For the German town of Schwerin, the installation of an exhibition of Arno Breker's work in the Schleswig-Holstein Haus museum has proved, on the whole, to be a positive addition to its cultural scene.

While controversy has surrounded the exhibition, the fact that over 5,000 visitors have seen Breker's representations of the human form since the exhibition opened over a week ago has done much to win over the local population. The boost in tourism and exposure for the town has been mostly welcomed.

Among those who have visited the exhibition -- the first since the end of World War II to be organized by a public museum -- some have, at least from appearance, looked like they might be involved in the far-right neo-Nazi scene.

However, nothing has been proved, as the museum does not check ID against any neo-Nazi database. Still, the likelihood is high that far-right extremists have been among the visitors -- particularly after it was recently revealed by Stern magazine that Breker had links with far-right extremists well into the 1980's.

War-time commissions for the Nazis

While never an official member of the Nazi Party, Breker took commissions from the Nazis from 1933 through 1942, including those for sculptures erected outside of Berlin's Olympic Stadium for the 1936 games. The sculptures are still there today.

After the war, the allies destroyed almost 90 percent of Breker's work and in 1948 he was designated as a "fellow traveler" of the Nazis and fined. He continued to work and exhibit but controversy dogged him for the remainder of his career, despite protestations that he had never been a supporter of Nazi ideology, but had simply accepted their patronage.

However, during the 1970's Breker was awarded the "Honorary Golden Ring" by the German Cultural Center of the European Spirit (DKEG), an organization founded in 1950 by former National Socialists to promote the elites of Nazi society. In 1980 he received the "Ulrich von Hutten Medal" from the Society for Free Journalism, the largest right-wing extremist cultural association in Germany, established by former Nazi and SS officers after the war.

Breker's widow Charlotte confirmed to Stern that her husband had received both honors but added that she did not know that they were radical right-wing organizations.

Extremist honors and publications

However, it is documented that Breker wrote a number of articles for right-wing magazines and publications throughout the 1980's and received visits from members of far-right groups, some of whom stayed as guests at his home. Charlotte Breker confirmed such visits in the Stern article but said that she knew nothing of these visitors' neo-Nazi allegiances.

In some far-right publications, Breker has also been credited as being an early sponsor of the extremist National Democratic Party (NPD), something his widow said would be "incomprehensible."

When Breker died in 1991, the anti-Semitic publication Die Bauernschaft, published by Thies Christophersen, a former SS-special officer at Auschwitz-Birkenau, wrote a glowing obituary for its "esteemed reader."

Nazi links not detrimental to exhibit

The Stern report has done little to dissuade visitors from attending the exhibition. Rudolf Conrades, the exhibition's curator, told the local paper in Schwerin that the sculptor's shady history added to the allure of his work.

"The fact that Breker never dissociated himself from his work after the war and that he was seen as a National Socialist until the end, is itself a contribution to our exhibition catalog," said Conrades.