Row over "Nazi sculptor" exhibition
Visitor looks at "Romanihel(1928).
CNN.com
Row over 'Nazi sculptor' exhibition(summary)
Saturday, July 22, 2006; (15:46 GMT)
SCHWERIN, Germany (AP) -- Works by sculptor Arno Breker, favored by the Nazis for his monumental, classically inspired figures, has gone on display amid controversy over Breker's links to Adolf Hitler and his flourishing career in the Third Reich.
Officials in the northeastern city of Schwerin say the exhibition presents a chance to re-examine the work of a talented artist whose career was clouded by his association with Hitler and the Nazi leader's favorite architect, Albert Speer.
Hermann Junghans, Schwerin's deputy mayor, said extensive documentation alongside the 70 works would prevent any whitewash.
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The show is absolutely necessary to have a discussion about Breker, but we don't assume that we're going to be the ones to end the debate," Junghans told The Associated Press before the opening Friday.
"It was clear to us that this would be controversial, that's why the decision didn't come easily. Everyone will see that we are far too critical of Breker for this to be any kind of rehabilitation."
Breker, who died in 1991 at age 90, studied architecture and sculpture in Duesseldorf. An admirer of Auguste Rodin, he worked for several years in Paris before returning to Germany in the 1930s.
His work appealed strongly to the leaders of the Nazi regime, who gave him lucrative commissions to create works for buildings such as Hitler's chancellery and the still-standing Olympic Stadium in Berlin. Many of his works were destroyed after the war.
The exhibit has works from his pre-Nazi, Third Reich, and post-World War II periods.
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