Hitler—Artist, Thief and Destroyer

Like me you have undoubtedly heard again and again that Adolph Hitler was a second-rate artist. Since I had little or not interest in Hitler's abilities as an artist, I let the whole matter rest at that—until now.

A few days ago I began to listen to another audio book from Audible.com, as I am accustomed to do during my almost daily 45 minute walk. The one I'm listening to is The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert Edsel and Bret Witter.

WW II was the most destructive war in history. This war and the Nazis also caused the destruction and dislocation of hundreds of thousands of paintings, sculptures and other art treasures. The burden of trying to save and preserve what they could fell to a few hundred men and women from thirteen nations, led by a small operation of the Allied armed forces called the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section (MFAA). The military operation was made up of a tiny group of eleven men. The book is an entirely fascinating account of the work of these unsung heroes.

Hitler and his henchmen believed that everything that was created by an Aryan or even looked like it was, belonged to the Third Reich. So they made it legal and gave themselves the right to pillage in all directions. The results are nearly impossible to comprehend. We can only thank God for the work of those who hunted these treasures down during and after the war in order to preserve them for future generations. 

Cathedral in Vienna by Adolph Hitler

Getting back to Hitler as an artist, if you do a Google search you will come up with quite a list. Most of the paintings are unknown. But as Randall L. Bytwerk says, "He probably sold several thousand paintings and postcards during his stay in Vienna."

Frederic Spotts' Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics writes, Hitler "had a modicum of talent—at least in sketching buildings—but what technique he learned he picked up on his own. Like most amateurs, he began by painting simple landscapes. . . He had to paint the sort of thing that an unknown and untalented amateur might be able to sell . . ."

This unknown and untalented amateur led in the damaging, desecration and destruction of thousands of items of priceless art and architecture.