Date:May – July 1937
Place: Prague, Fine Arts Association
In May 1937, the Fine Arts Association in Prague hosted an exhibition entitled German Art of Spiš (Deutsche Kunst in der Zips), presenting the results of a 1935 documentation expedition by German art historians in the Spiš region. The exhibition ran until June 1937 and was reprised in Munich from November to December of that year. The expedition took place under the patronage of the Berlin association Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, which, at that time, actively supported research into German art beyond the borders of the German Reich. Led by art historian Oskar Schürer, the expedition's primary objective was to photographically document Gothic monuments in a region with German settlements dating back to the 12th century. [Koukal 2020, p. 263] Similar to other expeditions in different parts of the republic, this one took place with the consent of Zdeněk Wirth, the head of the artistic affairs department at the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment and an art historian. Wirth appointed his former student, Václav Mencl, who was an official of the State Heritage Protection Office in Slovakia at the time, to oversee the expedition. [Koukal 2020, p. 263]
The exhibition featured an extensive collection of 200 photographs of medieval artistic monuments, including paintings, sculptures, architectural structures, and decorative arts, as well as folk art. These images were later used in a comprehensive illustrated publication with the same title. The project reflected German scholars' growing interest in cultural heritage of Slovakia and other regions, as seen through the lens of German history and cultural continuity. Czechoslovak experts observed these activities with concern, seeing them as an attempt at symbolic "scholarly annexation" of Czechoslovakia's cultural space through archaeological, art historical, and ethnological research. [pn 1936, p. 9] Such research was often financed by organizations like the Nord– und Ostdeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which focused on the systematic mapping of German-speaking minorities abroad and on strengthening their cultural identity as an instrument for supporting the territorial and power ambitions of the Nazi Reich. [Koukal 2020, p. 259]
František Kovárna, art historian and art critic, characterized the Deutsche Kunst in der Zips as an inadvertent prelude to the subsequent monumental exhibition Old Masters of Slovakia (1937), and called for equally high-quality Czechoslovak documentation of Slovak artistic heritage. [F. K. 1937, p. 5] His appeal materialized in Karel Šourek's publication Umění na Slovensku – odkaz země a lidu (Art in Slovakia – Legacy of the Land and the People, 1938), which built upon the Old Masters of Slovakia exhibition and utilized material produced by the Illek & Paul photographic studio during an expedition led by Václav and Dobroslava Mencl. The Deutsche Kunst in der Zips thus became not only a catalyst for domestic research, but also a significant example of cultural-political intention that preceded the mounting tensions in pre-war Central Europe. Through art historical research and the presentation of German traces in Central European regions — specifically Spiš — the exhibition aimed to legitimize the historical presence of the German ethnic group as a superior cultural force. This prepared the ground for the future geopolitical ambitions of Nazi Germany.
Lucia Kvočáková
Koukal 2020: Jiří Koukal, German Art History in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s and 1940s, in: Milada Jonášová – Manfred Hermann Schmid (eds.), Die Villa Bertramka. Facetten der Geschichte einer Mozart-Gedenkstätte in Prag, Praha 2020, pp. 107–115
pn 1936: pn [Pavel Nauman], Německá věda anektuje Československo, Lidové noviny, 11.12.1936, no. 620, p. 9
F. K. 1937: F. K. [František Kovárna], Umění ze Spiše, Pražské noviny 258, 1937, no. 147, 25. 6., p. 5
Oskar Schürer – Erich Wiese, Deutsche Kunst in der Zips, Brünn – Wien – Leipzig 1938
F. K. [František Kovárna], Umění ze Spiše, Pražské noviny CCLVIII, 1937, no. 147, 25. 6., p. 5
pdfAnonymous author, Výstavy, Polední list XI, 1937, no. 152, 2. 6., p. 2
Anonymous author, Výtvarné zprávy, Polední list XI, 1937, no. 134, 15. 5., p. 2
Anonymous author, Umění ze Spíše, Polední list XI, 1937, no. 147, 28. 5., p. 2
Anonymous author, Výstavy, Polední list XI, 1937, no. 180, 30. 6., p. 2
-d-, Dvě fotografické výstavy v Praze, Lidové noviny XLV, 1937, no. 271, 1. 6., p. 7