Picture Ernst Thälmann
The picture probably came from the property of a communist in Osterode. Since it resembles other communist pictures in the museum in style and material, but which were confiscated from different people in Osterode, it could have come from the production of a person who later distributed them. Whether the framing was done by the original owners or only by the NSDAP district leadership can no longer be determined. Since it is a uniform framing with calico tape and the confiscation protocols mentioned small posters several times, it is conceivable that the framing was done later for exhibition as "counter-serial material".
After the confiscation by the NS-Orstspolizei Osterode in 1933 or later, it was transferred to the NSDAP-Kreisleitung Osterode at an unspecified time and was handed over to the museum on loan on 18 May 1937.
After the museum had been remodelled, it was reopened on 24.5.1936. From autumn 1936 onwards, the NSDAP prepared a section on "Kampfzeit und Erhebung" ("Time of Struggle and Uprising"). For 1937, a contribution of 200 RM was allocated to the museum by the state museum administration, which was used for the construction of the above-mentioned department entitled "Adolf Hitler baut Deutschland auf" ("Adolf Hitler builds Germany"). For the exhibition there, the enemy material, to which the communist pictures belong, had been lent by the district leadership. The museum director Karl Grönig, an art teacher in Osterode, was so incensed by the use of the state subsidy exclusively for party purposes that he resigned from his post on 1 February 1938 (Akten der staatlichen Museumspflege Niedersachsen; Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv Hannover; NLA HANds 402 Acc 2015/69 Nr 91).
Museum im Ritterhaus
Am Rollberg 32
37520 Osterode am Harz
Germany