| Description |
xii, 195 pages, 32 pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm |
| Contents |
Preface -- 1. Birth of a dream -- 2. The machine is created -- 3. The vultures swoop -- 4. The duel with Herman-Goering -- 5. A clear fluid in Holland -- 6. The fortune-makers -- 7. Vandalism in the east -- 8. The death of Hans Posse -- 9. Burying the treasure -- 10. Aladdin's cave at Alt Aussee -- 11. The allies make restitution -- Index |
| Summary |
Although Adolf Hitler came frighteningly close to winning the Second World War little is known of his plans for the New Order in Europe that he hoped to establish after Germany's victory. A hiterto secret report now reveals for the first time that they included a project which would bring him a personal glorification unequalled in modern history, a cultural memorial to the unsuccessful Austrian art-student who became Europe's most fiendish oppressor. Contrary to popular belief it was Hitler, not Goering, who was the greatest plunderer of art treasures, Hitler who amassed paintings, sculptures, books and objects d'art worth millions of pounds belonging to state and private collections in the occupied territories, either by direct confiscation or forced sale, with the sole purpose of creating museums to be built in his honour and containing some of the greatest of European art treasures. This was more than mere vanity; Hitler needed to eradicate the humiliations and frustrations of his youth. Unlike Goering, who had a genuine love of art, he had little interest in great masterpieces beyond the face of possessing them, but he needed them to show the people of Linz, where he had spent his boyhood, visible proof that he had made good. He planned to transform this drab industrial town in the centre of the Nazi order and at the same time reduce Vienna, which he hated, to the status of a mere provical centre. As well as planning collections of paintings, sculptures, coins and armour, he intended to build a library and a vast theatre, and he had detailed plans drawn up to show his ideas for the layout of the post-war Linz. To enable him to carry out his plan he set up a secret organization that has passed unnoticed by the war historians, the Sonderaugtrag Linz, headed by the remarkable Dr Hans Posse, director of the Dresden Art Gallery, and including, as well as respected museum officials and art-dealers, shadier members of the continental art world, together with highly organized looting units which helped in the work of plunder. The absorbing story of the plan and its partial execution sheds new light on Hitler's character, and the account of its overthrow and the painstaking unravelling of the twisted skeins of Nazi ingenuity by the Allies and the restitution of the treasures to their rightful owners is an exciting addition to the history of the Second World War. (Inside cover) |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Subject |
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945.
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Art thefts -- Germany (West)
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Art treasures in war.
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war.
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Destruction and pillage -- Europe.
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Art, European.
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| Author |
Wanstall, Ken
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| LC no. |
65006389 |
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