The Jewish shoe manufacturer Alfred Hess, who died in 1931, was a well-known art collector and patron and had built one of the most important collections of expressionist art in Germany. His son Hans Hess inherited the collection and fled Germany shortly after the Nazis came to power, first to France and later to Great Britain. Meanwhile, his mother Tekla Hess sent important parts of the significant art collection to an exhibition in Switzerland, first to Basel and later to Zurich, including the painting Judgment of Paris by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
As a provenance report further states, she was forced in March 1937 to send this painting along with other works back to Germany, where she stored them at the Cologne Art Association. In 1939, she managed to emigrate to Great Britain. After the end of the Second World War, the Cologne Art Association informed her that the previously stored paintings had been destroyed or were no longer available.
It was only during the so-called Cologne Art Forgery Trial of 1949/50 that some of the supposedly destroyed paintings reappeared as stolen goods. During this criminal trial, it was revealed that both the then-hanging master of the Cologne Art Association and third parties had appropriated paintings from the Hess collection. Paintings found during police searches were returned to the Hess family after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings.
The painting Judgment of Paris by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was not among them and was not mentioned during the trial. The painting only reappeared in 1957 – in the possession of Wilhelm Hack. Along with other works, it became part of the Wilhelm-Hack-Foundation established in 1973.
Judgment of Paris is one of Kirchner’s major works from his time in Berlin, alongside The Street (Museum of Modern Art, New York), the Berlin Street Scene (restituted by the State of Berlin in 2006), and Potsdamer Platz (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie). Judgment of Paris stands out as an exceptional painting because it is painted on both sides: the reverse side shows five bathers on Fehmarn, where Kirchner spent his summers at that time. Thus, the scene in the urban apartment contrasts with the scene in the open nature.

The following institutions, foundations, companies, and private individuals supported the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein in the repurchase of the painting:
 

Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien

Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung*

Kulturstiftung der Länder

BASF SE

Dr. Harald Hack Stiftung

Marlene Hack

Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Kultur

Bezirksverband Pfalz

RHEINPFALZ Verlag und Druckerei GmbH & Co KG

Fontana-Stiftung

Manfred und Lino Fuchs

Förderkreis des Wilhelm-Hack-Museums

Sparkasse Vorderpfalz

Stiftung der ehemaligen Stadtsparkasse Ludwigshafen a Rh.

Marli Hoppe-Ritter

Helga Braun

Hafenbetriebe Ludwigshafen am Rhein GmbH

Hilmar Kopper

pbb Stiftung Deutsche Pfandbriefbank

Timon Bauregie GmbH & Co. KG

VR Bank Rhein-Neckar eG

Jochen Lampert

Margret Suckale

Gerhard R. Wolf

Inner Wheel Club Ludwigshafen

Harmoniegesellschaft von 1803 e.V.

Günther Koch

Rotary Club Ludwigshafen-Rheinschanze

Prof. Dr. Karlheinz und Brigitte Eicher

Heinrich Hagenbucher

Ute und Dr. Bernhard Nick

 Udo Werlé

Sowie:

Architektenkammer Rheinland-Pfalz, Dr. Rüdiger und Ulrike Beyer, Bettina Blohm, Werner Blohm, Werner und Annemarie Buchmann, Claudius Caesar, Gerhard Foelz, Gisela Marianne Görth, Dr. Eva Lohse, Dr. Helmuth und Renate Morgenthaler, Julia Nebenführ, Prof. Dr. Cornelia Reifenberg, Brigitte Röth, Stefan Röth, René Zechlin u.v.m.

*The city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein thanks the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung for a generous interest-free bridging loan in addition to direct funding.