National Socialism and its lingering effects remained a prominent feature of West German society throughout the 1980s. Magazines such as Der Spiegel and Stern frequently fuelled the Nazi obsession with stories that oscillated between horror and curiosity. One of the most notorious episodes was the 1983 publication of the forged Hitler diaries. The reckoning with the legacy of National Socialism was defined by continuities and patterns of repression, but also by the so-called Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past), which often manifested in performative displays of moral concern (Betroffenheit). Within this climate, punk and new wave artists developed alternative forms of confrontation, employing humour, satire, and provocation as distancing strategies. In their track ‘Der Mussolini’ for instance, the band DAF discarded all ideology, chanting: ‘Tanz den Mussolini ... / Tanz den Adolf Hitler ... / Beweg deinen Hintern ... / Tanz den Jesus Christus’ (Dance the Mussolini ... / Dance the Adolf Hitler ... / Move your ass ... / Do the Jesus Christ). It was in this context that Martin Kippenberger tapped into West Germany’s fascination with fascism in works such as Heil Hitler Ihr Fetischisten (Heil Hitler You Fetishists) and the better-known Ich kann beim besten Willen kein Hakenkreuz erkennen (I Honestly Can’t See a Swastika, both 1984). In Heil Hitler Ihr Fetischisten, a crudely modelled plaster-cast arm executes a Hitler salute, while the smeared initials of the title appear above it in silicone paste. Far from being a simple provocation, the piece exemplifies Kippenberger’s ‘bad painting’ aesthetic while parodying the self-seriousness of artists such as Markus Lüpertz, Georg Baselitz, and Anselm Kiefer, as well as their compulsive engagement with Germany’s Nazi past. Here, both the iconography of fascism and the supposed taboos against its reuse are subverted—and rendered ridiculous.

WORK IN THE EXHIBITION: Heil Hitler Ihr Fetischisten (1984), oil, silicone on canvas, 89.5 × 74.5 × 2 cm, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau München, donation by Estate of Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne