Claus Bergen, The Condor Airplane

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				Price: € 6.200

Description

‘Condor’ (Airplane from the Führerstaffel of Adolf Hitler)

Battle of the Atlantic
The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, also known as Kurier to the Allies, was a German all-metal four-engine monoplane originally developed by Focke-Wulf as a long-range airliner. The designation ‘Condor’ was chosen because, like the Condor, the Fw 200 had a very long wingspan, which facilitated its high altitude flight. A Japanese request for a long-range maritime patrol aircraft led to military versions that would see service with the Luftwaffe as long-range reconnaissance and anti-shipping/maritime patrol bomber aircraft. The Luftwaffe initially used the aircraft to support the Kriegsmarine, making great loops out across the North Sea and, following the fall of France, the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft was used for maritime patrols and reconnaissance, searching for Allied convoys and warships that could be reported for targeting by U-boats. The Fw 200 could also carry a 900-kilogram bomb load or naval mines to use against shipping, and it was claimed that from June 1940 to February 1941, they sank 331,122 tonnes of shipping vessels. The attacks were carried out at extremely low altitude in order to ‘bracket’ the target ship with three bombs; this almost guaranteed a hit. Winston Churchill called the Fw 200 the “Scourge of the Atlantic” during the Battle of the Atlantic due to its contribution to the heavy Allied shipping losses.

Führerstaffel
For his personal transports, Adolf Hitler used a Condor, the Fw 200 V3 (D 2600), named ‘Immelmann III’ in honour of World War I flying ace Max Immelmann. It was destroyed at Berlin Tempelhof Airport in an Allied bombing raid on 18 July 1944. The Condor depicted by Claus Bergen belonged to the ‘Führerstaffel’, a special squadron that transported important people and -in emergency cases- vital cargo.

Adolf Hitlers Condor, the Fw 200 V3

The U.S. House of Representatives, 1978, discusses the return to Germany of 10 paintings by Claus Bergen
On August 9, 1978, the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Investigation Subcommittee, Washington, D.C., discussed the return to Germany of 10 paintings by Claus Bergen -depicting the German navy- that were seized from the German Government by the United States Army in March 1947. In 1979 these 10 works by Bergen were handed over to the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum in Bremerhaven (two years later, in September 1981, the House of Representatives discussed the transfer to Germany of all the pieces of war art (6.337) that were seized from the German Government). Below some remarkable quotes from the discussion in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978.

George William Whitehurst (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, journalist, professor) about the 10 paintings by Claus Bergen:
‘They are dramatic renderings of submarines and destroyers at sea and apparently have long inspired German Navy men…’These paintings have no political significance and in no way glorify the Hitler era. They are instead renderings by a respected artist of German naval tradition. Their worth is clearly artistic and inspirational, not political.’
The Chairman of the Committee about the question whether the Claus Bergen paintings might have something to do with German militarism:
‘We had from World War II and the other world wars an artist group that painted a number of wartime paintings, many of which hang in the corridors of the Pentagon. ..And those would be regarded as, if not perpetuating American militarism, at least trying to pay some tribute to those who served in uniform? And we don’t regard them as bad in our own Government, do we?… Otherwise they would not be hanging up in the Pentagon… It seems a little bit strange here, that maybe we’re applying a double standard.’ …’and our own Government is so dedicated to militarism that they have commissioned artists from all of our mores whose painting hang in the Pentagon, and a number of which had been loaned to Members of Congress to hang in their offices.’

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