Richard Müller,an important artist approved by Nazism

Richard Müller 1874-1954, has such an artistic talent that at the age of only 14, he was accepted to the famous School of the Royal Saxon Porcelain Manufactory in Meissen. At the age of 16 he attained a place in the Dresden Academy. In 1895 he met the graphic artist and sculptor Max Klinger, who inspired him to begin with etching and so he became a superlative etcher by the age of 21. In 1900, Müller was appointed professor at the Dresden Academy. His students included George Grosz and Otto Dix. In 1933, shortly after Hitler had seized power, he became president of the Dresden Academy and, in such capacity, confirmed the dismissal of his former student Otto Dix from his professorship. But also Müller lost his professorship two years later because of "subversive tendencies in his art". Nevertheless, Müller remained in high esteem as a painter under the Nazi régime. He exhibited several times at the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich's Haus der Deutschen Kunst, in 1939 with a pencil drawing of Hitler's birthplace. In the final phase of the Second World War, he was included in the Gottbegnadeten Liste (a 36-page list of artists considered crucial to Nazi culture. The list exempted the designated artists from military mobilization during the final stages of World War II). Müller died in 1954 at the age of 80 in Dresden. (WEIMAR)