Hitler's Secret Art Plans: Workshop Uncovers the Truth!

Hitler's Secret Art Plans: Workshop Uncovers the Truth!

On May 6, 2025, a workshop entitled “Myth of the largest art museum in the world” will take place at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). This event, which will take place on Monday, May 19th at 4:00 p.m. in the Senate Hall of the Main Building, will shed light on the dark story behind Adolf Hitler's plans to establish a major art museum known as the “Special Order Linz.” Loud European University Experts on Nazi art theft and the Führermuseum are dealing with the serious offenses associated with these plans.

The Linz Art Museum, often referred to as the Linz Leader Museum, was originally intended to be a central element of National Socialist art policy. Driven by an ideological agenda, Hitler planned to create this museum in his “hometown” of Linz after the annexation of Austria in April 1938. Visits to art museums such as the Uffizi in Florence, as well as the appointment of Hans Posse as special representative for Linz in 1939, illustrate how seriously the project was pursued. Posse was tasked with assembling a collection of masterpieces drawn from confiscated works of art, with a focus on Old Masters and 19th-century art. Contemporary art was not included.

Workshop and experts

The event is led by Prof. Dr. Benjamin Lahusen moderates and includes a lecture by Dr. Birgit Schwarz, an expert on Nazi art theft from the University of Vienna. Other discussants include Prof. Dr. Werner Benecke and Dr. Tatiana Timofeeva, who gained important new insights into Hitler's art museum plans from Moscow archives. The discussion promises to provide a deep insight into the practices of art theft and the ideology behind these art creations.

The plans for the Linz Art Museum included not only the presentation of art, but also the creation of a comprehensive cultural center that would include an opera house and a theater. However, these claims were never put into practice, and the Linz Art Museum never actually existed as a museum in Linz. Instead, it was a project intended to include a collection of art objects assembled through wartime expropriations and purchases. Although many of the works of art were not returned to their rightful owners after the war, provenance researchers like them are working on them lexikon-provenienzforschung.org dedicated scientists to clarify the origin of the works of art that are in Austrian, German or other museums.

The realities of art theft

The creation of the Linz Art Museum was closely linked to the expropriation of assets of politically and racially persecuted people. Karl Haberstock was tasked with drawing up distribution plans for the confiscated works of art and had almost unlimited resources to expand the collection. As early as 1940, Posse presented a list of 324 paintings that came from various central depots.

Due to the complex processes of art acquisition and storage that took place during the war, the question of provenance remains a central point in the discussion about the legacy of Nazi art policy. Many works of art disappeared in the chaos of the war or were not adequately documented, which often made their repatriation after 1945 impossible.

The workshop at the European University Viadrina is therefore an important opportunity to reflect on the history and the entanglements in the founding of the Linz Art Museum and to raise awareness of the ongoing challenges in provenance research.