Tainted by Nazism? Merkel returns two Nolde paintings

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to take down two paintings by Emil Nolde from her office walls has touched off a heated German debate as an exhibition on the Expressionist painter and his links to the Nazis opened in Berlin. Organisers of the show “Emil Nolde, a German Legend: The Artist During National Socialism,” had asked Merkel for one of two paintings on loan to her. But she decided to send both — a 1915 painting of flowers in a garden and the 1936 work “Breakers”, her spokesman Steffen Seibert said. No explanation was given for the decision. Neither was an official reason offered as to why Merkel would not want them back when the exhibition closes in September. But the move was quickly interpreted by German media as a belated rejection by Merkel of the artist over his anti-Sem