The Rape of Europa(7)

Leipold’s paintings … made apparently no impression on Hitler, so little did even his closest colleague know his taste. But the visitor, once there, went on … looked at the works of the Expressionists, but did not open his mouth, asked no questions, satisfied himself rather with derogatory gestures. He looked out the windows, and commented on the nearby buildings: the Zeughaus, the Wache, the Staatsoper, and only when he saw the Prinzessinnen Palace designed by Schinkel, did he become truly lively, and hold forth to his silent followers.32

Despite this encounter, and attacks in the SS newspaper Schwarze Korps recommending a cleanup of the Nationalgalerie, Hanfstaengl, the new director, did not seem to get the picture either. All through 1935 he had continued to add works of new, young painters to the collection and to accept gifts from banned artists, though he had published a carefully edited catalogue of the museum’s holdings, which discreetly left out some of the more controversial objects. In this he was still tacitly supported by Rust at the Ministry of Culture, who even consented to the continued exhibition of works by the Jewish Liebermann. Hanfstaengl made sure that his museum was not left out of a citywide “German Art Since Dürer” show. His swan song was an exhibition entitled “Great Germans in the Paintings of Their Time” put on to coincide with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. All floors of the museum were thrown open, with artists from Corinth to Klee in full view in the New Wing. The attendance of more than ten thousand a week broke all records. But Jesse Owens and modern art were too much for the Nazis. As soon as the tourist flow had slowed, on October 30, Rust, taking advantage of Hanfstaengl’s absence in Italy and following orders from the “highest places,” closed the New Wing of the Nationalgalerie. And a few days later orders were given to close similar installations in all the museums of the Reich.

Meanwhile, Hitler’s “Temple of Art” in Munich was nearly finished, and would soon need to be filled. In a speech at the Nuremberg rally of 1934, the Chancellor, fresh from eliminating political opposition in his own party by his murders of Ernst Roehm and hundreds of other SA members, had begun to define more precisely the permissible range of art. Cubists, Futurists, Dadaists, and others were

mistaken, if they think that the creators of the new Reich are stupid enough or insecure enough to be confused, let alone intimidated, by their twaddle. They will see that the commissioning of what may be the greatest cultural and artistic projects of all time will pass them by as if they never existed.33

The continuing absence of absolute rules would show in the choice of works for the opening exhibitions of the new Temple of Art. Hanfstaengl, despite his resistance to National Socialist theories, was called to Munich in July 1936 to help decide what would hang in the new museum. Hitler wanted a “comprehensive and high-quality display of contemporary art.” The jury, which included several mediocre artists such as Adolf Ziegler, a painter of realistic nudes known in art circles as “the Master of the Pubic Hair,” and Gerda Troost, wife of Paul Troost, the architect who had designed the museum, was by now only too aware of what was not acceptable, but still not sure what was. They decided on an open competition. The only requirement for entry was German nationality or “race.” When Hanfstaengl asked if Nolde and Barlach could submit works, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior replied: “We will only refuse works, not names.” More than fifteen thousand works were sent in; nine hundred were chosen. Hitler himself came to see the selection and in one of his famous rages threw out eighty of these, declaring, “I won’t tolerate unfinished paintings.”

To improve subsequent shows, held annually for the next seven years, Hitler also threw out most of the jury, and put his chief photographer and art adviser of the moment, Heinrich Hoffmann, in charge. Hoffmann soon became quite efficient at dealing with the thousands of works submitted: he would speed through the galleries in a motorized wheelchair, shouting “Accepted!” or “Rejected!” to scurrying assistants as he passed each picture. “I drove by two thousand pictures only this morning,” he proudly told a colleague. “How else could I get ready in time?”34

In late November of the same year, Goebbels, further tightening control, forbade all art criticism:

I granted German critics four years after our assumption of power to adapt themselves to National Socialist principles…. Since the year 1936 has passed without any satisfactory improvement in art criticism, I am herewith forbidding, from this day on, the conduct of art criticism as it has been practiced to date…. The art critic will be replaced by the art editor. … In the future only those art editors will be allowed to report on art who approach the task with an undefiled heart and National Socialist convictions.35