'Hitler supporter' museum project halted

The decision to halt the planning of the new building for the time being was taken during an extraordinary board meeting of the Kunststätte Bossard Foundation. The public discussions had prompted the board of trustees to "reconsider the next steps of the project," said district administrator Rainer Rempe, who is also chairman of the board of trustees, in a press release.

As DW previously reported, Johann Bossard's past triggered a debate about the new building. The artist was an anti-Semite and an ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler. When the Nazis seized power, Bossard, as an opponent of the Weimar Republic, hoped for a countercultural revolution, whose cultural nucleus he saw in his estate, which he had built as part of a Gesamtkunstwerk.

Starting in 1911, the Swiss sculptor and painter built a studio, a house and a temple of art. Today the buildings are known as the Kunststätte Bossard (Bossard Arts Center).

Residents of the town of Jesterburg, where the arts center is located, feared that the new museum could become a pilgrimage site for right-wing radicals.

A renewed examination

Now a scientific research project on the role of Bossard during the Nazi era is to be conducted. To make it as fair and unbiased as possible, external researchers are to conduct the investigation. Until the results are available, funding for the project will be suspended.

The Bossard Foundation had already independently investigated Bossard's position during the Third Reich in 2017, but the result of their research had been criticized: In their exhibition catalog, "Über dem Abgrund des Nichts - Die Bossards in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus" (Over the Abyss of Nothingness - The Bossards in the Era of National Socialism), which was published in 2018, quotes were left out — including one in which Bossard complained about having been passed over in a competition for a Nazi memorial. "If only there were a Jew in between, so that I could blame him," he said.

"There are doubts about the current academic investigation. It will not be possible to continue the project without first removing these doubts," Rempe told DW.

Since the start, there had been a plan to critically look at Johann Bossard's position during the Nazi era. "We will now do this first," said Rempe. The researchers would have sufficient time at their disposal, without a deadline. "Should there be any deviations from previous results, the museum concept must address these findings." He didn't want to speculate about consequences for the project as a whole.

The Bundestag's budget committee had decided last November to support the €10.8 million project with €5.4 million. The district of Harburg provided another €2 million. Part of the remaining €3.4 million required for the project was also to be covered by tax money. The foundation had already applied for funding from the state of Lower Saxony.

Political pressure at the federal level possibly contributed to the Kunststätte Bossard Foundation's change of plans. Following an official request to the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media to define the conditions for state funding, it was determined that if Johann Bossard's ideological proximity to the Nazis were verified, the state would only contribute to a permanent exhibition project that would critically address his involvement with National Socialism.