The new Grohmann Museum recently opened on the campus of the Milwaulke School of Engineering, displaying some works commissioned by and produced under Germany's Third Reich. These pieces are displayed without any mention of their historical ties, raising some questions of the museum's intent. They maintain that the purpose of the collection is to educate students about art and the German industry depicted in the pieces. Join discussion...

The Grohmann Museum, part of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, opened this past October. It's first show was a cultural achievement for the school, but the display of artworks associated with the Third Reich have caused a bit of an uproar. The building features a "Kaiserdom" with nine statues of inductrial workers posted around it. While the art community has acknowledged the significance of Nazism-Era art, the lack of information explaining their background is the issue under debate. The founder Eckhart G. Grohmann was born in Germany, and donated an entire collection entitled "Men at Work" to the museum. The collection features images of steal working, farming, mining, glassblowing, and contruction. Such images of industry were largely endorsed by the Third Reich because they portrayed a productive and efficient Germany. The artist from whom most of the works came from is Erick Meckler, but other artists such as Ferdinand Staeger,Ria Picco-Rückert, and Otto Hamel. Adolf Hitler himself was an avid collector of Starger's paintings. Grohmann purchased the paintings at various auction houses throughout Germany and Switzerland, and denies that any of the displayed works glorify the third Reich or the Nazi regime. He continues to refuse to display the nature of the art, and insists that the cultural context of the works is completely irrelevant, that students at the Milwaukee Institute should focus on the actual subject of the work (industry, not Nazism) as it relates to thier studies. Some Jewish organizations have requested that the background of the artworks be put on display or at least mentioned, but as of yet none have objected to displaying the workds or even voiced strong opinions on the matter. Join discussion...