George Grosz’s Hitler in Hell

In this work one can see the skeleton’s piled up beneath Hitler in the foreground. On the right there is a decaying body and around Hitler in the background is what looks like a kind of cloud or river of red. Hitler is holding a sponge to his own head perhaps where he shot himself. Ironically Hitler does not appear tortured in death. The painting suggests Hitler’s responsibility for death and shows his own final punishment as death. In a sense it seems as if much death has been ended by Hitler’s death. Yet there is no revenge in the after life, not torturous punishment, only many many skeletons and the decaying body of Hitler beside the decaying body of an unnamed man. In this way there is created a kind of insignificance in Hitler’s death as he sits besides a nameless man and is surrounded by skeletons. Hitler appears almost to have a headache as he sits eternally surrounded by death. (Chap. 29 Art)