Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

Discussions on the propaganda, architecture and culture in the Third Reich.
Post Reply
User avatar
Max
Member
Posts: 2632
Joined: 16 Mar 2002, 15:08
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#1

Post by Max » 03 Jul 2015, 15:41

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign ... rs-auction
An interesting , if somewhat hysterical piece about the trade in Hitler's art.
I always thought Hitler a fair to middling draughtsman but without much passion - worthy but dull.
Else where on this forum there are examples that are obvious misrepresentations of his work.

Statements like
Is it harmless? No. Every time a supposed painting by Adolf Hitler appears, unquestioned, in a newspaper or on TV, someone will be thinking: “That’s not bad, the man was an artist.” It falsely humanises him.
do nothing for the article except perhaps to demonstrate an easy justification to reject his work as worthless.
Jonathan Jones says "it falsely humanises him" Does he think Hitler came from Mars?
Of course he was human; to deny Hitler of his humanity somehow diminishes the enormity of his crimes against humanity
Greetings from the Wide Brown.

User avatar
Patches
Member
Posts: 97
Joined: 03 Jun 2015, 03:13
Location: United States

Re: Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#2

Post by Patches » 03 Jul 2015, 17:01

This subject reminds me of Konrad Kujau, the "Master Forger" that arguably churned out the greatest amount of fake Hitler paintings (and other Hitler items) than anyone else, ever. I am surprised that Kujau is not mentioned in The Guardian's story above. Because if Kujau had not been caught when his faked "Hitler Dairies" were determined to be bogus (and even after some experts had been initially duped to their authenticity), perhaps Kujau would have gotten away with it all.

It would also not surprise me if some of Kujau's fake Hitler paintings were still being held in collections today (also being bought and sold) and considered by their owners to be real, especially as so much time has passed since Kujau was unmasked and made international news. After all, Kujau would sometimes even include a (forged) Certificate of Authenticity with the Hitler artwork! So what more could one ask for? 8O

For anybody else interested in this topic, I highly recommenda book titled Selling Hitler by Robert Harris: http://www.amazon.com/Selling-Hitler-Ex ... 0394553365. It is quite an amazing story.

More on Kujau is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Kujau


michael mills
Member
Posts: 8999
Joined: 11 Mar 2002, 13:42
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#3

Post by michael mills » 01 Sep 2015, 04:15

Kujau was not the first person to forge paintings by Hitler.

After Hitler became a world-wide sensation in the early 1930s, his former associate from his Vienna days before the First World War, Reinhold Hanisch, produced some paintings which he claimed Hitler had given him at the time of their association, but which were almost certainly forged by Hanisch himself.

The business association between Hitler and Hanisch had involved Hitler copying Vienna street-scene from postcards and Hanisch selling them to petty art-dealers. The association ended when Hitler brought a court action against Hanisch for defrauding him of the sales proceeds.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Hanisch
On 20 July 1923 Hanisch was sentenced by the district court in Vienna to three months' imprisonment for theft. Hanisch was divorced on 17 April 1928. After 1930, Hanisch worked as a painter. He produced watercolors, which he sold as alleged works of Hitler from their years in Vienna. Hanisch often painted pictures of flowers in the style of the painter Olga Wisinger-Florian, which he sold as Hitler originals. To cover up the fraud, he had his friend Karl Leidenroth authenticate the forgeries. Nevertheless, on 7 May 1932 Hanisch was sentenced to three days in jail.

With Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in the spring of 1933, Hanisch became an object of interest. The Bavarian journalist and anti-Nazi Konrad Heiden, who was writing the first authoritative biography of Hitler, turned to Hanisch, then the only known witness of Hitler's Vienna period. Hanisch readily supplied information and was paid well. In the following years Hanisch made money from numerous interviews with national and international newspapers. Hanisch’s memoir of Hitler posthumously appeared in 1939 in The New Republic.

Although Franz Feiler, the son of Hanisch’s former landlord, was friendly with Hanisch, Feiler had acted since 1933 as a Viennese emissary of Hitler, on whose behalf he bought genuine and fake Hitler pictures in Vienna, and brought them to Germany. There they were either destroyed or transferred to the archives of the Nazi Party in Munich. In Easter 1933 in Berchtesgaden, Feiler gave Hitler some of Hanisch’s “Hitler pictures”. These Hitler recognized as forgeries, and instructed Feiler to file a complaint for fraud against Hanisch. Feiler followed Hitler’s instructions and on 6 July 1933 accused Hanisch of fraud. After spending several months in prison Hanisch continued to forge Hitler pictures.[3]

On 16 November 1936 Hanisch was arrested. During a search of his rented room the police found, in addition to manuscripts about Hitler, more Hitler fakes. On 2 December 1936 the Vienna regional court sentenced Hanisch to prison for fraud. Hanisch probably died February 1937 in detention. Hanisch fakes occupied Hitler’s staff for years after Hanisch’s death. On 21 October 1942 Hitler ordered Heinrich Himmler to destroy three fake Hitler pictures, as well as other documents.
It is likely that some of the forgeries by Hanisch are still in circulation as Hitler originals.

Wordsworth
Member
Posts: 69
Joined: 31 May 2016, 21:25
Location: United States

Re: Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#4

Post by Wordsworth » 14 Sep 2016, 16:23

IIRC, didn't Trevor-Roper believe that Hitler had Hanisch executed? Is there any detail surrounding Hanish's death or whether it's been confirmed if that was true? It would be interesting because, with few exceptions, Hitler tended to leave alone people who'd once known him. Obviously, August Kubizek re-entering his life was fine with him and he did intervene on behalf of Dr. Bloch, but, for the most part, even the unsavory among Hitler's former associates were ignored so long as they didn't become nuisances.

ihoyos
Member
Posts: 603
Joined: 27 Feb 2004, 18:20
Location: USA

Re: Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#5

Post by ihoyos » 14 Sep 2016, 20:03

In my opinion there is not sense anybody to produce fake HITLERS watercolors, during 1920's even until 1933 when Hitler was appointed chancellor.
If HITLER barely sold some of is own watercolors when he was an "nobody". Why fake his paints in 1920's .

Wordsworth
Member
Posts: 69
Joined: 31 May 2016, 21:25
Location: United States

Re: Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#6

Post by Wordsworth » 14 Sep 2016, 20:25

The only thing I can say to that is that Hitler may not have been Fuehrer in the '20s but he was a hardly a nobody. I'm not sure what the market was for his paintings at that time but it's possible some people wanted to buy paintings they believed had been done by this up-and-coming politician.

michael mills
Member
Posts: 8999
Joined: 11 Mar 2002, 13:42
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#7

Post by michael mills » 15 Sep 2016, 07:09

IIRC, didn't Trevor-Roper believe that Hitler had Hanisch executed?
The late Trevor-Roper may have believed that, but then he believed a lot of things that turned out to be bogus.

He was certainly mistaken about the death of Hanisch, which certainly occurred before the Anschluss of Austria. Hanisch certainly died in custody, but it was Austrian custody, at a time when Hitler had no power to determine his fate.

The rumours about Hitler's having had Hanisch killed were based on the supposition that Hanisch was in possession of some particularly damning evidence about Hitler that needed to be suppressed. But that was not the case; all that Hanisch knew about Hitler was that he had lived at the same men's hostel as he did, and that they had had a business relationship in which Hitler painted postcards and Hanisch sold them.

When Heiden was pumping Hanisch for some sensational dirt on Hitler, Hanisch alleged that he and Hitler had been engaged in actual forgeries, but there is no evidence to support that allegation. Only Hanisch was ever charged and convicted forgery, and that was for forging Hitler paintings.

Wordsworth
Member
Posts: 69
Joined: 31 May 2016, 21:25
Location: United States

Re: Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#8

Post by Wordsworth » 15 Sep 2016, 14:10

Thanks very much. It did seem odd to me that Hitler might be accused of a death in 1937 in a country where he wasn't in charge yet (I assumed it was possible that Hitler had an understanding with the Austrian government before the Anschluss), but I do think it more likely that Hanisch just died in custody.

steevh
Member
Posts: 45
Joined: 08 Aug 2016, 14:33
Location: UK

Re: Littered with fakes: why the Hitler art trade is such a sick joke

#9

Post by steevh » 26 Dec 2016, 20:18

Max wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign ... rs-auction
An interesting , if somewhat hysterical piece about the trade in Hitler's art.
I always thought Hitler a fair to middling draughtsman but without much passion - worthy but dull.
Else where on this forum there are examples that are obvious misrepresentations of his work.

Statements like
Is it harmless? No. Every time a supposed painting by Adolf Hitler appears, unquestioned, in a newspaper or on TV, someone will be thinking: “That’s not bad, the man was an artist.” It falsely humanises him.
do nothing for the article except perhaps to demonstrate an easy justification to reject his work as worthless.
Jonathan Jones says "it falsely humanises him" Does he think Hitler came from Mars?
Of course he was human; to deny Hitler of his humanity somehow diminishes the enormity of his crimes against humanity
Jonathon Jones is the art critic I most love to hate. He couldn't think his way out of a paper bag. Always quite entertaining as a result.

Post Reply

Return to “Propaganda, Culture & Architecture”