Unfortunately, Stern's future plans were disrupted with the rise of Nazism in Germany. He received notification from the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts that he had lost his professional accreditation, and was given four weeks to either sell or dissolve all holdings within the Galerie Stern. He appealed the mandate, while trying to find a suitable Aryan citizen to assume ownership. While the gallery was temporarily "Aryan", Stern planned to open another outside Germany and wait out the Third Reich. To achieve these means, he chose Dutch art historian Nathan Katz.