Adolf Ziegler (painter)

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Adolf Hitler, Gerdy Troost , Adolf Ziegler and Joseph Goebbels visit the Haus der Deutschen Kunst before its opening on May 5, 1937

Adolf Ziegler (born October 16, 1892 in Bremen , † September 18, 1959 in Varnhalt ) was a German painter and National Socialist art official. He was President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts and the driving force behind the confiscation of works of modern art from German museums and their public defamation in the Degenerate Art exhibition .

Life until 1933

After graduating from secondary school in 1909, the son of an architect enrolled in 1910 for three semesters at the Academy of Fine Arts in Weimar with Max Thedy , then went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich , where he attended Angelo Jank's drawing school has been recorded. From 1914 to 1918 he was a soldier in the First World War . He then continued his studies at the Munich Academy, which he graduated in 1924. Possibly he also attended Karl Caspar's class . From 1924 to 1933 Ziegler worked as a freelance artist in Munich. In order to earn a living, he painted “extremely honest portraits and pieces of flowers” ​​for sale in “conservative bourgeois circles”. There he met the patron and industrialist Albert Pietzsch , whose adopted daughter he married in 1926. Albert Pietzsch was one of the early supporters of the NSDAP. Ziegler, who is said to have been consulted by Hitler on “artistic matters”, joined the NSDAP as early as 1929, but was unable to win any new customers in this milieu either. Therefore, in 1931/32 he emigrated to Chile with his wife from Valparaíso , because he assumed that he would be able to sell his paintings better there. However, he was unsuccessful and returned to Germany in 1932.

Life 1933-1945

With the seizure of power by the National Socialists , a rapid career began for the hitherto “completely unknown” painter, whose pictures “apparently had never been exhibited”. In October 1933 he became a candidate for a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and received it on November 1. His official title was "painting technology" employee with the teaching role of a professor. On April 21, 1934, Ziegler was appointed full professor for "drawing and painting on the basis of traditional craftsmanship" by the Bavarian Minister of Education, Hans Schemm , after he had received official status on April 1, 1934. In the opinion of the art historian Christian Fuhrmeister, this appointment was solely due to art-political reasons, because the academy already had 4 professorships for the subject of painting technique. Until 1937, Ziegler could not show any pictures of his own.

In the following years he also rose politically. In 1934 he became a member of the Presidential Council and Vice President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts , in 1935 a member of the Reich Culture Senate . In the party he acted from at least 1935 as a reporter for art in the Reich leadership of the NSDAP. He was the age fighters the Golden party badge of the NSDAP .

In 1936, in his capacity as Vice President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, Ziegler closed the exhibition Painting and Sculpture in Germany in 1936 . It was organized as an annual exhibition of the German Association of Artists by and in the Hamburger Kunstverein and was intended as a contribution to the Olympics . This was the prelude to the persecution of modern art by the National Socialists.

On December 1, 1936, Ziegler was appointed President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts. He had two studios in the academy converted into a large presidential office. Ziegler was now at the forefront of enforcing National Socialist art policy, which included "that non-conformist art was no longer tolerated and that artistic freedom was replaced by ties to the people and 'race'".

In this position, Ziegler was also responsible for the discrediting, persecution and suppression of modern art. By decree of June 30, 1937, he was entrusted with the “cleansing” of the German museums and galleries of so-called “ degenerate art ”, i.e. works of art of Expressionism and other styles that were rejected by the National Socialist conception of art , as well as works by Jewish and Communist art Artist . Commissions headed by him, consisting of Wolfgang Willrich , Klaus Graf von Baudissin , Hans Schweitzer , Franz Hofmann and Walter Hansen , confiscated over 20,000 works, some of which were exhibited for propaganda purposes, destroyed or sold abroad for the benefit of the Nazi regime (see looted art , Restitution of looted art ). In June 1937, the exhibition “Degenerate Art” , which he directed, was equipped with some of these pictures and sculptures . At the opening of the exhibition, Ziegler gave a hate speech against Expressionism and its artists, against democratically-minded and open-minded museum directors and the “ Jews ” in art and culture. Among other things, he said:

“You see around us these offspring of madness, cheek, lack of ability and degeneration. What this show has to offer causes shock and disgust for all of us ... I have shown the urge of the museum directors to only show the morbid and degenerate with an example ... I don't have the time here to demonstrate all of this to you, my fellow citizens can what these fellows allowed themselves to do in German art on behalf of and as pacemaker of international Jewry. "

After the war, Ziegler tried to “play down this speech as a non-political address to an art exhibition”.

Ziegler did not present his own pictures to the public until 1937, in exhibitions for which he was jointly responsible. He received a prize at an exhibition of German contemporary art in Paris. The pictures exhibited there were also shown at the 1937 Biennale di Venezia . Works by Ziegler were featured prominently in the first Great German Art Exhibition , which Hitler opened on July 18, 1937, one day before the "Degenerate Art" exhibition. Large-format nudes painted in an academically realistic manner were characteristic of Ziegler's art . Mockers therefore referred to him as a "Reich pubic hair painter" or "Master of the German pubic hair". The triptych “The Four Elements” shown in all three exhibitions was bought by the NSDAP and hung in the Munich Führerbau . With its allegorical female nudes and portraits, it embodied the "ideal-typical Nazi racial theory". Ziegler's pictures met with particular approval from Hitler; they were published in the journal Die Kunst im Third Reich, edited by Alfred Rosenberg , and were widely distributed as reproductions and on postcards. This effect was particularly striking because Ziegler exhibited no more than 10 pictures in total in the Third Reich. Fuhrmeister points out that the widespread reception of Ziegler's work was not determined by its aesthetic quality, but by its ideological dimension and by Ziegler's power as an art functionary who had all the propaganda possibilities available. The purchase by the party had a "ennobling effect" on the Führerbau.

After the annexation of Austria , Ziegler is said to have personally enriched himself through the Aryanization of the Gilhofer & Ranschburg art gallery in Vienna. Its Jewish owners had been forced to sell the company for a fraction of its value, with the purchase price going to the NSDAP. The previous “Aryan” authorized signatory Friedrich Steinert and Hans-Werner Taeuber, who was already active in Munich as an “Aryan”, 80% Adolf Ziegler, allegedly as a representative of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, became new owners. The suspicion that he acted in his own interest is obvious, but cannot be proven, as hardly any files from the Reich Chamber have survived.

In 1943 Ziegler fell out of favor politically: after he and friends had considered ending the bombing war, he was denounced and on August 13, 1943, on charges of defeatism, he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp , but released on September 15. At the end of the year he lost his post as President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts and had to give up his professorship. Fuhrmeister, however, questions whether his fall was really that deep. His retirement did not take effect until October 31, 1944, because Hitler apparently held "his protective hand" over his friend. At the beginning of 1945 Ziegler left for Constance , supposedly to avoid being called up for military service. His retirement benefits were still paid here from March 1 to the end of July 1945.

Life after 1945

After the Second World War , Ziegler first lived with his sister in Baden-Baden . He was denazified as a “fellow traveler” .

Adolf Ziegler was the father of his son Werner Peter, born in 1938, who was later adopted, was given the surname of his stepfather and made an acting career as Peter Reistenhofer .

Works (selection)

  • German woman
  • Seated Nude (1912).
  • Female nude on the divan
  • The four elements (before 1937; oil / canvas, 180 × 300 cm, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Collection of Modern Art in the Pinakothek der Moderne )
  • Female nude (before 1942; oil / canvas, 105 × 80 cm)

literature

  • Birgit Neumann-Dietzsch, Rainer B. Schossig: Adolf Ziegler, painter and paladin. President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts from 1936–1943. In: Hans-Joachim Manske , Birgit Neumann-Dietzsch (ed.): “Entartet” - confiscated. Bremen artist under National Socialism . Verlag Städtische Galerie, Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-938795-10-1 , pp. 146–156.
  • Christian Fuhrmeister : Adolf Ziegler (1892–1959) - A National Socialist artist and functionary. In: Nikolaus Gerhart, Walter Grasskamp, ​​Florian Matzner (eds.): 200 years of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7774-4205-1 .
  • Reinhard Müller-Mehlis: Art in the Third Reich . (= Heyne books. Volume 4496; = Heyne-Stilkunde. Volume 3). Heyne, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-453-41173-0 .
  • Berthold Hinz : Painting in German Fascism. Art and counterrevolution . (= Art history studies of the Ulm Association for Art History. Volume 3). Hanser, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-446-11938-8 .
  • Hermann Hinkel: On the function of the image in German fascism. Image examples, analyzes, didactic suggestions . Anabas, Steinbach et al. 1975, ISBN 3-87038-033-0 .
  • Georg Bussmann (Red.): Art in the 3rd Reich. Documents of submission . Catalog of the Frankfurter Kunstverein. Frankfurt am Main 1974.

Web links

Commons : Adolf Ziegler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Fuhrmeister : Adolf Ziegler (1892-1959) - A National Socialist artist and functionary. In: Nikolaus Gerhart, Walter Grasskamp, ​​Florian Matzner (eds.): 200 years of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7774-4205-1 , p. 88 f.
  2. Ernst Klee : Personal Lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 , S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 693, names 1925 as the year of entry; According to the Fuhrmeister, this is misinformation.
  3. ^ A b c Christian Fuhrmeister: Adolf Ziegler (1892-1959). P. 90.
  4. See publications by Dr. Maike Bruhns .
  5. Volker Dahm: Artists as functionaries. The Propaganda Ministry and the Reich Chamber of Culture. In: Hans Sarkowicz (ed.): Hitler's artist. Culture in the service of National Socialism . Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-458-17203-3 , p. 99 f.
  6. ^ Reinhard Müller-Mehlis: Art in the Third Reich . Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1976, pp. 17-18, 163.
  7. ^ Hans-Werner Schmidt: The Hamburger Kunsthalle in the years 1933-1945 . In: Sigrun Paas and Hans-Werner Schmidt (eds.): Persecuted and seduced. Art under the swastika in Hamburg. Kunsthalle Hamburg exhibition catalog 1983. Jonas Verlag, Marburg 1983, p. 56 .
  8. Klaus-Peter Schuster: National Socialism and “Degenerate Art”, the “Art City” Munich 1937. 5th, revised edition. Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7913-1888-8 , p. 217.
  9. ^ Art in the 3rd Reich. Documents of submission. Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 396.
  10. We are now no longer considerate . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1987, pp. 194-200 ( Online - Dec. 7, 1998 ).
  11. ^ A b c Christian Fuhrmeister: Adolf Ziegler (1892-1959). P. 91.
  12. Postcards with pictures of Adolf Ziegler.
  13. Hans-Werner Taeuber was the brother of Sophie Taeuber-Arp . Before the First World War, she was in a relationship with Adolf Ziegler. Sophie Taeuber-Arp broke off all contact with both men when her brother Hans-Werner and her childhood friend Adolf Ziegler turned to the National Socialists. See: Roswitha Mair, Handwerk und Avantgarde - The life of the artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp , Parthas Verlag Berlin, 2013.
  14. Werner Schröder: The Aryanization of Jewish second-hand bookshops. Part II. In: "From the antiquarian bookshop: magazine for antiquarians and book collectors", New Volume 7 (2009) No. 6, pp. 368–371.
  15. ^ Christian Fuhrmeister: Adolf Ziegler (1892-1959). P. 92.
  16. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 682.