BIOGRAPHY: ALBERT REICH
Albert Reich, ’10./5 Batterie in Polen’ (’10./5 Artillerie in Poland’). GDK 1940 room 13. Bought by Hitler for 1.800 Reichsmark. Size 102 x 92 cm.
Left: Albert Reich, ‘Artillery in Action, Poland, 1939’. Displayed at the ‘War Art Exhibit No.2’, organized by ‘The Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Military History’, 1962. In possession of the U.S. Army Center of Military History.
Right: ‘Artillery in Action, Poland, 1939’ by Reich, depicted on the cover of ‘German War Art 1939 – 1945’, New York, 1983.
Albert Reich, cover of ‘Mein Kampf’. Together with Dietrich Eckart, Albert Reich designed covers for the first editions of Mein Kampf.
Left: Albert Reich, ‘Die lebendige Font’ (‘The vibrant Front’), 1931.
Right: Albert Reich, German farmer with secense; at the background a swastica and a glorious sun.
Left: Albert Reich, ‘Gott ist mit den stärksten Bataillonen’ (‘God is with the strongest batalions’). Postcard. date of creation unknown.
Right: Albert Reich’, ‘Auf Deutschlands höchstem Gipfel’ (‘At the top of the highest mountain in Germany’). Location must be the top of the Zugspitze (2.962 meter) in Southern Bavaria. Printed on a postcard, date of creation unknown.
Exhibition of ‘German War Art’ at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, 7 – 15 December 1946.
At the ‘Gertman War Art’ exhibition in the Städelmuseum, organized by U.S. Army Captain Gordon W. Gilkey (Headquarters United States Forces European Theater Historical Division) 103 German war art works were shown (catalogue in the possession of German Art Gallery). These 103 works, including one painting by Reich, were selected by Gilkey from the art collection he had found in:
– Schloss Ringberg near Tegernsee (works from the Luftgaukommando VI in Münster);
– the Salt plant in Bad Aussee (and St. Agatha, Austria);
– Schloss Oberfrauenau (in basement and in woodcutters hut);
– the Haus der Deutschen Kunst;
– the Führerbau basement;
– the Kelmheim Befreiungshalle (works from the exhibition ‘Deutsche Künstler und die SS’):
– the Reichs Chancellery.
General Joseph T. McNarney (together with Colonel Harold E. Potter, Chief Historical Division, European Theater) previewing the exhibition of German War Art at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt on 6 December 1946. McNarney standing in front of Bergen’s work: ‘Battle of the Denmark Strait, 24 May 1941’ (GDK 1944).
Albert Reich, ‘Das Isonzotal bei Tolmein’ (‘The Isonzo Valley near Tolmin’), 1918. Size 107 x 35 cm. The soldiers at the left and right belong to the German Alpenkorps. In the possession of the ‘Bayerisches Armeemuseum’. Displayed at the exhibition ‘Vu du Front, représenter la Grande Guerre’ in ‘Musée de l’armee’, Paris, 2014/15.
Albert Reich created several depictions of the ‘Isonzo-slaughterings’: the front in the mountains between Italy and Austria where more than 400,000 men lost their lives from 1915 to 1918. The Battles of the Isonzo were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I mostly on the territory of present-day Slovenia, and the remainder in Italy along the Isonzo River on the eastern sector of the Italian Front. In 1917 Germany send the 14th Armee headed by General Otto von Below to help the Austro-Hungarians, The 14th Armee included the Deutsche Alpenkorps.
Left: Albert Reich, ‘Aus der Flandernschlacht, 1917’ (‘Batlle of Flanders, 1917’).
Right: Albert Reich, ‘Angriff des. Bayer. Infanterie Leib Regiments auf dem Mont Kolowrat’ (‘Offensive of the Bavarian Leib Regiment at the Mont Kolowrat’).
Left: Albert Reich, ‘Angrif bei Fleury, Verdun’ (‘Offensive near Fleury, Verdun).
Right: Albert Reich, ‘Aus der grossen Schlacht’, 1918 ( ‘The Great Battle , 1918’).
Albert Reich, ‘Artillerie geht an die Front’ (‘Artillery moving to the front’), GDK 1938 room 13. Bought by Hitler for 2.500 Reichsmark and placed in the Neue Reichszkanzlei (‘für die Inneneinrichtung des Erweiterungsbaues der Reichskanzlei’). The painting is on the 144-List, see below.
What happened to the art Hitler purchased at the Great German Art Exhibitions?
With his insatiable passion for collecting art, Hitler was the most important purchaser of works from the GDKs. Every year, several times, he visited the Haus der Deustchen Kunst. From 1937 to 1944 he bought in total 1316 works at the GDKs.
Hitler’s mass art purchases were mostly undertaken without a plan regarding the future location of the works. He only had a specific usage in mind from the start for a few of these works of art. The majority of the paintings and sculptures acquired at the GDKs faced an uncertain future. They were stored at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst until further notice (some were eventually taken to the Führerbau).
Below we describe the fate of a limited number of artworks which were – as an exception- given a special destination by Hitler:
1. 144 paintings, sculptures and graphic works were bought by Hitler in 1938; they were transported to Berlin and placed in the Neue Reichskanzlei under construction, which was completed in January 1939. The list of 144 works (in our possession) is not exhaustive. Hitler did buy more works at the GDK in 1938, and in later years, which were also placed in the Reichskanzlei.
2. In 1939 Hitler gave 10 works of art to the Jagdmuseum in Munich: works by Carl von Dombroswki, Ludwig Eugen, Felix Kupsch, Friedrich Reimann (5), Karl Wagner and Renz Waller.
3. A few pieces were used to decorate Hitler’s various offices and private residences; for example, Adolf Ziegler’s ‘Die Vier Elemente’ was famously placed over the fireplace in a salon of the Führerbau in Munich.
4. In April 1943 Hitler had 21 paintings from the GDK delivered to his Munich apartment in the Prinzregentenstrasse. This delivery included works by Anton Müller-Wischin, Franz Xaver Wolf, Freidrich Schüz, Hermann Urban, Ludwig Platzöder, Sep Happ and Sepp Meindl.
5. In 1939 Hitler bought two works, explicitly meant for his own personal use: ‘Beethoven’ by Josef Jurutka and ‘Bauernkrieg’ by Franz Xavier Wolf.
Albert Reich
Albert Reich (1881 -1942) born in Neumarkt, was the son of a shoe repairman. Until 1898 he attended the Arts and Crafts School in Nürnberg. In 1902 he went to the Royal Art Academy in Munich were his teachers were Johann Casper Herterich, Heinrich von Zügel and Peter von Halm. From 1907 (until his death) he worked as illustrator for the Kallmünzer magazine ‘Die Oberpfalz’. From 1911 till the outbreak of the war he was leading the Freilichtschule, earlier founded by Melchior Kern.
Reich accompanied the German Alpenkorps in World War I as war painter. Many of his paintings and drawings of the ordinary days of soldiers were also printed on postcards. He painted the ‘Isonzo-slaughterings’: the front in the mountains between Italy and Austria where more than 400,000 men lost their lives from 1915 to 1918. Other motifs in his work were ‘Das Alpenkorps in Tirol’, ‘Durch Serbien’, ‘Durch Siebenbürgen und Rumänien’, ‘Gegen Italien’, ‘Das Alpenkorps im Westen’, ‘durch Siebenbürgen und Rumänien’ and ‘Unser deutsches Alpenkorps in Tirol’.
In 1920 he designed a war memorial -together with Theodor Strasser- for the Mariä Opferung church in Duggendorf; in 1922/23 he created a war memorial for the marketplace in Kallmünz.
Abert Reich was a convinced National Socialist and friend of Dietrich Eckart. Together with Eckart he designed covers for the first editions of Mein Kampf. In 1935 Reich founded in Harlachin, a district of Munich, a NSDAP-Ortsgruppe (local party group).
In the Second World War he worked as an illustrator of books and magazines produced by the SA. Albert Reich had 11 paintings in the Great German Art Exhibition: ‘Artillerie geht an die Front’, ‘Bayerische Artillerie in Flandern’, ‘Batterie in Polen’, ‘Dünkirche, versenkte Schiffe’, ‘Vormarsch des VII-Armeekorps’, etc. Three of them were bought by Adolf Hitler for prices of up to 3,000 Reichsmark. ‘Artillerie geht an die Front’ (‘Artillery moving to the front’), GDK 1938 room 13, was placed in the Neue Reichszkanzlei (‘für die Inneneinrichtung des Erweiterungsbaues der Reichskanzlei’). The painting is on the 144-List.
Albert Reich died on 12 April 1942 in Munich.
On recommendation of ‘Amt Rosenberg’, Hitler granted Albert Reich shortly after his death the professor title.
In December 1946 U.S. Army Captain Gordon W. Gilkey organized the ‘German War Art’ exhibition in the Städelmuseum in Frankfurt. A total of 103 artworks were shown, including one work by Reich: ‘Poland 1939’.
In 1962, ‘Artillery in Action, Poland, 1939’ by Albert Reich, was displayed at the ‘War Art Exhibit No.2’, organized by ‘The Department of the Army, Office of the Chief of Military History’, 1962 (this GDK work is in the possession of the U.S. Army Center of Military History).