In the Beginning Was the Word

Hitler's Early Speech to the German Workers' Party — Munich

This famous painting by German artist Hermann Otto Hoyer, titled “In the Beginning Was the Word” (ca. 1937), depicts Adolf Hitler addressing members of the German Workers' Party (DAP) at the Hofbräukeller in Munich.

The scene represents Hitler's early political activities in the years following World War I. In 1919, Hitler joined the small German Workers' Party, which later became the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).

In the Beginning Was the Word

Hermann Otto Hoyer’s painting, In the Beginning Was the Word (Am Anfang War das Wort), was one of the most widely reproduced paintings during the Third Reich. Hitler’s personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, and other art jurors selected it for inclusion in the first Great German Art Exhibition, which was held in July 1937. The painting appeared on postcards, school charts, and other printed matter.

About the Artist

Hoyer (1893–1968) served in the German army during World War I and was captured by French troops. While escaping from a prisoner of war camp, he was badly injured and lost his right arm. After the war, he learned to paint with his left arm and continued his art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. One of Germany’s finest art schools, the academy trained well-known modern artists, including Edvard Munch, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Josef Albers. Unlike them, Hoyer remained wedded to a more traditional, representational form of art.

In the 1920s, Hoyer joined the Nazi Party. From that period onward, his artwork reflected his political leanings. Hoyer painted heroic Nazi figures and German families.

Inspiration for the Painting

In In the Beginning Was the Word, Hoyer portrays Hitler speaking to an assembly of Germans in the early 1920s. To create the painting, he drew on two texts. One was the New Testament, a work sacred to Christians. The other was Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf, which the Nazis considered to be holy. The painting’s title comes from the opening words of the Gospel of John, which reads:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Instead of Jesus, Hoyer depicts Hitler as the messianic figure who brings the “true Light” unto the world. The artist shows light emanating off Hitler’s face and onto the assembled crowd. Hitler is illuminating and enlightening the audience with the Word.

As a devoted Nazi, Hoyer also knew of the importance that Hitler placed on the spoken word. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote:

“All great, world-shaking events have been brought about, not by written matter, but by the spoken word.”

Hermann Otto Hoyer, In the Beginning Was the Word, 1937