The government of Upper Bavaria officially recognized the JES Cultural Foundation, based in Utting am Ammersee, district of Holzhausen, as a foundation under civil law with legal capacity on December 17, 2020.

The chairpersons, members of the Board of Trustees, the scientific advisors of the University of Munich and numerous staff members work pro bono.

Scientific research, text editions and publications, programing and development of the website, are conducted by paid free-lancers.

Our project team consists of appr. 20 members.

When Jochen Seifert came to Holzhausen in May 2009 to look at a plot of land, he never would have thought that this visit would give his life a pivotal change.

He knows the region well, having grown up in Schondorf. Ever since then, he has maintained strong bonds to the Ammersee area. He was looking for a new property and had heard that a house in Holzhausen was for sale.

The moment he entered the house, Jochen was fascinated by the building and its past, a past full of history.

Among the pre-owners were tennis player Helga Hösl-Thaw and her husband, tenor David Thaw, as well as the American opera singer Claire Watson, who had been the first wife of David Thaw. In 1938, the painter Adolf Münzer had built the house and lived in it until 1953. The colorful history of the house motivated Jochen Seifert to research the history of the little village of Holzhausen that had attracted numerous artists at the turn of the 20th century.

Not only had members of the artists‘ association „Scholle“ made Holzhausen their home and creative studio, so did many other painters, illustrators, sculptors, architects, photographers, object artists, singers, actors, writers and scientists.

Jochen and his wife Erika did not want to accept that this valuable cultural heritage would vanish. So, they decided to help keeping the memory of the Holzhausen artists and their art work alive and make it accessible online. The idea for the Jochen und Erika Seifert Foundation was born.