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The former Free Imperial City of
SCHWEINFURT
lies 20km down the Main from Hassfurt, its Altstadt on the north bank of the river, a harbour and industrial district on the opposite side. For the past century, it has been known principally as a ball-bearing metropolis, and this ensured it was subject to severe aerial bombardment during World War II. Afterwards, the American forces, who established a large and still active base in the town, allowed the ball-bearing tycoon Georg SchA¤fer to return to his factory, and he had an enormously successful career, establishing subsidiary concerns all around the globe. SchA¤fer used his fortune to fund his passion for art, concentrating exclusively on the German-speaking world, and a few years after his death in 1975 his choice group of old masters was put on permanent display in Coburg. In the meantime, the nineteenth-century paintings and drawings which formed the core of his collection, rivalling and in many respects surpassing the holdings of this period in the great public galleries of Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, remained with his descendants, though selections were sometimes exhibited. The first steps towards making the works permanently accessible to the public were not taken until 1997, when a foundation was set up with the aim of giving Schweinfurt the major attraction it had hitherto lacked, yet desperately wanted, in its bid to become a tourist and conference centre.
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