Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Day 98, Sunday 7 May 1933: Max Liebermann quits the Academy: art "has nothing to do with politics or ancestry"

Day 98 of 100

Max Liebermann quits the Academy: art “has nothing to do with politics or ancestry”

Max Liebermann, one of Germany’s most successful painters, gave up his honorary presidency of the Prussian Academy of Arts and resigned his membership after the Academy decided to exhibit no more works by Jewish artists. In Kiel the former Nationalist Reichstag leader Ernst Oberfohren shot himself, and in Berlin the former German tennis champion Nelly Neppach, excluded as a Jew, took her own life. Hitler addressed the SA in Kiel; Hindenburg attended the Berlin students’ semester service. Germans marked Brahms’s centenary, and Hertha BSC crashed out of the football championship 4–1 at Allenstein.

An elderly man with a white moustache in a light suit and hat standing outdoors
Max Liebermann in front of his summer villa at Wannsee, July 1932. For context Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-00355 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Liebermann was 85, a former president of the Academy and its honorary president. With the Academy’s announcement that it would no longer show work by Jewish artists, and his dismissal under the civil service law of 7 April in prospect, he resigned first. His statement was printed in the Jewish Central-Verein’s newspaper four days later. He died in his house on Pariser Platz on 8 February 1935.

Politics and power

Government, terror and persecution

  1. Persecution Berlin, Pariser Platz

    Liebermann resigns from the Academy of Arts

    Max Liebermann laid down his honorary presidency of the Prussian Academy of Arts and declared his resignation, after the Academy announced that it would no longer exhibit works by Jewish artists. He had been a full member for more than thirty years and its president for twelve.1,2

  2. Opposition about 12:00, Kiel

    Oberfohren shoots himself in Kiel

    At about noon Ernst Oberfohren, a schoolteacher and former chairman of the German National (DNVP) group in the Reichstag, shot himself in his flat on the Bismarck-Allee in Kiel while his wife was briefly out. The police attributed it to overstrained nerves. The next day the DNVP published a letter of 12 April in which he admitted to Hugenberg that he had acted wrongly in their dispute in the parliamentary group.3

  3. Propaganda Kiel

    Hitler at the SA rally in Kiel

    Hitler flew to Kiel in the morning to take part in the great rally of the SA of the “Nordmark” (Schleswig-Holstein).8

  4. Government Berlin

    Kyffhäuser veterans’ league declares for the new Germany

    At an extraordinary meeting in Berlin, attended by a representative of the Nazi Party, the executive of the Kyffhäuser league of ex-servicemen gave its president, General von Horn, sole leadership. In a proclamation to its 30,000 member associations Horn declared the league’s allegiance to the “new Germany” and announced negotiations with the Nazi leadership on its reorganisation.3

Everyday life

What else was happening in Germany

  1. Sport Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Prager Straße

    Nelly Neppach takes her own life

    Nelly Neppach, born Bamberger in Frankfurt in 1891, German women’s tennis champion in 1925 and a member of Tennis Borussia, poisoned herself in her flat at Prager Straße 24 in Wilmersdorf. Her club had declared itself “free of Jews” that spring and the German Tennis Federation had removed all “non-Aryan” players.5,4,9

    Sources disagree. The district’s Stolperstein biography dates her death to the night of 7 to 8 May; a press report printed on 8 May with a dateline of 7 May speaks of “yesterday”, and the Montagspost of 8 May already reported it.

  2. Religion Berlin, Dreifaltigkeitskirche

    Hindenburg at the students’ semester service

    In the presence of Hindenburg and the rectors of Berlin’s universities and colleges, the Berlin students held their service for the start of the semester in the Trinity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche), with 65 student corporations lining the way. Hindenburg told the students to work with God and to put the fatherland above the parties.4

  3. Music Hamburg

    Brahms at 100

    On the hundredth birthday of Johannes Brahms, concerts and ceremonies were held across Germany. In his native Hamburg the Senate held a state ceremony in the Musikhalle, where the mayor presented the bronze Brahms medal to Professor Spengel, Eugen Papst and Professor Alfred Sittard and paid tribute to Dr Muck, under whose baton Brahms’s works had so often been heard in that hall.7

  4. Sport Allenstein; Wiesbaden

    Hertha knocked out at Allenstein

    In the first round of the German football championship, the Berlin champions Hertha BSC lost 4–1 at Allenstein to SV Hindenburg Allenstein, the sensation of the day; Dresdner SC and Hamburger SV were also eliminated. In Wiesbaden Germany completed a clear Davis Cup win over Egypt, watched by the Reich Sports Commissioner.6,4

Voices

I have tried throughout my long life to serve German art with all my strength. In my conviction art has nothing to do with politics or ancestry; I can therefore no longer belong to the Prussian Academy of Arts.

Max Liebermann, painter, honorary president of the Prussian Academy of Arts Statement on his resignation of 7 May 1933, published on 11 May 1933 in the C.V.-Zeitung, as quoted by the Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee Translated by this site.1

In Berlin today

A pale five-storey building with tall windows on a square, a long exhibition banner on its front and the edge of a classical gate on the left
Haus Liebermann on Pariser Platz, next to the Brandenburg Gate, in June 2025, hung with a banner for the exhibition ‘Liebermanns Welt’. Roy Zuo / CC BY-SA 4.0. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Haus Liebermann

Pariser Platz 7, 10117 Berlin-Mitte

Then
Max Liebermann, who lived in his house on Pariser Platz, resigned from the Prussian Academy of Arts on 7 May 1933. He died there on 8 February 1935.1
Today
A Stolperstein for his widow Martha Liebermann was laid at Pariser Platz in 2005.

Open in OpenStreetMap

A small square brass plaque set in paving, engraved with Robert Neppach's name and dates
The Stolperstein for Robert Neppach, laid beside his wife Nelly’s and photographed the day after it was laid in October 2015. It records that he was forced to give up his firm in 1936, fled to Switzerland in 1938 and took his own life on 18 August 1939. OTFW , Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stolpersteine for Nelly and Robert Neppach

Corner of Nachodstraße and Prager Straße, 10779 Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Then
Nelly Neppach, former German tennis champion, took her own life in the couple’s flat at Prager Straße 24 in May 1933 after being excluded from German tennis as a Jew.5
Today
Because the house no longer exists, Stolpersteine for Nelly and Robert Neppach were set into the pavement at the corner of Nachodstraße and Prager Straße on 22 October 2015; hers reads “humiliated / deprived of rights”.

Open in OpenStreetMap

More pictures

A woman in a white tennis dress and headband on a tennis court
Nelly Neppach at the French international tennis championships at Saint-Cloud, May 1927. For context Agence Rol. Agence photographique (commanditaire). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A small brass plaque set into paving stones, engraved with Nelly Neppach's name and dates
Stolperstein for Nelly Neppach in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, photographed the day after it was laid in October 2015. For context OTFW , Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  1. Max Liebermann – Berliner, Jude und Preuße Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee
  2. LeMO Biografie: Max Liebermann Deutsches Historisches Museum
  3. Badische Presse, 8 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2, "Selbstmord Oberfohrens" (Kiel, 8 May) and the Kyffhäuserbund statement
  4. Freiberger Anzeiger und Tageblatt, 9 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2, "Semesteranfangsgottesdienst der Berliner Studentenschaft"; p. 6, "Selbstmord Nelly Neppachs" and the Davis Cup; p. 7, the Oberfohren letter
  5. Stolpersteine Prager Straße / Ecke Nachodstraße Bezirksamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (berlin.de)
  6. Morgen-Zeitung (Velbert), 8 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 7, first round of the German football championship
  7. Hamburger Fremdenblatt, Reichsausgabe, 8 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 5, "Hamburg und das Reich feiern Brahms. Staatlicher Festakt in der Musikhalle"
  8. Der sächsische Erzähler (Bischofswerdaer Tageblatt), 8 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 1, report from Berlin, 7 May, on Hitler in Kiel
  9. Der Erft-Bote, 8 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 3, "Weitere Selbstmorde: Nelly Neppach"

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