For four decades, Anselm Kiefer's (born 1945) work has evolved through the layering, intersection, and reworking of themes, motifs, and constellations across various media. However, his focus has always been on engaging with history and mythology. Created around 1970, shortly before his international breakthrough, the large-format painting cycle Heroic Symbols takes us back to Kiefer's beginnings, when he, along with other "New Wild Ones," sought to break the collective silence of the art world regarding the catastrophe of World War II and the Third Reich. In this act of remembrance—where the Heroic Symbols are self-portraits with a Hitler salute set in various naturalistic, illusionistic, and allegorical landscapes—Kiefer was the first and most provocative artist to depict the Nazi regime through and from his own body.