As its name implies, the new Man at Work museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering is designed to celebrate the nobility of physical labor through the ages. But the engineer and the industrialist who run the museum have included artworks made to glorify the construction projects of the Nazi regime, art historians say. One painting depicts a U-Boat shipyard at Hamburg.

(Courtesy of “Man at Work: 400 Years in Paintings and bronzes,” published by Milwaukee School of Engineering)

This 1944 painting by Erich Mercker, the most represented artist in the collection, was commissioned by the Hitler government to create images of the expansion of infrastructure by the Third Reich.

The museum, which opened to the public Saturday, seems to have stumbled into a complex, controversial subject that the museum world has been coming to terms with for decades: When is it appropriate to exhibit art produced under the Nazis? How open should a museum be with its visitors about Nazi connections? What are the moral responsibilities of artists working under repressive regimes?

Read full report (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 27, 2007)
Go to website Man at Work Museum