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Description
Adolf Reich, diptych, ‘Hofbräuhaus-waitresses’.
Biography Adolf Reich
Signed 1939.
Oil on wood.
Two paintings depicting two waitresses at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. Both paintings were printed on postcards issued by the Hofbräuhaus.
The press officer of the Hofbräuhaus has confirmed to us that it is very legitimate that the paintings shown on the postcards both were commissioned by the innkeeper Hans Bacherl in 1939 (at the occasion of the 350-year anniversary of the Hofbräuhaus) and hung in the Hofbräuhaus. The form of the backsite of the paintings (wooden panels) indicate that they were probably integrated in the interior decoration of a hall.
Adolf Reich was a ‘genre painter’. His passion was capturing the everyday, the ordinary, and the seemingly unimportant moments in life, which rendered him the nickname ‘the Austrian Spitzweg’. These portraits of waitresses doing their work are a perfect example of his style.
Left: this painting shows the vaulted ceiling of the Hofbräukeller in the background and guests being served by the waitress from the other painting.
Right: on the back of the painting we find the stamp of ‘Franz Dury, Mal- und Zeichen-utisilien’, München. Franz Dury was a renowned store in Munich selling painting materials and accessories. The stretchers of the Heinrich Knirr portraits of Hitler, for example, also bear the stamp of Franz Dury.
Adolf Reich, postcard. The text below the pictures reads: ‘A frische Mass von derer Maid, Bringt näher dich der Seligkeit!’ (‘A fresh big pint from this Girl, brings you closer to Happiness!).
Adolf Reich, postcard, stamped 1942. The text below the picture reads: ‘Mit die Leut, mit die gscheiten, da hat ma sei gfrett! Reden allweil vom Trinken, vom Duescht reden s’ net’ (‘With smart people you are always stressed; they constantly speak of drinking, but never of thirst’). The text on the backside reads: ‘Aufgabeort Hofbräuhaus, München. Pächter Hans Bacherl’ (Aufgabeort means ‘Place of Consignment’).
The backsite of the paintings. The form of the backsite of these wooden panels indicate that they were probably integrated in the interior decoration of a hall.
Adolf Reich, ‘Hofbräuhaus’- Schwemme’. Signed 1939, size 69 x 49 cm. Notice that exactly the same waitress is depicted. However the center point of the painting is the contemplating German soldier; alone, surrounded by drinking, unconcerned civilians. It is 1939, the year that World War II began.
This painting was also depicted on postcards issued by the Hofbräuhaus.
– scene of the first speech of Adolf Hitler (16 October 1919)
– scene of the founding of the NSDAP (24 February 1920)
– scene of the Hofbräuhaus-Battle (4 November 1921
The Hofbräuhaus at Platzl 9, is a beer hall in Munich originally built in 1589 by Bavarian Duke Maximilian I. Everything but the ground floor was destroyed in the bombing during WWII; it was not rebuilt until 1958. From 1930 to 1945 the innkeeper of the Hofbräuhaus was Hans Bacherln. When the Hofbräuhaus celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1939, the Hofbräuhaus officially ceased to be known as ‘Königliches Hofbräuhaus’ and hence forth was known as the ‘Staatliches Hofbräuhaus’. After Munich’s world-famous Oktoberfest (where the Hofbräu has one of the largest beer tents), the Hofbräuhaus is Munich’s most outstanding tourist attraction and historical monument. Hofbräuhaus franchises have opened in several other places in Germany (six), in Italy, Sweden, Melbourne, Dubai, Seoul, Bangkok, Brazil, and at least seven in the USA.
Hitler’s Hofbräu speech and the founding of the NSDAP
Hitler gave his first speech in the Hofbräukeller on 16 October 1919. On 24 February 1920, he organised the biggest meeting at the Hofbräuhaus yet, with over 2,000 people in attendance. It was in this speech that Hitler, for the first time, enunciated the twenty-five points of the German Workers’ Party manifesto: abrogation of The Treaty of Versailles, a Greater Germany, Eastern expansion, exclusion of Jews from citizenship, confiscation of war profits, the distribution of the State’s profits of land, and the necessity to seize land for national needs without compensation.
On the same day, the DAP changed its name to the NSDAP, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party).
Every year after that, on 24 February, the Nazis held their annual celebration at the Hofbräuhaus.
The Hofbräuhaus-Battle/ the birth of the SA
On 4 November 1921, at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Hitler spoke to a crowd (2000 men) filled with opposition, including the SPD, the Social Democrats. A fight broke out over the issue of an assassination attempt on Erhard Auer, an SPD spokesperson. A full-scale brawl (‘Schlacht’) followed. The socialists in the audience attacked the SA men with beer mugs they had hidden under the tables as ammunition. Rudolf Hess, who received a skull-base fracture at this occasion, took a leadership role in this fight. Hitler later idealized this scene in Mein Kampf as the ‘baptism of fire’ of his SA men, who were triumphant in the fight despite being outnumbered 50 to 400. At the beginning of Chapter VI he wrote: ‘During that period the hall of the Hofbräu Haus in Munich acquired for us, National Socialists, a sort of mistic significance. Every week there was a meeting, almost always in that hall, and each time the hall was better filled than on the former occasion, and our public more attentive’. ‘Deutschland Erwacht’ writes in 1933 about the Hofbräuhaus-fight: ‘Dies war die Geburtsstunde der Sturmabteilung’ (‘the fight is considered to mark the birth of the SA’).
Below, the well-known painting ‘Saalschacht’, by Felix Albrecht. Portrayed on numerous posters and postcards. Also depicted in the book ‘Deutschand Erwache’, page 57.
Left: Adolf Hitler speaking in the Hofbräuhaus on February 24, 1940, the twentieth anniversary of the formation of the NSDAP. The plaque commemorating his speech at February 24, 1920, can be seen behind the ‘blood flag’ behind him (photo: Süddeutsche Zeitung).
Right: close-up from the commemorative plaque (photo: Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, München). Depicted in ‘Ich Kämpfe’, Zentral Verlag der NSDAP Franz Eher Nachf., München, 1943. ‘Ich Kämpfe’ (‘I Fight’) was a book given by the Nazi Party to each new enrollee in 1943.
The Nazis celebrated the day of the NSDAP-founding every year on February 24, at the Hofbräuhaus.
Left: Adolf Hitler speaking in the Hofbräuhaus on February 24, 1940, the twentieth anniversary of the NSDAP.
Right: Adolf Hitler speaking in the Hofbräushaus on February 24, 1941, the twenty-first anniversary of the formation of the NSDAP (photos: Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, München).
Specifications for both paintings:
| – condition | : II- III |
| – size | : 58 x 47 cm each |
| – signed | : left and right, under (‘A. Reich München 1939’) |
| – type | : oil on wooden panels |
| – misc. | : stamp on the backsite of stretcher-maker ‘Franz Dury’ |
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