Arno Breker (19 July 1900 – 13 February 1991) was a German sculptor who is best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, where he was endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. He was made official state sculptor and exempted from military service. He began to study architecture, along with stone-carving and anatomy. At age 20 he entered the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts where he concentrated on sculpture, studying under Hubert Netzer and Wilhelm Kreis. He first visited Paris in 1924, shortly before finishing his studies. There he met with Jean Cocteau, Jean Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and Alfred Flechtheim. He took commissions from the Nazis from 1933 through 1942, for example participating in a show of his work in occupied Paris in 1942, where he met Jean Cocteau, who appreciated his work. He maintained personal relationships with Albert Speer and with Hitler. In 1936 he won the commission for two sculptures representing athletic prowess, to be entered in the 1936 Olympic games arts competition in Berlin, one representing a Decathlete ("Zehnkämpfer"), which won the silver medal for statues, and the other The Victress ("Die Siegerin"). In 1937 he married Demetra Messala (Δήμητρα Μεσσάλα), a Greek model. The same year, Breker joined the Nazi Party and was made "official state sculptor" by Hitler, given a large property and provided a studio with forty-three assistants. In 1946, Breker was offered a commission by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, but he refused, saying "One dictatorship is sufficient for me". In 1948 Breker was designated as a "fellow traveller" of the Nazis and fired, despite which he continued to thrive professionally.

Breker's rehabilitation led to backlash from anti-Nazi activists, including controversy in Paris when some of his works were exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1981.

Portraits (mostly in bronze)

thumb|Arno Breker modelling a portrait of [[Albert Speer in 1940]]

thumb|Arno Breker's Grave in Düsseldorf

thumb|Bust of [[Richard Wagner in Bayreuth]]

thumb|110px|Bust of [[Adolf Hitler (1938)]]

thumb|Lions at Löwenbastion in [[Hanover, Maschsee ]]

  • Baron von Mirbach, 1920
  • Friedrich Ebert, Berlin 1924 (first state commission)
  • Walter Kaesbach, Düsseldorf, 1925
  • Artur Kaufmann, 1925
  • Herbert Eulenberg, 1925–26
  • Otto Dix, Paris 1926–27
  • Isamu Noguchi, Paris 1927
  • Hermann Kesser, 1927
  • Moissey Kogan, Paris 1927/28
  • Inge Davemann, 1928
  • Albert Lindgens, 1928
  • Walter Lindgens, 1928
  • Illa Fudickar, 1929
  • Robert Gerling, 1929
  • Arnold von Guilleaume, 1929
  • Jean Marchand, 1929
  • Mossey Kogan, 1929
  • H. R. von Langen, 1929
  • Alberto Giacometti
  • Isolde von Conta, 1930
  • Abraham Frohwein, 1930
  • Heinrich Heine, 1930
  • Edith Arnthal, 1930–31
  • Demetra Breker, 1931
  • Nico Mazaraki, 1931
  • Robert Valancey, Paris 1931
  • Prince Georg of Bavaria, 1932
  • Andreas von Siemens, Berlin 1932
  • Nina Bausch, 1933
  • Demetra Breker, 1933
  • Olga von Dahlgreen, 1933
  • Arthur Kampf, 1933
  • Victor Manheimer, 1933
  • Nora von Schnitzler, 1933
  • Robert de Valencay, 1933
  • Max Liebermann, 1934
  • Gottfried Bermann Fischer, 1934
  • Max Baldner, 1934
  • Kurt Edzard, 1934
  • Graf von Luckner, 1934
  • Anne-Marie Merkel, 1934–35
  • Pütze von Siemens, 1934–35
  • Kurt Edzard, 1935
  • Anne-Marie Merkel, 1935
  • Pütze von Siemens, 1935–36
  • Carl Friedrich von Siemens, 1936
  • Leo von König, 1936
  • Joseph Goebbels, 1937
  • Paul von Hindenburg, 1937
  • Wolfgang Reindl, 1938
  • Adolf Hitler, 1938
  • Richard Wagner, 1939
  • Gerda Bormann (wife of Martin Bormann), 1940
  • Edda Göring (daughter of Hermann Göring), 1941
  • Albert Speer, 1941
  • Margarete Speer (wife of Albert Speer), 1941
  • Bernhard Rust
  • Erika Baeumker (wife of Adolf Baeumker), approx 1941
  • Gerhart Hauptmann, 1942
  • Serge Lifar, 1942–43
  • Aristide Maillol, 1942–43
  • Alfred Cortot, 1942–43
  • Abel Bonnard, 1943
  • Wilhelm Kreis, 1943
  • Maurice de Vlaminck, 1943
  • Claude Flammarion, 1944
  • Gottfried Ude-Bernays, 1945
  • Johannes Bork, 1946
  • Lothar Albano Müller, 1950
  • Ludwig Hoelscher, 1952
  • Gustav Lindemann, 1952
  • Wilhelm Kempff, 1953
  • Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, 1955
  • Rolf Gerling, 1956
  • Hans Gerling
  • Friedrich Sieburg, 1961
  • Jean Cocteau, 1963
  • Jean Marais, 1963
  • Henry de Montherlant, 1964
  • Marcel Pagnol, 1964
  • Roger Peyrefitte, 1964
  • Jeanne Castel, 1964
  • Paul Morand, 1965
  • Jacques Benoist-Méchin, 1965
  • Henry Picker
  • André Dunoyer de Segonzac, 1966
  • Marcel Midy
  • Ezra Pound, 1967
  • King Mohammed V of Morocco
  • Princess Ira von Fürstenberg
  • Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 1970
  • Salvador Dalí, 1974–75
  • Ernst Fuchs, 1976–77
  • Leopold Sedar Senghor, 1978
  • Anwar El Sadat, 1980
  • Ernst Jünger, 1981–82
  • Richard Wagner, Cosima Wagner, Franz Liszt, 1982
  • Heinrich Heine, 1983
  • Peter und Irene Ludwig, 1986–87
  • Gerhard Hauptmann, 1988
  • Arno Breker (self-portrait), 1991

Sculptures 1935–1945

thumb|[[Prometheus]]

thumb|right|, Breker's statue representing the spirit of the [[Nazi Party that flanked one side of the carriage entrance to Albert Speer's new Reich Chancellery]]

  • (1935)
  • Relief on the Nordstern life insurance building, Berlin (1936)
  • (The Decathlete) for the Olympic Stadium, Berlin (1936, Silver medal)
  • (The [female] Victor) for the Olympic Stadium, Berlin (1936)
  • (Dionysius) for the Olympic Village, Berlin (1936)
  • (The Wounded) (1938)
  • (The Horse Leader) (1938)
  • (Grace) (1938)
  • (Torchbearers ("The Party")) in the courtyard of the New Reich Chancellery (1939)
  • (Sword-bearers ("The Wehrmacht")) in the courtyard of the New Reich Chancellery (1939)
  • (Walking horses), front garden, New Reich Chancellery (1939)
  • (The Herald) (1939)
  • (The Risk-Taker / Venturer) (1939)
  • (Readiness) (1939)
  • (The Avenger) (1940)
  • (Comrades) (1940), Breker-Museum
  • (Banner-bearer) (1940)
  • (Farewell) (1940)
  • (Annihilation) (1940)
  • (Victim) (1940)
  • (Striders) (1940)
  • (The Sentry) (1941)
  • (1941)
  • (Calling) (1941)
  • (The Victor) (1942)
  • (Kneeling Woman) (1942)
  • (1942)
  • (1943)
  • <!--Unclear which historical/mythological figure this refers to--> (1943)

Reliefs

  • (1938)
  • (The Fighter) (1938)
  • Apollo and Daphne
  • (Departure for Battle) (1941)
  • (Departure of the Fighters) (1940–41)
  • (The Caller) (1941)
  • Orpheus and Eurydice (1944, Breker-Museum)

Books by Breker

  • 1970 &ndash; Paris, Hitler et Moi ("Paris, Hitler and Me") Presses de la Cité.
  • 1983 &ndash; ("Writings") Bonn: Marco-Edition .
  • 1987 &ndash; ("Encounters and Reflections") Bonn: Marco-Edition .
  • 2000 &ndash; ("Above All Beauty") Arnshaugk.

Films and videos

  • , by Arnold Fanck, Hans Cürlis, Riefenstahl-Film GmbH, Berlin (1944)
  • , by Marco J. Bodenstein, 20 minutes, Marco-Edition Bonn.
  • , colour film, 60 minutes, Marco-VG, Bonn (2002)
  • , and interview with Albert Speer. Colour film, 60 minutes, EKS Museum Europäische Kunst, Schloss 52388 Nörvenich.
  • (Time of the Gods) (1992)

See also

  • Art of the Third Reich
  • Chantons sous l'Occupation (documentary film)
  • Conrad Hommel
  • Werner Peiner
  • Adolf Wissel

References

Notes

Further reading

  • Bodenstein, Joe F. (2016). Arno Breker – une biographie. Paris: Èditions Séguier Paris.
  • Despiau, Charles (1942). Arno Breker. Paris: Edition Flammarion.
  • Egret, Dominique (1997). Arno Breker: Ein Leben für das Schöne. Berlin: Grabert Verlag. .
  • Hirlé, Ronald (2010). Arno Breker – Sculpteur – Dessinateur – Architecte. Strasbourg and Paris: Editions Hirlè.
  • Klier, Hans (1978). Arno Breker – Form und Schönheit. Bonn: Salzburger Kulturvereinigung; Paris: Marco-Edition.
  • Leber, Hermann (1998). Rodin, Breker, Hrdlicka
  • Möller, Uwe (2000). Arno Breker – Zeichnungen-Drawings-Dessins 1927–1990. Bonn: Marco Edition
  • Peyrefitte, Roger (1980). Hommage an Arno Breker. Paris: Marco-Edition.
  • Probst, Volker G. (1981). Der Bildhauer Arno Breker – Eine Untersuchung. Paris: Marco-Edition .
  • Probst, Volker G. (1981). Das Bildnis des Menschen im Werk von Arno Breker Paris: Marco-Edition. .
  • Probst, Volker G. (1985). Das Pietà-Motiv bei Arno Breker. Paris: Marco-Edition.
  • Schilling, Rolf (1994). Eros und Ares – Begegnung mit Breker. Munich: Edition Arnshaugk
  • Trimborn, Jürgen (2011). Arno Breker. Der Künstler und die Macht. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag
  • Zavrel, B. John (1985). Arno Breker – His Art and Life. New York: West Art.
  • Zavrel, B. John and Ludwig, Peter (1990). Arno Breker – The Collected Writings. New York: West Art; Paris: Marco-Edition.
  • Zavrel, B. John and Webb, Benjiman D. (1982). Arno Breker – The Divine Beauty in Art. New York: West Art.
  • Web museum
  • Interview with Arno Breker conducted in 1979
  • Arno Breker Museum Official Site (in German)
  • Arno Breker Biography (in German)
  • Arno Breker Life, Work and Relationships with Modern Writers and Artists (in French)
  • Demetra Messala Article about Arno Breker's wife
  • Arno Breker Appreciation Group