Berlin art gallery

The Berlin Kunsthalle or Haus der Kunst was an official art gallery during the Nazi era from 1935 to 1943. The domicile of the Haus der Kunst was initially at Königsplatz 4; from 1939 it was then located at Hardenbergstrasse 21-23 (from 1941 as the Berlin art gallery ) .

Location Königsplatz 4

building

The Berlin architect Friedrich Hitzig (1811–1881) built a stately palace at Königsplatz 4 for Count Charles von Pourtalès from 1850 to 1852. A noble address: the building was then in the immediate vicinity of Palais Raczyński , which was later used for the construction of the German Reichstag was demolished. Around 1875 the banker Hugo Pringsheim (1838–1902) bought the Palais Pourtalès. After Pringsheim's death, the building was home to the American ambassador Charlemagne Tower (1848–1923) until 1908 , and then from 1911 to 1929 the Japanese embassy. In 1926 the Pringsheim heirs sold the house to the Reichstag administration, the so-called 'Reich Treasury'.

After the Japanese embassy delegation moved out, the building was used for various exhibitions; so found u. a. In 1930 the "Freie Kunstschau Berlin" took place, in 1931 the exhibition "Women in Need", in 1931 the woodcut series "Godless" by Willy Fries (1907–1980) was presented and in 1932 the exhibition "Das Meisterphoto". The building was now known as the “House of the Jury Free”. According to the Berlin address book, the “Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Berlin e. V. “Tenant of the house, but with the National Socialist“ seizure of power ”the association was liquidated.

In 1935, the "Exhibition Management Berlin e. V. ”into the building, which was now called“ House of Art ”. The “Berlin Exhibition Management”, chaired by Hans Herbert Schweitzer , was a National Socialist agency that controlled all of Berlin's art exhibitions and now had its own art presentation site; The managing director of the "Exhibition Management Berlin" was initially the painter Reinhold Koch-Zeuthen (1889–1949), then from 1936 Karl Berthold.

Exhibitions

The first exhibition in the Haus der Kunst at Königsplatz 4 took place in July 1935. It was called “Berlin Art 1935” and was the successor to the “Great Berlin Art Exhibition”, albeit under different exhibition conditions. In this exhibition, as in all of the following, contemporary art that corresponded to the National Socialist art dogma was shown. It was not about a museum presentation, because the majority of the works could be purchased. With one exception: the notorious traveling show “Degenerate Art” , whose Berlin stop was Königsplatz 4.

July 27 to September 29, 1935: Exhibition of Berlin Art on Königsplatz
October 26 to December 5, 1935: Individual exhibition of German artists in 1935 in the Haus der Kunst
March 10 to April 13, 1936: Exhibition of German advertising graphics
From May 9, 1936: Large portrait exhibition
July 25th to September 13th 1936: painting, graphics, sculpture. With a special show of Gieges prizes and gifts of honor
September 26 to October 18, 1936: German press drawing
February 13 to March 14, 1937: The German stage design
June 5 to July 4, 1937: Exhibition of graphics and small sculptures
September 11 to October 31, 1937: Second portrait exhibition with a special show of medals and plaques
February 26 to May 8, 1938: Degenerate Art
May 21 to June 26, 1938: Small collections: painting - sculpture - graphics
August 27 to September 25, 1938: Art of the Ostmark: Painting - Sculpture - Graphics
October 15 to November 12, 1938: Third portrait exhibition
November 26th to December 30th, 1938: Art exhibition in Berlin. Art exhibition aid organization for German fine arts in the Nazi welfare
January 28 to February 26, 1939: Silesian art exhibition with special craft show
March 5 to April 6, 1939: Spring exhibition of the Front Fighters Association of Fine Artists in the Haus der Kunst

The Haus der Kunst had to move from its seat on Königsplatz in 1939 as part of the planned redesign of Berlin to become the “ World Capital Germania ”; in June 1939 the former "Palais Pourtalès" was demolished.

Location Hardenbergstrasse 21–23

building

The Villa d'Este at Hardenbergstrasse 21–23 near the Zoo train station was rented as a new exhibition center ; The owner there was the German Officers Association.

Like the Palais Pourtalès , the neo-baroque house on Hardenbergstrasse, built in 1889, was originally a stately home. During the Weimar Republic , however, it functioned as a fashionable artists' club and elegant dance hall, and from the end of 1939 onwards, including a large new extension in the villa's garden, served as the House of Art . In order to clearly differentiate it from the well-known Munich “House of Art”, the Berlin House was renamed “Berlin Art Hall” from April 1941.

On the night of November 22-23, 1943, 90 percent of the buildings at Hardenbergstrasse 21-23 were destroyed in an Allied air raid . The official business of the “Exhibition Management e. V. “were shut down.

In the mid-1950s, the Amerika-Haus was built on the vacated land at number 21–24, based on plans by the Berlin Senate architect Bruno Grimmek (1902–1969).

Exhibitions

Conceptually, the exhibition operations at the new location were continued almost seamlessly. However, monothematic exhibitions were now increasingly taking place, the task of which - reinforced by the beginning of the Second World War - ultimately consisted of "illustrating and disseminating the National Socialist ideology".

Until January 16, 1940: exhibition of copies
February 1940: Graphic exhibition and collective exhibition by Wolfgang Willrich Rasse and Volk
March 30 to April 28, 1940: The great trek
June 1, 1940 until further notice: General art exhibition (summer exhibition)
December 4, 1940 to January 31, 1941: Great Berlin art exhibition in the Haus der Kunst
March 22 to April 20, 1941: The press drawing in the war
April 26 to May 4, 1941: Italian photographic art
May 17 to June 11, 1941: Flemish contemporary art
September 1941: Art exhibition from the fields of Reich Minister Dr. Todt : Build and fight.
October 4 to November 2, 1941: The German man
December 6, 1941 to January 31, 1942: Art exhibition painting, graphics, sculpture
7-27 February 1942: German art from the East and Southeast
March 24 to April 6, 1942: Purpose-built use of the construction industry during the war
April 18 to May 2, 1942: Exhibition of works by Portuguese artists
1st - 27th October 1942: Waffen-SS in the picture
4th-18th November 1942: Croatian photographic art
December 4, 1942 to January 3, 1943 art exhibition
January 23 to February 13, 1943: Draftsmen, sculptors, and painters visited the RAD during the war
6-21 March 1943: Japan in the picture
April 16 to May 16, 1943: Men of our time
June 15 to July 15, 1943: Noble German handicrafts

Individual evidence

^ Former palace of the Count of Pourtalès . In: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. Tiergarten district , 1955, p. 151; Eva Börsch-Supan (Ed.): Gottfried Semper and the middle of the 19th century , Basel 1976, pp. 168/169.
^ Helen Tower Brunet: Nellie and Charlie. A Family Memoir of the Gilded Age , 2005, p. 115.
↑ See Berlin address books. Since 1864 the address was called Königsplatz , from 1926 to 1933 Platz der Republik , then from 1933 to 1948 again Königsplatz and from 1948 finally again Platz der Republik (in front of the German Bundestag).
^ Berthold, born on March 28, 1892 in Neumünster, is not identical to Goldschmidt Karl Borromäus Berthold.
^ The great Berlin exhibition and the "Exhibition Management Berlin e. V. “ In: Kirsten Baumann: Word battles. Völkische and National Socialist art criticism 1927–1939 , 2002, p. 376 ff. ISBN 978-3-95899-157-6 .
^ Katrin Engelhardt: The exhibition "Degenerate Art" in Berlin 1938. Reconstruction and analysis . In: Uwe Fleckner (Ed.): Attack on the Avantgarde , 2007, pp. 89–158, ISBN 978-3-05-004062-2 .
^ Claudia Molnar: The Berlin Villa d'Este. Bürgerpalais - Tanzlokal - NS-Kunsthalle , BOD, Norderstedt 2020, ISBN 978-3-7519-2190-9 .
^ Manfred Overesch : Third Reich , Volume 2: 1939-1944, 1983 (date April 28, 1941).
^ Hiller von Gaertringen, Hans Georg: Pop, Politics and Propaganda. The America House Berlin through the ages , 2015, ISBN 978-3-7757-3948-1 .
^ Christoph surcharge: A difficult legacy. Art from the Nazi era = "Nazi art"? In: Tradition & Propaganda. An inventory . Art from the time of National Socialism in the Würzburg Municipal Collection, Würzburg 2013, p. 149.

52.50675 13.330277777778Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 24.3 " N , 13 ° 19 ′ 49" E

[1] Former palace of the Count of Pourtalès . In: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin. Tiergarten district , 1955, p. 151; Eva Börsch-Supan (Ed.): Gottfried Semper and the middle of the 19th century , Basel 1976, pp. 168/169.

[2] Helen Tower Brunet: Nellie and Charlie. A Family Memoir of the Gilded Age , 2005, p. 115.

[3] See Berlin address books. Since 1864 the address was called Königsplatz , from 1926 to 1933 Platz der Republik , then from 1933 to 1948 again Königsplatz and from 1948 finally again Platz der Republik (in front of the German Bundestag).

[4] Berthold, born on March 28, 1892 in Neumünster, is not identical to Goldschmidt Karl Borromäus Berthold.

[5] The great Berlin exhibition and the "Exhibition Management Berlin e. V. “ In: Kirsten Baumann: Word battles. Völkische and National Socialist art criticism 1927–1939 , 2002, p. 376 ff. ISBN 978-3-95899-157-6 .

[6] Katrin Engelhardt: The exhibition "Degenerate Art" in Berlin 1938. Reconstruction and analysis . In: Uwe Fleckner (Ed.): Attack on the Avantgarde , 2007, pp. 89–158, ISBN 978-3-05-004062-2 .

[7] Claudia Molnar: The Berlin Villa d'Este. Bürgerpalais - Tanzlokal - NS-Kunsthalle , BOD, Norderstedt 2020, ISBN 978-3-7519-2190-9 .

[8] Manfred Overesch : Third Reich , Volume 2: 1939-1944, 1983 (date April 28, 1941).

[9] Hiller von Gaertringen, Hans Georg: Pop, Politics and Propaganda. The America House Berlin through the ages , 2015, ISBN 978-3-7757-3948-1 .

[10] Christoph surcharge: A difficult legacy. Art from the Nazi era = "Nazi art"? In: Tradition & Propaganda. An inventory . Art from the time of National Socialism in the Würzburg Municipal Collection, Würzburg 2013, p. 149.