Hitler and Art

Meggs’ History of Design mentioned Adolf Hitler as having “an almost uncanny knack for visual propaganda.” In Mein Kampf, Hitler even “wrote that propaganda ‘should be popular and should adapt its intellectual level to the receptive ability of the least intellectual’ citizens.” (Meggs 287) I found this to be quite morbidly disturbing.

As it turns out, prior to becoming a dictator for the Nazi Party, Hitler had actually aspired to become an artist. He had showed artistic promise when he was a young boy and his drawing abilities were recognized by his high school teachers. After dropping out of high school, he had a great aspiration to become a great artist (and thereby avoid a life of a drone worker). Achieving greatness as an artist became an obsessive goal for him.

Hitler set his sights on entering the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in October 1907 and was confident his drawing talents would be recognized. However, the school rejected him and called his drawings unsatisfactory, that the human form was lacking and there was no talent for artistic painting. He left Vienna in depressed rejection. Hitler tried again in 1908 and was not invited to take the exam.

Following the rejection, Hitler found himself without a diploma and without a sustainable means to be able to support himself. He lived a miserable life painting postcards and clearing snowy pathways for rich people in Vienna. It was this time period in which he developed his warped anti-Semitism. He began to believe that his rejection from Vienna and his mother’s death from cancer could be laid to blame on Jewish people.

Had the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts accepted Hitler, one cannot help but wonder what sort of man he would’ve become instead. Would he have made great contributions to the art community? Would it have steered him away from anti-Semitism? If anything, his artist background helped him gain an eye with propaganda and he used it for warped and twisted benefit. He knew how to use political art to persuade and manipulate people. In Mein Kampf, he stated that propaganda should be aimed at emotions over intellect. Hitler used propaganda to promote positive imagery of Germany and of Hitler the leader. Negative imagery was used to degrade the Jews.

In turn art became Hitler’s weapon.

Resources:

http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/arts/ARTREICH.HTM

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/propaganda_in_nazi_germany.htm

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/art.htm

Image Resources:
 http://www.snyderstreasures.com/pages/hartworks.htm