Paper hanger (Mundelein's speech)
In his Paper hanger talk to 500 priests of his Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, at the Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, in Chicago, Illinois, on May 18, 1937, Cardinal George Mundelein made these observations on the tragic transformation of German public opinion:
| “ | 'Perhaps you will ask how it is that a nation of 60 million intelligent people will submit in fear and servitude to an alien, an Austrian paper hanger,[1] and a poor one at that, and a few associates like Goebbels and Göring, who dictate every move of the people's lives?' The Cardinal went on to suggest that the brains of 60 million Germans had been removed without their even noticing it. (Hitler's Pope, p. 183)[2][3] | ” |
There is disagreement as to whether Adolf Hitler ever worked applying wallpaper or not. John Schimmel, a Wooster, Ohio man who grew up in Transylvania, claims to have known Hitler at the time he was learning the trade.[4]
The paper hanger term was nonetheless pejorative, suggesting a laborer performing a task which required more hand–eye coordination than intellect, and one who offered ersatz art rather than original art. This was an elitist ad hominem attack on Hitler's ideas, for he was a published author,[5] and a watercolorist, having produced 500–1000 paintings.[6] Accordingly, the term became popular among those who opposed Hitler's ideas rather than among those who endorsed them.
References
- ↑ a Paper hanger is a person with the occupation of applying wallpaper.
- ↑ Dialogue Toward Consensus and Healing
- ↑ Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary was the site of the talk by Mundelein. See the more accurate quote from the Chicago Tribune at that Wikipedia entry
- ↑ Marching Toward War: Humanizing Dictators
- ↑ Mein Kampf
- ↑ Hitler's artworks