“Divinely Gifted”. National Socialism’s favoured artists in the Federal Republic (27 August to 5 December 2021)

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Dear Sir or Madam,

we cordially invite you to the press conference
on Wednesday, 25 August 2021 at 11 a.m. (CET)
at the Deutsches Historisches Museum (Zeughauskino).
The preview is scheduled for 10 a.m. onwards in the Pei building.

The speakers will be:
Raphael Gross, President of the Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum
Wolfgang Brauneis, curator of the exhibition

The press conference will be held in German and streamed via YouTube.

Many renowned protagonists of the National Socialist art scene continued working in the Federal Republic as full-time visual artists after 1945. They produced works to be displayed in public spaces, received important commissions from government, industry and church organisations, taught at art academies, submitted proposals to art competitions and were represented in exhibitions. Their designs for statues, reliefs and tapestries on public squares and façades or in theatre and cinema foyers have left their mark to this day on the face of many city centres. They were able to profit from the anti-modernist climate in the early post-war decades.

In an exhibition, the Deutsches Historisches Museum takes the “Divinely Gifted List” as the point of departure for a study of the largely neglected topic of the post-war careers of such “divinely gifted” artists as Arno Breker, Hermann Kaspar, Willy Meller, Paul Mathias Padua, Werner Peiner, Richard Scheibe and Adolf Wamper. The list was first compiled on behalf of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels in August 1944: 378 artists, among them 114 sculptors and painters, were considered “indispensable” and were exempted from military duty and work assignments.

The exhibition shows for the first time the strong presence of these artists in public spaces, but also in the institutions of political, economic and cultural life in post-war Germany. It also examines their networks, the choice of their motifs, and the reception of their works as well as the related questions of continuity and adaptation to the new circumstances. Reinforced by the parallel exhibition “documenta. Politics and Art” (18.6.2021 – 9.1.2022), the idea of a supposedly radical, cultural-political new beginning in the young Federal Republic has thus had to be revised.

The exhibition has received funding from the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Federal Cultural Foundation).

Please take note of the following information and the registration form

• The on-site press conference will take place on 25 August 2021 exclusively within the period from 10 a.m. (start of accreditation) to 2 p.m.

Binding registration is required in advance. Please register with your full name (and, if applicable, your colleagues' names), using the enclosed registration form, at presse@dhm.de.
The deadline for registration is Tuesday, 24 August 2021 at 5 p.m. (CET).

• Interviews with the curator can be held individually, by video or telephone.

• Wearing a medical mask is mandatory. We recommend wearing a FFP2 mask. You may only remove your mask at your seat.

• The participation is only permitted upon presentation of a negative result of a point-of-care (PoC) antigen test or a negative result of a current PCR test for an infection with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is not older than 24 hours. A so-called self-test is not permitted as proof.
  Vaccinated persons may enter the museum from the 15th day after receiving the second vaccination without presenting a negative test. Those who have recovered can present a positive PCR test as proof if it dates back to at least 6 months and receiving the first vaccination 14 days before or at least 28 days to a maximum of 6 months (proof will be checked at the entrance).
• Please note the following information about visiting the exhibitions: https://www.dhm.de/besuch/ihr-besuch/

Press images in high resolution can be found here.