At the height of his power, Adolf Hitler had numerous monumental sculptures created to reflect the strength of the Third Reich. Two of them are now on display in Berlin.
Arrival at the Spandau Citadel : A restorer unpacks one of Thorak's horses
The Spandau Citadel in Berlin, an old Renaissance fortress that now houses a museum, also features two monumental Nazi artworks in its exhibition on disused monuments in Berlin. There are two sculptures by the sculptor Josef Thorak. He had made the “Striding Horses” at Adolf Hitler's request for his new Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Both sculptures need to be restored. One of them has been on display in the permanent exhibition since October 2022, where visitors can observe the restoration process.
At the height of his power in the Third Reich, Hitler had the monumental work of art in the garden of the Reich Chancellery set up – from 1939 to 1944 it remained there. The “Striding Horses” were among the thousands of bronze works made for the Nazi regime. They were later to decorate the “imperial” capital “Germania” – plans for the new city were already ready.
Who was Josef Thorak?
Josef Thorak was born on February 7, 1889 in Vienna. He attended the Vienna Art Academy before going to Berlin in 1915 to complete his art studies. After completing his studies, he established himself as a sculptor specializing in monumental figures and memorials – such as the four-metre-high figure of “Hertha”, which adorns the gable of the former Reichsbank in Gelsenkirchen-Buer.
His style secured him numerous commissions from the German government – he made an international name for himself when he worked with other artists on the Security Monument in Ankara, Turkey in 1934.
Josef Thorak models a portrait of Josef Goebbels
From 1937 onwards Thorak became the house and yard sculptor of the National Socialists and was commissioned to To make tons of propaganda art – to illustrate the (supposed) glory and strength of the Nazi regime with these sculptures.
While the Nazis labeled Jewish and modern art “degenerate,” persecuted the artists, looted Jewish art collections, and forced Jewish dealers to sell their collections at ridiculous prices, artists like Thorak thrived. He finally divorced his Jewish wife and got a prestigious post at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. After the end of the Second World War he continued unmolested – until his death in 1952.
Why should one exhibit Nazi art?
His “Striding Horses” were long lost. They were rediscovered in 2015 – after a series of spectacular raids against a dubious art dealer ring that operated in secret in Germany. The police seized Thorak's horses, as well as sculptures by Fritz Klimsch and Arno Breker, who were also among Hitler's favorite artists.
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“Degenerate Art”: How Hitler and the Nazis defamed art
Degenerate Art
Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists described modern artworks as “degenerate art” whose style, artist or subject they did not like. The Nazis confiscated such works of art from German art museums starting in 1937. In a traveling exhibition, “degenerate art” was pilloried in front of an audience. Here Goebbels and Hitler visit the original exhibition in Munich.
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“Degenerate Art”: How Hitler and the Nazis defamed art
Hitler and art
Hitler liked romanticism and 19th-century painting, preferring rural idylls. His private collection included works by Cranach, Tintoretto and Bordone, for example. In his retirement, Hitler wanted to devote himself to an art collection – analogous to his role models Ludwig I of Bavaria and Frederick the Great. It was to be shown in the “Führer Museum” in Linz on the Danube.
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“Degenerate Art”: Like Hitler and the Nazis Art defamed
The expropriations
The Nazis weren't the first to ostracize avant-garde artists, but they went a step further by banning their works from art houses. In 1937, those in power had more than 20,000 works removed from 101 state German museums. Everything that the Nazis did not consider edifying for the German people was taken away.
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“Degenerate Art”: Like Hitler and the Nazis Art defamed
Hitler's national style
Abstract art had no place in Hitler's “national style”. This was also made clear by the “Great German Art Exhibition”, which on July 18, 1937 in Munich presented the traditional landscape, history and nude paintings by Fritz Erler, Hermann Gradl and Franz Xaver Stahl, among others. The closer the subject came to the real template, the more beautiful it was in the eyes of the guide.
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“Degenerate Art”: How Hitler and the Nazis defamed art
What was considered degenerate
Even among his subordinates there was great uncertainty as to which artists Hitler would accept. The Great German Art Exhibition of 1937 and the simultaneous exhibition “Degenerate Art” in Munich's Hofgarten arcades brought clarity. Modern artists were ostracized, including Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Pechstein.
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“Degenerate Art”: How Hitler and the Nazis defamed art
Degenerate Art on Tour
The “Degenerate Art” exhibition showed 650 confiscated works of art from 32 German museums. She equated the exhibits with drawings of the mentally handicapped and combined them with photos of crippled people intended to arouse disgust and anxiety in the visitors. Over two million visitors saw the show, which was shown in different cities.
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“Degenerate art”: How Hitler and the Nazis defamed art
Legal bases
The “law on confiscation of products of degenerate art” of May 31, 1938 retrospectively legalized the confiscation of works of art without compensation. The law remained in force after the end of the war; the Allies decided that it merely redistributed state property. In contrast to looted art, works that the Nazis removed from museums as “degenerate art” can still be traded freely today.
“Degenerate Art”: How Hitler and the Nazis defamed art
Trade in “degenerate art”
The confiscated works ended up in depots in Berlin and in Schönhausen Palace. Many sales of expropriated works were carried out by Hitler's four art dealers, Bernhard A. Böhmer, Karl Buchholz, Hildebrand Gurlitt and Ferdinand Möller. A stock of approx. 5000 unsold works of art was burned on March 20, 1939 by the Berlin fire brigade in an action described as an exercise.
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“Degenerate Art”: How Hitler and the Nazis defamed art
Swiss hub
125 works were intended for an auction in Switzerland. A commission set up by Hermann Göring and others to exploit the products of degenerate art estimated the minimum bids and ultimately selected the Fischer Gallery in Lucerne for the auction. This auction took place on June 30, 1939 and attracted great interest from all over the world.
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“Degenerate Art”: Like Hitler and the Nazis Art defamed
Lots of “degenerate art” at Gurlitt
Over 21,000 works of “degenerate art” were confiscated. There is still disagreement about the number that has been used since then. Depending on the source, there is talk of 6,000 to 10,000 sold works. Others were destroyed or disappeared. Hundreds of works believed lost have reappeared in Cornelius Gurlitt's collection. And sparked the discussion again.
The works should be sold on the black market – because Nazi art is taboo on the official art market. Why is this art still exhibited in the citadel? The aim of the museum is to make it clear to what extent different state powers – from the German Empire to the GDR – tried to shape the Berlin cityscape with their monuments between 1849 and 1986.
“Due to the political upheavals in the 20th century, monuments that represented a problematic or even threatening memory or appreciation for the new system were repeatedly removed from public space,” says the website of the citadel. “The museum offers an opportunity to engage with the great symbols of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, National Socialism and the GDR that should have been buried and forgotten – and now fulfill a new function as testimonies to German history.”
Some people's eyebrows may rise when they hear the keyword “large symbols” – but the museum emphasizes that it would like to develop into a center for research into “toxic” monuments – which are also testimonies to German history. The federal government has also supported the purchase of the “Striding Horses”.
Nazi sculptures in public places
Not too long ago, another exhibition of Nazi art sparked angry protests. Last year, the Munich Pinakothek was berated in an outraged open letter for showing a painting by Nazi artist Adolf Ziegler.
Georg Baselitz, one of the most influential contemporary artists, demanded that the picture be removed. “It's shocking that Nazi propaganda is possible in this dingy way in a Munich museum,” said Baselitz. In addition, it is a “bad” picture. He found it insulting that Ziegler's work should be hung in the same room as the artists he pursued. “Ziegler destroyed art and artists. He doesn't belong in the hall of his victims,” wrote Baselitz, according to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
Many Nazi propaganda sculptures can still be seen in public spaces, such as in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, which was commissioned by the Nazi regime for the 1936 Olympic Games. In the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, where the Olympic Stadium was one of the venues, some activists called for the statues to be removed. However, the city refused on the grounds that removal would constitute a denial of German history.
Adaptation from English: Silke Wünsch.