Haus der Kunst

Art won over oppression at Munich's

Haus der Kunst (House of Art)

CHALLENGING: Signs for avant garde art on display outside the museum.

The massive triumphalist architecture of this Munich art museum seems like something out of a megalomaniac's daydream - and it is.

None other than Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had the blueprints for the museum drawn up shortly after he came to power in 1933.

Today it survives as one of the world's pre-eminent institutions of avant garde and modern art, just the kind of stuff that sent Hitler round the twist.

Exhibitions are always changing, so check out the website to see what's current.

Dark days

The 160m-long museum with its Doric colonnaded facade was finished in 1937. Though Hitler and his fascist mates preferred paintings of strong, blond heroes doing strong, blond deeds, surrealist and expressionist exhibitions were allowed, generally to be spat upon before the works were burned or sold off overseas.

POSH: The entrance to P1 nightclub..

New beginnings

The museum came away from the bombing of Munich unscathed - the
Allies wanted to use it after the war, when it became an officers' mess for the Americans called P1.

P1 lives on as a posh nightclub underneath the museum, infamous for its expensive drinks and celebrity pulling power.

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