Excerpts from the memoirs of Richard Hendschel, head of the Arts Office at the Bavarian Ministry of Culture 1914-33
The new plans Abel drew up in the winter of 1922/23 made good progress and we were able to find the means to build it as well One or two weeks more is all we would have needed and we could have started with the construction. But then the great political turnaround happened! When the new minister of culture Hans Schemm visited me in my office after taking over his post, I impressed upon him as the most important and urgent task the implementation of the new construction of a building for art exhibitions for which Abel's blueprint was essentially finished. I asked him to take a look at the blueprint as soon as possible. But during the first weeks, the office of the minister was besieged from early morning till evening to such an extent by petitioners and party members, particularly teachers, that we officials found it very difficult to reach the minister and he had become quite indispensable. Ultimately I did manage to convince him to visit the Abel studio at the Technical College.
The new Abel plans appeared to please Schemm, but Schemm did hint that Hitler himself had great plans and was thinking of a very monumental construction[…] Naturally, no decision was made during this visit, but Schemm did not seem personally averse to the Abel plan. I then made the greatest effort possible to push through the Abel project, writing an intense letter to Minister President Siebert during a longer absence, and tried to get Hitler to look at the Abel project at least once, and I was convinced that he, too, would like the project. Since I knew that Hitler, before he took power, would sometimes have tea at Hugo Bruckmann's, I arranged with Bruckmann that the model should be brought to his apartment, where it stood around for quite some time.
But we never managed to get Hitler to even look at the model at least once. Back then, I was not aware that Hitler had already decided once and for all to put Professor Troost in charge of the new building and that the location for it had already been determined. The Abel model was never returned to the artist and has now disappeared somewhere. And so the monumental construction "Das Haus der Deutschen Kunst" was completed on Prinzregentenstraße on some very difficult ground and at horrendous cost.
Richard Hendschel (1868-1946) headed the Arts Office at the Bavarian Ministry of Culture since 1914. He was the Ministerial Director as of 1920. In the spring of 1933, he became the first high official to be removed from office prior to term, and in September of that year he was forced into retirement.
Source: Richard Hendschel, Einige Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen im Kunstreferat aus den Jahren 1913-1933. Excerpts from the memoirs of the former ministeriel director Richard Hendschel. Replicated manuscript, n.d., pp. 31.
Stadtbibliothek München/Monacensia. Library and literary archive
Excerpts from the memoirs of Richard Hendschel, head of the Arts Office at the Bavarian Ministry of Culture 1914-33
The new plans Abel drew up in the winter of 1922/23 made good progress and we were able to find the means to build it as well One or two weeks more is all we would have needed and we could have started with the construction. But then the great political turnaround happened! When the new minister of culture Hans Schemm visited me in my office after taking over his post, I impressed upon him as the most important and urgent task the implementation of the new construction of a building for art exhibitions for which Abel's blueprint was essentially finished. I asked him to take a look at the blueprint as soon as possible. But during the first weeks, the office of the minister was besieged from early morning till evening to such an extent by petitioners and party members, particularly teachers, that we officials found it very difficult to reach the minister and he had become quite indispensable. Ultimately I did manage to convince him to visit the Abel studio at the Technical College.
The new Abel plans appeared to please Schemm, but Schemm did hint that Hitler himself had great plans and was thinking of a very monumental construction[…] Naturally, no decision was made during this visit, but Schemm did not seem personally averse to the Abel plan. I then made the greatest effort possible to push through the Abel project, writing an intense letter to Minister President Siebert during a longer absence, and tried to get Hitler to look at the Abel project at least once, and I was convinced that he, too, would like the project. Since I knew that Hitler, before he took power, would sometimes have tea at Hugo Bruckmann's, I arranged with Bruckmann that the model should be brought to his apartment, where it stood around for quite some time.
But we never managed to get Hitler to even look at the model at least once. Back then, I was not aware that Hitler had already decided once and for all to put Professor Troost in charge of the new building and that the location for it had already been determined. The Abel model was never returned to the artist and has now disappeared somewhere. And so the monumental construction "Das Haus der Deutschen Kunst" was completed on Prinzregentenstraße on some very difficult ground and at horrendous cost.
Richard Hendschel (1868-1946) headed the Arts Office at the Bavarian Ministry of Culture since 1914. He was the Ministerial Director as of 1920. In the spring of 1933, he became the first high official to be removed from office prior to term, and in September of that year he was forced into retirement.
Source: Richard Hendschel, Einige Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen im Kunstreferat aus den Jahren 1913-1933. Excerpts from the memoirs of the former ministeriel director Richard Hendschel. Replicated manuscript, n.d., pp. 31.
Stadtbibliothek München/Monacensia. Library and literary archive
