Immediately after the German takeover of Austria, Hitler put in motion plans for the Fuhrermuseum, to house the most celebrated European artworks.
The Failed Artist
Adolf Hitler looking at art manuscripts.
~Ullstein Bild/Getty Images
In 1908, Adolf Hitler, an 18-year-old who dreamed of becoming an artist, left his hometown of Linz, Austria and moved to Vienna, the cultural capital. He saw Vienna as the place to pursue his dream. The city’s Academy of Fine Arts rejected Hitler, twice, because his skills were deemed unsatisfactory.
"After five and a half years in the Austrian capital of high culture, Hitler left Vienna broke and an artistic failure. Yet, he would later argue to his supporters that he had moved to Munich because he had accomplished as much as he could in Vienna and was now ready to move to Germany’s center of culture." ~Hitler's Last Hostages
Hitler's Artwork
~History.com
A Dictator’s Dream, The Führermuseum
Map of Linz, Austria
~CNN
In February 1945, Hitler was in the bunker, still dreaming of building the Führermuseum. “Whatever the time, whether day or night, whenever he had the opportunity, he sat in front of the model.”
~The Collector
"I collected the paintings in the collections I have bought over the years, never for private purposes, but always exclusively for enlarging a gallery in my hometown of Linz on the Danube. It would be my most fervent wish for this legacy to be realized."
Hitler dictating his will, hours before committing suicide on April 30, 1945. ~Hitler's Last Hostages