Mies: Nazi or not?

To the Editors:

Franz Schulze in his review of Martin Filler's book Makers of Modern Architecture: From Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry [A.i.A., Jan. '08] takes issue with Filler's claim that Mies van der Rohe was perfectly willing to work with the Nazi government if only they would let him do so. Schulze apologizes for Mies's sketch, with swastika flying, in his entry for the competition for the German pavilion of the Brussels International Exposition in 1934. The requisite flag didn't seem to bother Mies. Schulze, the author of a 1985 book on the architect, says that in his extensive research he found no evidence suggesting Mies had Nazi sympathies. There is, however, rather good proof.

In 1962 I conducted research on the life and work of Emil Nolde in connection with the Nolde retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and my monograph on the artist. Nolde's letters were made available to me in Seebull, Germany, by Joachim von Lepel. I had known that Nolde, who was politically naive, became a charter member of the North Schleswig branch of the National Socialist Party in 1920. In 1934, Nolde together with Mies and others signed a call for loyalty to the Fuhrer. Nevertheless, Nolde was designated a "degenerate artist." Over 1,000 of his works were confiscated from German museums and 69 of his paintings and works on paper were featured in the "Degenerate Art" exhibition in Munich in 1937. He was prohibited from painting more.

Nolde had tried to exonerate himself. In 1934, he had gone from Seebull to Berlin to plead his case at the Reichskulturkammer (the Reich's culture council). In a letter to his wife, Ada, he tells of appearing before the members: Wilhelm Furtwangler, Richard Strauss and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Peter Selz

Berkeley

Franz Schulze replies:

To begin with, I did not "apologize" for Mies's sketch; I accounted for it. As I wrote, Mies's incorporation of a swastika was a requirement of the competition brief. If he wanted to participate, he had no choice but to employ the symbol.

His more voluntary accommodation to the Nazi regime may be inferred from his signature on the 1934 document Selz cites, but that has been known for years. The citation itself does not address my complaint about the lack of documentation in Martin Filler's claim that Mies sought "favor with those whom he much later depicted himself as having valiantly defied."

During 1934, Nazi attitudes regarding the arts ranged from Alfred Rosenberg's hostility toward modernism to Joseph Goebbels's promotion of it. ("The artist who seeks to give expression to this age must also be young," he said. "He must create new forms. ") Hitler himself vacillated. Goebbels would prove himself a consummate opportunist, but in retrospect one might imagine that Mies, whose practice had almost dried up by 1934, engaged with National Socialism in hopes that its acceptance of the modernist position might win the day and eventually grant him freedom to pursue his calling.

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