A failed painter - the greatest criminal

Before committing the greatest crime ever committed in history and nearly destroying the world as we know it, Adolf Hitler spent years trying to become a painter. unsuccessfully, Adolf Hitler was remembered as one of the greatest dictators of the 20th century, the man responsible for the mass destruction of entire nations and the greatest destruction the world has ever seen.

He tried twice to enroll in the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and was rejected both times. The commission considered that young Adolf had more talent as an architect than as a painter, and he was even suggested to try to enroll in architectural school. Hitler did not listen to them. He was convinced that he would become famous as a painter and tried to make money by selling handmade postcards showing famous scenes of Vienna, where he lived at the time. In his book "Mein Kampf", Hitler claimed that he painted as many as three works a day. Hitler carried the bitterness of Vienna's failure for a long time, otherwise he would not have told British Ambassador Neville Henderson in 1939 that he did not feel like a politician, but like a painter, and that as soon as the Polish question was resolved, he would retire and paint for the rest of his life. "Why didn't they admit him to the academy," lamented the Austrian painter and writer Oskar Kokoschka, "it would be just another bad painter.

Works by Adolf Hitler (Note the signature in the lower right corner)

Hitler v. Kokoschka

It is an interesting fact that in the same year when Hitler was rejected for the second time, the famous Oskar Kokoschka was accepted instead. He and Hitler thus, unconsciously, became rivals, and intolerance continued for many years. While Kokoschka climbed the artistic ladder, becoming more and more famous, Hitler climbed the political ladder. The power that this brought to the latter, ironically, also influenced the former - in 1934. The hen had to leave Vienna and take refuge in Prague because his paintings, along with those of several other artists, were declared "degenerate" by the Nazis. such "dangerous to the revival of the German people." Unfortunately, it turned out that Prague was not far enough. In 1937, a large number of Oskar Kokoschka's works were confiscated by the Nazis as part of the destruction of "degenerate art". Revolted, Kokoschka responded in the best way he could - painting "Self-Portrait of a Degenerate Artist". In 1938, he realized the danger lurking from the Nazis and moved to London with his wife, from where he was a fierce critic of Hitler and the Nazis until the end of the war.

In the painting "Red Egg", he openly ridiculed his rival from his youth, portraying Hitler and Mussolini as twisted monsters. In the decades after the war, Kokoschka gained world fame. When he spoke of Hitler, he was quite conciliatory

- It is a great pity that Hitler did not pass the commission at the Academy of Fine Arts, and I did. If he did, he would only become a bad painter, and if I had been rejected, I would have become a reasonable politician, so that the world would have been spared great suffering - Oskar Kokoschka pointed out on one occasion.

Was Hitler a good painter?

Opinions are still divided today about how talented Hitler was. Before he became chancellor, Hitler was quite unsuccessful as a painter, and there were those who maliciously called him a "painter".

Critics believe that the fact that Hitler rarely drew people speaks in favor of his incompetence and lack of talent. A large part of his works appeared in private collections after the Second World War, and in the years that followed, they reached great values ​​at auctions. During 2014, one watercolor was sold for 130,000 euros. However, a large number of Hitler's works were confiscated by the American army, and they are still owned by the government of this country.