Claus Bergen, U-60 near Helgoland

Claus Bergen, U-60 near Helgoland Claus Bergen, U-60 near Helgoland Claus Bergen, U-60 near Helgoland

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Price:€ 3000.00


'U-60 near Helgoland'

SM U-60 was one of the 329 submarines of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) serving in World War I. The U-60 was built in 1916 at the AG Weser Yard in Bremen. Her Commanders were Karl Georg Schuster, Karl Jasper and Franz Grünert. The U-60 executed ten missions in the East Atlantic in World War I, in which 52 commercial ships were destroyed. The largest ship the U-60 sank was the British Vessel ‘Armadale’, on her way from Manchester to Thessaloniki, carrying troops and military equipment. Although at times U-boats were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role (commerce raiding), enforcing a naval blockade against enemy shipping. The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada, the British Empire and the United States to the islands of Great Britain and (during World War II) to the Soviet Union and the Allied countries in the Mediterranean. At the end of January 1917, Germany declared The Unrestricted U-boat Warfare. After several American commercial ships -delivering supplies to the UK- were torpedoed, the USA declared war on Germany. At the end of the war, the U-60 was handed over to the United Kingdom (21 November 1918). In the last tour, on her way to be scrapped, the U-60 stranded on the East coast of the UK and sunk. 
Technical details:
- 2400 PS, 7 torpedoes;
- 4 officers, 32 sailors;
- length 67 metre, gauge 3.74 metre, max submerge 50 metre.
At the bottom of the painting Claus Bergen made a sketch of the design of a U-boat. 

Under the German Empire the islands became a major naval base. The first naval engagement of the war, the Battle of Heligoland Bight, was fought nearby in the first month of World War I. During the Nazi era the naval base was reactivated. In World War II the civilian population remained on the main island and were protected from Allied bombing in rock shelters. Following the island's penultimate air raid, on 18 April 1945 using 969 Allied aircraft, the island was evacuated. From 1945 to 1952 Helgoland was used by the Royal Air Force as a bombing range to dispose of bombs left over from the European War and at the same time to destroy the U-boat facilities that had been developed during the war. Free fall bombs had little effect on the U-boat facilities that Hitler's Kriegsmarine had built up. The task of the disposal of munitions gave the British the chance to also destroy the facilities that free fall bombs could not. The intention was that the island could never be used as a naval base against Britain at a time when the Cold War was unfolding. On 18 April 1947, the Royal Navy detonated 6,700 tonnes of explosives (which was known as the 'Big Bang' or 'British Bang'), creating one of the biggest single non-nuclear detonations in history. While aiming at the fortifications, the island's total destruction would have been accepted. The blow shook the main island several miles down to its base, changing its shape (the Mittelland was created). In 1952 the islands were restored to the German authorities.

Helgoland (Heligoland), located 46 kilometres off the German coastline

- condition : II                    
- size : 53 x 46 cm, unframed 31 x 24 cm
- signed : left under
- type : tempera                                            
- misc. : professionally reframed; museumglass; acid free cardboard on the back


Claus Bergen, 'Kette deutscher Flugzeuge über den Wolken' ('German planes above the clouds'). Art print. Depicted in 'Velhagen & Klasings', Monatshefte', 1937. 

Left: Claus Bergen, postcard, 'Against England'. GDK 1940, room 1. 
Right: Claus Bergen, postcard*. 'Im Atlantik', GDK 1942, room 1. Bought by Robert Ley for 25.000 RM. In the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. Size 320 x 180 cm. 

Wall painting 'Gegen England" in the Todt-bunker at Cap Gris Nez, near Calais.
(photo Arthur van Beveren,

Left: Claus Bergen, postcard. 'Unter Kriegsflagge' ('Under the war flag'). German propaganda postcard of 1915 aimed to support a fund raising campaign for the submarine warfare.
Right: 'Das rettingsboot Fürstin Bismarck, vor Wangerooge'. Postcard after a painting by Claus Bergen.

Claus Bergen, 'Beschiessung der Westerplatte' ('Shelling of the Westerplatte'), postcard. GDK 1940, room 27. Bought by Hitler for 5.000 RM.
The first shots of WWII were fired in Danzig by the battleship Schleswig-Holstein, built in 1906 and used against a Polish fortress in the harbor on September 1, 1939. Though old -the Schleswig-Holstein fought in both World Wars- she still overpowered the garrison and achieved some noteriety throughout the Third Reich after her victory. 

Claus Bergen, postcard. ‘Von Feindfahrt zurück’ (‘Returrning from the enemy’). GDK 1941, room 9. Bought by Hilter for 15.000 RM. In the possession of the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. Size 320 x 180 cm. 

Left: Claus Bergen, postcard.  ‘Im Kampfgebiet des Atlantiks’ (‘The Atlantic Battlefield’). GDK 1941, room 9. Bought by Hitler for 12.000 RM; currently owned by Deutsches Historische Museum, Berlin. Displayed ath the exhibition ‘Geschichten im Konflikt‘, 2012/ 13, held in the Haus der Kunst, Munich. Size 320 x 180 cm. Also displayed at the exhibition ‘Artige Kunst, Kunst und Politik im Nationalsozialismus‘ (‘Compliant Art, Art and Politics in the National Socialist era’) held at Museum Situation Kunst, Bochum (November 2016 – April 2017), Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock (April – June 2017) and at Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg (July –  October 2017).
Right: 'Im Kampfgebiet des Atlantiks' was one of the 8.700 paintings which were, as part of the 'German War Art Collection', shipped to the USA in 1947. In the 1970s it hung in the officers' mess of the USA Navy base in Norfolk. 

The extreme scarcity of National Socialistic art

Massive, systematic destruction of Nazi art since 1945: the Potsdam-Agreement
From 1933 to 1949 Germany experienced two massive art purges. Both the National Socialist government and OMGUS (the U.S. Military Government in Germany) were highly concerned with controlling what people saw and how they saw it. The Nazis eliminated what they called ‘Degenerate art’, erasing the pictorial traces of turmoil and heterogeneity that they associated with modern art. The Western Allies in turn eradicated ‘Nazi art’ and forbade all artworks military subjects or themes that could have military and/or chauvinist symbolism from pictorial representation. Both the Third Reich and OMGUS utilized the visual arts as instruments for the construction of new German cultural heritages.
The Potsdam Agreement of 2 August 1945, subparagraph 3, Part III, Section A stated that one purpose of the occupation of Germany was ‘to destroy the National Socialistic Party and its affiliated and supervised organizations and to dissolve all Nazi and militaristic activity or propaganda.’ In accordance with Allied Control Council laws and military government regulations, all documents and objects which might tend to revitalize the Nazi spirit or German militarism would be confiscated or destroyed. For example, Title 18, Military Government Regulation, OMGUS stated that: ‘all collections of works of art related or dedicated to the perpetuation of German militarism or Nazism will be closed permanently and taken into custody.’ As a consequence, thousands of paintings –portraits of Nazi-leaders, paintings containing a swastika or depicting military/war sceneries– were considered ‘of no value’ and destroyed. With knives, fires and hammers, they smashed countless sculptures and burned thousands of paintings. Around 8,722 artworks were shipped to military deposits in the U.S.
OMGUS regulated and censored the art world. The Information Control Division (ICD, the key structure in the political control of post-war German culture in the American zone) was in fact a non-violent version of the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture). With its seven subdivisions (i.e. press, literature, radio, film, theatre, music, and art), the ICD neatly replaced the Reich Chamber of Culture. The ICD established through its various sections a system of licensed activity, with screening and vetting by Intelligence to exclude all politically undesirable people.

‘Free’ German artists producing ‘free German art’ after 1945
In the ideology of OMGUS, painting was conceived of as a strategic element in the campaign to politically re-educate the German people for a new democratic internationalism. Modern art allowed for the establishment of an easy continuity with the pre-Nazi modernist past, and it could serve as a springboard for the international projection of Germany as a new country interacting with its new Western partners.
‘Free’ artists producing ‘free art’ was one of the most powerful symbols of the new Germany, the answer to the politically controlled art of the Third Reich. Modern art linked Western Germany to Western Europe – separating the new West German aesthetic and politics from that of the Nazi era, the U.S.S.R., and East Germany – and suggested an ‘authentically’ German identity.

Left: Claus Bergen, postcard, ‘Ein heimkehrende U-Boot grüsst ein auslaufendes Kreuzergeschwader’, Wilhelmshafen, 1915 (‘Returning U-boat greats a departing cruiser squadron’, Wilhelmshafen, 1915). The original painting (97,5 x 67,5 cm) was sold at a German Auction in 2015.
Right: Claus Bergen, postcard, 'Deutsche Wacht in der Nordsee' ('German Guard at the Northsea'). GDK 1940, room 1. Painting of 270 x 150 cm, bought by Hitler for 8.000 RM. In the possession of Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.

Claus Bergen, ‘Helgoland in Sicht’ (‘Helgoland in sight’). Postcard. The text at the back reads: ‘Long distance trip of U-boat; 12 orignal paintings, based on personal experience of Claus Bergen’.

Claus Bergen, ‘Wiedererstanden, U26‘, GDK 1937, room 13. Heinrich Hoffmann (left), Adolf Hitler and architect Prof. Leonhard Gall visiting the GDK 1937. The painting was bought for 4.000 Reichsmark by the New Reich Chancellery, but the location where it was hung is unknown.

Hermann Göring Collection

Hermann Görings entire art collection comprised some 4,263 paintings, sculptures and tapestries. He planned to display them in the ‘Norddeutsche Galerie’, an art gallery which should be created after the war. The Norddeutsche Gallery was to be erected as an annex to Karinhall in the big forest of the Schorfheide, near Berlin. According to the website of the German Historical Museum, the work ‘Die Wikinger’ (‘The Viking’) by Claus Bergen was part of the collection. It was given by Claus Bergen as a present to Göring on 10 April 1935.

Claus Bergen
Claus Friedrich Bergen (1885 – 1964) was a German illustrator and painter, who was best known for his depictions of naval warfare in both World Wars. From 1904 onwards he attended private lessons in the Munich area with Moritz Weinhold, Otto Strützel, Peter Paul Müller and Hans von Bartels. Finally, in 1909, he went to the Munich Art Academy where he studied under Professor Carl von Marr. In the first three decades of the century, Claus Bergen was numerous times represented at the Munich exhibitions in the Glaspalast. He was awarded in 1911 a Gold Medal Second Class from the Yearly International Exhibition in the Glaspalast and a Silver Medal from the VI International Art Exhibition in Barcelona, in 1912 the Medal of Honor from the Art Exhibition in Amsterdam and in 1923 he received (again) the Gold Medal from the Yearly International Exhibition in the Glaspalast.
In 1914 he was appointed Marine Painter to Kaiser Wilhelm II. After the Battle of Jutland in 1916 there was enormous demand for depictions of this battle, both from the public and from the captains of ships that had participated. In 1917 Bergen took the unprecedented step of joining the crew of the submarine U-53, under Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose, on an Atlantic combat patrol. The paintings that resulted from this are often considered to be among his finest work. In 1918 a presentation of his Skagerak-battles and U-boats took place in the Glaspalast; for this successful exhibition, visited by King Ludwig III at the opening, he was awarded the title of 'Königliche Bayerischen Professor'.
In the inter-war period he painted numerous officially-commissioned large-scale land- and seascapes, as well as Atlantic ocean-liners, while his friendship with commanders such as Erich Raeder and Karl Dönitz continuously brought him work from the German Navy. Bergen's brother Otto was an aviator in the Great War. As children, Claus and Otto were friends with Ernst Udet, one of Germany's top fighter pilots. These associations led to Bergen painting many aviation scenes and receiving commissions from within Germany's aviation industry. Claus Bergen joined the NSDAP in 1922. From 1926 to 1931 he joint the crue of many navy ships and U-boats. In the same period, until 1928, Bergen created 12 enormous works depicting the history of the Navy. The works, of which two were destroyed during World War II,  were destinated for the ‘Shipping Hall’ in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
In 1937 Bergen moved from Munich to Lenggries, Upper-Bavaria.
Fifteen of his works appeared in the Nazi-sponsored Great German Art Exhibitions, which were held annually at the House of German Art in Munich from 1937 to 1944. For example: 'Im Atlantik' (1938), 'U-53 im Atlantik' (1939), 'Deutsche Wacht in der Nordsee' (1940), 'Gegen England' (1940), 'Beschiessung der Westerplatte' (1940), 'Von Feindfahrt zurück' (1941), 'Ran an der Feind' (1940), 'Erfolgreiche Rückkehr' (1942), 'Wiedererstanden U-26' (1937) and 'Schwerer Kreuzer Prinz Eugen im Gefecht in der Dänemarkstrasse' (1940). Nine of these works were bought by Adolf Hitler, 1 by Robert Ley (Head of German Labour Front) and 1 by the City Berchtesgaden for prices of up to 25.000 RM. During the Second World War Claus Bergen's name was on the 'Führerliste', an extended version of the Gotbegnadeten liste. Those listed as 'God-gifted artists', who performed jobs vital to the country and the war effort, were exempt and even forbidden from military service. They worked as 'Künstler im Kriegseinsatz'.
Claus Bergen died in 1964 in Lenggries from paint poisoning.
The work ‘Die Wikinger’ (‘The Viking’) was part of the art collection of Hermann Göring and destinated for the 'Norddeutsche Gallery'. Deutsche Historische Museum currently owns ‘U53 im Atlantik’ (GDK 1939), 'Den U-Boot-Helden zum Gedenken', 'Das Ritterkreuz', 'Im Atlantik', 'Einsamkeit', ‘Gegen England’, ‘Deutsche Wacht in der Nordsee’, ‘Von Feindfahrt zurück’, ‘Im Kampfgebiet des Atlantiks’ and ‘Schwerer Kreuzer Prinz Eugen im Gefecht in der Dänemarktstrasse’. A work named 'Segelschiff' is in the possession of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. In 2012/ 13 the painting 'Im Kampfgebiet des Atlantiks’ (GDK 1941, room 9) was displayed at the exhibition ‘Geschichten im Konflikt‘, held in the Haus der Kunst, Munich.
'Im Kampfgebiet des Atlantiks' (‘The Atlantic Battlefield’, GDK 1941 room 9) was displayed at the exhibition ‘Artige Kunst, Kunst und Politik im Nationalsozialismus‘ (‘Compliant Art, Art and Politics in the National Socialist era’) held at Museum Situation Kunst, Bochum (November 2016 – April 2017), Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock (April – June 2017) and at Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg (July – October 2017).