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Description
‘Familienbild’ (‘Family’, ‘Ritratto di Famiglia’)
Biography: Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück
Created in 1938.
Displayed at the Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung 1939, room 15.
Displayed at the XXII Venice Biennale, 1940 (‘Ritratto di Famiglia’).
Displayed at the exhibition ‘Der NS.-Gemeinschaft KRAFT DURCH FREUDE’, Hamburg, 1938.
Displayed at the ‘Lippstädter Kunstausstellung’, 1943.
Awarded with the second price of the competition ‘Das Familienbild’, organized in 1938 by Alfred Rosenberg, Chief Nazi Party ideologist.
This painting was also displayed at the exhibition ‘Artige Kunst, Kunst und Politik im Nationalsozialismus‘ (‘Compliant Art, Art and Politics in the National Socialist era’) held at:
– Museum Situation Kunst, Bochum (November 2016 – April 2017);
– Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock (April – June 2017);
– Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg (July – October 2017).
‘Familie’ was depicted in more than 30 newspapers in Germany, Holland and Switzerland. Also it was shown on local televisionstations (NDR, BR) and in Tagesschau, 8 January 2017 (Daily News, main edition; the television news service produced by the German public-service television network ARD).
The painting was again displayed at the exhibition ‘Nazi Design’, Design Museum Den Bosch, The Netherlands, 8 September 2019 – 1 March 2020.
This world-wide highly publicized exhibition attracted over 130.000 visitors in six months. The exhibition was covered on the front page of the New York Times and Bild, and i.a. in the Guardian, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Paris Match, Spiegel, Welt, Tagesspiegel, El Pais and all Dutch newspapers. On television the exposition was covered i.a. by the ARD, ZDF, DW News, Aljazeera, AFP News Agency, SBS World News, and all mayor television chanels in The Netherlands. Because of the enormous popularity of the exhibition, the museum extended opening hours, opened its doors also on Mondays, and finally it extended the exhibition by 6 weeks.
‘Familienbild’ at the 2016/17 exhibition in Germany. Shown in Tagesschau, 8 January, 20.00 hour, 2017 (Daily News, main edition; the television news service produced by the German public-service television network ARD).
Two years later: ‘Familienbild’ at the 2019/20 exhibition ‘Nazi Design’ in The Netherlands. Again shown on German television during prime time: Tagesschau, 9 September 2019 (Daily News, main edition; the television news service produced by the German public-service television network ARD).
Familienbild’ at the 2019/20 exhibition ‘Nazi Design’ in The Netherlands.
‘Familienbild’ at the 2019/20 exhibition ‘Nazi Design’ in The Netherlands, depicted in the Kuwait Times of 19 September 2019.
Adolf Hitler at the opening of the Great German Art Exhibition, July 16, 1939. At the back, left, ‘Familienbild’ by Schmitz-Wiedenbrück.
The pictures are from the movies:
1. ‘Entartet! Die Nazis und die Kunst’ (at 0.48)
2. ‘Art in the Third Reich’, part I (at 1.06)
Left: in white uniform: Italian propaganda minister Dino Alfieri. At the right Professor Karl Kolb, director of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst.
Right: Gerdy Troost, left from Hitler.
‘Familienbild’ by Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, displayed at the GDK 1939.
‘Familienbild’, displayed at the XXII Venice Biennale, 1940 (‘Ritratto di Famiglia’).
The monumental painting ‘Familienbild‘ is depicted in the following magazines and books:
– Völkische Wacht, 4/1938: ‘Die kinderreiche Familie in Leben und Kunst‘
– Neues Volk, 7/1938: ‘Das schöne Familienbild’
– Das Bild, 8/1938: ‘Die deutsche Familie im Bild‘
– Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, 1939: ‘Das FamilienBild‘
– Westermanns Monatshefte, 1939: ‘Das familienbild’
– SS-Leitheft 1939 Januar/ Mai
– Kunst dem Volk, 10 Jahrgang, 1939: Sonderheft ‘Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung‘
– Davidson, Mortimer G., Kunst in Deutschland 1933-1945, 1991: ‘Familienbild’
– Ingeborg Bloth, ‘Adolf Wissel, Malerei und Kunstpolitik im Nationalismus‘, 1994
– Helena Ketter, ‘Zum Bild der Frau in der Malerei des Nationalsozialismus‘, 2002
The 1938 Rosenberg Competition: The Pure German Family
Schmitz-Wiedenbrück’s ‘Familienbild’ won the second prize on 14 May, 1938 (the first prize was not awarded) in the Rosenberg-Competition ‘Das Familienbild’ (‘The Family’).
Earlier the ‘Rassenpolitische Ambt der NSDAP’ had complained that too many paintings depicted German families with only one or two children: ‘and it is known that a Two-Children-System will lead to the downfall of the German Race’. After this announcement in the Mitteilungsblatt of January 1937, the Reichskammer der Bildende Künste published the guideline ‘Die Kunst hilft der Bevölkerungspolitik’, in which artists were required to show at least four children when a family was depicted. The exhibition ‘Das Familienbild’ was planned and executed by the Reichsleitung NSDAP, the highest political level. Alfred Rosenberg, the Chief Nazi Party ideologist, was ultimately responsible for the organization. He was the head of ‘Amt Rosenberg’, an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party, founded in 1934 (other names for the ‘Amt Rosenberg’ were ‘Amt des Beauftragter des Führers für die gesamte geistige und weltanschauliche Erziehung der NSDAP’, or ‘Dienststelle Rosenberg’ or the ‘Reichsüberwachungsamt’). Co-organisers were the culture department of ‘Kraft durch Freude’ (KdF), the ‘Reichsbund der kinderreichen Deutschlands e.V.’ and the culture section of the Deutschen Arbeiterfront (DAF). The instructions for the selected group of prominent artists were to create an outstanding work which would be an allegory of a pure German family with healthy children and a happy mother. At least three or four children should be depicted and the painting should measure at least three square meters.
Participants at the competition included: Thomas Baumgartner, Theodor Bohnenberger, Bernhard Dörres, Georg Ehmig, Constantin Gerhardinger, Fritz Mackensen, Wilhelm Petersen, Georg Siebert, Karl Storch, Hermann Tiebert, Wolfgang Willrich and Adolf Wissel.
Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück was awarded the second prize. As the jury was not fully pleased with the results of the competition, the first prize was not awarded. However, eight of the submitted works were later displayed at the GDK in 1938 and 1939. Three painters were given a shared third prize: Thomas Baumgartner, Bernhard Dörres and Constantin Gerhardinger. Georg Siebert and Adolf Wissel were awarded a ‘Recognition Prize’.
The downfall of the German Race: ‘Die Kunst hilft der Bevölkerungspolitik’
The growth of the German population and the negative consequences of two children-families was an important part of the ‘Bevölkerungspolitiek’ in the Third Reich. Below a poster printed in the ‘Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte’, 1935 Heft 65. The text reads: ‘Wer verteidigt dein Land? Durch das Zweikindersystem schrumpft dein Volk in 100 Jahren auf ein Viertel zusammen‘ (‘Who defends Your Country? The Two Children Sytem will shrink our population to one-fourth its current size).
XXII Venice Biennale 1940: ‘Ritratto di Famiglia’.
‘Familienbild’ (‘Ritratto di Famiglia’) was displayed, together with the paintings ‘Maler unter Bauern’, ‘Bauern im Gewitter’ and 10 other paintings by Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, at the XXII Venice Biennale in 1940. On the back of the painting is still attached a sticker from the XXII Venice Biennale, 1940. From 1936 to 1942 a carefully selected group of GDK-works, which represented nationalistic Germany at its best, were exhibited at the Venice Biennale. According to the organisation responsible for the Venice Biennale, only the very best artists from all over the world were presented. The artists represented at the Venice exhibition at the German Pavilion were of course carefully selected because of their racial and ideological style. Adolf Ziegler, president of the Reichskammer was the head of the German Pavilion in Venice. Other German and Austrian artists who represented the Third Reich in Venice included Arno Breker, Richard Knecht, Rudolf Eisenmenger, Georg Müller, Wolfgang Willrich, Anton Müller-Wischin, Sepp Hilz, Georg Lebrecht and Richard Knecht.
A copy of the Venice exhibition 1940 cataloque is available.
Sticker on the back of ‘Familienbild’ from the Venice Biennale.
Left: Italian Custom sticker on the back.
Left: Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, ‘Familienbild’. Depicted in the magazine ‘Kunst dem Volk’, volume 10, edition 7, July 1939.
Right: Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, ‘Familienbild’. Depicted in ‘Zum Bild der Frau in der Malerei des Nationalsozialismus’, 1999.
Left: Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, ‘Familienbild’, depicted in ‘Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte’, Mai 1939.
Right: Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, ‘Familienbild’. Official Haus der Kunst postcard (nr. 7). Clearly visible are the blue eyes of the Aryan people. Purity, order and satisfaction, healthy children and farmers are all symbols of the Blood and Soil style. German blood, German race and German earth are guarantying the future, with the mother as the shepherd of the earth.
‘Woman also have their battlefield, with every child that they give birth to, they fight their own battle for the Nation’, Adolf Hitler, speech at the Party Day of Freedom in the Nuremberg town hall, 1935.
Left: Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, ‘Die deutsche Familie im Bild‘, depicted in ‘Das Bild’, 8/1938.
Right: Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, ‘Familienbild’, depicted in ‘Westermanns Monatshefte’, 1939.
Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, ‘FamilienBild’, displayed at the exhibition ‘Der NS.-Gemeinschaft KRAFT DURCH FREUDE’, 11. Juni – 11 July 1938, Kunsthalle Hamburg. Depicted in the official art catalogue. The exhibition, organized in co-operation with the ‘Amt Rosenberg’, was connected to the yearly congress of the NS.-Gemeinschaft KRAFT DURCH FREUDE (‘Amt Rosenberg’ was the same as the ‘Amt des Beauftragter des Führers für die gesamte geistige und weltanschauliche Erziehung der NSDAP’, also named ‘Dienststelle Rosenberg’ or the ‘Reichsüberwachungsamt’).
Hans Schmitz-Wiedenbrück, ‘Familienbild’, depicted in Davidson, Mortimer G., Kunst in Deutschland 1933-1945.
| – condition | : II |
| – size | : 200 x 160 cm; unframed 186 x 146 cm |
| – signed | : right, under: ‘Hans Schmitz 38’ |
| – type | : oil on canvas |
| – misc. | : sticker on the back from the XXII Venice Biennale |
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