DBWI: What if Hitler was never accepted into art school?

A Piece of History

We all know who Adolf Hitler is, right? Well, if you don't know, he was a small time artist who entered the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1907 and barely graduated a few years later. His art has widely been panned throughout the world for being 'simplistic' and 'barren of any creative talent'.

No one bought his paintings and he soon fell into deep poverty. In 1920, he shot himself in the head in his Vienna apartment.

So we can all agree that we hate this moron's work, right? So let me pose a question. What if Hitler was never accepted into art school?
 

Richard V

He would've left Vienna and fell into something else, but eventually his madness will catch with him. He'll probably shoot himself somewhere else, maybe in Berlin. Assuming he survives the war.
 

Arkenfolm

Still, Hitler has fans. He was panned by the establishment of his day, which is sadly parroted now, but certainly Hitler is due for a critical reappraisal? Looking at his work, he was out of his element--he painted buildings because he wanted to be an architect. If Hitler is rejected from art school, maybe he just becomes an architect instead, and makes some nice enough buildings? He seems like he had potential.
 
DrakonFin

DrakonFin

This is one of the things why I love this forum - people discussing obscure 1910s Austrian artists as if they are something one should know something about. Sure, Seeker gives you a brief Recyclopedia article about this Hitler guy if you bother to search for it, but really the man was something of a nonentity. I don't know if any of his paintings, such as they are, are really known outside the German-speaking countries.

People who appear wholly mundane at first glance can have extraordinary fates, but I don't think it is realistic to expect Adolf Hitler to amount to anything significant. I mean, sure, he could start a new Viennese artist group or style ala the Vienna Secession, or he might go into architecture and be known as an important, even household Bauhaus name, say, but that pretty much would be the extent of his potential as an important figure. And even that would be pushing it, I think.
 

Loghain

Banned
OOC: two minute of hate thread, then again its hitler so even if this may break some rules i personally hope im wrong and it doesnt.
 
Pyramus

Pyramus

If he goes into a more popular art style than classicism (like avante garde) I think the man could actually be remembered as a great artist.
I had the opportunity of viewing some of his work in the Vienna Fine Arts Museum (it was part of a special gallery on artists that were disliked in their time) and honestly it was very good.
 
GSpectre

GSpectre

Well, the greeting card industry in Austria would probably have to find another set of stock images for their wishing you were here cards. The man might have been critically panned but just about every landscape card coming out of Austria is his work, just about all its good for really. Not that its ever attributed to him, because really, who actually checks who painted the image on the ten cent card you send to those relatives who you don't care enough to send actual letters too...

That said, he was a mentally unstable failed artist. No real talents, beyond technically proficient painting, so he probably shoots himself or dies in a ditch, if he manages to live out the great war. No real change.
 
Dalekiller

Dalekiller

Given the anti-semitism he gave at the end of his life coupled with some good oratory skills noted by Austrian police he could've become a small time politician
 

Carl Schwamberger

Exactly what is being reached for here? The man was probably abused as a child, lacked the initiative and communication skilled for real success at anything. A contemporary describes him as 'intensely charming, and with a good memory'. But, others mention his inability to get facts straight and a inclination to distort evidence to fit his preconceptions and excuse his failures. The man had a ability at craft & little more.
 
Resurgam

Resurgam

Hey now. I have a print of his Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich and I quite like it on my flat wall. I admit, it only cost me 50 Kc...
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Nathan Bernacki said:
We all know who Adolf Hitler is, right? Well, if you don't know, he was a small time artist who entered the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1907 and barely graduated a few years later. His art has widely been panned throughout the world for being 'simplistic' and 'barren of any creative talent'.
Click to expand...

Then why should any of us know who he is?
 

Johnrankins

A lot of elitist thinking on this board, isn't there? He had sold a lot of work to the lower and working classes but that "Doesn't count" to art snobs. This is why he shot himself in the first place a century later. His work sold well but to "The wrong people". There is a reason why we can even look him up. Alice Wilmington (made up name) of Baton Rouge , LA and who sold only 4 paintings in her whole life in various craft fairs won't get an entry except her own Facebook or something.
 

RandomChance

Don't forget that a fair few of his works ended up on postcards. He was more successful with these commissions - probably because they aren't aimed at such high standards.

Give the guy a break. Did you expect him to become some megalomaniac or something?
 

Arkenfolm

Johnrankins said:
Because although his work sold rather well it was mostly to working and lower class people and that "doesn't count" among art snobs!
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Hitler had a very anti-modernist mindset about his art, which is probably why he wasn't well-liked. He was clearly born in the wrong era.

But I can't imagine the architect establishment would treat him much better, sadly.

If there had just been more people into a revival of more classical themes, Hitler would've been accepted and such a promising artist never would've killed himself but been allowed to evolve.

RandomChance said:
Give the guy a break. Did you expect him to become some megalomaniac or something?
Click to expand...

His suicide note seemed a bit venomous. Imagine if he got into some position of power and could use his authority to pass state-sponsered criticism on artwork. I mean, that's a stretch, and I know it's cliche to put random people like Hitler in that position (let alone a dictator like I saw once, lol), but that's definitely where he'd belong. Think of him as a German version of Korea's Kim Jong-il--always there to criticise "degenerate" art and put his own version of art on the pedestal. Of course, I know people have tried to imagine Kim Jong-il being a dictator too (equally lol).
 
DrakonFin

DrakonFin

Johnrankins said:
Because although his work sold rather well it was mostly to working and lower class people and that "doesn't count" among art snobs!
Click to expand...

Let's get real here. Hitler was a poorly known, mediocre artist who shot himself. So what if he lived? There were countless poorly known mediocre cultural figures in Central Europe in the 20s and 30s. For most of them, it would be folly to expect them to become anything more than mildly famous even in the best case scenario. Take, for example, one Joseph Goebbels. "Who?", you ask. Exactly. He was a journalist and a somewhat successful playwright in Germany in the 30s, known for his melodramatic, formulaic plays that extolled "Germanic virtues". Pretty much out of touch with the general sensibilities of the German art world of those decades, that is. This guy only really became sort-of well-known because he took part in organizing theatre productions as well, and was very good at promoting his plays in posters, with flyers and even on the radio. But due to the product itself being only so-so, his talents in advertising only took him so far. By the mid-40s he dropped out of the German art world and moved to the US, where he was later employed at advertisement agencies with, again, some minor success (I think he worked, for example, on the Auto Union ad campaign to sell German sports cars in the US in the 50s).

Why bring up Goebbels, who I only have even heard of, by accident, due to having to read up on 30s German theatre for a school project of mine? Because his is the kind of career trajectory I could envision for a Hitler who does not blow his own brains out. Some success in work that requires artistic talent, but only up to a point. A very minor effect on the flow of world history, or even Austrian history in general. Butterflies, sure, but doesn't everyone create them?
 
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Johnrankins

DrakonFin said:
Let's get real here. Hitler was a poorly known, mediocre artist who shot himself. So what if he lived? There were countless poorly known mediocre cultural figures in Central Europe in the 20s and 30s. For most of them, it would be folly to expect them to become anything more than mildly famous even in the best case scenario. Take, for example, one Joseph Goebbels. "Who?", you ask. Exactly. He was a journalist and a somewhat successful playwright in Germany in the 30s, known for his melodramatic, formulaic plays that extolled "Germanic virtues". Pretty much out of touch with the general sensibilities of the German art world of those decades, that is. This guy only really became sort-of well-known because he took part in organizing theatre productions as well, and was very good at promoting his plays in posters, with flyers and even on the radio. But due to the product itself being only so-so, his talents in advertising only took him so far.
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The fact that you know of them AT ALL a century later puts them in the top tier. Let's be honest here 99.99%+ of all artists are an Alice Wilmington of Baton Rouge , LA who nobody outside her family knows of , if that. For every artist , off any caliber, you heard of there are 10,000 or more that you haven't. If he were a truly bottom tier artist nobody at all would have heard of him, even in the Hitler family almost a full century later. Was he Rembrandt or Van Gogh? No , but he wasn't a complete nobody which 99.99%+ of all artists end up as.
 
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