Kunstschutz is the German term for the principle of preserving cultural heritage and artworks during armed conflict, especially during the First and Second World Wars, with the stated aim of protecting the enemy's art and returning after the end of hostilities. It is associated with the image of the "art officer" (Kunstoffizier) or "art expert" (Kunstsachverständiger).
Kunstschutz troops of the Hermann Göring Division display artwork relocated from Naples, the most-heavily bombed Italian city during World War II, in a January 1944, ceremony in front of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. The painting, Carlo III di Borbone che visita il papa Benedetto XIV nella coffee-house del Quirinale a Roma by Giovanni Paolo Pannini, was taken from the Biblioteca del Museo Nazionale di Napoli; it hangs today in the Museo di Capodimonte (inv. Q 205)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (right) inspects artwork stored in a salt mine in Merkers, accompanied by U.S. Army Generals Omar Bradley (left) and George S. Patton (centre)
The Führermuseum or Fuhrer-Museum, also referred to as the Linz art gallery, was an unrealized art museum within a cultural complex planned by Adolf Hitler for his hometown, the Austrian city of Linz, near his birthplace of Braunau. Its purpose was to display a selection of the art bought, confiscated or stolen by the Nazis from throughout Europe during World War II. The cultural district was to be part of an overall plan to recreate Linz, turning it into a cultural capital of Nazi Germany and one of the greatest art centers of Europe, overshadowing Vienna, for which Hitler had a personal distaste. He wanted to make the city more beautiful than Budapest, so it would be the most beautiful on the Danube River, as well as an industrial powerhouse and a hub of trade; the museum was planned to be one of the greatest in Europe.
A model of Adolf Hitler's planned Führermuseum in Linz, Austria, designed by Roderich Fick based on Hitler's sketches
The design of the Führermuseum was based in part on the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich, shown above. Built in 1933–1937 and designed by Paul Ludwig Troost, with considerable input from Hitler, the Haus was one of the first monumental structures built during the Nazi era.
A model of the European Culture Centre; the facade of the Führermuseum can be seen at the centre of the image, near the top, facing the camera.
The Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum – now the Bode Museum – seen here in 1909, may have influenced Hitler's original design for a "German National Gallery".