Walter Krüger (expressionist version)

This is one out of two portraits of the same character. As it is the statement of ambivalence between good and evil, this is a no-mocking yet playful portrait, the Mensur scar on the right cheek is in the same rose hue as the deep furrow between nose and mouth, and the prominent lips themselves. No-mocking , no ambivalence. As inescapable to a seasoned soldier who, as his brother, had gone through both the World Wars, 1st and 2nd, becoming a General in the Waffen SS. He commanded the 3rd SS Division “das Reich” in Russia. He fought bravely, he was a ruthless commander. Both paintings derive from the same photograph, portraying him in high uniform on a background of burnt farmhouses in Ukraine. A real demon of war, 14 days after the fall of Berlin and the surrender of Nazi Germany, encircled by the Soviet Army in the Courland Pouch, he committed suicide rather than surrendering himself. Long lasting theme of the poetry of war: this last gesture of his can be a last act of courage, a Warrior’s last standing, his own last dance. Then his own violence can be draped as a sort of joyful perseverance, even if disagreeable depending on the side he had been fighting for. So, this Demon of War here is depicted as a sort of a joyful one. Since the completeness of his own daimon was achieved in his death.