Max Radler

 Max Radler, Radio Listener, 1930

Max Radler (1904-1971) was born in Wrocław. Until 1918 he was an apprentice to a carpenter shop in Oppeln (Upper Silesia). Subsequently he was trained as a decoration painter in Zeitz, Saxony. In 1923 Radler settled in Munich where he painted theatre decorations and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule under Georg Schrimpf and Otto Grassl. 

 Max Radler, Cityscape, 1930

In 1930 Radler joined the artist group Die Juryfreien. Nearly all his works were destroyed during a bombing raid in 1945. After the war Radler became a regular contributor for the satirical magazine Simplizissimus for which, in 1946, he produced this remarkable illustration about the "white-wash" of "former" Nazis:

Max Radler, Black becomes White, Automatic De-Nazification, 1946

It was published together with the following poem by J. Menter:

Springt immer rein! Was kann euch schon passieren,
Ihr schwarzen Böcke aus dem braunen Haus!
Man wird euch schmerzlos rehabilitieren.
Als weiße Lämmer kommt ihr unten raus.
Wir wissen schon: Ihr seid es nie gewesen!
(Die andern sind ja immer schuld daran – –)
Wie schnell zum Guten wandeln sich die Bösen,
Man schwarz auf weiß im Bild hier sehen kann.

More paintings by Radler are here on my Flickr page.