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Budapest Times
01-06-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
Scrabbling for spoils amid a terrible lot of death
Germany's National Socialists, call them Nazis, wanted to expand the country's lebensraum, its living space, by crushing other nations and murdering Jews, Slavs and Bolsheviks supposedly inferior to their "superior' Aryan selves. And, of course, there were lots of nice paintings and other objets d'art to be picked up along the way, so those were fair game too. Biographer Jonathan Petropoulos writes of a prominent offender, Bruno Lohse, and doesn't directly raise the incongruity that while many milllions of soldiers and civilians were being slaughtered in the combat zones, there was a parallel murky world of greed and corruption where the prevailing environment was simply profiteering from persecution and theft. Readers will surely pause to see the parallel themselves. And there was a pecking order for the spoils. Naturally, the Führer, Adolf Hitler, had first choice, for his planned monumental Führermuseum in Linz, his boyhood town in annexed Austria. Second dibs went to Hermann Wilhelm Göring, Hitler's most loyal supporter, then to ideological schools and museums. It was shocking criminality, and Nazi art agents sometimes competed with each other, while some 'filthy' Jewish families were less 'filthy' than others if they had collections and wealth enough to allow them to bargain their way out of the cattle trucks and Zyklon B. And German agents were not above trading 'degenerate' modernist art, for more-prized Old Masters. Göring (1893-1946) was an all-powerful figure in the Nazi Party, having established the Gestapo secret political police and concentration camps for the 'corrective treatment' of undesirables. He headed the Luftwaffe, the air force, and was Reichsmarschall, highest rank in the Wehrmacht armed forces. Göring often dressed in hunting costume, to link himself to landed society in particular and country life in general. And he was especially keen to project himself as a kind of Renaissance man, a collector not only of hunting trophies but also of art. He began collecting in a modest way in the 1920s and more ambitiously in the mid-1930s, but the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 and the conquest of much of Europe and a large swathe of the Soviet Union, offered the possibility of almost limitless acquisition. Insatiable, he used his impregnable position to enrich himself and build what he boasted after his capture in 1945 was the finest private collection in Europe (a disputed claim). He had a vast forest estate in the Schorfheide, north of Berlin, where from 1933 he developed a baronial set-up named Carinhall, and it was here that he kept the bulk of his hoard. Göring could not tell a good painting from a bad one, but he employed professional experts to scour Europe for paintings, sculptures, tapestries, jewellery, carpets, fragments of Roman buidings; all he could lay his hands on. Much enrichment came from Jewish collections in the occupied countries, and many gifts from those who sought his favour. By the end of the war he had, besides some 1700 paintings, 250 sculptures, 108 tapestries, 200 pieces of antique furniture, 75 stained-glass windows, 60 Persian or French rugs and 175 other various pieces. The pictures included many by Brueghel, Cranach, Rembrandt, Rubens, Ruysdael, Tintoretto, Titian and Van Dyck. He went to great lengths to avoid being considered a looter. But behind the scenes he used currency manipulation and pressure of various kinds to effect gifts and purchases at the lowest prices. He carried devalued Reichsmarks. Göring's bloodhound in occupied Paris was Dr. Bruno Lohse (1911-2007), the deputy director of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the ERR, a new and secretive Nazi organ tasked with looting Jewish-owned cultural property. Lohse initially was conscripted into the German Army to fight in Poland, but he had a PhD in art history was approached by the ERR. Its sole purpose was to plunder Europe, though it had tentacles, basically following the German Army. When Lohse arrived at the ERR headquarters in Paris he found art looting on an industrial scale. The organisation stole whatever it could lay its hands on, whether a painting of really no value except to the family, furniture, tables, plates, cutlery, candlesticks. And France was the place for art — or more valuable art – more so than any other part of Europe. One estimate is that the ERR stole one-third of all the art in private collections in the country; the Rothschilds, Alphonse Kann, David-Weills and other great Jewish families. The machinations to grab the Schloss family artworks make particularly eye-opening reading. The Göring connection made Lohse among the most promient individuals in the ERR. He felt he was king of Paris, armed with a pass from the Reischmarschall that allowed him to travel freely and buy what he wanted. Lohse helped his patron commandeer some 700 pictures from ERR in Paris, with Göring never parting with a pfennig. Petropoulos, who is a European history professor at Claremont McKenna College in California, US, ranks Lohse in the top five of history's all-time art looters. The author met him for the first time in Munich in 1998 after writing to seek an interview for a book he was writing about the complicity of art experts in Nazi plundering ('The Faustian Bargain. The Art World in Nazi Germany' published in 2000). By the late 1990s, most of the Nazi art experts who helped loot European Jews were either dead or living quiet lives under the radar, but not so Lohse. Over the next nine years, he and Petropoulos met more than two dozen times, and the author was invited to Lohse's Munich flat, where he saw on the walls Expressionist works and Dutch Old Masters worth millions. Lohse would often pull out a box of old photographs and mementos, allowing Petropoulos to peer over his shoulder and to pepper him with questions. Lohse died in 2007 and bequeathed the box to Petropoulos, who used it as source material for the new 'Göring's Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World'. Lohse's large walk-in bank vault in Zurich was found to hold works by Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Corot and Wouwerman, confirming suspicions that at the ERR he slyly siphoned off pieces to sell or keep for himself. Petropoloulos tackles the questions of how Lohse amassed such works, what do we learn about the nexus of culture and barbarism, and what of the post-war networks that grew and the fate of much Nazi-stolen art? There were challenges in writing about Lohse, such as separating his stories from the truth, the dearth of archival sources, the culture of silence among the participants and their general desire to conceal this history. The author determines that the physically imposing Lohse was personally involved in emptying Jewish homes and boasted to a German officer that he had beaten Jewish owners to death 'with his own hands'. The biographer learned that the wartime networks of Nazi dealers did indeed persist into peacetime, individuals such as Lohse growing prosperous selling to museums and collectors, often cashing in on goods with complicated wartime pasts. Lohse was jailed at the end of the war and investigated. He was tried and acquitted in France in 1950 then returned to the art trade from his new base in Munich, where other former Nazi art experts had also gone back to work, trading mostly within a 'circle of trust' in Germany and Switzerland. Göring avoided being hanged as a war criminal by taking poison. Lohse was imprisoned in France for about two and a half years and faced charges of pillaging but was unexpectedly acquitted in 1950, perhaps due to poor prosecuiton, good defence and other vague factors. Some 20 percent of items stolen in France remain out there somewhere. It's all quite a story.
The Journal
14-05-2025
- The Journal
Three Nazi-worshipping extremists found guilty of planning attacks on mosques and synagogues in UK
THREE NAZI-WORSHIPPING EXTREMISTS who believed a race war was imminent in the United Kingdom have been found guilty of planning terrorist attacks on mosques and synagogues. A jury at Sheffield Crown Court heard how Christopher Ringrose, 34, Marco Pitzettu, 25, and Brogan Stewart, 25, were preparing to use the more than 200 weapons they had amassed, including machetes, swords, crossbows and an illegal stun gun. Ringrose had also 3D-printed most of the components of a semi-automatic firearm at the time of his arrest and was trying to get the remaining parts. The trio, who are not believed to have met in the real world before they appeared together in the dock of a court, were arrested when security services believed an attack was imminent after undercover officers infiltrated their online group, the court heard. A nine-week-long trial heard how the group idolised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, shared racist slurs and glorified mass murderers. Brogan Stewart PA PA Today, a jury rejected claims the defendants were fantasists with no intention of carrying out their threats and found the three men guilty of a charge of preparing acts of terrorism and charges of collecting information likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism. Ringrose was also convicted of manufacturing a prohibited weapon. Pitzettu pleaded guilty to obtaining an illegal stun gun at a previous hearing. The defendants will be sentenced on 17 July. Christopher Ringrose PA PA The judge, Justice Cutts, told them: 'You must all expect substantial custodial sentences'. Opening the trial in March, Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, said: 'The prosecution say that these three defendants were right-wing extremists who regarded themselves as National Socialists, or Nazis, and they supported the National Socialist movement in the UK, such as it is or indeed was.' He said the defendants followed a cause which embraced an admiration for Adolf Hitler, white supremacy, a 'hatred towards black and other non-white races', and glorification and admiration for mass killers who have targeted the black and Muslim community. He told the jury of seven men and five women that the trio all held a 'belief that there must soon be a race war between the white and other races'. Marco Pitzettu PA PA The prosecutor told the jury that the defendants formed a group called Einsatz 14 in January 2024, with 'like-minded extremists' who wanted to 'go to war for their chosen cause'. Advertisement He said Stewart told the group: 'Hitler did more for his people than any politician. And for Britain to have a p*** and zionist in charge of the country is absolutely outrageous.' Sandiford said this last comment was a reference to the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has Pakistani ancestry. The jury was also shown a short video Stewart posted of himself wearing a German army helmet, a Nazi armband and a skull face covering. Sandiford explained how Stewart discussed torturing a Muslim leader using his 'information extraction kit' with an undercover officer. Brogan Stewart's crossbow PA PA He explained how Stewart set up a group called Einsatz 14 with him as 'Fuhrer' and an undercover officer called Blackheart as the 'Obergruppenfuhrer', which the other two defendants also joined. He said that when Blackheart asked him about the group's ideology, Stewart replied: 'Personally, I've taken inspiration from the SS', and added: 'I also hope that we can extort political rivals and potentially plan operations to meet migrants landing on our beaches and deal with them. 'As the race war comes to unfold I'd expect members to stand by, wait for orders and deploy to combat our…' The court heard that Stewart sent the officer a list of 'standard uniform' for Einsatz 14 which included a Black SS helmet, 'mask, balaclava, skull face mask or anything to hide identity' as well as a Swastika armband, although the defendant said this was 'Not a given. It must be earned'. Brogan Stewart's tomahawk PA PA Sandiford said potential recruits were sent a vetting form with questions such as: 'What is your opinion on the historic paramilitary force, the SS?' and 'Out of so many different options, who would you say you hold most of your hatred for – kikes, n******, shitskins, fags etc and why'. He told the court that Stewart developed a mission statement for the group which said its 'basic duties' included to 'target mosques, Islamic education centres and other similar locations'. Sandiford told the jury the group discussed potential targets at the end of January 2024. He told the court Stewart sent Blackheart details of the Islamic Education Centre on Mexborough Road in Leeds, including a Google Maps image. The officer asked Stewart for more detailed information about the plan and he replied that they could smash windows or ambush someone, the court heard. According to Sandiford, Stewart said: 'It depends how far we are willing to go. It could be a beating with batons and bats or something more serious.' Bethan David, Head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Counter Terrorism Division, said: 'These extremists were plotting violent acts of terrorism against synagogues, mosques and an Islamic Education Centre. By their own admission, they were inspired by SS tactics and supremacist ideology. 'Had Christopher Ringrose managed to completely finish building the 3D-printed semi-automatic firearm that he had started to, it could have been used leading to devastating consequences.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nazi-worshipping trio's cache of swords and crossbows uncovered
A trio of Nazi-obsessed fanatics amassed a cache of swords, crossbows and a 3D-printed semi-automatic firearm in preparation for an attack on a mosque or a synagogue. Right-wing extremists Christopher Ringrose, 34, Marco Pitzettu, 25, and Brogan Stewart, 25, were found guilty of terrorism offences at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday. The men, who were part of a militant online group, claimed they were merely fantasists who never intended to carry out an attack. Credit: Counter Terrorism Policing North East However, the jury rejected their claims, and anti-terrorism detectives believe that if they had not been arrested, they would have carried out a mass casualty attack. A nine-week-long trial heard how the group, which had been infiltrated by undercover officers, idolised Hitler and the Nazis, shared racist slurs and glorified mass murderers. Ringrose had also 3D-printed most of the components of a semi-automatic firearm at the time of his arrest and was trying to get the remaining parts. Jurors were shown a video of a police firearms expert testing a completed version of the weapon to show it would have been viable. Opening the trial in March, Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, said: 'The prosecution say that these three defendants were Right-wing extremists who regarded themselves as National Socialists, or Nazis, and they supported the National Socialist movement in the UK, such as it is or indeed was.' He said the defendants followed a cause that embraced an admiration for Hitler, white supremacy, a 'hatred towards black and other non-white races', and glorification and admiration for mass killers who have targeted the black and Muslim community. The prosecutor told the jury that the defendants formed a group called Einsatz 14 in January 2024, with 'like-minded extremists' who wanted to 'go to war for their chosen cause'. He told the jury of seven men and five women that the men all held a 'belief that there must soon be a race war between the white and other races'. Credit: Counter Terrorism Policing North East Mr Sandiford said an undercover officer called Blackheart was also part of Einsatz 14 and was referred to as the 'Obergruppenführer'. Stewart developed a mission statement for the group that said its 'basic duties' were to 'target mosques, Islamic education centres and other similar locations'. The court heard the group discussed potential targets at the end of January 2024. The court heard Stewart sent Blackheart details of the Islamic education centre on Mexborough Road in Leeds, including a Google Maps image. Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said the men had collected more than 200 weapons, including knives, swords, body armour and a stun gun. But he said that 'most concerning' was the fact they tried to acquire a gun and this led them to build a 3D-printed firearm. The officer said: 'We saw this building of a firearm, and we saw them then changing their conversation and an up-tick in their hatred and looking to identify a real-world target, which could have been talk of a synagogue, an Islamic institution, a mosque, education... 'When we saw that up-tick changing, and they were looking to come out into the real world, that's when we took the action to arrest them.' Mr Dunkerley said: 'That was a tipping point for us. The protection of the public was absolutely paramount, and this wasn't some fantasy.' He added: 'If they took that 3D-printed firearm onto the streets and discharged it, it would kill somebody.' Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Counter Terrorism Division, said: 'These extremists were plotting violent acts of terrorism against synagogues, mosques and an Islamic education centre. By their own admission, they were inspired by SS tactics and supremacist ideology. 'Had Christopher Ringrose managed to completely finish building the 3D-printed semi-automatic firearm that he had started, it could have been used, leading to devastating consequences.' Ringrose, of Cannock, Staffordshire; Pitzettu, of Mickleover, Derbyshire; and Stewart, of Tingley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, were all found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism and charges of collecting information likely to be useful to a person preparing or committing an act of terrorism. Ringrose was also convicted of manufacturing a prohibited weapon, while Pitzettu pleaded guilty to obtaining an illegal stun gun at a previous hearing. The defendants will be sentenced on July 17. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Local Germany
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Germany
EXPLAINED: How Germany is preparing for a looming US 'brain drain'
Citing far-reaching job and funding cuts at US universities and research institutions, Trump's actions have endangered science and well-being worldwide, the President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Robert Schlögl, said recently. In response German research institutions and universities are making moves to work more closely with US researchers. But despite some initial fervour around the idea of attracting the US's top talent, most are taking a more cautious approach. Here's how some of Germany's leading research institutions are responding, including some of the opportunities for US researchers they are pushing. Will the US suffer a brain drain? The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) suspects that the situation in the USA could lead to a global shift. "Top talent from countries like India, China or Brazil, who would have previously gone mainly to the USA, are now considering whether other countries could be a better option," said DAAD spokeswoman Cordula Luckassen. Large-scale "brain drains", or the exodus of qualified scientists, have occurred many times in history. Germany suffered its own brain drain around 1933, after the National Socialists came to power when Jewish and dissident academics fled the country. Luckassen suggests that in the DAAD offices in the US, there is a growing interest in Germany as a science location among international doctoral candidates and postdocs. Many of these academics currently work or study in the US on temporary visas and in temporary positions, often financed by federal funds. What's the reaction in Germany? But while some might expect Germany's leading research institutions to move to sweep up top researchers from the US, so far they appear to be taking a softer approach. Tim Urban, press spokesman of the Leibniz Association, told DPA that he wouldn't pursue a 'targeted poaching of American colleagues,' because it 'risks weakening American science even further'. The Max Planck Society (MPG) aims to provide the so-called Transatlantic Program with more funding, which would open up options in Germany for scientists who cannot continue their research in the USA. Advertisement In response to a recent call for applications, the MPG received twice as many applications from the USA as in the previous year, President Patrick Cramer recently said in an interview with Der Spiegel . READ ALSO: 'We need dual citizenship' to support cutting edge research in Germany, says top scientist Meanwhile at German universities, the impact of the US' political shift is currently being felt. A spokeswoman for the University of Leipzig suggested there is an increase in interest among American partners for close cooperation. The Humboldt University in Berlin has reportedly received isolated direct inquiries from US scientists in recent weeks, as has RWTH Aachen University. "If the situation in the US gives rise to opportunities to strengthen the profile of Goethe University through suitable appointments, we will of course take advantage of them," said the press office of Frankfurt University. READ ALSO: 10 reasons to study in Germany Where's the funding? Of course, efforts within Germany to actively lure in top talent from the US could be expected to ramp up depending on developments on the US side – especially for researchers in fields that are being actively targeted by the Trump administration, such as climate, inequality and life sciences. But currently institutions in Germany, and really across Europe and the world, don't have the budget to support nearly as much research as the US had been supporting in recent decades. David Ho, an American oceanographer and climate researcher wrote on social media app Bluesky that, 'The US spends more on research and development than any other country in the world,' adding that if China and Japan are removed, the US spends almost as much as all other countries combined. Advertisement So for German institutions to have a real shot at attracting top researchers, they'll need to come up with significantly more funding for science. Some efforts are beginning to come together toward that end. For example, President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Robert Schlögl, announced that he would support more top researchers from the USA with appropriate financial support and grant them temporary residence and work opportunities. Also, in a guest article in Der Spiegel last month, leading German scientists called for the development of a so-called "Meitner-Einstein Program", to effectively poach outstanding researchers from the US for German universities and research institutions with financial backing from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. With reporting by DPA.
Wall Street Journal
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Director' Review: The Mystery of G.W. Pabst
In the 1920s, the Viennese moviemaking pioneer Berthold Viertel prophesied the radical potential of film, calling it 'an immense political tool of the future.' That future came sooner than he imagined. A scant decade later, after the National Socialists took control of Germany in January 1933, they used footage of the Reichstag fire damage and nationwide book burnings to whip up enthusiasm for the persecution of Jews and political opponents. Scores of Berlin-based filmmakers fled the new autocracy, and many found themselves in Hollywood. Among them was the Austrian director Georg Wilhelm Pabst, who was not Jewish but stood firmly in opposition to the Third Reich. Unlike some of his peers, Pabst did not end his odyssey in Hollywood, and his unusual trajectory has caught the interest of the prolific German-language novelist Daniel Kehlmann. Two of Mr. Kehlmann's novels, 'Measuring the World' (2006) and 'Tyll' (2020), juggle similar elements—history and fabulism, technology and art, grotesquerie and comedy. Like Pabst, the protagonists in those books are forced to maneuver through European cataclysms: the Napoleonic wars in 'Measuring,' the 17th-century conflict known as the Thirty Years' War in 'Tyll.' With 'The Director,' the author pushes his affinity for reimagining dark historical moments into yet more provocative territory. Our first glimpse of Pabst in the novel finds him in a meeting with a pair of self-assured American studio executives. It is 1933 and the director has recently arrived in Los Angeles, where he's constantly being praised, along with F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, as the best of the émigré filmmakers. Nicknamed 'the Red Pabst' for his gritty depictions of urban poverty, he stands out for his groundbreaking editing techniques and his sensitivity with actresses—he's had successes with Greta Garbo in 'The Joyless Street' (1925) and Louise Brooks in 'Pandora's Box' and 'Diary of a Lost Girl' (both 1929). But applause in Hollywood is often cheap, even for its European geniuses. The young Warner Bros. executives, like nearly everyone Pabst meets, briskly mistake him as the director of 'Metropolis' (nope—that's Lang) or 'Nosferatu' (wrong again—Murnau). His humiliations intensify when the picture they goad him into making, 'A Modern Hero' (1934), is torpedoed by harsh reviews. It will be the only film he makes in America. The novel follows the ego-bruised Pabst as he leaves Hollywood for good in 1935. By August 1939 he is back in Austria, which Hitler had annexed the previous year. The policeman checking his papers upon his re-entry asks how he feels about the country's new leadership, and Pabst answers: 'I'm not a political person. I make films.' But it's an important question, as Pabst will go on to spend the war working under the repressive supervision of the Reich. Why did an artist who turned his back on a fascist regime then reverse course and acquiesce to it? Nobody really knows, and it's this mystery that has provoked Mr. Kehlmann's curiosity. The real-life Pabst maintained that he had gone to Austria on family business but was stuck there when the war broke out, his tickets for a U.S.-bound ocean liner folded uselessly in his pocket. Film scholars who contested this explanation include Lotte Eisner, the doyenne of Expressionist cinema, who once remembered telling Pabst that 'the man with the perfect alibi is always the guilty one.'
