolen goods as well as goods belonging to refugees
Explanation:
or goods salvaged by refugees, or goods refugees were able to carry with them, or any similar variation to the above. I don't think that there is a single word in English for "Fluchtgut" and flight assets seems to have been a literal translation from the German Fluchtgut, but I don't think that it can correctly be used for Fluchtgut, so you may be better off giving this a slightly longer explanation.
Selected response from:

Gisela Greenlee
Local time: 18:11
Grading comment
Difficult as this term was to translate, it turned out even more difficult to decide whom to give the Kudoz points... Thank you all for having put so much thought into this!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +2a hub for stolen goods as well as goods belonging to refugees
Gisela Greenlee
3 +2the staging point for stolen or fleeing goods
CMJ_Trans (X)
3 +1hub for flight assets and loot
NGK
4transshipment point for plundered (pieces of) art
Сергей Лузан
4a hub for looted and transferred assets
Susanne Rindlisbacher
3nerve center for plundered property
Kim Metzger
3Background info
Kim Metzger
1 +1Comment only:
TonyTK
2a hotbed of alien and stolen goods
Jonathan MacKerron


  

Answers


6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Drehscheibe für Flucht- und Raubgut
nerve center for plundered property


Explanation:
Don't know what to do with Fluchtgut.


    Collins
Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 17:11
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 80

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Armorel Young: perhaps "handling centre for...."
3 mins
disagree  Lars Helbig: nerve center implies that something is controlled. Drehscheibe is more a center for transfer and transhipment of goods. Fluchtgut means goods brought out of the country by their original owners.
7 mins
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5 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Drehscheibe für Flucht- und Raubgut
hub for flight assets and loot


Explanation:
*

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Note added at 8 mins (2004-01-23 15:11:41 GMT)
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or: hub for flight (assets) and looted assets

A five-year study of Switzerland\'s conduct during World War II concludes that Swiss art dealers sold art plundered from Nazi victims to Hitler for his private collections. The report concludes that \"Switzerland was a trade center for looted assets and flight assets from Nazi Germany and the occupied territories.\"

http://www.artsjournal.com/visualarts/visualarts0901.shtml

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Note added at 10 mins (2004-01-23 15:13:38 GMT)
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or I guess you could use \"trade center,\" as in the quote

NGK
United States
Local time: 18:11
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in category: 27

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Dierk Widmann: I like the word "hub" for "Dreh- und Angelpunkt".
21 mins
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16 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Drehscheibe für Flucht- und Raubgut
Background info


Explanation:
Norbert's "flight assets" seems to be the right term. Lots of good info available in Google under flight assets.

"Switzerland was a trade centre for looted assets and flight assets from Nazi Germany and the occupied territories. «Looted assets» are to be understood as cultural assets stolen, confiscated, or otherwise removed from their lawful owners by Nazi institutions. The new category, introduced in this treatise as «flight assets», refers to those cultural assets which were transferred to Switzerland by their lawful owners in an attempt to prevent them from being seized by the Nazi authorities. Also examined in this study is the group of «degenerate» art, art which was banned by the Nazi regime. This group comprises works that found their way into Switzerland either as looted assets or as flight assets.

http://www.nzz.ch/dossiers/2001/uek/01-e.pdf



    Reference: http://www.nzz.ch/dossiers/2001/uek/01-e.pdf
Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 17:11
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 80

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  TonyTK: Sorry, Kim, can't agree with you on this one - see below.
31 mins
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23 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
transshipment point for plundered (pieces of) art


Explanation:
Good luck, Olaf Reibedanz!

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Note added at 2004-01-23 16:33:54 (GMT)
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transshipment point for disappeared & robbed pieces of art

Сергей Лузан
Russian Federation
Local time: 02:11
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in category: 7
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24 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
a hub for looted and transferred assets


Explanation:
www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-8.htm www.ushmm.org/assets/coe/aac31.99 lootd.pdf

Susanne Rindlisbacher
Portugal
Local time: 00:11
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in category: 8
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47 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 1/5Answerer confidence 1/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Comment only:


Explanation:
Don't like "flight assets" at all. Maybe we need to find a better term for "Fluchtgut".

Nearly all the hits for "flight assets" refer to aircraft. The three or four non-German/Swiss hits that use it to refer to "Fluchtgut" all quote the same translated Swiss study.

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Note added at 2004-01-23 16:32:24 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

\"hastily expatriated\", \"hastily transferred\", \"fleeing\" ... ?


TonyTK
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Armorel Young: Hear, hear. Flight goods just sounds like translatorese. I'm not happy with fleeing goods either, though - in reality only animate things can flee, and the image of objects fleeing is just comical
1 hr
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
Drehscheibe für Flucht- und Raubgut
a hotbed of alien and stolen goods


Explanation:
to spice things up a bit...

Jonathan MacKerron
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 28
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
a hub for stolen goods as well as goods belonging to refugees


Explanation:
or goods salvaged by refugees, or goods refugees were able to carry with them, or any similar variation to the above. I don't think that there is a single word in English for "Fluchtgut" and flight assets seems to have been a literal translation from the German Fluchtgut, but I don't think that it can correctly be used for Fluchtgut, so you may be better off giving this a slightly longer explanation.

Gisela Greenlee
Local time: 18:11
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Difficult as this term was to translate, it turned out even more difficult to decide whom to give the Kudoz points... Thank you all for having put so much thought into this!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Nancy Arrowsmith: this seems the best solution, appropriated goods would also work
53 mins
agree  Mario Marcolin: :)
1 day 1 hr
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31 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
the staging point for stolen or fleeing goods


Explanation:
Hub is OK
you could also say "goods in flight"

I think what they are really saying is that CH was the ESCAPE route for goods that had either been stolen from their owners or were being shipped by their owners out of the country post haste to prevent them from being looted!

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Note added at 2 days 16 hrs 31 mins (2004-01-26 07:34:56 GMT)
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staging point for exiting goods - stolen or being evacuated by their owners!

CMJ_Trans (X)
Local time: 01:11
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 36

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Armorel Young: staging point is a good term. Hub for me is far too modern and technical a term - I don't imagine it would have been used in WWII times
2 hrs
agree  Brandis (X)
8 hrs
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