Wolfgang Flatz

An attempt to break a taboo - trivial, provocative, and humorous A black, pure-bred Great Dane named Hitler (1991-1998) accompanied the Austrian performance artist and documenta participant FLATZ (*1952) like a shadow through the 1990s. The naming--as well as the subtitles of the photographs created--relates the banal everyday life of the dog to the inglorious life of its namesake, thus opening up an extremely provocative range of possible associations. "Hitler is always with me," says the artist, "just as we always carry the historical Hitler around with us, because he is part of our history, which--as long as it is suppressed, transfigured, or tabooed--is not overcome." With more than 350 illustrations, "Hitler--A Dog's Life" is an extended and revised reprint of the book published in 1992, which has been out of print for a long time.