Michael Walsh

Sculptures of the Third Reich Michael Walsh

When on May 8 1945 the Reich was overwhelmed by the Soviet, British and American Empires the Allies set about destroying every artwork, motif, bust, sculpture, figurine that represented the German Reich. Massive, systematic destruction of National Socialist art works has since continued in accordance with the terms of the Potsdam-Agreement. The Allies set about smashing countless sculptures and burning thousands of paintings. Around 8,722 artworks were plundered and shipped to military deposits in the U. S. The Allied book burning fest included 34,645 book titles plus every school text book published 1933 - 1945. It was a scorched earth policy that sent a 13-year boy to the gallows for his refusal to remove a picture of Hitler from his bedroom wall. Totally destroyed were 90 percent of the works completed by Arno Breker, described by Aristide Maillol as a German Michelangelo. Providentially, remnants and photographs remain. In Sculptures of the Third Reich Volumes I and II preserves for posterity an exhaustive collection of sculptors' biographies and over 600 images of their works.