The Fourth Reich in Word and Deed (4)
Herbert Kuhner
Monsignor Otto Mauer
Caretaker and Pater Familias
Monsignor Otto Mauer, pater familias of the actionists, was the official Catholic “caretaker of souls” for artists.
Otto Mauer in 1948, the years after the Holocaust: “The Jews have immense influence on communism and capitalism. They pass themselves off as defenders of humanity…but they are nothing but a depraved people with a perverted spirit….They have been condemned to eternal damnation….They invariably choose the evil path.”
I read the this statement at an event commemorating Mauer at the Archbishop’s Palace in Vienna on October 27, 1999. This was filmed by Fritz Kleibel, Title: “Harry’s Concert.”
Along with Bishop Alois Hudal, who was located at the Vatican, Mauer was an organizer of the Vatican Ratline and aided escaping Nazis, as well as those who remained in Austria.
Bishop Alois Hudal, Christmas, 1945: “I am delighted to greet 110 wanted war criminals. They can be hunted far and wide. Here they are safe.”
“The bishop (Hudal) entered the room and greeted me with outstretched arms and said, ‘You must be Franz Stangl. I’ve been waiting for you.’”
(Franz Stangl was Commandant of Treblinka Concentration Camp.)
Among Mauer’s protégés was former Third Reich publicist Otto Schulmeister, who in turn supported Mauer. Mauer and Schulmeister collaborated as editors on the Catholic cultural monthly Wort und Wahrheit together, which they founded in the Fifties.
Otto Schulmeister, 1989: “There were many swine at the time, not only brown ones.” Asked whether he regretted what he had written during the Third Reich in National Socialist organs, he replied: “Not in the least!”
In 1949 Mauer was more “conciliatory.” He wrote: “There is a solution to the Jewish problem, but just one: the Jews must recognize Christ as the Messiah, the heathens must become Christians…”
Bishop Egon Kapellari, Austria’s Bishop for Art: “Monsignor Otto Mauer, the unforgotten sponsor of contemporary art of his time, wrote in his renowned text, “A Discourse on Art,” that he was aware that society, yes even the state, had to defend itself against anti-humanistic, racial discriminatory, anti-Semitic, etc. art. ”
Otto Mauer, during the Third Reich: “The artist is in league with the devil, either as one possessed or as an exorcist.”
As a fledgling “actionist” Mühl enjoyed the support of Otto Mauer.
Mauer to artist Günther Kraus: “A good Catholic cannot be a good artist.”
Mauer labeled the object-artist Padhi Friebeger as a heretic. Then he offered to promote Frieberger if he joined the Catholic Church.
In 1949, Mauer was more “conciliatory.” He wrote: “There is a solution to the Jewish problem, but just one: the Jews must recognize Christ as the Messiah, the heathens must become Christians…”
Bishop Egon Kapellari, Austria’s Bishop for Art: “Monsignor Otto Mauer, the unforgotten sponsor of contemporary art of his time, wrote in his renowned text, “A Discourse on Art,” that he was aware that society, yes even the state, had to defend itself against anti-humanistic, racial discriminatory, anti-Semitic, etc. art. ”
Josef Dvorak about Otto Mauer: “He thought that Otto Mühl and Hermann Nitsch were much better suited to his gallery than mine. That is why his intrigue against me was unlimited.”
Otto Mauer “created” the actionists and he “minted” their spirit, which has become ubiquitous in the art world. Actionism did not develop anti-humanistic tendencies; they were apparent right off the bat. Monsignor Mauer was instrumental in making actionism socially acceptable, as well as officially acceptable in Austria. What’s more, actionism never would have caught on the way it did, had its pivotal promoter not been a man of the cloth.
On April 17, 1967, Mühl along with Oswald Wiener and Peter Weibel presented an actionist performance in Mauer’s Gallery St. Stephan. (This was followed by the sado-masochistic extravaganza at the University of Vienna on June 7th.) Mühl had made a name for himself by engaging in public fecal orgies. In Weibel/Export’s Wien book, he is depicted with Hanel Koeck. These were to serve as the basis for the “failed experiment.”(Ms. Koeck is an Actionism groupie and has also engaged in similar performances with Hermann Nitsch. )
Here is Otto Mühl during the time he was being promoted by Otto Mauer;
“Mühl appropriately propagates ‘MURDER AS ART’: ‘in the past, animals and humans were tortured and killed ritualistically….today animals are slaughtered on masse….and art should stand idly by. NO! DIRECT ART ALSO DEMANDS THE BLOOD TOLL TO WHICH IT IS ENTITLED! ….Mühl also demands the freedom to slaughter human beings in public. No one should be slaughtered against his will’….In accord with the senselessness of people being killed on a daily basis Mühl considers this action ‘a means of expression justified in our society.’”
Hermann Nitzsch: “What a wonderful cock Rudi (Schwarzkogler) had. Why didn’t he bequeath his body to me? It was wasted when Brother Rudi was buried by Monsignor Mauer.”
Rudolf Schwarzkogler committed suicide in 1969 as the final “action.” It is alleged that he cut off his penis before defenestrating himself. After Rudolf Schwarzkogkler’s suicide, a commemorative exhibit for him was presented at St. Stephan’s Gallery under the aegis of Otto Mauer. The exhibit poster showed a man, naked from the waist up, with his eyes covered by a bloodstained white blindfold. Thus, Schwarzkogler’s death was presented as a “Showbiz” event.
Bishop Egon Kapellari: “I had a public discussion with Herr Nitsch at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna last year. At that occasion I pointed out to him that his representation of Jesus Christ in the libretto of The Conquest of Jerusalem was totally unacceptable ”
However, Dr. Kapellari’s objections did not dissuade three priests from blessing the new Nitsch Museum in Mistelbach, Lower Austria.
Bishop Kapellari: “Monsignor Otto Mauer, the unforgotten sponsor of contemporary art of his time…”
It is illogical to venerate Dr. Frankenstein while condemning the Frankenstein monster(s).
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