Karl Walther was exempt from military services until September 1944. During World War II he was ordered by the Nazi-regime to paint cities within the 'Generalgouvernement', the occupied area of the Second Republic of Poland that was under colonial administration of Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945. The Nazi government designated this territory as a separate administrative region of the Third Reich. It included much of central and southern Poland, and modern-day western Ukraine. In 1942 Walther went to the cities of Marienburg (North Poland), Danzig (North Poland) and Krakau, the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Krakau, situated in southern Poland, was also the capital of the Nazi General Government.
In the book 'Karl Walther, Leben und Werk' are six other paintings depicting the city of Krakau, all created by Walther in 1942. Walter went back to Krakau in July 1943 (the painting we are offering must have been created in 1942 or in 1943).
On 1 September 1944 he had to join the Wehrmacht to fight in northern Italy. Meanwhile, his atelier in Munich at the Alfonsstrasse nr. 11, 4 stock, was hit by an unexploded shell. Walther was taken as a prisoner of war in Rimini in 1945 and was released in the second quarter of 1945.
A label at the back of the painting with the text: 'Karl Walther, München, Alfonsstrasse 11, IV' (this was the adress of his studio from 1940 to 1966) and 'Florian Strasse in Krakau, 74 x 93'.
On the sticker on the back of the painting - where Karl Walther's name is filled in - is written 'Reichskammer-Mitglieds-Nr' (Number of membership of the Reichskammer). The 'Reichskammer der Bildende Kunsten' was established by law in 1933 at the insistence of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels and it served as a professional organization for all German creative artists. Its goal was to control all cultural activities in Germany, promoting art created by 'Aryans' and seen as consistent with Nazi ideals. Every artist had to apply for membership on presentation of an Aryan certificate. A rejected inscription resulted in a ban from the profession.
In the years after World War II the Americans created in Germany the Information Control Division (ICD), the key structure in the political control of post-war German culture. The ICD was a non-violent - but similarly totalitarian- version of the Reichskulturkammer. With its subdivisions, the ICD neatly replaced the Reich Chamber of Culture. The ICD established through its various sections a system of licensed activity, with screening and vetting by intelligence agents to exclude all politically undesirable artists.
The sticker on the back reads: 'Karl Walther', 'Reichskammer-Mitglieds-Nr.', 'Württ. Kunstverein, Kunstgebäude Schlossplatz, Stuttgart-N'. The Württembergischer Kunstverein (Art Association), founded in 1827, still exists and is housed in the same building, same address.