U.S. Will Return German Art Created Under Hitler’s Rule

More than four decades after the end of World War II, 6,255 works of German war art produced while Adolf Hitler ruled the Third Reich are about to be returned to West Germany by the United States.

The return of the art collection follows years of negotiations, an official request from the West German government and finally an authorizing act of Congress.

With little fanfare, operations have begun at several U.S. military locations, including an Army vault in a suburb of Washington and storage facilities in Pueblo, Colo., to pack the art. The first shipments by air could begin late this week.

“We’re in the midst of packing them now,” Marylou Gjernes, curator for the Army’s art activities, said in an interview.

Final Papers Signed

The final step facilitating the German government’s longstanding request to regain possession of the artworks was taken several weeks ago when the State Department and the government in Bonn signed papers officially transferring the works to West Germany.

“They will go to some kind of archive, but where they end up has not been decided yet,” a spokesman for the West German Embassy said. He added, however, that “from their nature, they are not suitable for anything like a museum. They just have historical and documentary value.”

The art to be returned is part of a collection of 8,754 works seized by the U.S. Army at the war’s end in Germany and other countries where many works had been hidden by Nazi loyalists. The Army, which has stored and maintained the art since, has exhibited it around the country, Gjernes said.

Much of the war art was commissioned by Hitler to glorify the Third Reich. Hitler reportedly first spotted the work of some of the military artists in 1941 and ordered that a staff of artists be assembled to record German military victories.

Even so, not all of the works depict German battle scenes and triumphs. The collection of oil paintings, pen and ink drawings, charcoals and watercolors includes some pastoral landscapes as well as sketches by soldiers during periods when fighting slackened.

Screening Commission

A bill introduced by Rep. William G. Whitehurst (R-Va.), which became law in 1982, officially authorized the return of the art and directed the secretary of the Army to set up a screening commission to review the collection. The screening was mandated by provisions of the Potsdam agreement at the end of World War II, which specified that no art glorifying Hitler or depicting Nazism in any way ever would be returned to Germany .

Janie Whitehurst, who works for her husband as an unpaid legislative assistant, said the art transfer “is a symbol of importance to the German officials that we now recognize them as a full-fledged ally and consider them respectable enough to deal with their own history.”

The committee that screened the art included representatives of the military and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. As a result of its review, the United States will keep more than 300 works, including oil paintings of Hitler and works that show any Nazi emblems or are related to the Holocaust.

Among those retained works are four watercolors attributed to Hitler himself.