Pleasant Paintings by
Adolph Hitler?
By Courtney Perkins
A quaint courtyard scene of old Munich rendered in
airy pastel colors. Trees to the left side, filled with leaves. Strong
architectural detail of an 18th century structure that is undisturbed
by the presence of human beings. Does this brief description sound like
a possible rallying point for Nazism? The United States government
thinks so.
In May 1945, American troops raided a German
castle and found four watercolor paintings whose signatures, upon
arriving at the U.S. Army's collection point in Munich, were identified
as belonging to none other than Adolf Hitler.
Since then the U.S. government has maintained
possession of the paintings, despite attempts by the heirs to have them
returned, which has led to a series of lawsuits against the Army.
The pending conclusion of this legal battle over
Hitler's watercolors and two archives of photographs documenting his
reign of terror will end an 18-year legal fight that really began
almost 60 years ago.
In an article published in the May 8, 2001,
edition of The New York Times, William Honan summed up the Army's
reasoning for not releasing Hitler's art, writing that the government
alleges that the works have "such incendiary potential that they must
be guarded from the gaze of all but screened experts."
The above image, "Street in Vienna" (1914), is
representative of the type of sterile and idyllic representations of
quaint Austrian villages that Hitler repeated over and over in his
images. To some eyes this battle may seem strange since these pictures
are sentimental depictions. But there is a debate that these pictures
could be considered charming, and could cast the tyrant in a favorable
light.
It is estimated that during the course of his life
Hitler created between 2,000 and 3,000 drawings, watercolors, and oil
paintings. The dictator's initial career path was to study fine arts in
Austria and become a great artist. But his plans were dashed when he
was rejected from the Institute of Fine Arts in Linz. Though Hitler
continued to draw and paint, and sell his saccharine scenes to the
public and as greeting cards, his career path obviously turned in a
ghastly direction.
The history of the legal battle over Hitler's art
presents an interesting issue in an era marked by battles over
ownership of art looted during the Holocaust. Considering that these
paintings were made by Hitler, does this battle over ownership present
a double standard, given that many museums have begun returning
paintings to their rightful European heirs in recent years?
While the answer to that question remains a
difficult one, the history of the situation is an interesting one:
Systematic looting of art in abandoned museums and hiding spots began
even before the final fall of Germany. (Precious art objects had been
hidden in caves, mine shafts, and basements.) In early 1945, after the
fall of the Nazi regime, as the Allied forces began a joint attempt to
put things back in order, millions of dollars worth of stolen war
treasures were being looted every day; therefore, the Allied forces had
to work swiftly to protect the art.
That same year, Time magazine correspondents
looted thousands of photographs of Hitler and other Nazi officials from
a castle and the U.S. Army also found a stash of photographs of Hitler
(which were eventually used at the Nuremberg trials) in Bavaria. These
two discoveries totaled more than 2.5 million photographs detailing
Hitler's life, both public and private.
The watercolors and the photographs were owned by
Heinrich Hoffman, a close friend of the Nazi dictator, and the only man
who was allowed to photograph Hitler. Since Hitler had Hoffman
accompany him everywhere during his reign of power, Hoffman amassed a
collection that covers 25 years of German history. The watercolors, it
should be noted, were personal gifts from Hitler to Hoffman throughout
the 1930s and 1940s. During the Nuremberg trials, Hoffman was tried as
a Nazi profiteer, found guilty, and sentenced to four years in prison.
Upon his release, he began searching for the watercolors and
photographs, but would not find them before his death in 1957.
In 1982, Hoffman's daughter, continuing the
search, met Billy Price, a Nazi artifact collector from Texas who
showed her an informational brochure from the U.S. Army depicting the
watercolors. At that point, the Hoffman family gave their ownership
rights of the works to Price, an American citizen, in the hopes that he
could reclaim them from the U.S. government.
Since then the lawsuit has been through a series
of trials and appeals. In 1983, the courts ruled in favor of Price,
awarding him $7.8 million of the $99 million worth of damages which he
sought, on the grounds that they found fault with the U.S. Army's
contention that the paintings cast Hitler in a credible light.
The court released a statement saying that
"...four architectural paintings which visually are noteworthy only for
their precise rendition of 18th century structures could be 'rallying
points for a possible revival of Nazism' is incredulous."
That decision was eventually overturned by the
Texas Court of Appeals. In 1999, the district court in Washington D.C.,
where the case was moved, ruled in favor of the government. In August
2001, Price again lost in the D.C. courts. Price and the Hoffman heirs
are now making their final attempts to appeal the case in order to
regain possession of the watercolors and the 2.5 million photographs.
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