Critique of "Germania" by Adolf Hitler

Hitler portrays “Germania” or Germany as a woman clothed in costly silk shawl. Germania is like unto a graceful, attractive, elegant, and fertile woman. The expression on her face is carefree and relaxed, showing no distress or worry. Her clothes are light and flowing as she enjoys a pleasant breeze.

Point: He is attempting to reinforce Germany’s supposed greatness and wealth in an effort to arouse the people into national unity and strength. Essentially, whatever will increase the German people’s pride and confidence will strengthen the nation as a whole.

Audience: Germans in 1912

Organization/execution of argument:

Ethos: Hitler uses a figure not unlike the flowing-robed statues made by Greek and Roman artisans anciently, including facial structure and style of clothing. The figure reminds the observer of female deities in the ancient pantheons. He attempts to justify his argument by recurring to well-established, acceptable artistic themes.

Pathos: By portraying Germany as a goddess flourishing in luxury, he incites the people to nationalistic pride. They associate their current nation and state to the republics and empires of antiquity. They also feel that Germany is rich, fertile, and beautiful, with a bright future in the outlook. Even though the woman’s environment is not shown in the illustration, a gentle, cool breeze seems to be flowing toward her, as her loose, apparently comfortable robe lifts in the air; this makes the observer feel that Germany is a hospitable, pleasant environment.

Logos: In 1912 Germany was under the imperial rule of William II, during which reign William’s aggressive foreign policies left Germany more and more isolated from the rest of the world. Tensions in middle Europe eventually escalated to a boiling point, at which the first shots of World War I were fired. Germany was not necessarily living in the lap of luxury, although it was not destitute as it became in later years. Hitler’s portrayal of Germany may not be completely accurate according to the socioeconomic circumstances of the era, yet other nations have envisioned themselves as noble, feminine forms themselves to underscore their strengths (such as the US and France).

Effectiveness:

Despite Hitler’s attempt to display Germany as a feminine figure of beauty, he was never very skilled at illustrating animate, moving objects. Although he was very skilled at still illustrations, figure forms were never his forte, and he was not accepted into the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts because of his poor figure form skills. This figure itself, when examined closely, does not exhibit highly feminine forms. The arms, for example, are not slender as women’s arms were and are considered to be. The face is wide, and the only semblance of femininity is the long, flowing hair and the accented eyelashes.
Even though Hitler did play a grand role in uniting Germans leading up to World War II, this painting has gone largely unknown. Art critics denounce it as mediocre and unrefined.

WATCO portraying Germany as successful and bounteous ON the overall morale and unity of the German people (of 1912)?

Anything which improves the appearance of Germany will lead to greater morale and nationalistic unity among the Germans themselves and will strengthen the state.

STAR:
Sufficient- It was not sufficient enough to have an influence on Germans in the pre-WWI period because it went largely unnoticed. Hitler's ability to draw humans was mediocre at best and, therefore, received little attention from any art-viewing crowds.

T- What does T stand for again? For some reason I didn't write it in my notes.

Accurate- The work is of a woman, and women do exist, so the work in one way is "realistic." There certainly are women who have similar body compositions to the imaginary goddess depicted, though her features are not accurate when compared to paintings of the same ilk. The idea that Germany was "footloose and fancy free" without a care in the world, living in the lap of luxury, was largely false. Germany was not destitute, though it was by no means the most powerful country in Europe. As stated before, William II was driving Germany more and more into isolation, both culturally and economically, from the rest of the world.

Revelant- The fact that dischord existed among the Germanic communities is evident through history. Unification of the many tribes and villages would indeed assist in stabilizing and strengthening the region, so the issue argued is very relevant.