MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Werner Peiner (20 July 1897 – 19 August 1984) was one of the most renowned painters of the Third Reich. This is the original design by Peiner for a huge Gobelin tapestry for the library of Carinhall, the country residence of Nazi military leader Hermann Göring, northeast of Berlin. The Gobelin tapestry was created based on this design measuring 10.2 x 7.1 metres, and went into production at the Manufacture des Gobelins in Paris, renowned for making tapestries for Louis XIV and Napoleon. Der Thronhimmel had not been completed when the Americans liberated Paris in 1944, and the unfinished Gobelin tapestry found its way into the possession of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Along with three female figures representing Gerechtigkeit (justice), Tapferkeit (bravery) and Weisheit (wisdom), we see figures such as Siegfried, hero of Germanic mythology, and Roman god Hercules in the design. We see from Peiner’s design, intended for a residence filled with looted art from across Europe, that German culture under Nazism was conceptualised within Germanic and Greco-Roman mythology.