Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger (1902–1994)

Eisenmenger was already involved in National Socialist cultural work at a time when the Nazi Party was prohibited in Austria. In 1939 he officially joined the Nazi Party and also became president of the Vienna Künstlerhaus. Nazi cultural policymakers viewed him as an indispensable artist and he was exempt from serving in the Wehrmacht (Armed Forces). He completed several commissions for Adolf Hitler and was entered into the Gottbegnadetenliste—a list of artists considered “divinely gifted” by the Nazi Propaganda Ministry. It was the highest Nazi honour for artists.

Despite having received this great distinction from the Nazi regime, in 1947 he was classified as a “lesser offender” and was able to continue his career. From 1951 he was a professor at the Vienna Technical University. For the reopened Vienna State Opera he designed the central stage curtain—the centrepiece of the opera house, which became a symbol of Austria’s new consciousness as a “cultural nation”. In an interview about his Nazi past in 1985, he portrayed himself as a victim who had suffered under denazification.