Klaus Hegewisch’s (1919–2014) life spanned almost a century, encapsulating the trauma and recovery of Germany in the 20th century. Born in Hamburg in 1919, Hegewisch left school at the age of 16 and joined a merchant company as an apprentice. Germany was in full preparation for war as he completed his apprenticeship in spring 1939. Being a passionate sailor, he was drawn into the navy at barely twenty years of age. He continued to serve on a mine-sweeper even after the war had ended, clearing the shipping routes in the North Sea. In 1945, his vessel hit a mine and sank immediately – only he and three of the crew survived.

After the war, he joined an import business specialising in fruit and vegetables, which he managed and grew until his retirement in 1986. Like many of his generation, Hegewisch rarely spoke of his experiences during the war. Today, his children believe that it was through art that their father confronted the demons of the past.

As early as the mid-1950s, Hegewisch began collecting, but it was his first wife, Helga, who sparked his interest in modern art. The couple’s friendship with Wilhelm Grimm, a second-generation Expressionist with a particular interest in printmaking, greatly influenced the direction of the collection. Right from the beginning, prints and drawings would dominate Hegewisch’s collection. While he remained focused on European art of the early 20th century, acquiring works by Max Beckmann, Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, Otto Dix, and others, from the mid-1960s onwards he made significant acquisitions of prints and drawings of the late 18th and 19th centuries, including works by Francisco de Goya, Eugène Delacroix, Adolph von Menzel, Odilon Redon, James Ensor and Max Klinger. He also developed an interest in the old masters and added works by Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung, Rembrandt and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Although the Hegewischs very much lived with the collection, he felt strongly that it should not be locked away and that his treasures should be made accessible to the public. From quite early on, works were regularly lent to exhibitions in Hamburg, as well as Berlin, Oslo, St Petersburg and many other European cities, as well as museums in the USA, Japan, and Australia.