Paper hanger (Mundelein's speech)

=Hitler as "paper hanger" (ad hominem attack)=

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:

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. [ [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/mot/html/dictators.htm Marching Toward War: Humanizing Dictators] ]

The paper hanger term was none the less 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 ad hominem attack on Hitler's ideas, for he was a published author, [ [http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/kampf2.htm Mein Kampf] ] and a watercolorist, having produced 500-1000 paintings. [ [http://www.oskarschindler.com/Albums6/album.htm Hitler's artworks] ] Accordingly, the term became popular among those who opposed Hitler's ideas rather than among those who endorsed them.

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