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Description
Gobelin ‘Du bist Deutschland’ (‘You are Germany’)
(photo at the right shows the gobelin in 2017 in the atelier of the tapistry-restorer).
The oak leaves are a traditional German national symbol associated with patriotism and military prowess.
Large gobelin ordered (and paid) by the Reichs Chancellery for Hitler’s birthday in 1945. Not delivered due to Hitlers suicide. Destinated for the Reichs Chancellery.
Size 2,85 x 2,4 meter, hand-woven by ‘Wiener Gobelin-Manufaktur AG’, based in the Wiener Hofburg Imperial Palace (Vienna).
Described in the book ‘Die Tapisserie im Nationalsozialismus’, by Dr. Anja Prölss-Kammerer, 2000. Also described and depicted in ‘Wiener Gobelin-Manufaktur 1921-1987. Geschichte einer Manufaktur’, 1996, by Anita Gallian.
The gobelin was mentioned by curator Wolfgang Brauneis in his opening-speech on August 26, 2021, of the exhibition ‘DIVINELY GIFTED’. NATIONAL SOCIALISM’S FAVOURED ARTISTS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC (German Historical Museum, Berlin).
‘Du bist Deutschland’ by Eisenmenger was 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.
Left: the gobelin on the cover of ‘Bild’, 10. September 2019.
Right: ‘Du Bist Deutschland’ by Eisenmenger depicted in ‘Le Monde’, 17 October 2019.
‘Du Bist Deutschland’ by Eisenmenger, 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 ZDF).
In front of the gobelin, a sidetabel from Hitlers workroom in the New Reichs Chancellery. The table, disigned by Hermann Kaspar, is owned by the German Historical Museum in Berlin.
The gobelin published on Dutch TV, NOS News, prime time, at 3 September 2019.
https://nos.nl/uitzending/43974-nos-journaal.html
Broadcasted by ‘Deutsche Welle’ at 6 October 2019.
The gobeling depicted in the Dutch newspaper The Volkskrant, 5 September 2019.
Published at 21 September 2019 in the Dutch Telegraaf.
Published in Artnet, 17 September 2019.
Sputnik news agency, 5 September 2019 (formerly The Voice of Russia. News agency, news website platform and radio broadcast service established by the Russian government-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya, headquartered in Moscow. Sputnik operates news websites, featuring reporting and commentary, in over 30 languages).
Extreme scarce work of art
Art works considered as overt propaganda were massively destroyed
As described below, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreementof August 1945, the Allied Control Council laws and military government regulations, all collections of works of art related or dedicated to the perpetuation of German militarism or Nazism, were destroyed. Thousands of paintings were considered of ‘no value’ and burned. Around 8,722 artworks were shipped to military deposits in the U.S. In 1986 the largest part was returned to Germany, with the exception of 200 paintings which were considered as overt propaganda: depictions of German Soldiers, war sceneries, swastika’s and portraits of Nazi leaders.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, Gobelin ‘Du Bist Deutschland’, depicted in ‘Wiener Gobelin-Manufaktur 1921-1987’. Diplomarbeit in Kunstgeschichte, 1996, by Anita Gallian (Examination for the Doctoral’s Degree I; photo by Dr. Grausam, -Wiener Gobelin Manufaktur).
Text in ‘Wiener Gobelin-Manufaktur 1921-1987’, by Anita Gallian, 1996:
‘The series of Coat of Arms-Gobelins also includes one by R.H. Eisenmenger. The gobelin ‘Du bist Deutschland’ (Picture 45) shows also a similar, however stylised Coat of Arms-structure with oak-leaves at both sides and a smooth surface.’
Footnote 192: ‘According to Dr. Hellmuth Grausam (Head of the Wiener Gobelinmanufaktur from 1981-1987) the gobelin was commissioned -and paid- as a birthday present in 1945 for Hitler. Beause of the circumstances in 1945, the gobelin was not picked up.’
‘Du Bist Deutschland’ by Eisenmenger, discribed at page 341 in the book ‘Die Tapisserie im Nationalsozialismus’, by Dr. Anja Prölss-Kammerer, 2000. The text reads: ‘Also produced by the Viennese Gobelin-Manufaktur was a gobelin after a design by Eisenmenger, with national emblem, oak leaves and the text ‘You are Germany’; it was commissioned for Hitler’s birthday at 20 April 1945, but for obvious reasons never picked up’ (Hitler committed suicide at 30 April 1945).
The gobelin ‘Du bist Deutschland’ by Eisenmenger was mentioned by curator Wolfgang Brauneis in his opening-speech on August 26, 2021, of the exhibition ‘DIVINELY GIFTED’. NATIONAL SOCIALISM’S FAVOURED ARTISTS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC (German Historical Museum, Berlin).
The gobelin ‘Du Bist Deutschland’ by Eisenmenger was again discribed in the catalog of the exhibition ‘Auf Linie, NS-Kunstpolitiek in Wien’, Wien MUseum MUSA, October 2021 – April 2022.
Wiener Gobelinmanufaktur
Wiener Gobelinmanufaktur, 1921–1987, based in the Wiener Hofburg Imperial Palace, was founded after WWI by August Mader and the painter Robin Christian Andersen. Tapestry work by the Wiener Gobelinmanufaktur can be seen in the Vienna State Opera, the Festspielhaus in the city of Salzburg, the Austrian Museum of Applied Art in Vienna and in several ministries. Works by the Wiener Gobelinmanufaktur have been exported to America, Great Britain and Switzerland. The list of artists who worked for the Wiener Gobelinmanufaktur included: R. Chr. Anderson, A. Faistauer, A.P. Gütersloh, Oskar Kokoschka, Fritz Wotruba and Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger.
| – condition | : II perfect condition* |
| – size | : 2,85 x 2,4 meter |
| – signed | : hand-woven by Wiener Gobelinmanufaktur |
| – type | : Gobelin; weft thread from scheep’s wool, warp thread from cotton |
| – misc. | : cleaning, conservation and new lining in 2016/ 2017 |
* The tapestry has been professional cleaned by a top gobelin restorer. Some small parts were restored and a lining was applied. The gobelin is in extremely good condition, the colours have hardly faded. This is probably because it has not been displayed since 1945, but instead has been stored (and rolled up) appropriately.
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BIOGRAPHY: RUDOLF HERMANN EISENMENGER
‘Wie Hagen den Schatz der Nibelungen im Rhein versenken ließ’
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Wie Hagen den Schatz der Nibelungen im Rhein versenken ließ’ (‘How the Treasures of the Nibelung Were Lowered into the Rhein’). This is one of a triptych of tapestries ordered by Joseph Goebbels in 1943, and finished in 1945. The image shows the sinking of the Nibelung treasure in the Rhine: the mythical warlord Hagen of Tronje at the bow of a ship while his warriors throw the Nibelung treasure into the Rhine. Eisenmenger designed three gobelins with scenes from the first episode of the Nibelungen epic: ‘Wie Siegfried und Kriemhild nach der Hochzeit in Xanten Ankamen’, ‘Wie Siegfried von Kriemhild Abschied nahm und Zur Jagd Auszog’, and ‘Hagen versenkt den Schatz der Nibelungen im Rhein’. By the time that the ‘Hagen-Gobelin’ was delivered to Goebbels in March 1945, the Soviet army was closing in on Berlin; Goebbels committed suicide a few weeks later. The two other Gobelins were never delivered, -now in the possession of the Austrian Ministry of Education. Produced by the Wiener Gobelin-Manufaktur, size 2.27 by 4.18 meter.
‘Wie Hagen den Schatz der Nibelungen im Rhein versenken ließ’, considered lost but rediscovered in 2006, was displayed at the exhibition ‘Hitler and the Germans: Nation and Crime’, 2010/2011, at the German Historical Museum.
Left: ‘Wie Siegfried und Kriemhild nach der Hochzeit in Xanten Ankamen’ (‘How Siegfried and Kreimhild arrived in Xanten after the Wedding’).
Right: ‘Wie Siegfried von Kriemhild Abschied nahm und Zur Jagd Auszog’ (‘How Siegfrieid said goodbye to Kriemhild and went Hunting’).
Both parts depicted in ‘Wiener Gobelin Manufaktur, 1921 -1987, Geschichte einer Manufaktur’, by Anita Gallian.
Size per gobelin: 227 x 418 cm. Both gobelins are in the possession of the ‘BMfU’, the Austrian Ministery of Education.
Below: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger working at a design for one of the Nibelungen-tapestries. Depicted in ‘Die Wiener Bühne‘, Heft 8, 1941. The Austrian magazine published about Reichsstatthalter of Vienna/ Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach, opening the ‘Kulturprogram’ of the city of Vienna in the Burgtheater; the article is directly followed by a special about the ‘Viennese Painter Rudolf Eisenmenger’.
Reichsstatthalter of Vienna/ Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach treated the Austrian capital and its outlaying areas as his own from 1940 to 1945. His concern for art, style and interior design reflected the emphasis on culture that marked his rule in Vienna. He had been transfered to Vienna with explicit orders to organise and rehabilitate the city’s flagging cultural life… Hitler created a special arrangement whereby Schirach, not Goebbels, would be responsible for the arts in that region.. (‘Art as Politics in the Third Reich, Jonathan Petropoulos, 1996).
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Sommerabend’ (‘Summer Evening’). GDK 1941 room 15; depicted in the exhibition catalogue. Bought for 18,000 Reichsmarks by Joseph Goebbels. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für alle’, 1940/41, and in ‘Das Bild’, 1941.
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger working at ‘Sommerabend’.
Right: Rudolf Hermann Eisenemenger sitting in front of ‘Sommerabend’. Both photos were depicted in a special about the ‘Viennese Painter Rudolf Eisenmenger’ in ‘Die Wiener Bühne‘, Heft 8, 1941.
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Drei Frauen am Brunnen’ (‘Three Women at Source’), postcard. GDK 1943 room 15; depicted in the exhibition catalogue. Bought for 16,000 Reichsmarks by Landesgewerbeanstalt Westmark, Kaiserslautern. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für alle’, 1942/43.
Right: ‘Drei Frauen am Brunnen’, a photo taken at the Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung in 1943. The photo is depicted on the cover of book ‘Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung München 1937 – 1944, by Robert Thoms, 2010.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger working on ‘Drei Frauen am Brunnen’.
The pictures are from the movie ‘Art in the Third Reich’, part II (at 6.47).
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Wanduhr’ (‘The Wall Clock’), ‘Karton für ein Fresko im Hause der Landesführung des Reichsarbeitsdienstes’ (‘Carton for a fresco in the head office of the Reich Labour Service’). In this work Eisenmenger depicted the different stages of life, as an analogy with clock’s face, around a nude blond woman, the personification of the Purity of Race: Hitler Youth, Labor services, Military service and Motherhood. At the first place the woman is depicted in her natural role as a mother. Before the sun, as a symbol of a new beginning, she takes care of the continuation of the race. The growing German youth becomes a Hitler Youth and is trained for his later position in the national German community. As soldiers, farmers, and female-farmers, they work the soil and maintain the German culture, as the music and dance scene shows. The circle ends with a picture of an old man, after which the mother with a baby again follows.
Depicted in ‘Art of the Third Reich’, Peter Adam and in ‘Kunst dem Volk’, 1939.
‘Scende la notte’.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Sinkende Nacht’ (‘Falling Night’). GDK 1937 room 25. Also displayed at the Biennale di Venezia, XX Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte 1936 with the name ‘Scende la notte’. Depicted in ‘Kunst für alle’, 1937. Awarded the Golden Ehrenmedaille des Künstlerhauses in 1936, Vienna.
‘Pecoraia’
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Pecoraia’ (‘Schafhirt’, or ‘Shepherd’). Displayed at the Biennale di Venezia, XXII Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte 1940. Depicted in the official art catalogue. Also depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1941, and in ‘Das Bild’, 1940.
Right: ‘Pecoraia’ by Eisenmenger, depicted in ‘Westermanns Monatshefte’, September 1942.
On top: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Heimkehr der Ostmark I’ (‘Austria Returning to its German Homeland’). GDK 1941 room 2. Located in the festival hall of the town hall of Vienna. Length 7 meters. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1941.
Below: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Heimkehr der Ostmark II’ (‘Austria Returning to its German Homeland’). GDK 1941 room 2. Length 7 meters.
‘Ritratta su fondo dorato’
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Bildnis auf goldenem Grund’ (‘Portrait with Golden Background’). GDK 1938 room 34. The painting was awarded the Rom Prize in 1929. ‘Ritratta su fondo dorato’ was displayed at the Biennale di Venezia, XXII Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte 1940. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1941, and in ‘Das Bild’, 1941. The work is lost.
Right: ‘Bildnis auf goldenem Grund’. Displayed in Schloss Niederschönhausen, Berlin, in 1940/41; by orders of the Reichskammer der Bildende Künste, more then 100 works of art were shown, which had earlier been displayed at the Biennale di Venezia in 1940.
The Biennale di Venezia, Deutscher Pavillion, 1940. At the background are visible the works by Eisenmenger: ‘Schafhirt’, ‘Bildnis auf goldenem Grund’ and ‘Ein Volkslied’.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Läufer vor dem Ziel’ (‘Runners at the Finishing Line’). The painting was awarded the silver medal at the Olympic Games in 1936, Berlin. It was bought by the Tokyo Society of Art and Sport. Depicted in the catalogue of the ‘Olympic Art Exhibition’, 1936.
Right: depicted in ‘Kunst für alle’, 1937.
Art competitions at the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games during its early years, from 1912 to 1948, included art competitions in addition to the athletic contests. Bronze, Silver and Gold medals were awarded for exhibits of town planning, architecture, drama, poetry, music, graphic arts and paintings as well as sculpture, reliefs and medallions. All of the entered works had to be inspired by sport, and had to be original and not previously published.
The competitions were part of the original intention of the Olympic Movement’s founder, Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, who believed that sports and the arts were inextricably linked.
The juried art competitions were abandoned in 1954 mainly because of the idea that artists were considered to be professionals, while Olympic athletes were required to be amateurs (however, the athletic events would later radically evolve to accommodate professional athletes).
Also, a continuing subject of discussion and debate was the fact that sporting achievements can be measured in easily-understood metrics such as time and distance, but judging the arts is undeniably subjective. Finally the arts competition suffered from the guiding parameter that the works created had to be associated with sport, limiting the entries to tiresome imagery of athletes and odes to sporting achievement.
The 1936 Summer Games in Berlin, best-documented Olympic Art Competition
At the opening ceremony of 1936 Olympic Art Competition, Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels reminded his audience that each work entered in the competition was required to have been created within the last four years. This restriction, he declared, ‘enables us to derive from the Exhibition an estimate of international conditions.’
The detailed descriptions in the Official Report of the 11th Olympic Games not only provided a dazzling depiction of this charmingly peculiar Olympic-art phenomenon, but also a chilling snapshot of Germany during the emergence of the Third Reich. Home-field advantage greatly worked in Germany’s favor that year; the international jury consisted of 29 German judges and 12 from other European countries. It was also a welcome, if not surprising, spike in gold medals for the German artists, who won five of the nine gold medals awarded that year. Charles Downing Lay was the only American to win a medal in 1936, taking home silver in the Architecture category. The German brothers Werner and Walter March took home gold in that category for their design ‘Reich Sport Field.’
The 1936 art competition was one of the most successful on record. More than 70,000 people visited the accompanying exhibition over the course of its four weeks on display. Prominents like the Reich Ministers Frick, Goebbels, and Rust, the Italian Minister of Education, and the Baron Morimoura of Japan all purchased works from the exhibition.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Die Nacht begleitet den Morgen’ (‘The Night Accompanies the Morning’). GDK 1942 room 14; depicted in the exhibition catalogue. In the possession of the German Historical Museum. Also displayed at the exhibition ‘Jubiläumausstellung Künstlerhaus Wien’, 1941/42. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für alle’, 1941/42, and in ‘Deutsche Kunst der Gegenwart’, Breslau, 1943. Awarded the Künstlerhaus-Jubileumpreis, 1941.
‘Die Nacht begleitet den Morgen’ by Eisenmenger, depicted in the ‘Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland‘, 26 April 1942.
Left: Right: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Abziehendes Gewitter’ (‘Leaving Thunderstorm’). GDK 1940 room 15; depicted in the exhibition catalogue. Also depicted in ‘Das Bild’, September 1940, and in ‘Westermanns Monatshefte’, September 1942. Bought by ‘Röchlingsche Eisen- und Stahlwerke GmbH‘ for 6,000 Reichsmarks.
Right: ‘Abziehendes Gewitter’ by Eisenmenger, depicted in the ‘Salzburger Volksblatt’, 15 August 1940.
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Mädchen, eine Blume haltend’ (‘Girl with Flower’). GDK 1944 room 24. Bought by a private individual for 9,000 Reichsmarks. Depicted in ‘Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1944.
Right: ‘Mädchen, eine Blume haltend’ by Eisemenger, displayed at the ‘Wiener Herbstausstellung’, Künstlerhaus, 1943. Depicted in the ‘Illustrierte Kronen Zeitung’, 31 October 1943.
Gobelins for the city of Chemnitz
In 1941 Eisenmenger was commissioned to create designs for three gobelins, destined for the Festival Hall of the City Hall of Chemnitz (finished and delivered in 1943/44).
Left: the first gobelin shows a young German man, under the Nazi flag, saying goodbye to his mother, wife and child to go to war. The text reads: ‘Dein Leben ist gebunden an das Leben deines ganzes Volkes’, meaning ‘Your life is connected to the life of a whole nation’.
Right: this third gobelin is devoted to the arts and culture. Under the coat of arms of the city of Chemnitz, forms of art are depicted, surrounded by cultural symbols of architecture, science, poetry, music and painting. The text reads: ‘Die wahre Kunst ist und bleibt in ihren leistungen immer eine ewige’, meaning ‘Real art is and stays forever’.
The second gobelin -depicted below- shows a healthy German family, under the coat of arms of the city of Chemnitz, surrounded by works of art from the Erzgebirge region. The text on the gobelin reads: ‘Die Kraft von uns allen liegt nicht in einem internationalen Phanton, sie liegt in unserer Heimat’, meaning (‘The power of all of us lies not in an international Phantom, it is our Homeland’). This gobelin was displayed at the exhibition ‘Deutsche Künstler und die SS’ in Breslau, 1944, and depicted in the exhibition catalogue.
Deutsche Künstler und die SS (‘German Artists and the SS‘)
‘Deutsche Künstler und die SS’ was an exhibition organized by the Reichsführer SS and the SS Supplementary Office of the Headquarter, held in the first quarter of 1944 in the Museum der Bildende Künste in Breslau. In total 589 works of art were displayed, of which 63 were depicted in the exhibition catalogue, published by Wilhelm Limpert Verlag in Berlin. The 72-pages catalogue had a prologue by SS Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger and a prologue by Heinrich Himmler.
Three months later -from June to July 1944- the exhibition was held in the Alte Residenz in Salzburg (Salzburg Residenz Palace); a separate catalog was issued with 20 depictions.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Gang durch die Felder’ (‘Through the Fields’). Carton for a fresco. Depicted in ‘Kunst dem Volk’, 1939.
Above: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Feierabend’ (‘After Work’). Wall painting for the railroad station ‘Bahnhof Wels’, 1939. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1939.
Below: Ruldof Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Field Work’). Wall painting for the railroad station ‘Bahnhof Wels’, 1939. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1939.
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Aus dem Gestern steigt das Morgen’ (‘Yesterday Turns into Today’). Depicted on the cover of the ‘Illustrirte Zeitung Leipzig’, Christmas 1942.
Right: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger’, ‘Sitzender Akt’ (‘Sitting Nude’). Displayed at the exhibition ‘Junge Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, Vienna 1943, organized by Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach. Depicted in the official exhibition catalogue, as well as in ‘Kunst und Diktatur’, 1994, Jan Tabor.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Der Morgen’ (‘The Morning’). Displayed at the exhibition of the Künstlerhaus of Vienna in 1932. Depicted in ‘Kunst für alle’, 1937/1938.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Stiegenhausfresko’ (‘Starecase-fresco’), located in the director’s office of the company ‘Hörbiger Ventilwerke’, Vienna. Architects were Siegfried Theiss and Hans Jaksch. Date of creation: 1951.
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Halbakt’ (‘Half-nude’). Displayed at the ‘Kunst-Ausstellung Hilfswerk für deutsche bildende Kunst in der NS-Volkswohlfahrt’, 1941. Depicted in the exhibition catalogue.
Right: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Aktstudie‘. Depicted in a special about the ‘Viennese Painter Rudolf Eisenmenger’ in ‘Die Wiener Bühne‘, Heft 8, 1941.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Jugend’ (‘Youth’). Created in 1925. Size 92 x 66 cm. Sold by an Austrian art gallery in 2023.
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Die Hausfrau‘ (‘The Housewife‘). GDK 1938 room 23.
Right: ‘Die Hausfrau’ by Eisenmenger, depicted in ‘Westermanns Monatshefte’, September 1942.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Ein Volkslied’ (‘A Folk Song’). GDK 1937 room 12; depicted in the exhibition catalogue. Also displayed under the name ‘La Sorgente’ at the Biennale di Venezia, XXII Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte 1940.
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Die alte und die neue Welt’ (‘Old World and New World’), 1973. Gobelin located in the Technical University of Vienna. Executed by Manufactura de Tapecarias de Portalegre. Size 223 x 155 cm.
Right: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Glückliche Menschen’ (‘Happy People’), wall painting created in 1951. Located in Vienna, Justgasse 6-14.
Vienna State Opera
After WWII, in 1951, Eisenmenger was commissioned to design a series of 13 tapestries for the Gustav Mahler Hall of the State Opera in Vienna (formerly known as the ‘Gobelin Hall’). The production of the gobelins with a surface of in total 171 m2, took 6 years. The design was inspired by Mozart’s Zauberflöte (‘The Magic Flute’). In the same opera house, he designed in 1955 the huge Iron Curtain (170 m2) with the main theme of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck (Gluck, had been heralded as the regenerator of German music during the Third Reich).
Below: The Gustav Mahler Hall of the State Opera in Vienna.
Please watch the beautiful: Gustav Mahler Room Opera Vienna
Trade and Reconstruction minister Josef Böck-Greissau standing in front of a gobelin-design by Eisenmenger in 1952 in the Vienna State Opera.
Below: the huge Iron Curtain (170 m2) designed by Eisenmenger.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, Cloack-dial (North-side) of the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, 1961. Depicted theme’s: Perishableness, Life and Death.
Below: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Frau mit Gelben Kopftuch‘ (‘Woman with yellow Kerchief‘), 1943. Size 87 x 71. In the possession oft he Belvedere Museum, previous owner: Künstlerhaus Wien/ Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach.
In 1943 Von Schirach also gave a painting by Eisenmenger to NSDAP-treasurer F.X. Schwarz (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv/Adr/ NS Parteistellen/ Karton 40, Vogesser to Schulze, 29 Januari 1943); it is unclear whether it concerned the same painting.
Left: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Mädchen mit Schwarzen Handschuhen‘ (‘Girl with Black Gloves‘), 1937. Size 69 x 56 cm. Ex Julius Reich-Künstlerstiftung, Vienna. In the possession of the Belvedere Museum, Vienna.|
Right: Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Blumen am Weg‘ (‘Flowers along Path‘). GDK 1942 room 14. Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für Alle’, 1942.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, ‘Self-portrait’. GDK 1944 room 24. Depicted in ‘Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1944. The painting was donated in 1988 by the artist to the Belvedere Museum, Vienna. Size 81 x 61 cm.
The extreme scarcity of National Socialistic art
Massive, systematic destruction of Nazi art since 1945: the Potsdam-Agreement
From 1933 to 1949 Germany experienced two massive art purges. Both the National Socialist government and OMGUS (the U.S. Military Government in Germany) were highly concerned with controlling what people saw and how they saw it. The Nazis eliminated what they called ‘Degenerate art’, erasing the pictorial traces of turmoil and heterogeneity that they associated with modern art. The Western Allies in turn eradicated ‘Nazi art’ and forbade all artworks military subjects or themes that could have military and/or chauvinist symbolism from pictorial representation. Both the Third Reich and OMGUS utilized the visual arts as instruments for the construction of new German cultural heritages.
The Potsdam Agreement of 2 August 1945, subparagraph 3, Part III, Section A stated that one purpose of the occupation of Germany was ‘to destroy the National Socialistic Party and its affiliated and supervised organizations and to dissolve all Nazi and militaristic activity or propaganda.’ In accordance with Allied Control Council laws and military government regulations, all documents and objects which might tend to revitalize the Nazi spirit or German militarism would be confiscated or destroyed. For example, Title 18, Military Government Regulation, OMGUS stated that: ‘all collections of works of art related or dedicated to the perpetuation of German militarism or Nazism will be closed permanently and taken into custody.’ As a consequence, thousands of paintings –portraits of Nazi-leaders, paintings containing a swastika or depicting military/war sceneries– were considered ‘of no value’ and destroyed. With knives, fires and hammers, they smashed countless sculptures and burned thousands of paintings. Around 8,722 artworks were shipped to military deposits in the U.S.
OMGUS regulated and censored the art world. The Information Control Division (ICD, the key structure in the political control of post-war German culture in the American zone) was in fact a non-violent version of the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture). With its seven subdivisions (i.e. press, literature, radio, film, theatre, music, and art), the ICD neatly replaced the Reich Chamber of Culture. The ICD established through its various sections a system of licensed activity, with screening and vetting by Intelligence to exclude all politically undesirable people.
‘Free’ German artists producing ‘free German art’ after 1945
In the ideology of OMGUS, painting was conceived of as a strategic element in the campaign to politically re-educate the German people for a new democratic internationalism. Modern art allowed for the establishment of an easy continuity with the pre-Nazi modernist past, and it could serve as a springboard for the international projection of Germany as a new country interacting with its new Western partners.
‘Free’ artists producing ‘free art’ was one of the most powerful symbols of the new Germany, the answer to the politically controlled art of the Third Reich. Modern art linked Western Germany to Western Europe – separating the new West German aesthetic and politics from that of the Nazi era, the U.S.S.R., and East Germany – and suggested an ‘authentically’ German identity.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger (1902–1994) was an Austrian painter born in Semeria (Romania). His father was docter; his grandfather came from the region of Heilbron. In 1921 his family moved to Vienna, and in the same year Eisenmenger went to the Vienna Academy where he studied under Professor Hans Tichy and for four years as Meisterschühler under Rudolf Bacher. Study trips took him to Italy and Holland. Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger received several prizes, including the ‘Lampi Prize’ in 1923, the ‘Kleber Prize’ in 1925 and the ‘Prize of Rome’ in 1929. He was awarded this last prize for the work ‘Bildnis auf goldenem Grund’ (‘Portrait with Golden Background’ or ‘Ritratta su fondo dorato’), which later was also displayed at the XXII Esposizione Internationale D’arte in Venice 1940 (the work is lost). In 1930 he became the youngest person to ever become a member of the Künstlerhaus of Vienna. He held his first exhibition here in 1930 and two years later he had his breakthrough when he exhibited 32 canvases here. In 1933 he joined the NSDAP; he took part in the clandestine activities of the Nazi party in Austria before the Abschluss. In 1936 at the Olympic Exhibition in Berlin, his canvas entitled ‘Läufer vor dem Ziel’ (‘Runners at the Finishing Line’) won the silver medal. The painting was bought by the Tokyo Society of Art and Sport. Three years later he was appointed President of the Wiener Künstlerhaus by the Gauleiter of Vienna.
Eisenmenger created numerous frescos, inter alia: for the hall of honour at the jubilee exhibition of the Künstlerhaus (‘Das Leben’ and ‘Der Tod über allem Irdischen’, awarded in 1936 with the prize of the city of Vienna); for the casino in Baden, 24 fresco’s in 1937 with the theme ‘Looking for Luck’ (plastered over in 1945); for the Wels railway station (‘Feldarbeit’ and ‘Feierabend’, 1938/39) and for the head office of the Reichsarbeitsdienst in Vienna (‘Wanduhr’).
For the festival hall of the Vienna Town Hall, he created ‘Die Heimkehr der Ostmark’ (‘Austria returning to its German homeland’), a painting reaching a length of 7 meters. In 1937 Eisenmenger was a member of the jury which was responsible for selecting works for the first Great German Art Exhibition. In 1942 he was awarded the Dürer Prize by the city of Nuremberg. A year later, upon the recommendation of Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach and with the strong support of Goebbels, Eisenmenger was granted the professor title.
At the Great German Art Exhibitions, Eisenmenger was represented with 14 works which were bought for prices of up to 18,000 Reichsmarks (Goebbels). His most prominent works were ‘Sinkende Nacht’ (‘Falling Night’, GDK 1937 room 25, awarded the Golden Ehrenmedaille des Künstlerhauses in 1936, Vienna); ‘Sommerabend’ (‘Summer Evening’); ‘Drei Frauen am Brunnen’ (‘Three Women at Source’); ‘Heimkehr der Ostmark’ (‘Austria Returning to its German Homeland’, I and II); ‘Bildnis auf goldenem Grund’ (‘Portrait with Golden Background’); ‘Die Nacht begleitet den Morgen’ (‘The Night Accompanies the Morning’, awarded the Künstlerhaus-Jubileumspreis, 1941) and ‘Abziehendes Gewitter’ (‘Leaving Thunderstorm’). A special about Eisenmenger in ‘Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, 1941, depicted several of these GDK-works.
Eisenmenger displayed one of his works at the Biennale di Venezia, XX Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte 1936: ‘Scende la notte’ (‘Falling of the Night’ or ‘Sinkende Nacht’, GDK 1937 room 25); two works at the Biennale di Venezia, XXI Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte 1938: ‘Ritratto di bambino’ (‘Portrait of a child’) and ‘La mia zia B.’ (‘My Aunt B.’); eight works at the Biennale di Venezia, XXII Esposizione Internazionale D’Arte 1940, including: ‘La Sorgente’ (originally named ‘Ein Volkslied’), ‘Il ragazzo nella foresta’ (‘Forest’), ‘Pecoraia’ (‘Shepherd’), ‘Piccolo ritratto di famiglia’ (‘Small Family Portrait’), ‘Ragazza con guanti neri’ (‘Girl with Blacks Gloves’), ‘Doppio ritratto’ (‘Double Portrait’), ‘Ritratta su fondo dorato’ (‘Portrait with Golden Background‘) and ’Ritratto del gioelliere Fischmeister’ (‘Portrait of the Jeweller Fischmeister’).
In 1943 he took part with two works in the exhibition ‘Junge Kunst im Deutschen Reich’, Vienna, organized by Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach.
In 1944 he was represented at the exhibition ‘Deutsche Künstler und die SS’ in Breslau with his Gobelin ‘Heimat: Die Kraft von uns allen liegt nicht in einem internationalen Phantom – sie liegt in unserer Heimat’ (‘Homeland: The power of all of us lies not in an international Phantom – it is our homeland’). This was one of the three gobelins based on Eisenmenger’s designs destined for the Festival Hall of the City Hall of Chemnitz (finished and delivered in 1943/44).
In 1943 Joseph Goebbels ordered a triptych of tapestries, titled the ‘Nibelungen’. Eisenmenger designed three gobelins with scenes from the first episode of the Nibelungen epic: ‘Wie Siegfried und Kriemhild nach der Hochzeit in Xanten Ankamen’, ‘Wie Siegfried von Kriemhild Abschied nahm und Zur Jagd Auszog’, and ‘Hagen versenkt den Schatz der Nibelungen im Rhein’. The last gobelin, ‘How the Treasures of the Nibelung Were Lowered into the Rhein’, shows the mythical warlord Hagen of Tronje at the bow of a ship while his warriors throw the Nibelung treasure into the Rhine. By the time that the ‘Hagen-Gobelin’ was delivered to Goebbels in March 1945, the Soviet army was closing in on Berlin; Goebbels committed suicide a few weeks later. The two other gobelins, also produced by the Wiener Gobelin-Manufaktur, measuring 4.18x 2.27 meters, were never delivered; they are nowadays in the possession of the ‘BMfU’, the Austrian Ministery of Education.
This was also the fate of a fourth gobelin, depicting a huge eagle with a swastika, which was ordered for Hitler’s birthday in 1945 (meant for the Neue Reichskanzlei); this tapestry with the name ‘Du Bist Deutschland’ (‘You are Germany’) was ordered, fully paid for and executed, but could not be delivered after Hitler’s suicide.
After WWII, in 1951, Eisenmenger was commissioned to design a series of 13 tapestries for the Gustav Mahler Hall of the State Opera in Vienna. The production of the gobelins with a surface of in total 171 m2, took six years. The design was inspired by Mozart’s Zauberflöte (‘The Magic Flute’). In the same opera house, he designed in 1955 the huge Iron Curtain (170 m2) with the main theme of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck (Gluck, had been heralded as the regenerator of German music during the Third Reich).
Also in 1951, Eisenmenger created a walpainting in the Presidentsroom of the Austrian Parlement in Vienna, and a ‘Stiegenhausfresko’ (‘Staircase-fresco’) in the director’s office of the company ‘Hörbiger Ventilwerke’ in Vienna. From 1951 until his death Eisenmenger created around 25 gobelins, mosaics and frescos for companies, churches, government institutions and banks mainly in Austria, but also in Turkey (1968) and The Netherlands (a gobelin in 1959 for the Unilever Building in Rotterdam). In 1961 he created the cloack-dial (North-side) of the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, 1961 (depicted theme’s: Perishableness, Life and Death.
In 1957 Eisenmenger was awarded the ‘Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class’ (the ‘Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst’ comprises 15 grades and is Austria’s highest national honour. It is conferred by the Republic of Austria to honour people who have rendered meritorious services to the country). From 1951 to 1972 he was professor of architectural design (and senator and dean) at the Technical College in Vienna. In 1973 he was awarded the ‘Grand Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria’ (the ‘Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich’). In 1989 Eisenmenger exhibited at the Peithner-Lichtenfels Gallery in Vienna.
Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger died in 1994 in Vienna.
The Belvedere Museum in Vienna owns his ‘Self-Portrait’ (GDK 1944 room 24). The Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin is in the possession of ‘Die Nacht begleitet den Morgen’ (‘The Night Accompanies the Morning’, GDK 1942 room 14). In 2003, on the occasion of his 100st birthday, the exhibition ‘Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger’ was organized in the Erzbischofliches Dom und Diözesanmuseum in Vienna (‘Jubiläumsausstellung zum 100’. Geburtstag unter der Patronanz von S.E. Kardinal Dr. Franz König). The gobelin ‘Wie Hagen den Schatz der Nibelungen im Rhein versenken ließ’, considered lost but re-discovered in 2007, was displayed at the exhibition ‘Hitler and the Germans: Nation and Crime’, 2010/2011, German Historical Museum.
The gobelin ‘Du bist Deutschland’ by Eisenenmenger was 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.
In an interview by the Israelian writer Irith Dublon-Knebel, 8 October 1985 in Vienna, Eisenmenger described the dismal situation he encountered from the end of the war until 1947. His large atelier was taken over by another artist and he had to hand over the keys of the Künstlerhaus that he had directed for six years. ‘He was literally thrown out of there’.
I was a Nazi *
‘Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger was very frank about his past during the interview that I conducted with him, which he began with the statement: I was a Nazi. He described his return to the Viennese art world as follows: I had two options: either to paint oil paintings, but that was impossible since the media did not like me because of my Nazi past, or to participate in official tenders which are open to every artist. I won the first price several times, but when the results were published it created turmoil. I, however, felt quite confident. I told myself that if things continued in this way, I had nothing to fear. I had to provide for my living, I had nothing left.’
Actually, I have been considered dead since 1945
Eisenmenger repeatedly succeeded in appealing to the taste of the tender commissions, but when he won the tender for designing the curtains of the Opera of Vienna in 1954, there was an uproar. There were efforts to prevent him from carrying out the work. ….later they wrote that the man who was responsible for the destruction of the opera building, now was designing the drapes of the new opera…..Eisenmenger’s determination, in addition to his skill and his style that corresponded to the committee’s taste, enabled him to bypass the ban; he designed 13 tapestries for the Mozart Hall of the Opera with scenes from The Magic Flute. However, even though he managed to overcome some of the barriers, Eisenmenger felt banned. He compared his situation to that of the banned artists in Nazi Germany, claiming that he now was entartet, adding ‘Actually I have been considered dead since 1945’. He found comfort in the thought that 50 years after his death he would be rediscovered (‘I know that I will return artistically, not politically’).
* From: ‘A Dual Life, The Fate of Nazi Painters and Sculptors, 1945-1990’, by the Israelian writer Irith Dublon-Knebel, published in the ‘Tel Aviv Jahrbuch für deutsche Geschichte’, 2006.