L'exécution de l'empereur Maximilien

To begin, a scandal: With one of his very first purchases the founding director Fritz Wichert pulled of a coup which attracted considerable attention in the national press and amongst experts—as well as provoking enormous opposition. With this acquisition Wichert joined ranks with a number of other directors from large German museums in the battle over modernism. Mannheim suddenly saw itself at the center of a German-wide discussion on French painting—a debate which was shaped by both issues of art history and politics.
The painting itself had already provoked a scandal during Manet’s lifetime, with the artist giving expression to the failure of France’s foreign policy in Central America by depicting Emperor Maximillian as the victim. In 1867, shortly following the political disaster, Manet began to address this theme. He explored it in three versions of the painting, an oil study, a drawing, and a lithograph. The version of the painting in Mannheim is the third and last. It was subject to an exhibition ban, and the lithograph was first published after Manet’s death. Incidentally, Manet also employed parts of the composition in a lithograph from 1871 which depicted the fighting on the barricades during the French Civil War.

The Purchase
In his collection concept, presented in 1910, Fritz Wichert placed the accent on classical French painting of the 19th century, which he considered exemplary. Thus the acquisition of Manet’s painting, undertaken shortly after he assumed office, was the appropriate realization of this concept. Looking back, the speed and the circumstances of this purchase are astounding, with the asking price of 90,000 Mark being raised by nine citizens of Mannheim. The transaction was skillfully accompanied by Wichert’s press work, which also aimed to portray the purchase as an event of great national importance. In a newspaper article from January 1910 he already looked proudly into the future: “This picture will prove to bring lasting fame to our gallery. Anyone visiting the southern German museums cannot pass over the city of Manet’s ‘Execution’ unheeding. It alone will ensure that Mannheim will occupy a prominent position amongst the gallery cities of note…; this will not be temporary, but for all time.”

The Painting as a Guest in Berlin
No sooner had it arrived in Mannheim than the picture was requested for the summer exhibition of the Secession in Berlin. Its chairman, Max Liebermann, wrote in his loan request: “However, the presentation of your picture should also serve as a model for the museum administration in the capital of the German Reich: Berlin will have the opportunity to admire the great insight of the Mannheim gallery, which has just purchased this work from Manet that displays all his qualities to the highest degree.” In the introduction to the Secession catalogue Liebermann presented the picture as an example of his conception of art, which he distinguished from that of Expressionist painting. Thus Manet’s picture became a focal point for artistic disputes which led to a split within the artists’ association, and ultimately to the founding of the New Secession.

“The Battle Over Art”
Above all, nationalist circles attacked the French-oriented acquisition policy of German museums. In Mannheim this opposition was personified by the lawyer and city councilor Theodor Alt, who presented his opinions in an over 500 page book published in 1911 with the title “Die Herabwertung der deutschen Kunst durch die Parteigänger des Impressionismus” (The Degradation of German Art by the Advocates of Impressionism).
However, the previous year, opposition had already been raised to the avant-garde acquisition policy of the director of the Kunsthalle in Bremen, Gustav Pauli, triggered by his purchase of Vincent van Gogh’s “Poppy Field”. The spokesman was the painter Carl Vinnen with his brochure “Ein Protest deutscher Künstler“ (A Protest from German Artists), which was signed by 140 artists and art critics. Its theme was the “foreign infiltration” of the museums by the French and the discrimination of German artists as an expression of a false museum policy. The most important elements of the protest related to nationalist, artistic, and financial issues. The refutation, “Im Kampf um die Kunst” (The Battle Over Art), appeared in July 1911 and featured responses to Vinnen’s polemic from 47 artists—including Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Liebermann, August Macke, Franz Marc, and Max Slevogt—as well as 28 gallery owners and art critics.
In Alfred Walther Heymel’s contribution it states: “We sincerely regret that the contribution from the director of the Kunsthalle, Fritz Wichert, is missing, and that for the sole reason that he was unable to deliver it due to overwork. As Wichert is indirectly one of the main people under attack ..., his opinions would have been especially valuable. However, he has no need to defend himself as many powerful words have been spoken in his favor, and his actions in the Kunsthalle Mannheim represent a loud, eloquent testimony in support of the accused.”
It quickly became clear that the accusation that French art was being privileged was indefensible on purely statistical grounds. However, Vinnen and Alt’s nationalist tones recurred in many of the art debates of the Weimar period, before culminating in the art propaganda of the National Socialists.