Rudolf Böttger

Rudolf Böttger was born on July 4, 1887 in Tachau and died on January 28, 1973 in Regensburg. He was an Austrian painter whose works are known both for their artistic quality and for their involvement in the political events of his time.

Training and first successes:

Böttger began his artistic training from 1905 to 1910 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under the guidance of Franz Rumpler and Alfred Cossmann. After a short stay at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1910, he settled in Vienna as a freelance artist in 1911.

During the First World War, he served as an officer in Russia and suffered several wounds. After the war, he became a member of the Vienna Artists’ Cooperative and took part in collective exhibitions at the Künstlerhaus from 1919.

During the Third Reich:

Even before 1938, Böttger was active as an illegal member of the NSDAP, which he attributed to his Sudeten German origins. After the annexation of Austria, he took on leading positions in the regime’s art and cultural policy. He became responsible for painting in Vienna’s Gau Cultural Council and took on representative tasks, including attending receptions hosted by Gauleiter Baldur von Schirach. His membership enabled him to participate extensively in the Great German Art Exhibitions in Munich.

Böttger cultivated close relationships with other cultural figures of the time, including Franz Karl Ginzkey, Josef Weinheber and Wilhelm Fraß. Despite his defeat in the war and the destruction of his studio and apartment in Vienna during the fighting against the Red Army in 1945, Böttger remained loyal to his NSDAP activities and did not distance himself from his earlier involvement even after 1945.

After 1945:

After the Second World War, Böttger was initially taken to a military hospital near Deggendorf and later to a military hospital in Metten due to his wounds. From 1948, he was officially allowed to travel to Austria again and regularly visited friends and acquaintances there, whom he also portrayed.

In the 1950s, Böttger spent a long time with his patron Ulla Ekman in Sweden. From 1950 onwards, he increasingly received commissions for art in architecture in Germany, which were arranged for him by architect friends.

In 1952, Böttger moved to Regensburg, where he lived until his death. He withdrew from public cultural life as he no longer felt that his artistic ideas were represented.

Later controversies:

In the 1960s, Böttger was commissioned to design the Evangelical St. Paul’s Church in Vienna despite being banned from his profession. His windows there, which depict Jesus as an Aryan youth and contain anti-Semitic images, were later covered up and eventually replaced.

Memberships and exhibitions:

Böttger was a member of the Vienna Artists’ Cooperative, the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts and later the Professional Association of Visual Artists in Regensburg as well as the Munich Old Artists’ Cooperative. He took part in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including the Biennale di Venezia in 1925 and the Great German Art Exhibitions in Munich during the Third Reich.