Beuys, Naziism, and Environmentalism
A new biography of Joseph Beuys has just been published. Unlike most texts, this one does not focus on Beuys as the hero of contemporary art and a radical political visionary. Instead, the author Hans Peter Riegel dispels the mythic idolization of Beuys by providing evidence that the man behind the myth was no saint.
Most curious about these revelations is the disclosure of the connection between Germany's environmentalist Green Party and the Third Reich The biography reveals that Beuys volunteered for German military service in WWII. During the turbulent years following the war, his partners in promoting environmentalist causes were high-ranking Nazis.
Riegel cites August Haussleiter as one example. Haussleiter was a journalist who embraced Nazi ideology. Beuys and Haussleiter were founding members of the Green Party.
Werner Georg Haverbeck is another example. Haverbeck joined the SS and was appointed the Third Reich’s head of training for the Hitler Youth movement. Beuys and Haverbeck worked together in several environmental groups and committees.
Karl Fastabend joined the Nazi Party in 1932. He became a member of the SS in 1933 and later was promoted to the rank of head squad leader, the second-highest enlisted rank in the SS. In 1971, Fastabend and Beuys founded the Organization for Direct Democracy through Referendum.
While these political associations are certainly unsettling, they are also baffling because Beuys’s sculptures, performances, and installations epitomize the awakened sensibilities of one whose primary concerns exceed racism to embrace all humans, as well as all animals and all plants.
Do these associations compromise Beuys’s reputation as an enlightened artist and charismatic teacher? What is the role of an artist’s biography in assessing works of art? Consensus within the art community seems unlikely.