Adolf Hitler: Artist

Q. Hitler an artist

A. Indeed. Art was the future F�hrer's first great love, and throughout his early life he had grandiose dreams of making his living as an artist. In fact he stated his profession as 'artist' until he was 30, in 1920.

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After underachieving at school, he left at 16 to make his mark on the art world, but instead hung around the Austrian town of Linz, where he had grown up. After a couple of years he moved on to Vienna and, after his mother's death in 1908, he continued to draw a small allowance from her pension with which he at first maintained himself there. His ambition was to become an art student, but he twice failed to gain entry to the Academy of Fine Arts. For some years he lived a lonely and isolated life, earning a meagre living by painting postcards and advertisements and drifting from one municipal lodging house to another.

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Joining the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment in Munich on the outbreak of the First World War - he had been rejected by the Austrian army on medical grounds - he distinguished himself in battle, was wounded and gassed and was awarded the Iron Cross First Class for bravery in battle - very unusual for a non-commissioned officer, Hitler was a corporal. Like many Germans he became disaffected with the political situation in Germany and Austria after the end of the war, so he joined the German Workers' Party in 1919, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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Q. What was his work like

A. Throughout his life he continued to draw and paint. In his early years he produced watercolours, sketches and oils, many of them depicting grandiose architectural fantasies - which would later find an outlet in his designs with Albert Speer for the rebuilding of Berlin - but others simple town scenes, portraits and doodles. As a soldier he contributed instructional drawings and cartoons to the military newspaper.

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Unsurprisingly Hitler was vehemently opposed the various radical art movements of the early 20th century, such as Cubism and Post-impressionism, deeming them degenerate. His work was firmly rooted in the representational tradition - finding inspiration in the work of the German Romantics of the 19th century, such as Caspar David Friedrich - but overlaid with his own ideas about mythology, order and the German landscape.

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Q. Does much survive

A. It is estimated by those in the know that Hitler probably executed something between 2,000 and 3,000 works during his lifetime, though none, even by his own admission, ever sold for more than a few marks.

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Although there was an attempt to trace, register and catalogue as much of Hitler's work as possible during the 1930s, this was suspended on the outbreak of the Second World War and, you won't be surprised to hear, not restarted in 1945. In the intervening years much has been found, though obviously a great deal was destroyed, hidden or thrown out.

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Q. Who collects it

A. There are collectors who specialise in Hitler's art. An American named Billy F. Price is one of the most avid, and he published a catalogue of his collection, entitled Hitler: The Unknown Artist back in 1983. Currently out of print, there are some very expensive copies available through Amazon.com should you wish to check out Hitler's artistic skills.

There don't appear to be many - if any - public collections which feature any of his work.

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Q. So presumably Hitler took a leading role in steering the direction of German art during the Nazi period

A. Without question. Germany and Austria in the 1920s and 1930s were hotbeds of radical art, completely at odds with Hitler's artistic ethos, and on the Nazi Party's coming to power its stamp was imposed on all the arts. Among the artists whose style flourished with official sanction during the Nazi era were Arno Brecker and Adolf Wissel, and the classical style of these artists stood against the hated Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism and Dadaism.

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However, rather than censor modern styles of art, Hitler decided it was better to gather the work from the modernists into exhibitions of 'degenerative art', where he hoped that the Volk could see for themselves what this style was about and compare it to more traditional art.

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Hitler apparently believed that modern art was in conflict with the eternal values of beauty and therefore could only lead to a decline of civilisation: decadence. Because modern art was incomprehensible to the masses it separated people from positive expressions in art.

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For more on this there's a Nazi revisionist site, which includes a - naturally, glowing - review of the Price book at http://www.zundelsite.org

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You can also find information on the - equally uncritical - site http://hitler.org/art

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See also the article on Objets Trouv�s

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For more on Arts & Literature click here

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By Simon Smith