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Source: http://www.bytwerk.com/gpa/hitlerpaintings.htm Originally from: Adolf Hitler: Bilder aus dem Leben des Führers (Hamburg: Cigaretten Bilderdienst Hamburg/Bahrenfeld, 1936). Artist: Adolf Hitler (-1945) Date: 1914

The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich
The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich is a 1913 watercolor painting by Adolf Hitler (Fig.1). The work depicts a large estate in Munich, Germany from the view of the courtyard. Hitler inherited the residency in 1913 from his father. The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich, along with other works by Hitler, is currently stored in the basement archives of the Washington D.C. Center for Military History. Hitler’s works, as well as other art that glorify the Third Reich, are part of a collection that is never displayed due to the controversial nature.

Hitler is known today as the great military enemy of World War Two, and his artistic life has been overshadowed. Throughout his early life, Hitler considered himself an artist and regularly expressed his goal of becoming renowned in the art world. In 1905, when Hitler was sixteen years old, he left school without receiving his diploma. Hoping to pursue his artistic goals, he applied to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1907, along with 113 other applicants. He and 52 others were not admitted. A year later, in 1908 he was rejected once more. Hitler was told that his art showed more architectural skill rather that artistic vision. In his autobiography, Mein Kampf, Hitler expressed that the time following his rejection from the Academy, was the saddest period of his life. During that time, Austria was one of the leading centers for modern art. Among those that were accepted to the Academy was Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka went on to become a great artist. Kokoschka and artists like him attempted to express emotion in their works. In 1913 Kokoschka painted Bride of the Wind also known as The Tempest. Created from Kokoschka’s love of Alma Schindler, the painting shows two lovers clinging to each other in a storm.

The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich, however, is a prime example of Hitler’s artistic style. Hitler was in love with architecture. He has been noted for calling it his great love, but because he had no secondary school education he could not pursue it as a career. Hitler is known for minimizing human figures and in some cases eliminating them all together. His focus remains on architecture, emphasizing details in the building. In his painting, there are no human figures. His rendering of the house is very scientific. Unlike Kokoschka’s, no emotion can be linked with this painting.

Another observation from the collective examination of his work is Hitler’s influence by Nineteenth-century art. He claimed to be the synthesis of many artistic movements but it is clear that he drew primarily from Greco-Roman classicism, the Italian Renaissance, and Neo- Classicism. He liked the technical ability of these artists, as well as the understandable symbolism. Hitler’s favorite artist was Rudolf von Alt and a clearly similar architectural style can be noted between the two. While von Alt does show figures in Das Pantheon und die piazza della Rotonda in Rom for example, they are minimized. The architecture is the main focus of the composition.

Hitler’s interest in art continued throughout his life, though his priorities had greatly changed. Hitler often referred to himself as an artist-politician. Once he was in power, Hitler applied his artistic preferences and ideologies to his political views. Hitler condemned his expressionistic contemporaries as “degenerate,” however; he was not the first to do so. The art critic Max Nordau wrote about his views on modern art in the late eighteenth century. He labeled modern art “degenerate” also. He believed that art has reached its pinnacle with realism and since, art had begun to decay. Nordau also believed that modern art was a product of physiologically disturbed people who could not see color and forms as they appear in nature. Hitler emulated these views and even attempted to purge Europe of what he thought were inferior artists.

As part of the purging process, over 5,000 works of modern art that did not fit into the National Socialist standards for art were seized. Of these works, 650 were exhibited in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition of contemporary art. The Degenerate Art exhibition served in contrast to Grose Deutsche Kunstausstellung (The Great German Art Exhibit). Adolf Ziegler, the president of the Reich chamber of visual arts, opened the exhibit on July 19, 1937. The exhibit displayed works in groups according to themes such as religion, vilification of women, and Jewish artists. Works were also categorized as abstractions, antimilitaristic, and works of the “mentally ill”. Paintings were hung close together in uncomfortably small rooms, and were accompanied by hand written labels that often provided inaccurate information and condemning remarks. Amongst the works in the Degenerate Exhibit, was Oskar Kokoschka’s painting Bride of the Wind/ The Tempest, as well as several plates from his portfolio O Ewigkeit- du Donnerwort, Bachkantate.