The Museum of Hoaxes
Hitler rejected by art school
Posted By:

Jun 13, 2004
 My friend Emily loves to comment that Hitler was an artist who was rejected when he applied to art school (before that whole mass murder thing). I have no reason to disbelieve her except for a passing reference on another urban legend debunking website. Anyone know the truth?
Category: History; Replies: 17

Comments
The Curator
in San Diego
 Member
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2004 | 04:56 PM
Dear Natalie,<br>
I didn't know the answer, so I asked my Uncle Rudy (actually my great uncle), who's 90 years old and knows everything like this. Here's his response:<br><br>

Dear Alex: I happen to have John Toland's "Adolf Hitler": At 11 he was a budding artist, constantly drawing pictures, even during a teacher's lectures. Once he astounded onlookers by sketching in exact detail a famous German castle. At 14, after his father's death, his dream was to become "a great artist". A second interest of his was architecture.<br><br>

At 18 he told his mother he wanted to become an artist and requested that she give him his inheritance; he would go to Vienna and enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts. Her protests were to no avail and he went there.<br><br>

He took his exam with excited confidence. The verdict was shocking: "Test drawings unsatisfactory". The rector asssured him that his drawings "showed my unfitness for painting and that my ability obviously lay in the field of architecture". ( During this period he often strolled through Vienna with a friend, pointing out how he would have designed the city to better advantage. ) <br><br>
Now that he had been denied painting as a career, he realized that it could now be just a hobby, that his true destiny was as an artchitect. But lack of money and depression denied him this second career. <br><br>

n.b. A contemporary of his, Marc Chagall, was rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts iln St. Petersaburg at just about the same time that Hitler was rejected in Vienna.<br><br>

n.b. Hitler's interest in architecture is seen in his affection for Albert Speer and their many talks regarding the subject, especially Hitler"s grandiose vision of a Wagnerian colossal new Berlin they would construct following victory in WW2.
#1
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2004 | 05:59 PM
I read in a book about WWII that Hitler tried to get into an art school which was either owned or managed by a Jew(s). He was bitter and resentful, and later joined the Nazis. Though this most likely wasn't the sole cause of the attacks on the Jews (the book doesn't say it was, by the way), I thought it was interesting. And in case you were wandering, the book said that Hitler's art was "bad". The Book is titled 'The story of the Second World War'. Buy it. Cherish it. You won't regret it.


"America. What a country!" - Yakov Smirnoff
Maegan
in Tampa, FL - USA
 Member
Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 | 11:24 AM
...wandering...that's how I got here.
sdfhfgh
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 | 09:04 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050713/od_nm/canada_hitler_dc;_ylt=Aiod90osDBxGu280uoI4Yl2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc-
Hm
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 | 01:12 PM
Kind of off-topic, but I once got a book called "The Hidden Hitler." It was a book written to show evidence that Hitler was gay. Interesting read.
Citizen Premier
in spite of public outcry
 Member
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 | 05:50 PM
<a href="http://www.tightrope.cc/hitlerart.htm">Here</a> are some artworks attributed to hitler. They are quite beautiful, but perhaps they lack the creativity of a full-fledged artist. His attention to detail on the buildings might have been why it was suggested he be a architect. I can't really see, though, why it an art teacher wouldn't think he could continue to improve. I wonder if the art teacher was one of the first against the wall, and if his arrogance fueled some of Hitler's resentment of intellectuals.
Citizen Premier
in spite of public outcry
 Member
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 | 06:04 PM
His racial policies led to the Holocaust, the organized massacre of some 6 million European Jews, largely at concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
This is the one reason I have for hating the Jewish Community; they treat the holocaust like their own personal disaster. They forget the 5 million other Europeans, such as a vast percent of the Gypsy population, intellectuals, homosexuals, those loyal to the old government, and anyone who had gained disfavor of the Nazi police. I happen to be half Jew, but I know that if I was a Gentile under Nazi reign I would probably have ended up being incarcerated for not singing Nazi songs loud enough.

Sorry for the ranting. It's just a hobby of mine.
Joan Hartman
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 | 06:52 PM
Why is The so called Holocaust story, so much like the so called Purim,queen Esther story, because it is!! Purim,the Jewish revenge murder of persians, for taking back their riches from the money lenders,(the Jews),and the holocaust, the revenge on the germans for taking back their peoples money, stolen by the jewish bankers of germany. the jews needed an update on their Holiday of revenge!!but the west would not go for celibrating revenge, so they made it a genicide,racist story! they blamed the Germans for murders they did! then killed the Germans for trying to take their money and gold,then invented the Holocaust, which was a scheem to steal money from everyone!! including you!!
these jews are the masters of the word, and the devils children for sure, awake people, befor it is too late!! though it more than not is already...Stop bowing down to this group of racist,murdering Liars...The Devil is a deciever, so are his children.
Jake
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 | 02:18 PM
The above comment is ridiculous and silly 😊
It is unfortunate that this kind of hatred and bigotry is still alive and festering.
H
Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 | 02:27 PM
🐛 hitler was actually a really good artist who got rejected by the art school, and from then on he developed a hating of jews. look it up at history learning site.org
Anon Y. Mous
Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 | 12:53 PM
Hey Ms Hartman: LEARN TO SPELL. I don't care about the bigoted idiot-rant (although your argument could be improved) but you need to get a spellchecker. Or maybe you could just shut up! Then we would be spared both your massacre of syntax and your haphazard racism. For improvements on your moron-level, look at the comment above you. They hate Jews, but they support their argument, and I'm starting to agree with them! Finally, you could just stop talking until you've got a decent argument without mindless racial slurs. Then you can talk like someone with more than two brain cells. Any of those options sound good?

Yrs,
Anon.

----------------Anonymous is Legion---------------
Sarah
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 | 04:10 PM
Yes. He applied for the Vienna Acadamy of Fine Arts as a young man. Having nowhere to go, he lived in the slums and got his superiority complex.
Judah
Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 | 10:36 AM
The true root of antisemitism, including Hitler's is much more complex than anyone here has stated. It goes back far before there ever was a Hitler and has root causes in psychology and how people hate their own weakness and project their own failings on others. Jews have served that purpose for christians and muslims throughout the century because Jews are the 'parent' religion. In a sense, it's a form of parricide...hating your parents for your own failure to live up to your ideals and 'blaming' your parents.

Germany had failed miserably in WWI in starting and then losing a war. They 'needed' to blame someone because it would be too painful to take responsibility for their own failure. Hitler was a student of history and knew it would be easy to 'use' the jews as a psychological device to rally germans self-hatred around.

Here's a great article that explains the real psychological roots of antisemitism through the ages.

http://www.peacewithrealism.org/antisem.htm

While there might be specific truth to Hitler's failure of becoming a great artist contributing to his hatred of jews...the reason would be he failed himself and unable to accept his own failings vented his anger at jews...which has been time and time again through history ever since Christianity and Islam...the 'children' of judiasm started doing so thousands of years ago.
Judah
Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 | 10:40 AM
As an additional note to the above...it is not an 'accident' that antisemitism and 'jew-hatred' is primarily a christian/muslim phenomena. In Buddhist and Hindu history there is no historical record of antisemitism...and for good reason.

As stated above, antisemitism is a 'psychological' phenomena akin to hating your parents for your own failings. If people educated themselves on psychology instead of looking for 'simple' excuses to perpetuate antisemitism the world would be a much more peaceful place for all.
Todd
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 | 11:10 PM
re: Joan Hartman

Joan, don't you have anything else to do? My grandparents spent four years in Auschwitz. REALLY they did. Are you aware that most educational institutions or scholars don't take the 'Holohoax' stories seriously?. The stories are real as is the evidence. Most of the bodies, ovens, bone crushing machines, etc were burned by the Germans. The photos of the US soldiers and the President looking at the ruins are real and were not doctored. There is plenty of DNA evidence to suggest that people (jews as well as gays and gypsies) were killed in the chambers and the ovens. Suggesting that the number of people killed in the extermination camps is skewed still suggests that Jews were killed.

I'm a clinical social worker and spend my time working with people who are mentally ill. I suggest that you suffer from a delusion,,that's where you actually believe your bullshit. I know a lot of clinicians in NYC...I'd be happy to refer you to someone that can help with your mental illness...
Murph
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 | 04:48 PM
ok so Hitler was a great artist, but there was a huge art movement in Germany at the time for abstract art known as DADA and Hitler painted landscapes and buildings, which are too realistic, being paintings of real things which was why he was rejected from art school. Its not even known if the director of the school was Jewish, no one knows exactly why Hitler did what he did. We will probably never know. I can say these things as one, I have taken a full college level course on the psychology behind Hitler and am currently in the process of writing a thesis paper on the theories as to why he hated the Jews. There are so many that I can fill more than 50 pages just on this one topic. The real scary thing about this is that if it can happen once, it can happen again. Possibly in the future, a new Hitler will rise to power. I am not preaching, just saying History repeats itself.
Tina Shea
Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 | 11:49 AM
Joan Hartman is a crazy , twisted and racist person.

Note: This thread is located in the Old Forum of the Museum of Hoaxes.