Negation in a Six Pack, Art, Religion, Revisionism and the Republican Club
Herbert Kuhner
From Violence under the Guise of Art
Claus and Klaus: Claus (Peymann) invited Otto Mühl to perform in the Burgtheater in November of 1998. Klaus invited Hermann Nitsch in November of 2005 to perform in “the Temple of language” (Klaus Bachler).
Austria’s Bishop for Art, Egon Kapellari, in the Salzburger Nachrichten: “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 in 1948, three 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.”
A year later Mauer was more “conciliatory.” In 1949 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…”
Otto Mauer, during the Third Reich: “The artist is in league with the devil, either as one possessed or as an exorcist.”
Otto Mauer, pater familias of the actionists, was the official Catholic “caretaker of souls” for artists.
As a fledgling actionists, Hermann Nitsch and Otto Mühl enjoyed the support of the late Monsignor Otto Mauer. Mauer, along with Bishop Alois Hudal, who was located at the Vatican, was a member of the Ratline and aided escaping Nazis, as well as those who remained in Austria. 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!”
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” of the Mühl Commune. (Ms. Koeck is an Actionism groupie and has also engaged in performances with Hermann Nitsch. )
In the “Partitur” to his 6-Day Feast and The Conquest of Jerusalem, Nitsch describes the laceration and desecration of women’s and children’s bodies.
Here is a quotation from the Partitur: “A 7-year old boy is nailed to the wall as if crucified. His head is beaten and shattered with rectangular stones, his bloody brains come out. The bloody brain is rinsed and washed with lukewarm sugar-water.”
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 ”
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).
Peter Weibel, Der Standard: “Nitsch appeared wearing the vestments that that a priest uses for the Mass. (Hanel) Koeck, among other things, was bound to a cross and a dildo was placed in her vagina. Then Koeck placed it in Nitsch’s mouth. A lacerated sheep, the blood-soaked innards of a hare and an ox were brought into analogy with the woman’s body. Then Nitsch copulated symbolically with Koeck with the aid of the dildo.”
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. )
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.
Otto Mühl:”Blasphemy, obscenity, charlatanism, sadistic excesses, orgies, the aesthetics of the cesspool are our moral means. “Everything is worthy of presentation….That includes rape and murder.” “Coitus, torture and the annihilation of man and beast is the only drama worth viewing….Murder is an integral part of sex. House pets have to serve as surrogates. I intend to commit the perfect murder on a goat that will serve as a substitute for a woman. In my next films humans will be slaughtered. Slaughtering humans must not continue to be a monopoly of the state. It will soon become an ethical necessity to rob banks and to shoot a random cripple down.”
It stood to reason that a man who had publicly copulated while wallowing in excrement, a man who had decapitated a goose and used the neck to penetrate a woman was suited to direct a commune and be the guardian of children. There he reigned for almost two decades while the funding flowed in and praise came from the highest places.
Otto Mühl’s trial in Eisenstadt ended with a conviction and a seven-year sentence for “the sexual abuse of minors, rape and forced abortion.”
Here is a segment of an article in Der Spiegel of March 1, 2004: “Prior the opening of Mühl-Show in MAK, which they consider to be an attempt to rehabilitate the artist, two young women have come forward to present new accusations. They claim that Mühl not only abused teenagers, as has already been confirmed, but small children as well. In sworn statements the two victims describe how Mühl forced them to participate in sexual actions when they were small children. One of the women, who is now 29 years old, describes how Mühl forced her to engage in sexual actions with him in front of the leadership of the commune at the age of five. Both women state that at the time of Mühl’s trial, they were forced to remain silent about these occurrences by members of the Commune.”
On March 5, 2004, at the presentation of Otmar Bauer’s book, 1968, Bauer stated that the children in Otto Mühl’s new commune in Algarve, Portugal had been sexually abused. Bauer was co-founder of the original Mühl Commune.
According to another source Children are regularly being transported from Friedrichshof to Algarve and back.
Günther Brus: “Hermann Nitsch stated in an interview on a German channel that we were all guilty of having committed transgressions, but they caught Mühl at it, and now he has to atone for all of us.”
Referring to the interview: “If your daughter were to be placed on a stage with shaven head and have her sex organ penetrated under the direction of Herr Nitsch, I would like to know whether you would still speak about ‘the freedom of art.’”
Hermann Nitsch about his colleague: “Mühl’s specialty is minors and sex and my specialty is the agonizing torture of animals.”
Otto Mühl about his colleague: “Nitsch is a sadist with a mania for approbation, an autistic alcoholic who’s completely narcissistic and a mother’s boy who didn’t get enough attention. Rainer is genuinely violent and a sadist. Nitsch torments the participants in his actions; they’re constantly freezing. He arranges that intentionally. I’d like to know how many became ill, how many caught pneumonia, how many died.”
Hermann Nitsch: “The intoxication created by the blood and the ripping apart of raw flesh should be satisfying and enjoyable since it relieves man of his suppressed desires….Killing was, and is, beyond all moral judgments.” “If possible I would prefer to work with human beings, with dead human beings, with corpses to be specific.” “I could well envision that murder could be a component of a work of art; the artist’s accountability would have another status….Thus, art can consist of a crime.”
In the”Partitur” to his “6-Day Feast” and The Conquest of Jerusalem, Nitsch describes the laceration and desecration of women’s and children’s bodies. Here is a quotation: “A 7-year old boy is nailed to the wall as if crucified. His head is beaten and shattered with rectangular stones, his bloody brains come out. The bloody brain is rinsed and washed with lukewarm sugar-water.”
A key quotation by Nitsch: “I no longer intend to place a humane corset on my work.”
The pernicious spirit of the Third Reich has been channeled into the arts, flowing with great ease, with no end in sight. The sado-masochistic ideology espouses extreme forms of violence such as pedophilia, rape and murder, including political assassination, and the vilification and killing of cripples. Its advocates operate under the sanctified carapace of art, while journalists bow low in abject approval and politicians dance to their tunes.
Revisionism “vs.” Actionism
Revisionists are those who look at the barbarism of yesteryear through rose-colored binoculars. A revisionist is not opposed to violence per se, he simply assumes the role critic when its perpetrators and advocates are associated with another political camp. This boils down to the pot calling the kettle black.
Advocates and practitioners of violence under the guise of art in are being coddled and propelled forward in Austria by the powers-that-be. What a blessing for the revisionists! They are being served the best cards on a silver tray, enabling them to flay present events as well as play down the past.
The situation is, of course, grist for the revisionist mill and they use it in order to disseminate their lies. A revisionist is not opposed to violence per se, he simply assumes the role of critic when its perpetrators and advocates are associated with another political camp.
One and a half million children were murdered by National Socialists. Those who attempt to rehabilitate the Third Reich are not genuinely interested in the fate of children, to put mildly.
Sometimes the wrong man says the right thing for the wrong cause.
By opposing actionism, the revisionists help perpetuate it.
Right-wing Freedom Party politician Edwald Stadler is a staunch opponent of the actionist violence cult but a staunch defender of right-wing Bishop Kurt Krenn. Under the good bishop’s aegis, seminary students in St. Pölten downloaded children’s pornography from internet thousand-fold. The purpose is to discredit the Left and defend the Right.
Krenn helped cultivate the “Anderl von Rinn Legend,” an anti-Semitic concoction which claims that
a Catholic boy ritually murdered by Jews in the Middle Ages.
Stadler on the bishop: “Krenn will be remembered with nostalgia. The Catholics who adhere to tradition have no one to lead them now. There are thousands in Lower Austria alone.
And Stadler on yesteryear: “In 1945 we were allegedly liberated from fascism and from tyranny and then we entered the next tyranny.”
Advocates and practitioners of violence under the guise of art in are being coddled and propelled forward in Austria by the powers-that-be. What a blessing for the revisionists! They are being served the best cards on a silver tray, enabling them to flay present events as well as play down the past.
Hitler had Roehm and his SA-henchman done away with in June of ‘34. Roehm was Hitler’s adversary, but he was anything but an anti-Nazi. Which goes to show that birds of a feather don’t always flock together. That same year, Hitler ordered the murder of Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. Dollfuss was an anti-Nazi, but not an anti-fascist. Stalin was an anti-fascist, but he was not anti-totalitarian. It is essential to know what one favors as well as what one opposes.
When Josef Goebbels publicized the Soviet massacre of Polish officers in Katyn in 1941, he did so because it fit into his concept. We know that he was not opposed to massacres, for the murders he was responsible for and approved of were million-fold.
Demagogues don’t always have to lie. They tell the truth when it serves their purposes.
No liar lies all the time. Even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day.
A demagogue cannot turn a lie into the truth, nor can he turn the truth into a lie.
Violence for its own sake is the antithesis of anti-fascism.
Crime and art have been combined in actionism. Crime is part and parcel of actionist art, and this element is a primary factor in the sales pitch and an integral part of the market package.
Freedom and Art
Freedom of art in Austria means unlimited freedom for some, and the drastic limitation of the freedom of others.
Only one view is tolerated: “Viennese actionism can no longer be the basis for dispute in a civilized state; it has been canonized for quite some time and has found its place in museums. Today anyone who opposes actionism simply disqualifies himself.”
- Sigrid Löffler, critic
Those who do not agree with the proceedings invariably keep mum. Anyone with a genuine critical view is lumped together with the revisionists and smeared with a brown brush.
“We have learned from Hermann Nitsch. We have begun to understand him….Now we think more profoundly. Only the adherents of National Socialism do not understand him.
- Alfred Worm, editor-in-chief of News
In the Third Reich there was a legion of perpetrators and a multitude of fellow travelers. The fellow travelers enabled the perpetrators to murder millions, including members of my family. I don‘t want to live my life as a fellow traveler, especially in the former killing grounds.
The present is a key to understanding the past, as well as vice versa. You cannot circumvent the subject of actionism if you want to determine how the past has affected the present.
How the past manifests itself on the present is one of my major literary themes. This does not jell well with the powers-that-be.
“What could they do that they haven’t done? Throw you in jail?”
- Feliks J. Bister, former editor of Das Menschenrecht (Human Rights)
I am not an advocate of censorship, but rather a victim of it. I am indeed guilty of writing on these matters and trying to initiate a public discussion. Commenting has brought tremendous repercussions. The primary tactic is “now you see him, now you don’t.” Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of the “tactician” before he glides out of sight.
Here’s an example:
One of my stories, Princeton nostalgisch/ Nostalgia for Princeton, was included in Das kann einem nur in Wien passieren: Alltagsgeschichten/ Only in Vienna: Stories of Everyday Events, edited by Ruth Wodak, Czernin Verlag, 2001.
This is from the cover blurb: “These ‘stories of everyday occurrences’ comprise a collection of impressions, experiences and stories that many who live in Vienna have or could have encountered. However, not just anyone, but Jews of three generations.”
After publication, Gabriel Lansky met with Ruth Wodak in her apartment. Two other people attended. Dr. Lansky told her emphatically that I should not have been included in her book.
I had no dealings with Dr. Lansky whatsoever, in fact I had never even met him.
Dr. Lansky, among other things is the legal advisor to the Socialist Party and the Jewish Community.
Here we have a person, who is associated with the Jewish Community, telling the editor of a collection of Jewish writing that Jewish remigré, who has lost members of his family in the Holocaust, should not have been included in her collection.
When such an influential man blocks you in this manner, your chances as an author are very limited on this piece of territory.
I do not know the motive for Dr. Lansky’s gambit. I can only assume that it is due to views expressed concerning Violence under the Guise of Art.
Proposal
In June of 2005, three events of the Republican Club, New Austria were held in conjunction with the Charim Gallery in Vienna, which is the control center for Otto Mühl and actionist art in Austria.
Those hucksters and promoters of Otto Mühl’s work are disseminating the spirit of Mühl. These two elements are inseparable.
I wrote Doron Rabinovici, Club Board Member, suggesting that I present a program, including a discussion, on the subject of Art and Violence. On Feb. 13, 2006, I received the following answer: “I will present your program suggestion to other board members, but I for one, oppose it. I don’t find the topic relevant. It doesn’t fit in our discussion series. There is no reason for us to do it. It doesn’t fit into the dramaturgy of our events. We favor a debate on a topical and controversial subject that reflects the interests of our members.”
What I took to be a lion’s den turned out to be a mouse-hole.
Comment by filmmaker Fritz Kleibel: “Negation in a six pack! - Naturally the theme does not reflect the interests of hardly anyone in the Club, many have probably invested in this type of art and they don’t want to run any risks.”
Yes, it is so irrelevant that even mentioning it is taboo.
It is so irrelevant that in spite of testimonies describing the sexual abuse of small children, things are left to run their course.
Coda
“The Nazis attempted to destroy art from the outside. Those who practice destruction today have taken over on the inside and are destroying art from within.”
- Padhi Frieberger, object-artist and photographer
1) Herner Feuilleton, Aug. 24, 2005.
2) Salzburger Nachrichten, “Spiritual Resistance” Bishop Egon Kapillari
interviewed by Martin Behr, p. 14, Nov. 19, 2005.
3) Hugo Löwy: “Warum Haß?” Renaissance, No. 10, May, 1948, p. 10: quoted
from a lecture by Otto Mauer on April 10, 1948 at the Volkshochschule
Alsergrund for the “Circle for Christian and Jewish Problems”; also referred to
in No. 18, Jan. 1949; researched by Dr. Evelyn Adunka.
4) Renaissance, No. 18, January, 1949.
5) Günther Nenning : “Was Not tat,” Die Presse, Sept. 11, 1999, Spectrum, p. V, Vienna; original source, Otto Mauer, These zur Kunst, 1941.
6) Albert Massiczek: Ich habe meine Pflicht erfüllt. Von der SS in den
Widerstand. Ein Lebensbericht; Vol. 2, Junius Verlag, Vienna, 1989, p. 147; Albert Massiczek: “Elefantenhütig oder die Unschuld von Österreich,” Falter No. 8, 1988, Vienna, p. 5.
7)Inlandsreport, ORF, July 20, 1989; Medien und Zeit, No. 3, 1989, Vienna, p. 2,
8)Ibid.
9) Peter Weibel, Valie Export, Eds.: Wien: Bildkompendium Wiener
Aktionismus
und Film, Kohlkunst Verlag, Frankfurt, 1970, p. 143.
10) Weibel/Export, Wien, p. 75-78.
11) Peter Weibel: “Ein deutscher Krimi,” Der Standard, April, 19, 1989,
Vienna, p. 23.
12) Hermann Nitsch: Orgien Mysterien Theater/Orgies Mystery Theater, März
Verlag, Darmtadt,1969; Das Orgien-Mysterien-Theaters in Schloß
Prinzendorf,
Vols.1-9, Edition Freibord, Vienna,
13) Herman Nitsch: Orgien Mysterien Theater/Orgies Mystery Theater, März
Verlag, Darmstadt, 1969, p. 297.
14) KATH.NET Catholic News Service.
15) Salzburger Nachrichten, “Spiritual Resistance” Bishop Egon Kapellari
interviewed by Martin Behr, p. 14, Nov. 19, 2005.
16) Peter Weibel: “Ein deutscher Krimi,” Der Standard, April, 19, 1989,
Vienna, p. 23.
17) Josef Dvorak: “Amoklauf der Aktionisten,” Neues Forum, Sept./Oct. 1974,
Vol. 249/250, Vienna, p. 2.
18) Kate Connoly, Adrian Searle: “The Devil in a Grey Beard,” The Guardian,
Manchester, Nov. 15, 1997.
19) Josef Dvorak: “Aus den Anfangen des Wiener Aktionismus,” Wiener,
Special Edition, Wiener Aktionismus, 1981, p.8.
20) Transparent Spezial, ORF (Austrian Radio), May 8, 1996.
21) Josef Dvorak: “Die Faschisten von heute: Antwort an Hermann Nitsch,”
Neues Forum, No. 246, June 1974, Vienna, p. 44; Otto Mühl, ZOCK,
Aspekte einer Totalrevolution 66/71 Munich, 1971; Supervisuel 6, „Otto
Mühl will Menschen schlachten,” Zurich, 1970.
22) Fritz Rumler:” Ein Problem der Umweltverschmutzung?,” Der Spiegel,
1968 (exact date illegible), Frankfurt, p. 254
23) Josef Dvorak: “Amoklauf der Aktionisten,” Neues Forum, Sept./Oct. 1974,
Nos. 249/250, p. 2.
24) Peter Weibel, Valie Export, eds.: Wien: Bildkompendium Wiener
Aktionismus und Film, Kohlkunst Verlag, Frankfurt, 1970. p. 75-78.
25) Fritz Rumler: “Ein Problem der Umweltverschmutzung?,” Der Spiegel,
1968 (exact date illegible), Frankfurt, p. 254. Otto Mühl 7, Peter Noever,
Ed., Curator, Museum for Applied Arts, Vienna, Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern,
1998, p. 142, Leda and the Swan, Perinetkeller, Vienna, 1964.
26) Andreas Schlothauer: Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität, cover blurb.
27) Jürgen Kremb: „Opfer der Kommine” Der Spiegel, No. 10, March 1, 2004,
p. 156.
28) Book presentation of Otmar Bauer’s 1968, Antiquariat “Buch und Wien”,
Schäfergasse 13a, March 5, 2004. Vienna.
29) Günter Brus, Profil, Sept. 28 1998, Nr. 40, p. 120.
30) Letter to the editor by Lore Jarosch, Neue Kronen-Zeitung, August 4, 1998,
p. 20.
31) Falter 24-30. 7, No. 30, 1998, p. 18.
32) Andreas Schlothauer, Die Diktatur der freien Sexualität p. 122
33) Gerhard Jaschke: Das rote Tuch, from Paula Devarney: “Nitsch: Art of
Killing,” Caellian, Oct. 9, 1970
34) Mojca Kumerdej: “Hermann Nitsch o smrti in Zivljenu,” Delo, Ljubljana, Oct.
3, 1992; “Im Blutrausch,” News,, No. 30/95, p. 190; “Sechs Tage blutiges
Welttheater,” News, No. 40/96, p. 190, “The Devil In a Grey Beard,”
interview with Adrian Searle, The Guardian, Manchester, Nov. 15, 1997, p.
17; News, No. 27, July, 2001, p. 7.
35) Falter 24-30. 7, No. 30, 1998, p. 18.
36) Hermann Nitsch: Orgien Mysterien Theater/Orgies Mystery Theater, März
Verlag, Dramstadt,1969; Das Orgien-Mysterien-Theaters in Schloß
Prinzendorf, Vols.1-9, Edition Freibord, Vienna,
37) Herman Nitsch: Orgien Mysterien Theater/Orgies Mystery Theater, März
Verlag, Dramstadt, 1969, p. 297.
38) Fritz Billeter, Tages-Anzeiger, Zurich, July 12, 1974, Letter to the editor in
Neues Forum, Vienna, Sept./Oct. 1974, p. 4
39) Die Welt, Nov. 29, 2005.
40) Österreich Nachrichten Online, no date given.
41) Katholische Nachrichten Online, Oct. 2004.
42) Ewald Stadler, May 8, 2002; Der Standard, 5. Juli 2002.
43) Sigrid Löffler: “Banausie am Balhausplatz,” Profil, No. 39, Sept. 21,
1992, Vienna, p. 11.
44) Club 2, ORF, Feb. 7, 1995.
