Pinakotheken hand over archives from the National Socialist era

The world-renowned Doerner Institut – part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections since April 1947 – is handing over around 80 file units and glass plates from the National Socialist era to the Federal Archives.

The Munich Pinakotheken are handing over files from the National Socialist era to the Federal Archives – around 14,000 documents and images on around 1,000 glass negatives from the Doerner Institut in Munich. The world-renowned institute – which conserves all the art treasures of the Pinakothek museums in Bavaria and has been part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections since April 1947 – was founded in 1937 as the Reich Institute for Painting Technology. During the National Socialist era, it belonged to the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste (Reich Chamber of Fine Arts), whose files are still considered lost today. The archives are therefore of great significance for contemporary history.

Professor Andreas Burmester, the long-standing director of the Doerner Institut, has meticulously reconstructed the history of the Institut für Maltechnik, which goes far back into the 19th century, on the basis of newly discovered archival documents. Munich, more than any other German city, has a long tradition of dealing with questions of painting technique and art technology: the “I. Congress” and the “I. Exhibition for Painting Technique” took place here in 1893.

Max Doerner (1870-1839), who taught the practical use of painting materials for artists at the Academy of Fine Arts, was commissioned in June 1934 to draw up plans for a Reich Institute for Painting Technique. The Doerner Institute was officially founded on July 19, 1937, one day after the opening of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst. “The fact that this date coincides with the opening of the ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition by Adolf Ziegler is a programmatic coincidence, as it links the establishment of the institute with the ‘New German Art’ as understood by the National Socialist rulers. Even if the opening of the Doerner Institute itself takes place on a small scale, it must be seen in the context of numerous other events on the occasion of the opening weekend for the Haus der Deutschen Kunst,” emphasizes Andreas Burmester. Max Doerner is almost 70 years old at the time and in poor health. He often stays at his summer residence in Weßling and only corresponds with his employees in writing. He died just two years after the company was founded.
Andreas Burmester’s two-volume work “Der Kampf um die Kunst. Max Doerner and his Reichsinstitut für Maltechnik” (Boehlau Verlag, 2016) is considered a milestone in research based on primary records. A chapter in the reappraisal of the history of the institution has thus been completed. The collection is the first bundle that the Bavarian State Painting Collections have handed over to state archives.