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Description
‘Design for the Reichstag-paintings of the Bundesratssitzungssaal in the German Reichstag, Berlin’ (‘Assembly Hall of the Federal Council in the German Reichstag-building’)
The Reichstag-paintings by Raffael Schuster Woldan
The Reichstag building (Reichstagsgebäude) was constructed to house the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) of the German Empire. Legislation was shared between the Reichstag and the Bundesrat, the Federal Council which was represented by reigning princes of the German States. The Reichstag-building was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was severely damaged after it was set on fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse; the parliament of the German Democratic Republic met in the Palast der Republik in East Berlin, while the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (the Bundestag) met in the Bundeshaus in Bonn. In 1999, nine years after the German reunification, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the modern Bundestag.
The construction of the building, designed by Paul Wallot, took ten years. Eventually, on 29 June 1884, the foundation stone was laid by Emperor Wilhelm I. The decorative sculptures, reliefs, and inscriptions were by sculptor Otto Lessing. Raffael Schuster-Woldan executed the ceiling and the nine large wall paintings of the Bundesratssitzungssaal, a masterwork completed after ten years in 1911. The central painting on the ceiling disappeared at the end of the war (still lost).
Names of the wall paintings, executed on canvas on wood, were:
– ‘Triumph der Kultur‘ (‘Triumph of Culture‘)
– ‘Landbaues und die Schreitende Jagd‘ (‘Agriculture and Hunting‘)
– ‘Friede und Ruhm‘ (‘Piece and Honor‘)
– ‘Land- und Seemacht‘ (‘Land- and Naval forces‘)
– ‘Handel und Kolonien‘ (‘Trade and Colonies‘)
– ‘Der Geschichte, Das Gesetz und Die Auslegung‘ (‘History, Law and Interpretation‘)
– ‘Das Vergehen und Das Werden‘ (‘Vanishing and Arise‘)
– ‘Das Leiden und Den Trost‘ (‘Suffering and Consolation‘)
Left: Reichstag-building, Bundesratssitzungssaal, around 1928.
Right: Reichstag-building, Bundesratssitzungssaal, 1911. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für alle‘, March, 1911.
Reichstag-building, Bundesratssitzungssaal, depicted in ‘Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte’, 1913/14.
Left: ‘Landbau und Jagt’
Right: ‘Friede und Ruhm’
Left: ‘Land- und Seemacht’
Right: ‘Handel und Kolonien’
| – condition | : III |
| – size | : 158 x 65 cm |
| – signed | : signed |
| – type | : oil on canvas |
| – provenienz | : on request |
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BIOGRAPHY: RAFFAEL SCHUSTER-WOLDAN
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Hindenburg und Ludendorff’. GDK 1941, room 8.
For ‘Das Leben’ and ‘Hindenburg und Ludendorff’ Hitler paid 60,000 Reichsmark each, the highest price ever paid for a work of art at the GDKs. From 1942 on ‘Hindenburg und Ludendorff’ hung in the Führerbau in the Munich Arcisstraße. After the war it was confiscated by the Americans and brought to the Library of Congress, Washington. Nowadays it is in the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.
Right: another version of ‘Hindenburg und Ludendorff’ by Raffael Schuster-Woldan, displayed in the Militärhistorisches Museum, Dresden. Photo: December 2016. The heirs of Schuster-Woldan also have in possesion an enormous version of ‘Hindenburg und Ludendorff’.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, postcard. ‘Das Leben’ (‘Life’). GDK 1941, room 3; depicted in the exhibition catalogue. Bought by Adolf Hitler for 60.000 Reichsmark.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, postcart, ‘Die Gefangene’ (‘The prisoner’). GDK 1943, room 14.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Maria an der Steinmauer’ (‘Maria at Stonewall’). GDK 1941, room 3.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Mars und Venus’ (‘Mars and Venus‘), 1919. GDK 1942 room 14. Size 184 x 98 cm. Bought by Hitler for 40.000 Reichsmark. In the possession of the German Historical Museum.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Intuition’, GDK 1942, room 14. Bought by Hitler for 40.000 RM. Depicted in Westermann Monatshefte, 1935.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘In einer oberitaliensichen Villa’ (‘In a Mansion in North Italy’). GDK 1943, room 26; depicted in the exhibition catalogue. Also depicted in ‘Das Bild’, July-September 1943.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Ritratta de familia’ (‘family’), displayed at the XXI Venice Biennale 1938. Created in 1904, also displayed at the GDK 1937, room 26. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Dritten Reich’, 1937.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Liegende’ (‘Laying Nude‘). GDK 1939 room 22. Size 132 x 108 cm. Bought by Hitler for 9.000 Reichsmark. In the possession of the German Historical Museum.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Bildnis A.H.‘, created 1928. GDK 1944, room 14. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für alle, August 1944, and in ‘Das Bild’, January 1943.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Bildnis A.H.‘ at the left. Adolf Hitler congratulates Reichsinnenminster Wilhelm Frick on his 60th Birthday. Location: private house of Wilhelm Frick, Berlin, 12 March, 1937.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Frascati’, GDK 1938 room 15.
Right: Adolf Hitler visiting the Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung 1938. Next to Hitler, Prof. Karl Kolb, director of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst, Adolf Ziegler, president of the Reichskammer of the visual arts and Heinrich Himmler. At the left in de photo, at the background ‘Frascati’ by Rafaell Schuster-Woldan. Bought for 15.000 Reichsmark by Hitler.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Der Maler’ (‘The Painter’), displayed in the Sonderschau at the GDK 1941, room 3. Bought by Hitler for 35.000 RM. In the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldfan ‘Odi Profanum’, displayed in the Sonderschau at the GDK 1941, room 3. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst’, September, 1941.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Danaë’ (in Greeck mythology, Danaë was the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and Queen Eurydice). Size 115 x 95 cm. Displayed in the Sonderschau at the GDK 1941, room 3. Bought by Hitler for 35.000 RM. In the possession of Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. Also displayed at the exhibition ‘Kunst im 3. Reich, Dokumente der Unterwerfung’; the exhibition, instigated by the Frankfurter Kunstverein, was held from 1974 to 1975 in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Ludwigshafen and Wuppertal.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldfan ‘Reflektion’ (‘Reflection’). Displayed in the Sonderschau at the GDK 1941, room 3. Bought by Hitler for 25.000 RM. In the possession of Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Die Quelle’ (‘The Spring‘), 1902. GDK 1940 room 14. Size 122 x 144 cm. Bought by Hitler for 25.000 Reichsmark. In the possession of the German Historical Museum.
Left: Rafael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Bildnis Molino von Kluck’. Portrait of Molino von Kluck, or Hildegard Alexandra von Kluck (1911 – 1934), a German actress and granddaughter of Alexander von Kluck, the World War I General who commanded the 1st Army in the German offensive against Paris at the beginning of the war. GDK 1941 room 3. Size 66 x 59 cm. Bought by Hitler for 6.000 Reichsmark. Displayed at the exhibition ‘Aufstieg und Fall der Moderne‘, Weimar, 1999.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldfan ‘Der Morgen’ (‘The Morning’). Displayed in the Sonderschau at the GDK 1941, room 3. Bought by Hitler for 50.000 RM. In the possession of Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.
Raffael Schuster Woldan, ‘Clara Rosenthal’, created in 1896. Size: 2,3 by 2,3 metres. The Jewish Clara married in 1895 the jurist Eduard Rosenthal. In 1891 the Rosenthal’s build a house in the City of Jena (‘Villa Rosenthal’). Later, in 1928, Clara donated the house to the city. At 11 November, 1941, Clara Rosenthal committed suicide. The painting has been in the possession of the industrialist Wilhelm von Opel (also senator of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst); later it was owned by the Erzbistums Paderborn. In 2013 it was given back and since then it hangs again in Villa Rosenthal, nowadays a cultural center owned by the City of Jena.
Left: Rafael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Lauschende’ (‘Listning’). Displayed at the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung 1925. Later displayed at the GDK 1939, room 22. Bought by Hitler for 9.000 Reichsmark; depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1940. In the possession of the Deutches Historiches Museum, Berlin.
Right: Rafael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Diana’. Displayed at the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung 1916.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Theodora’, 1928. Depicted on the cover of ‘Kunst und Volk’, December 1937.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Schauspielerin L.N.’ (‘Actress L.N.’), 1930. Depicted in ‘Kunst und Volk’, December 1937.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘An die verlorene Sehnseht’ (‘To the lost Longing’). Depicted in ‘Kunst und Volk’, December 1937.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Memento Vivere’, displayed at the ‘VIII Internationalen Kunstausstellung im Köninglichen Glaspalast zu München‘, 1901. Depicted in the official exhibition catalogue.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Memento Vivere’, depicted in ‘Die Kunst für alle‘, 1901.
The Reichstag-paintings by Raffael Schuster Woldan
The Reichstag building (Reichstagsgebäude) was constructed to house the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) of the German Empire. Legislation was shared between the Reichstag and the Bundesrat, the Federal Council which was represented by reigning princes of the German States. The Reichstag-building was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was severely damaged after it was set on fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse; the parliament of the German Democratic Republic met in the Palast der Republik in East Berlin, while the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany (the Bundestag) met in the Bundeshaus in Bonn. In 1999, nine years after the German reunification, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the modern Bundestag.
The construction of the building, designed by Paul Wallot, took ten years. Eventually, on 29 June 1884, the foundation stone was laid by Emperor Wilhelm I. The decorative sculptures, reliefs, and inscriptions were by sculptor Otto Lessing. Raffael Schuster-Woldan executed the ceiling and the nine large wall paintings of the Bundesratssitzungssaal, a masterwork completed after ten years in 1911. The central painting on the ceiling disappeared at the end of the war (still lost).
Names of the wall paintings, executed on canvas on wood, were:
– ‘Triumph der Kultur‘ (‘Triumph of Culture‘)
– ‘Landbaues und die Schreitende Jagd‘ (‘Agriculture and Hunting‘)
– ‘Friede und Ruhm‘ (‘Piece and Honor‘)
– ‘Land- und Seemacht‘ (‘Land- and Naval forces‘)
– ‘Handel und Kolonien‘ (‘Trade and Colonies‘)
– ‘Der Geschichte, Das Gesetz und Die Auslegung‘ (‘History, Law and Interpretation‘)
– ‘Das Vergehen und Das Werden‘ (‘Vanishing and Arise‘)
– ‘Das Leiden und Den Trost‘ (‘Suffering and Consolation‘)
Left: Reichstag-building, Bundesratssitzungssaal, around 1928.
Right: Reichstag-building, Bundesratssitzungssaal, 1911. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für alle‘, March, 1911.
Reichstag-building, Bundesratssitzungssaal, depicted in ‘Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte’, 1913/14.
Left: ‘Landbau und Jagt’
Right: ‘Friede und Ruhm’
Left: ‘Land- und Seemacht’
Right: ‘Handel und Kolonien’
Hermann Göring Collection
Görings entire art collection comprised some 4,263 paintings, sculptures and tapestries. He planned to display them in an art gallery, the ‘Norddeutsche Galerie’, which should be founded after the war. The Norddeutsche Gallery was to be erected as an annex to Karinhall in the big forest of the Schorfheide, near Berlin.
Three works by Schuster-Woldan were part of the collection: two depictions of Emmy Göring (one executed in oil, one executed in red-chalk) and one depiction of Carin Göring (Carin von Kantzow). All three works survived the war; after being confiscated in 1945 they were given back to Emmy Göring.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Emmy Göring’, 1937. Part of the Hermann Göring collection (source: Deutsches Historical Museum).
Left: ‘Emmy Göring’ by Schuster-Woldan, depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Dritten Reich’, 1937, and in ‘Kunst und Volk’, 1937.
Right: the original painting sold by a german auction house in 2019. Size 111 x 83,5 cm including frame. Handwritten label on the back ‘Property of Edda Göring’.
Edda Göring posing in front of the Schuster-Woldan painting of her mother.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Emmy Göring’. Red-chalk on paper, 53 x 41 cm including frame. Sold by a German auction house in October 2012. One of the three works which were once part of the Hermann Göring Collection.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Carin Göring’ (Carin von Kantzow), before 1937. One of the three works which were once part of the Hermann Göring Collection.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Der Abend’ (‘The Evening‘), 1919. GDK 1941 room 3. Size 160 x 112 cm. Bought by Hitler for 50.000 Reichsmark. In the possession of the German Historical Museum.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Schwesternspende, 27 April 1918, dankt unsern Schwestern’. Poster calling for donations to support nurses, 27 April, 1918.
‘The nurses, nursing auxiliaries and assistants of all faiths who have worked day and night at the front and in the homeland for the Army and Navy in this World War with tireless willingness to make sacrifices in caring for the sick and related fields, and in the process have damaged their own health. Why are we collecting for them? To support the thousands of them, particular those who have no claim to State welfare. Let everyone contribute his mite!’
Poster is part of the collection of the Imperial War Museums, England.
Richard Wagner Museum, Bayreuth
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Cosima Wagner’ (1937), second wife of composer Richard Wagner. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Dritten reich’, 1937, and in ‘Kunst und Volk’, 1937. In the possession of the Wagner Museum in Bayreuth.
Middle: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Siegfried Wagner’ (1937), sun of Richard Wagner. GDK 1938 room 26. Bought by Hitler for 4.000 Reichsmark. Depicted in ‘Kunst und Volk’, 1937, in ‘Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1940, and in ‘Deutsche Kunst der Gegenwart’, Breslau, 1943. In the possession of the Wagner Museum in Bayreuth.
Right: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Winifred Wagner’(1897 – 1980). The wife of Siegfried Wagner ran the Bayreuth Festival after her husband’s death in 1930 until the end of World War II in 1945. She was a friend and supporter of Adolf Hitler (himself a Wagner enthusiast), and she and Hitler maintained a regular correspondence. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Dritten Reich’, 1937.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Portrait of a lady in Furs’. Size 49 x 37 cm. Sold by Bonhams in 2020.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Schlafende’ (‘Sleeping’), created 1904. In the possession of the Osthaus Museum, Hagen. Displayed at the exhibition ‘Raffael Schuster-Woldan’, 1937/1938, in the Städtische Museum, Hagen. The exhibition was organized under the ‘Schirmherrschaft (patronage) des Herrn Ministerpräsidenten Generaloberst Hermann Göring’.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan, ‘Diana’. Displayed at the Grosse Berliner Kunst-Ausstellung 1902.
‘Diana’ by Raffael Schuster-Woldan, signed 1899. Again displayed at the ‘Irish International Exhibition 1907’ in Dublin. Size 104 x 75. Sold by a Swedish auction house in 2011.
Left: Raffael Schuster-Woldan, around 1911. At the background ‘Handel und Kolonien’.
Right: selfportrait, depicted in ‘Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte’, 1913/14.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan
German painter Raffael Schuster-Woldan (1870–1951) studied at the Academies for Art in Munich and Frankfurt. In 1893 he was a founding member of the ‘Münchener Secession’, an art association which strived for modernisation and a reduction of the state’s influence on art. The Nazis later dissolved the Münchener Secession but in 1945 it restarted.
Schuster-Woldan executed the ceiling and the nine large wall paintings of the Assembly Hall of the Federal Council in the German Reichstag-building (‘Bundesratssitzungssaal’), a masterwork completed after ten years in 1911 (the central painting on the ceiling disappeared at the end of the war). Names of the wall paintings, executed on canvas on wood, were:‘Triumph der Kultur‘ (‘Triumph of Culture‘, ‘Landbaues und die Schreitende Jagd‘ (‘Agriculture and Hunting‘), ‘Friede und Ruhm‘ (‘Piece and Honor‘), ‘Land- und Seemacht‘ (‘Land- and Naval forces‘), ‘Handel und Kolonien‘ (‘Trade and Colonies‘), ‘Der Geschichte, Das Gesetz und Die Auslegung‘ (‘History, Law and Interpretation‘), ‘Das Vergehen und Das Werden‘ (‘Vanishing and Arise‘) and ‘Das Leiden und Den Trost‘ (‘Suffering and Consolation‘).
Between 1911 and 1920 Schuster-Woldan was Professor at the Preussian Academy for Figurative Art in Berlin.
Ten works by Raffael Schuster-Woldan were displayed at the XXI Venice Biennale 1938. One of them was ‘Ritratta de familia’ (‘family’), created in 1904, also displayed at the GDK 1937, room 26. Raffael Schuster-Woldan send this work also to the 1938 Rosenberg Exhibition ‘Das Familienbild’. The exhibition (actually a competition) ‘Das Familienbild’ was planned and executed by the Rechsleitung 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.
Another work by Schuster-Woldan depicting ‘Emmy Göring’, a red-chalk drawing, was part of the Hermann Göring Collection, and destinated for the ‘Norddeutsche Galerie’. This gallery was planned to be erected after the war as an annex to Karinhall in the big forest of the Schorfheide, north of Berlin.
An exhibition dedicted to Raffael Schuster-Woldan took place in of the Osthaus Museum, Hagen, 1937/1938. The exhibition was organized under the ‘Schirmherrschaft (patronage) des Herrn Ministerpräsidenten Generaloberst Hermann Göring’. In 1940 Schuster-Woldan was awarded with the Goethe-Medaille for Art and Science (the Goethe-medal was often personally presented by Adolf Hitler, himself, at a very grandiose ceremony. It was the most respected civil award next to the Eagle Shield and the National Prize for the Arts and Sciences).
In 1941, on the instructions of Hitler, the GDK mounted a special display of 27 paintings by Schuster-Woldan. This annual exhibition, known as the Sonderschau gathered works of a single, highly valued artist in one room. In the same year, Hitler bought 16 works by Schuster Woldan for the staggering sum of 496,000 RM. From 1937 to 1944 Hitler bought in total 27 of Schuster-Woldan’s works.
With 55 paintings displayed in the Great German Art Exhibitions, Schuster-Woldan was one of the most popular artists of his time. Only Müller Schnuttenbach (56) and Franz Eichhorst (57) had more paintings displayed. For ‘Das Leben’ (Life) and ‘Hindenburg und Ludendorff’ Hitler paid 60,000 Reichsmark each, the highest price ever paid for a work of art at the GDKs. From 1942 on ‘Hindenburg und Ludendorff’ hung in the Führerbau in the Munich Arcisstraße. After the war it was confiscated by the Americans and brought to the Library of Congress, Washington. Nowadays it is in the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.
Raffael Schuster-Woldan died in 1951 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
20 works by Schuster-Woldan are in the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. Two works, including ‘Schlafende’ from 1904, are in the possession of the Osthaus Museum, Hagen. The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen holds three ‘Overdoor-paintings’ (Supraportes) by Schuster-Woldan: ‘Allegorie der Kunst’, ‘Frühlingslandschaft’ and ‘Frühlingslandschaft mit drei Frauen’. The Wagner Museum holds at least two works by Schuster-Woldan: ‘Cosima Wagner’, second wife of composer Richard Wagner, and ‘Siegfried Wagner’, son of Richard Wagner (GDK 1938 room 26, bought by Hitler for 4.000 Reichsmark). A version of ‘Hindenburg und Ludendorff’ by Raffael Schuster-Woldan hangs in the Militärhistorisches Museum in Dresden. Schuster-Woldan’s work ‘Bildnis der Molino von Kluck’ (‘Portrait of Actress Molino von Kluck’, GDK 1941, bought by Hitler for 6.000 Reichsmark) was displayed at the exhibition ‘Aufstieg und Fall der Moderne‘, Weimar, 1999.