Licht und Schatten. Rembrandt-Kult in Deutschland 1890-1945

In the organizer's words:

Lecture and discussion with Dorothee Wimmer

Why did the art historian Langbehn propagate the renewal of Germany through Rembrandt in 1890? What networks and objectives were behind this publication "Rembrandt as Educator", which became a bestseller and cult book - despite the fact that this popular book had nationalist and anti-Semitic traits and was a not insignificant part of contemporary collectors of Jewish culture? To what extent did Hitler's political and ideological manifesto "Mein Kampf", which he wrote in two volumes between 1924 and 1926 after his failed coup against the Weimar Republic, also echo Langbehn's cult book? And why would this 17th century Dutch artist be declared a "degenerate ghetto artist" at the "First Conference of German Museum Directors" in 1937? Focusing on these questions, the lecture explores the dynamics and background of the Rembrandt cult in Germany between 1890 and 1945.

Short biography

Dorothee Wimmer is director of the Forum Kunst und Markt at the TU Berlin and co-editor of the Journal for Art Market Studies. After studying art history, Romance studies, history and German studies in Freiburg i. Br., Paris and Berlin, she completed her doctorate at the FU Berlin on the image of man in French art, literature and philosophy around 1960 ("Das Verschwinden des Ichs", Reimer 2006). Since 2004, she has taught at universities in Bremen, Berlin and Heidelberg, currently at the TU Berlin; from 2011 to 2017, she was also chair of the Richard-Schöne-Gesellschaft für Museumsgeschichte e.V. ("Museen im Nationalsozialismus", ed. with Tanja Baensch and Kristina Kratz-Kessemeier, Böhlau 2016). She researches and publishes on the tensions and dynamics between art, politics, law and economics as well as on "Rembrandt under National Socialism".

Full credit line:
Left: Praying old man, in: Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner (ed.). Rembrandt: Des Meisters Gemälde in 643 Abbildungen / mit einer biographischen Einleitung von Adolf Rosenberg, 3rd ed., Klassiker der Kunst 2, Stuttgart/Leipzig: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1909, p. 459. | Right: Hermann Göring reading in this Rembrandt publication by Valentiner at the Musée du Jeu de Paume, next to him Bruno Lohse (detail), AMN, O30-438, Courtesy: Paris, Archives des Musées Nationaux