Controversial concept for museum changed?

At least one thing is undisputed: the planned museum is to be built on the grounds of the Kunststätte Bossard, or Bossard Arts Center, where the Swiss sculptor and painter Johann Bossard established an art complex around his studio and house in 1911. 

As previously reported by DW last week, the planned museum has led to controversy due to Bossard's political views: He was an anti-Semite and a fervent Adolf Hitler supporter.

Residents of the town of Jesteburg (about 25 kilometers south of Hamburg), where the Bossard Site of Arts is located, fear that the new building could create a pilgrimage site for far-right extremists, as the orientation of the new museum is still unclear.

According to the museum's director, Gudula Mayr, it would definitely not focus on Bossard's art but rather on the art and cultural history of the region since 1830.

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However, the district assemblyman, Jörn Lütjohann of the Christian Democratic party (CDU), contacted DW in reaction to the article to say that this presentation was developed subsequently, following initial media inquiries on the project. It was first sold to the district council as "100% a Bossard Museum, with references to the Empire and to agriculture," Lütjohann said.

A secret vote

Lütjohann says that the district delegates were misled: "Many members were unaware of Johann Bossard's Nazi connection." He himself had only recently become aware of Bossard's political views. Before the meeting to decide on the project, he says that he was "urged" by his parliamentary group and his district administrator, Rainer Rempe, not to get involved in the topic. He nevertheless discussed the problem for 20 minutes, says Lütjohann. Ignoring his questions, the district council determined in a secret vote that the state was to co-finance the museum with funds of €2 million ($2.2 million).

Lütjohann continued to work on the issue and sent a five-page letter with a list of questions to district administrator Rainer Rempe in early February. He criticized the fact that Rempe had written the foreword in the exhibition catalog published in 2018, titled "Above the Abyss of Nothing: The Bossards in the Age of National Socialism." The catalog is the result of a research project about Johann Bossard and his wife Jutta during the Nazi era. Lütjohann criticizes the lack of transparency surrounding the existing ties between the director of the museum and the district administrator who is pushing the project.

The catalog also avoided quotes relevant to Bossard's anti-Semitic views: When he lost a commission for a Nazi memorial, for instance, he declared: "If only there were a Jew I could blame for this…"

Rainer Rempe, who is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Bossard Arts Center, cannot understand Lütjohann's criticism. He says his timing to start questioning the project right before the decision session was "questionable." "There would have been plenty of opportunities to discuss the issue in advance," adds the district administrator.

He also believes that the concerns of local residents involved in the "Allianz gegen den Bossard-Kunst-Bunker" (Alliance Against the Bossard Art Bunker), who fear that the museum could become a right-wing pilgrimage site, are unfounded. "We definitely don't want to indulge in National Socialist ideas," he says. According to the politician, a critical examination of the artist's Nazi-era views is to be included in the museum presentation as well.

Federal funds under scrutiny

The budget committee of the German Parliament decided last November to support the €10.7 million project with a sum of €5.4 million. As a result, some observers suspect that the museum redefined its concept along the way to avoid losing the federal funds for the project.

Otto Fricke, FDP member of the Bundestag and spokesperson for the committee, had told DW that the allocation of the funds would be re-examined if Johann Bossard was the focus of the arts center's museum expansion. Fricke has meanwhile issued a request for a report by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Monika Grütters, to determine the specific conditions for the funds to be made available.

In addition to the open questions, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new problem: "The general conditions have changed as a result of the crisis," said district administrator Rempe. It cannot be ruled out that budgets for new projects will have to be reassessed afterwards anyway. "It is currently unclear whether this will have an impact on the planning."