Historical color slide archive for wall and ceiling painting
The historical color slide archive for wall and ceiling painting is a picture archive set up by the National Socialists from 1943 to 1945 as part of the “Führer commission for monumental painting”. It is located in the Central Institute for Art History in Munich and includes recordings of fresco cycles and wall decorations in churches, monasteries, castles and other secular buildings in Germany, Austria, Poland and Russia (East and West Prussia) and the Czech Republic (Bohemia and North Moravia). With almost 40,000 recordings, it is the largest archive of wall and ceiling paintings in the world.
General
The aim of the documentation was to be able to faithfully restore important works of art that could be destroyed in the war after the " final victory " believed to be certain . 60% of the photographed works were then actually destroyed as a result. The works have been digitized since 2005 and can be accessed in a database on the Internet.
history
On the orders of Adolf Hitler , a few test recordings were initially made in the early summer of 1943. After the results presented as large prints on paper had met Hitler's approval, the "Main Department of Fine Arts" of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda took over the further execution of the "Fuehrer's commission for monumental painting". First of all, the monument offices created a list of buildings worth preserving with wall paintings , and the ministry created a ranking list according to importance and danger from the advancing allies . Then photographers were hired who were equipped with uniform cameras , lenses and film material. With lighting equipment - partly due to the lack of other lighting fixtures and the size of the rooms to be depicted, flak headlights were used - the photographers were then provided with the vehicles and petrol for transport to the respective locations.
Although the photographers were rewarded very differently and according to their reputation and also according to their connections to the party and some were just able to cover their expenses, this assignment was very popular among those in question, as it offered the opportunity to avoid the threatening frontline deployment . The spectrum of photographers ranged from university professors to their students, including Walter Hege , the well-known photo journalist Paul Wolff , the art historian Carl Lamb , the chemist Ralph Weizsäcker to employees of the large companies " Rex-Film " and " Ufa ".
The major campaign lasted until April 1945 and only ended with the collapse of the German Reich .
Used material
A color reversal film in 35mm format from the brand " Agfacolor -Neu" was used for the recordings , as the large number of recordings to be expected made the use of conventional plate cameras too complex and expensive. Even in this version, the company already cost several million marks.
Extent of the archive
Approximately 480 buildings were photographed, representing all important cultural epochs from the 10th to the end of the 19th century. In addition to wall and ceiling paintings, wall coverings and wallpapers , colored architectural elements , stucco decor , panel paintings and altars were also photographed.
Evaluation of the archive
In 1956, the Federal Ministry of the Interior commissioned the Central Institute for Art History to archive the color slides and submit them to a scientific evaluation. For this purpose, the archive's holdings, which were in depots in Freiburg , Tübingen and Berlin, were transferred to Munich. This also included a set of approx. 20,000 slides found in Mainz . The Herder Institute (Marburg) acquired a bundle of 643 recordings from Breslau in 1962 , which is not included in any of the other series. Missing material in Munich was gradually supplemented by exchanging it with monument offices, partly by doubling it or by buying it from the photographers who still owned their copy. In 2000, the Central Institute and the Photo Archive Photo Marburg agreed on the joint digitization and database-supported processing of the entire color slide archive.
Other uses of the image material relate to its use as templates for restoration work on the original paintings. Photographs of the ceiling paintings in the inner dome of the Dresden Frauenkirche by Giovanni Battista Grone from 1734 served as a template for the restoration of the cathedral, which took place between 1996 and 2005. However, like numerous other slides in the archive, they showed damage and, in particular, considerable color fading, which can be traced back to the improper storage of the slides in the period after the end of the Second World War. Before starting work, this made an elaborate comparison with other works by the artist and preserved contemporary church interior paintings in the Saxon region as well as in southern Germany , Austria , Venice and the Vatican necessary.
literature
- Christian Fuhrmeister (ed.): "Führer mission monumental painting" - a photo campaign 1943 - 1945 . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-412-02406-6 .
- Ralf Peters: Saved: the color documentation "culturally valuable wall and ceiling painting in historical monuments of Greater Germany" from 1943–1945. In: Kunstchronik, 55, 2002, pp. 242–244.