March 12, 2020 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

Hitler's antisemitism shown

on Viennese watercolor?


to Hitler Forgery Industry main page - to Droog Magazine

The strange business of selling fakes, forgeries and other concoctions attributed to Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and other Nazi criminals.

2020 | Hitler the composer of an opera?

© Bart FM Droog, 2020

 
Christian Rapp and Hannes Leidinger, co-curators of the exhibition on the young Hitler and writers of the book Hitler. Prägende Jahre. Kindheit und Jugend 1889-1914 (Hitler. Formative years. Childhood and youth 1889-1914) have built theories about Hitler's early antisemitism on an uncontrolable story by August Kubizek, concoctions by Brigitte Hamann and on a watercolor allegedly made by Adolf Hitler.

Kubizeks unreliability has already been proven by dr. Franz Jetzinger in 1956, and we've proven it again in 2020, in the case of the alleged Hitler opera, by checking Kubizeks unpublished book from 1938, the correspondence between Kubizek and Jetzinger in 1948-1949 and Kubizek's book from 1953.  

But how about this watercolor?

Rapp and Leidinger present a depiction of this work as an authentic Hitler watercolor:

It is undated, titled Wien, Burgtheater (Florence #13; our code W16).

It's a work confiscated in Bolzano, northern Italy, in the summer of 1945, by an Italian governmental stolen art retrival team under supervision of Rodolfo Siviero  It's part of a collection of twenty alleged Hitler watercolors, all stored at the Uffize Gallery in Florence since 1954.

Some of these works, but not all,  can be traced to the NSDAP Hauptarchiv (Main Archive), which was tasked in 1938-1939 to register all Hitler's artworks. As no art specialists were involved in this task, and Hitler himself could not in all cases tell if he had made a particular work or not, the judgement of the NSDAP-HA on these works is of limited value.    

None of the alleged Hitler works which ended up in Florence were ever forensically researched. They were studied and described by the German historian dr. Hermann Weiss of the Munich Institut für Zeitgeschichte, in 1984. Weiss didn't have a clue what were the charateristics of an authentic Hitler artwork.  He was also not allowed to take the works out of their frames.  And to make matters worse: during his investigation he was advised by 'prof.' dr. August Priesack - one of the key players in the fake Hitler artworks swindle from the early 1970's until al least 1992.

Yet Weiss positively identified two of the Florence Hitlers as forgeries. According to Jaap van den Born and me only six of the twenty are possibly authentic.  Florence 13 belongs not to this group.

Florence 13 looks very similar to Florence #14, also titled Wien, Burgtheater  (our code W15):


Florence #14

This work might be authentic - the signature and lettertype correspond with other thought to be authentic Hitlers.

 Might and and thought to be - as almost none of the thought to be authentic Hitlers has ever been forensically researched and the provenance of only two can be traced to Vienna 1910-1913 and one other to Linz, 1906-1907, nothing definite can be said about any alleged Hitler watercolor - or better said: any alleged Hitler drawing, colored in with watercolor.


Forgery indications

There are too many indications that Florence 13, the version used by Leidinger and Rapp to base their theories about Hitler's early antisemitism, is a forgery.  For instance, this work surfaced in Vienna in 1938, after the Anschluss. It was on June 29, 1938 bought by the NSDAP HA from Nazi journalist Walter Lohmann, who had bought it in his turn via Peter Jahn -  a professional fraudster, specialized in the trade of forged Hitlers. According to Jahn the previous owner was a family called 'Mock'. Now in 1938 at least 35 Mock families were living in Vienna - which makes this alleged provenance a rather mock provenance.

(Sources: statement Hannele Lohmann, May 23, 1938, Bundesarchiv, NS 26/19-33; Lehmann's 1938). 

This happened at a time when the Hitler watercolors were in high demand - and when the forgers and their agents had the time of their life.

To add to the confusion: the NSDAP-HA commissioned two German artists, Heinrich Kraus and Fritz Mühlbrecht, to make twentyfour watercolor copies of fifteen of the alleged Hitlers  - amongst these copies was one Burg Theater - which must have been Florence 13, as Florence 14 (the thought to be authentic one) was not registered by the NSDAP-HA.

Florence 13 (Alte Burg Theater) was supposedly made by Hitler in 1910-1913. Yet it's provenance from before 1938 is as good as unknown. That alone is sufficient to declare this work highly suspect.  And that means that it can't be considered to be authentic - until the time the authenticity has been established for 100%.

Strange claims by Leidinger and Rapp (1)

But what did Leidinger and Rapp state about this work? In their book: "The watercolor originates from one of the few collections with trustworthy provenances. Together with other paintings it was presented in 1984 in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and a depiction was published in the exhibition catalogue." (note 856, page 252).

In the Austrian newspaper Die Presse Rapp remarked, after being confronted with the critical remarks by Sven-Felix Kellerhoff of Welt and me, that the work originates "from one of the few reliable collections known by us." The provenance is "relatively secure". He even stated that the watercolor itself is an authentic Hitler, and the signature on it is possibly a forgery made by Hanisch, to improve  the chance of selling this work. Yeah, right.

Rapp also stated: "Droog makes mistakes all the time and has declared that confirmed authentic Hitler items, for instance something from the Kubizek legacy, were forgeries.

This statement is a downright lie. I noticed that there's not a shred of solid evidence that the opera fragment from the Kubizek legacy is what Leidinger and Rapp claim it is: a composition by Adolf Hitler.

This particular leaf of sheet music must have surfaced somewhere after 1953, If it was written, as is claimed, by August Kubizek and when exactly remains a mystery. As it has never forensically researched it's authenticity must be considered to be unconfirmed. 

The other mistakes I supposedly would have made regarding the authenticity of alleged Hitler items are a mystery for me too. It suffices to remark that Rapp doesn't give any further example of my alleged mistakes.

Karl Leidenroth

What Leidinger and Rapp do themselves, is repeating the concoctions of Brigitte Hamann regarding a.o. Karl (or Carl) Leidenroth. Hamann started that this artist wrote certificates of authenticity to 'Hitlers' forged by Hanisch, and that he was Hitler's enemy since 1910. There's absolutely no evidence for this - in fact, Leidenroth helped the Viennese police in 1936 to unmask Hanisch.  A fact Leidinger and Rapp would have discovered, if they had conducted proper research.

On top of that, they state, on page 202, "Presumably Leidenroth is behind an advertisement in the 'Neues Wiener Zeitung, April 1912. In it, an academic painter' [= art painter, with finished art academy education] for art and decorative work, who is also an architect for building and interior decorations, is looking for employment at an artist, architect or building firm".

Such an advertisement was indeed published in the Neues Wiener Tagblatt of April 20, 1912.

But there's more in it, that makes it highly unlikely that Leidenroth, who had the German nationality, was the person behind this ad:

"This person is fluent in German, Hungarian, Croatian and Italian and worked for more than 10 years as an independent master for art and decorative painting." Reactions to this add could be sent to the Meldemannstrasse 27 - the well known "Männerheim", where both Hitler and Leidenroth were living in 1910-1913. But more than five hundred other men were living there too.

Leidenroth is an improbable candidate for this ad - he came from Germany. Given the languages knowledge of the person who placed this ad, it's very likely placed by someone who grew up in a part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, where mentioned languages were in use. 

So again: unfounded speculation by Leidinger and Rapp.


Anyhow, back to the Wien-Burgtheater work 

According to Rapp and Leidinger the alleged Hitler work is a bad copy of a undated lithograph made by Franz Josef Sandmann, which in itself is a copy of a paintting titled 'Der Michaels-Platz', made by Rudolf von Alt circa 1850. This litho:
 


The alleged Hitler work seems to be a copy of it:



But.. numerous postcards from the 1850-1910 period with similar citysights can be found. We know Hitler and Hanisch used postcards as example - when Hanisch was arrested in 1936 a great collection of postcards depicting Viennese city sights was found.  Other forgers have also used postcards to make forged or even fake 'Hitlers'.

Another print of the same litho.

So, all we know is that postcards with this Viennese cityview existed in Hitler's time in Vienna and thereafter. Anybody could have used this as an example for a Hitler forgery or fake. It is known that Hanisch forged Hitlers, but it is also known that he was not the only forger in the 1930's producing fake Hitlers. So all of this makes it impossible to say who really painted Florence 13.

Yet according to Leidinger and Rapp a detail on Florence 13 hints at Hitler's early anti-semitism. As the name of the shop in the building on the right side, corner Michaeler Platz - Kohlmarkt, the optician J. Walstein, is changed into E. Ramsauer. 



Hitler would have changed the name Waldstein into Ramsauer, because the Waldsteins were a Jewish family, and the Ramsauers were not. By changing the name the young Hitler would in this way have 'arianized ' the depicted shop.

But why would he have done so? When he sold his 'artworks' in Vienna, his main customers were Jewish art and frame dealers. They surely would have protested - for the Waldstein firm was well known.

Advertisement from the Waldstein firm in Lehmann's 1911 (the Viennese address book).

But this is superfluous to mention - as there's no rock solid evidence that Hitler painted Florence 13 at all, all theories about Hitler based on this work are build on already broken ice.

End conclusion:  book and exhibition based on faulty research

Study of Leidinger's and Rapp's book on the young Hitlers learns that they did not visit the Bundesarchiv (Federal Archive) in Berlin, where the NSDAP Hauptarchiv files on the young Hitler can be found, under the code NS 26. These files were compiled in 1938-1944, and contain information not to be found in Austrian archives. The most relevant file in the Bundesarchiv for Hitler's alleged artworks and the forgeries, is a copy of the Viennese police investigation into the Hanisch' forgeries, late 1936. Leidinger and Rapp don't even know this exists. 

Furthermore - Leidinger and Rapp followed totally uncritical Brigitte Hamann's Hitler's Vienna - a book partially based on Kubizek's , Hanisch' and Jahn's concoctions.

It's a great pity that Leidinger and Rapp missed the opportunity to straighten out the mistakes Hamann made. If they'd studied dr. Franz Jetzinger's book on the young Hitler carefully, and had compared what he really wrote with what Hammah alleged he had written, then their book would have had at least some value. Now it is an already collapsed house of cards.      

Sources:

Quotes from Christian Rapp originate from: 
Katrin Nussmayr. Hitlers "arisiertes" Aquarell: eine Fälschung inSt. Pölten? Die Presse, Wien, 02-03-2020.
https://www.diepresse.com/5778119/hitlers-arisiertes-aquarell-eine-falschung-in-st-polten  and: Hitler. Prägende Jahre. Kindheit und Jugend 1889-1914. ResidenVerlag, [Salzburg-Wien], 2020.

Information from NSDAP Hauptarchiv

Bundesarchiv. NS 26 Hauptarchiv der NSDAP / 3 Adolf Hilter / 3.3 Künstlerisches Schaffen. Files NS 26 1-43a, 64 , 2599.

Bundesarchiv NS 26/56 – Childhood Adolf Hitler
Viennese police investigation 1936: Dr. Springer, Sichterheitsbüro Bundes-Polizeidirektion Wien, S.B. 17105/36. NS 26/2599.

Books and articles about the young Hitler, Htler's alleged artworks and the forgeries

Die Aquarelle Hitlers. Das wiedergefundene Werk. Zum Andenken an Rodolfo Siviero. Mit Texten von Enzo Collotti und Riccardo Mariani. Alinari, [Florence] 1984.

Jaap van den Born & Bart FM Droog &. List of Lists. List of watercolors, oil paintings and sketches allegedly made by Adolf Hitler and known to be in existence before May 1945. Droog Magazine, Eenrum. 2019.
Bart FM Droog. 'Heuse Hitlers'. Geschiedenismagazine, Zeist, #6, September 2019.
http://www.droog-mag.nl/hitler/2019/droog-reinhold-hanisch-geschiedenismagazine-september-2019.pdf.
Brigitte Hamann. Hitlers Edeljude. Das Leben des Armenarztes Eduard Bloch. Piper, München / Zürich, 2008.
Brigitte Hamann. Hitlers Wien. Lehrjahre eines Diktators. Piper, München, 1996. 652p. English translation: Hitlers Vienna. A dictator's apprenticeship. Oxford University Press, New York, 1999. 482p.
Book contains serious 'migrating mistakes'. See:
http://www.bartfmdroog.com/droog/niod/hamann.html
and: http://www.droog-mag.nl/hitler/2019/geniewahn-and-hitlers-wien.pdf
Robert Harris. Selling Hitler. Faber & Faber, London, 1986.
Franz Jetzinger. Hitlers Jugend. Phantasien, Lügen - und die Wahrheit. Mit 20 Tafeln. Europa-Verlag, Wien, [1956]. 308p.
Jetzinger Legacy. Material from book on Hitler. Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv Linz.
Sven Felix Kellerhoff. War Hitler doch schon vor dem ersten weltkrieg Antisemit? Welt, Berlin, 01-03-2020.
https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article206219535/Neue-Quellenfunde-War-Hitler-schon-vor-1914-Antisemit.html
August Kubizek. Adolf Hitler, mein Jugendfreund. Stocker, Graz/Göttingen, 1953.

With thanks to Jo Rivett, www.parteiabzeichen.ch 

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