Adolf Ziegler

Adolf Ziegler (16 October 1892 – 11 September 1959) was a German painter and politician. He was tasked by the Nazi Party to oversee the purging of what the NSDAP described as "degenerate art", by most of the German modernist artists. Ziegler's triptych painting, The Four Elements, hung above the mantel in Hitler's Munich apartment. He was reputedly Adolf Hitler's "favourite painter".

Born in Bremen to an architect father and a family of architects on his mother's side, Ziegler was surrounded by artists. He studied at the Weimar Academy from 1910 under master of technique Max Doerner at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. However, the First World War interrupted his studies when he signed up to become a front-line officer. After the war, he settled in Munich and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich in 1919, where he attended classes by art nouveau artist Angelo Jank.

He ultimately achieved the position of professor at the Munich Academy in 1933, when the Nazis came to power.