Opinion: An anti-Semite in the Chancellery must go!
Stefan Dege
Commentary
April 10, 2019
He was a Nazi sympathizer and a Jew hater — that's what researchers discovered about painter Emil Nolde. Nevertheless, his paintings hung in the German Chancellor's office until recently. Stefan Dege wonders why.
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Emil Nolde, the German expressionist 'degenerate' painter with Nazi convictions
One of the most important contributors to German expressionism, Emil Nolde is the focus of several exhibitions in Germany this year. Yet the chancellor's office has had his paintings removed due to his Nazi past.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
'Breaker' in the chancellor's office
The 1936 painting "Breaker" hung in Chancellor Angela Merkel's study until recently. Showing a breaking wave under a sky that is painted blood red, the painting was on loan from the Berlin State Museums, which had requested its return to be included in an exhibition about Nolde's work in Berlin. Afterward, it will not return to the Chancellery, the result of the painter's troubled biography.
Image: picture-alliance/ dpa
'Paradise Lost' (1921)
Emil Nolde (1867-1956) is regarded as one of the most famous painters of German expressionism. Nolde's expressive use of color is one his trademarks. His bright watercolors in particular have drawn in many followers and continue to attract art enthusiasts. On the art market, Nolde's works are in demand and sell for high prices. This 1921 painting by Nolde is titled "Paradise Lost."
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll/Fotowerkstatt Elke Walford
A change in story
Emil Nolde had more works confiscated and displayed as "degenerate art" under the Nazis than any other artist. But Nolde was a opportunist, creating his own narrative. Before 1945, he saw himself as misjudged and persecuted by Jews. However, after the war, he presented himself as a victim of the Nazi regime. Researchers are uncovering his biographical inconsistencies.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll/Dirk Dunkelberg
Not an artist of the Nazi state
Although Emil Nolde wasn't one, he would have liked to become an official state artist for the Nazis. According to art historians, Nolde was an anti-Semite, committed to the Third Reich, who joined the National Socialist Association of Northern Schleswig in 1934 at the age of 67. He even wrote a plan to remove Jews from the country.
Image: picture alliance/akg-images
The painter and the Nazi system
Joseph Goebbels, confidant of Hitler and minister of propaganda for the Third Reich, is shown here visiting the "Degenerate Art Exhibition" in Berlin in 1938. The show displayed banned pieces that had been removed from museums, including the confiscated works of painter Emil Nolde. This deeply affected the artist. But, as new research shows, he remained staunchly committed to the Nazi ideology.
Image: Zentralarchiv - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
'The Sinner' (1926)
The art of anti-Semitic artist Emil Nolde no longer has a place in the German Chancellery. The work of another expressionist, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, is set to be displayed in Merkel's study. In an office that welcomes foreign heads of state in which Germany is keen to show its best side, what can be taken from the art that hangs on its walls? This painting by Nolde is called "The Sinner".
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll/Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Opening the Nolde archive in Seebüll
The Nolde Foundation in Seebüll occupies the space where the artist once lived and worked from 1930 until his death in 1956. Every year, thousands of Nolde fans visit the museum exploring his life and work. It was not until the opening of the Nolde archive in 2013 that the foundation brought controversial new insights about Nolde's biography to light.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/G. Franz
Can you separate the art from the artist?
In Berlin in 2019, the exhibitions "A German Legend. Emil Nolde and the Nazi Regime" at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum and "Escape into Art? The Brücke Painters in the Nazi Period" at the Brücke Museum aim to question the myth surrounding Nolde. Whether or not the works can be separated from the artist is a heated point of discussion.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
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German Chancellor Angela MerkelImage: picture-alliance/ dpa
The Chancellery could have known already: As early as 2013, historian Bernhard Fulda and art historian Aya Soika presented the results of their research, which led to a major Emil Nolde exhibition at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.
Their bottom line: The expressionist artist sugar-coated his biography. Though his own works were indeed defamed by the Nazis as "degenerate," the painter nevertheless remained a fervent supporter of National Socialism, he offered to serve as a state artist for the Nazis, and drew up his own "de-Jewification plan." All this will be shown in a spectacular Nolde show, which opens in Berlin on Friday.
The Emil Nolde myth of the Nazis' victim has been wavering for some time now. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her office will have to wrestle with accusations of bad timing and a lack of sensitivity. After all, it was only when a museum requested a loan that they returned Nolde's paintings — without comment.
DW culture editor Stefan Dege
Official photos from several years ago in the German republic's political power hub show the German head of government in conversation with then US Secretary of State John Kerry — in front of Nolde's painting Breaker from 1936.
Can an artist like Emil Nolde represent Germany in the year 2019? Which art can hang in a place where statespeople from all over the world pass by?
In Nolde's case, it's hardly about renouncing a politically unpopular artist — the case is more complex. But these are questions that require a social debate. In addition, it should also be clarified who determines the selection of art in spaces that represent the state: Museum experts? Bureaucrats? The parliament? The respective incumbents?
The Nolde case comes at a delicate moment in cultural policy. Set to open at the end this year, the Is Berlin's Humboldt Forum shying away from colonial history? in Berlin is a world-class museum, a prestigious project by Monika Grütters, Minister of State for Culture. But with its collection of ethnological exhibits, it is also caught up in Germany's debates on colonial history.
And, as Nolde shows, the Nazi past is far from forgotten. Every new case of looted art also shows the importance of provenance research. Whether as a result of lacking political will or money, this process hasn't been established in a binding and comprehensive way yet. Many museums are out on their own.
Can art and the artist's disposition be separated?
Emil Nolde may have been a Nazi supporter and anti-Semite. But what does that mean for his art? One may still find his works beautiful — his glowing marsh and sea landscapes under a wildly stormy sky, as well as his biblical scenes and especially his enchantingly watercolors of flowers. But in the office of the German Chancellor?
Emil Nolde, the German expressionist 'degenerate' painter with Nazi convictions
One of the most important contributors to German expressionism, Emil Nolde is the focus of several exhibitions in Germany this year. Yet the chancellor's office has had his paintings removed due to his Nazi past.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
'Breaker' in the chancellor's office
The 1936 painting "Breaker" hung in Chancellor Angela Merkel's study until recently. Showing a breaking wave under a sky that is painted blood red, the painting was on loan from the Berlin State Museums, which had requested its return to be included in an exhibition about Nolde's work in Berlin. Afterward, it will not return to the Chancellery, the result of the painter's troubled biography.
Image: picture-alliance/ dpa
'Paradise Lost' (1921)
Emil Nolde (1867-1956) is regarded as one of the most famous painters of German expressionism. Nolde's expressive use of color is one his trademarks. His bright watercolors in particular have drawn in many followers and continue to attract art enthusiasts. On the art market, Nolde's works are in demand and sell for high prices. This 1921 painting by Nolde is titled "Paradise Lost."
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll/Fotowerkstatt Elke Walford
A change in story
Emil Nolde had more works confiscated and displayed as "degenerate art" under the Nazis than any other artist. But Nolde was a opportunist, creating his own narrative. Before 1945, he saw himself as misjudged and persecuted by Jews. However, after the war, he presented himself as a victim of the Nazi regime. Researchers are uncovering his biographical inconsistencies.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll/Dirk Dunkelberg
Not an artist of the Nazi state
Although Emil Nolde wasn't one, he would have liked to become an official state artist for the Nazis. According to art historians, Nolde was an anti-Semite, committed to the Third Reich, who joined the National Socialist Association of Northern Schleswig in 1934 at the age of 67. He even wrote a plan to remove Jews from the country.
Image: picture alliance/akg-images
The painter and the Nazi system
Joseph Goebbels, confidant of Hitler and minister of propaganda for the Third Reich, is shown here visiting the "Degenerate Art Exhibition" in Berlin in 1938. The show displayed banned pieces that had been removed from museums, including the confiscated works of painter Emil Nolde. This deeply affected the artist. But, as new research shows, he remained staunchly committed to the Nazi ideology.
Image: Zentralarchiv - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
'The Sinner' (1926)
The art of anti-Semitic artist Emil Nolde no longer has a place in the German Chancellery. The work of another expressionist, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, is set to be displayed in Merkel's study. In an office that welcomes foreign heads of state in which Germany is keen to show its best side, what can be taken from the art that hangs on its walls? This painting by Nolde is called "The Sinner".
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll/Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Opening the Nolde archive in Seebüll
The Nolde Foundation in Seebüll occupies the space where the artist once lived and worked from 1930 until his death in 1956. Every year, thousands of Nolde fans visit the museum exploring his life and work. It was not until the opening of the Nolde archive in 2013 that the foundation brought controversial new insights about Nolde's biography to light.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/G. Franz
Can you separate the art from the artist?
In Berlin in 2019, the exhibitions "A German Legend. Emil Nolde and the Nazi Regime" at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum and "Escape into Art? The Brücke Painters in the Nazi Period" at the Brücke Museum aim to question the myth surrounding Nolde. Whether or not the works can be separated from the artist is a heated point of discussion.
