Angela Merkel returned two Emil Nolde paintings to the Berlin museum foundation in April 2019, as a Nationalgalerie show detailed his Nazi loyalty

Emil Nolde was a Nazi Party member and, per his letters, stayed loyal to the regime until the end of the war. Party membership had long been known; the 2019 show used his estate holdings at the Nolde Foundation Seebüll for a multi-year study. Curators Bernhard Fulda, Christian Ring and Aya Soika presented more than 100 originals. The "unpainted pictures," small watercolours reportedly painted in secret during his work ban, were read as part of his long-standing self-styling. Merkel had two Nolde paintings on loan in the chancellery: a 1915 flower garden and the 1936 "Breakers." When the curators asked for one of them, her office sent back both. One report says this followed a newspaper article by Felix Krämer asking whether works by a committed Nazi belonged in the chancellery. Her office gave no reason, and it is unclear whether his politics motivated her^†. She declined two Schmidt-Rottluff paintings offered in their place. Curator Fulda called the reaction "panicky."