The Haus der Kunst as envisioned by the “remodelling.”
The German Council of German Jews has decried plans to cut down the trees in front of the Hitler-era
Haus der Deutschen Kunst ("House of German Art") in Munich, claiming that an unobstructed view of the famous building is "reconstructing Nazi architecture."
British architect David Chipperfield—who won acclaim for his remodeling of the equally famous
Neues Museum in Berlin—has proposed a €78 million ($83.7 million) renovation plan to revert the now renamed
Haus der Kunst to its original exterior by removing the deliberately planted trees obscuring the city-facing side of the building.
The Haus der Kunst in winter, as currently seen from the front.
The museum was opened by Adolf Hitler in 1937 to promote healthy art, as opposed to the nonsense put forward as "modern art," known then as
Entartete Kunst ("degenerate art.")
The museum housed many great and beautiful art works, ranging from statues to paintings, and, miraculously, survived the bombing of Munich intact.
After the war, the museum was renamed and it has since been filled with the sort of nonsense modern art it was meant to oppose, in a deliberate snub to the National Socialist conception of art.
The trees were also planted in a row in front of the museum—which faces one of the city's inner ring roads, with the other side facing out onto the
Englischer Garten ("English Garden") park.
The Haus der Kunst in summer, as currently seen from the front.
The architect's office called the design "visible and transparent," and Bavarian culture minister Ludwig Spaenle said the design "reveals the past of the building" and promotes a platform for dialogue around the institution which is "highly charged with history."
However, Charlotte Knobloch, the president of the official Jewish organization in Bavaria, the "Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria" (
Israelititschen Kultusgemeinde München und Oberbayern, IKG), said that the idea of taking away the trees in front of the building was "incomprehensible" and that it was "reconstructing Nazi architecture," according to an
article in the
Rundschau newspaper.
"I see this backward-looking fantasy as a history-obsessed view of this rudiment of Nazi terror," Knobloch said, adding that it would be a "devastating signal to appreciate or glorify the old Nazi buildings."
Chipperfield's plans for the front are limited to cutting down the trees—which in any event do not have leaves in winter—while he also intends to reopen the doors at the building's opposite end doors to create a terrace entrance from the English Garden park.
It was in the nearby
Hofgarten where the famous "degenerate art" exhibition in Munich was held, where the works of nonsense art were publicly ridiculed.
What a load of codswallop.
Why not ban the "Volkswagen" car, since this was a favorite project of Hitler's, and actually his own idea - a People's Car.
Why not ban the name of "Germany," since this is the country that put Hitler in power.
Why not ban "Vienna," where he spent his early years.
Why not ban all reference to the name "Hitler," and instead refer only to "Der Nahmlos Mensch."
Please, spare me.
You know, 30 million Russians, about 15 million Germans, and millions of Poles, British, French, Americans and others died in WWII. Altogether about 100 million people met early deaths, many of them equally as unpleasant as the deaths of the (alleged) 6 million Jews. (Jewish historians themselves estimate the number as anywhere from 900,000 to 3 million. The higher number is probably closest. By German law, only Jewish historians are allowed to debate the number of murdered Jews.)
Just a reminder.
It was not only a war against Jews or a war in which only Jews suffered and died.
Why on earth then are the only people objecting to this architectural proposal as "glorifying Hitler" are the Jews???
Do you hear the Gypsies complaining? The homosexuals? the Jehovah's Witnesses? The Slavs?
No. Only the Jews.
A race of professional malcontents and complainers, who have profited handsomely (ask Norman Finkelstein,) from the collective guilt they have imposed on the world's non-Jewish population, who also suffered and died.
It's time to end this nonsense.