What would have happened if Adolf Hitler would have been accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna? Because in his 1925 autobiography, Mein Kompf, he stated he wanted to be an artist but he failed the admissions test at the afore mentioned art school. Would Europe, and the world, be any different? Would he have been just a mediocre artist and never have aspired to becoming the Führer? I do not know…
But, as you will see, he was a rather uninteresting artist at best. He liked to fancy himself an architectural draftsman or painter. And as well he liked to paint little landscapes, mostly in watercolour.
Adolf Hitler, born in Austria-Hungary, Braunau am Inn, (1889), fought as a German soldier in WWI and was decorated with the Iron Cross. In Vienna he did odd jobs and sold his watercolour landscapes. But he aspired to being an artist and applied to the Academy. He failed to impress and was turned away. Little did those academicians know what would happen…
Actually many of the hundreds of painting he did have been sold at auctions for thousands of US Dollars. Many remain in the hands of the United States government. Why the US government wants them, I’ve no clue. One thing for certain we can deduce from the paintings that are available for us to see is that he was a poor painter. No wonder he was rejected not once, but twice from the Vienna Academy (1907 and 1908). He was advised to register in the Architectural college but to do that he would have had to go back and finish secondary school, which he never did and was not willing to go back to.
And what about his style? Well, apparently he was a big fan of Greco-Roman classicism, and the Italian Renaissance. He might have also fancied himself a Neo-Classicist painter, I don’t know. But it does seem like he was impressed with his own technique and his inclusion of symbolism.
However, the Hitler paintings in the hands of private collectors have been selling at auctions since the 2000’s. Mullock’s of Shropshire sold 15 in 2009, bringing in £97,672 (US $102,239). Ludlow Racecourse of Shropshire auctioned off 13 works for over €100,000. In Slovakia (2012) a mixed-media painting got sold for €32,000. But in 2014, a watercolour that had hung in the old registry office in Munich (Standesamt München) was auctioned and sold for €130,000 in Nuremberg. This painting included a bill of sales and a letter by Albert Bormann.
But the sales have continued and have increased in value for in 2015, at the Weidler auction house, (Nuremberg), 14 paintings, painted and dated from 1904 to 1922, sold for €391,000. A Chinese collector bought a watercolour of Neuschwanstein Castle for €100,000. And a collector from the Middle East paid €152,000 for a Hitler painting. In 2017 two oil paintings, very rare in the Hitler inventory were sold at auction for an unknown amount at Mullock’s Auctions. They were landscape paintings, one showing a house on a lake.
So you be the judge. Would you buy a Hitler original?
CHEERS
JaZzArt en València 
Perhaps his American financiers should have sponsored his painting career, then everything might have turned out differently. But then they wouldn’t have earned so much in such a short time.
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I like your mind Rudi, you are spot on mon ami. Moltes gracies i un bon diumenge.
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honestly it would be fascinating to ask people if they would buy this art without knowing the artist behind it.
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Yes, I agree
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Art in such a person’s hand like Hitler,… doesn’t make any sense to me. I wouldn’t buy… I cannot forget the inhumane things he did. And I would wonder who painted (t)his paintings… Could be there such a cruel person behind the art…? I have always associated art with love and kindness in my mind… I could be wrong. Bad people can also come from the art world, but believe me, it seems very contradictory. I think psychology has to explain this. Thank you, Love, nia
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Thank you so much Nia! I always appreciate your words very much. All the best to you. And yes, Hitler himself painted the paintings you see and many more. Lamentably, there are good and bad people in the arts as well as in politics and other things.
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I don’t know I was expecting really truly awful, I can understand why they suggested he’d be better suited as a draftsman. I guess I would have to see what other painters were doing from that time period. Would I buy his work, landscapes & architecture don’t appeal to me…so no. My guess he would probably still rise to power regardless.
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They also suggested that he return the following year, to give himself time to develop his work/ideas a bit more… I do not think he would have improved. And yes, perhaps he still would have pursued politics. Thank you Matt and all the best!
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I looked into work from other artists of thay period, his work is quite pedestrian compared to other painters were doing.
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That’s why he got brushed away…
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No, I would not. That would be like buying the paintings of a serial killer, which some people do. But, if Adolf Hitler had not been a frustrated artist, world history would’ve gone differently. My father was a frustrated artist and unhappy his whole life because of it. And he made the rest of us unhappy, too.
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Good points Dawn. I do not think I would want to own one of his paintings either. They have to be saturated with his evil will. Thank you so much. All the best.
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that truly sucks dawn 🫤
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I’ve had enough of dictators!
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Yes! I think most of us have. But there are some that have used their democratically given right to choose to elect some…
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I can’t believe how a true artist can bring such destruction to the world!!! But then yes, humans are humans.
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So true …
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