Editing Philip Johnson (section)

==Controversy over political activities==
Reviewing Franz Schulze's biography of Johnson, Kazys Varnelis wrote that "between 1932 and 1940, Johnson was an [[antisemitism|antisemite]], [[fascism|fascist]] sympathizer, and active [[propaganda|propagandist]] for the [[Nazi government]]."<ref name="Varnelis">{{cite journal|last=Varnelis|first=Kazys, Cornell University|date=November 1994|title=We Cannot Not Know History: Philip Johnson's Politics and Cynical Survival|url=http://varnelis.net/articles/we_cannot_not_know_history|url-status=dead|journal=Journal of Architectural Education|publisher=Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc.|volume=49|issue=2|pages=92–104|doi=10.2307/1425400|jstor=1425400|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101108152702/http://varnelis.net/research/johnson.html|archive-date=November 8, 2010|access-date=January 29, 2013}}</ref> According to Varnelis, "Johnson makes no apologetic gesture toward his past behavior unless he is confronted by direct questioning, nothing even as paltry as an open letter accounting for and regretting his past actions and condemning the motives that led him to them".<ref name="Varnelis" /> Johnson's activities included organizing political rallies for populist [[Huey Long]]; funding figures such as the right-wing agitator [[Joe McWilliams]] and his "Christian Mobilizers";<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lamster |first1=Mark |title=Was Architect Philip Johnson a Nazi Spy? (book excerpt) |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/philip-johnson-the-man-in-the-glass-house-mark-lamster-excerpt.html |access-date=August 8, 2021 |publisher=New York Magazine Intelligencer |date=October 31, 2018}}</ref> and writing for three periodicals, including [[Charles Coughlin]]'s [[Social Justice (periodical)|''Social Justice'']], whose "almost every issue contained articles about the 'Jewish conspiracy' or about destructive economic forces led by figures with Jewish names".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wortman |first=Marc |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/963235305 |title=1941: Fighting the Shadow War: A Divided America in a World at War |date=2016 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |isbn=978-1-5318-6502-3 |oclc=963235305}}. Quoted in {{Cite magazine |last=Wortman |first=Marc |date=April 4, 2016 |title=Famed Architect Philip Johnson's Hidden Nazi Past |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/04/philip-johnson-nazi-architect-marc-wortman |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}}</ref>

Because his family had a home in Germany and spent their summers there, Johnson traveled there frequently. As a ''Social Justice'' correspondent, he covered the huge Nazi rally at Nuremberg and the 1939 [[invasion of Poland]] with approval. The American correspondent [[William L. Shirer]], traveling with him on the Nazi-sponsored press tour, labeled him in  ''[[Berlin Diary]]'', as  "the American fascist" and suspected him of spying for the Germans.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Shirer |first1=William L. |title=Berlin Diary |date=October 23, 2011 |publisher=Rosetta Books |page=241 |isbn=978-0-7953-1698-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYoqAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT241 |access-date=August 8, 2021}}</ref>  On the same tour, three weeks after Poland fell to the Nazis, Johnson, with Shirer,  "was with German troops at the front as the guest of the [[Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda|Propaganda Ministry]]".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hurowitz |first1=Richard |title=Don't forget Philip Johnson's Nazi past |url=https://www.jpost.com/opinion/dont-forget-philip-johnsons-nazi-past-468759 |access-date=August 4, 2021 |publisher=Jerusalem Post |date=September 26, 2016}}</ref> He wrote to a friend that "The German green uniforms made the place look gay and happy... There were not many Jews to be seen. We saw Warsaw burn and [[Battle of Modlin|Modlin being bombed]]. It was a stirring spectacle."<ref name="Guardian obituary">{{cite news |last1=Saint |first1=Andrew |title=Philip Johnson (obit) – Flamboyant postmodern architect whose career was marred by a flirtation with nazism |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jan/29/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1 |access-date=August 4, 2021 |publisher=Guardian |date=January 28, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/dept-of-design/philip-johnson-the-man-who-made-architecture-amoral|title=Philip Johnson, the Man Who Made Architecture Amoral|last=Saval|first=Nikil|magazine=The New Yorker|date=December 12, 2018|access-date=February 12, 2019|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}</ref>

In his ''Social Justice'' report on his trip to Poland, Johnson declared that the German victory amounted to an unmitigated triumph for the Polish people and that nothing in the war's outcome need concern Americans. Johnson went on to say that German forces had not significantly harmed Polish civilians, and said that "99 percent of the towns I visited since the war are not only intact but full of Polish peasants and Jewish shopkeepers." He said reports of Nazi mistreatment of Poles was "misinformed".<ref name=":0" /> Referring to political developments in France, Johnson wrote in ''Social Justice'' that "Lack of leadership and direction in the state has let the one group get control who always gain power in a nation's time of weakness—the Jews". In 1940 Johnson quit journalism and distanced himself from politics.

In April 1942, on reports that Johnson might be working in [[William J. Donovan|Colonel Donovan]]'s [[Office of the Coordinator of Information]], the [[United States Assistant Attorney General]] [[James H. Rowe]] wrote to Director Hoover, saying, "I can think of no more dangerous man to have working in an agency which possesses so many military secrets."<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Philip Johnson FBI file, part 1. pg 84 |url=https://archive.org/details/PhilipJohnson/219654037-Architect-Philip-Johnson-FBI-File-Part-1/page/n83/mode/2up |website=Internet Archive |access-date=August 4, 2021}}</ref> Johnson was later investigated by the FBI, but no charges were brought against him, and he was cleared for military service.<ref name=Schulze-94 /><ref name=NYT-obit />

Johnson was inducted into the U.S. Army in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1943, but controversy continued. His name arose again in the so-called "[[Great Sedition Trial]]" of 1944 through his former contacts in the 1930s with its main target, the former diplomat and economist [[Lawrence Dennis]], who in the 1930s supported fascist economics as an alternative to capitalism. Dennis was charged with [[sedition]], or advocating the forcible overthrow of the U.S. government, under the [[Smith Act]]. Johnson was accused of "close and steady contact" with Dennis in the spring of 1938, and providing financial support towards publishing Dennis's 1940 book ''The Dynamics of War and Revolution''. Johnson had already testified in 1942 in the government case against another former associate, the German poet and journalist [[George Sylvester Viereck]] in 1942.<ref name=Schulze-94 /> The ongoing federal case against Dennis, an FBI investigation, and a congressional investigation investigated about 30 people, including Johnson, but in the end he was not charged.<ref name=vanityfair /> Johnson was formally asked to appear at trial as a witness, and—by his own account—was speaking to prosecutor [[O. John Rogge]],<ref name=Schulze-94 /> but after Judge [[Edward C. Eicher]] died of a heart attack, a mistrial was declared and the case was dropped.

In 1993, when asked by ''Vanity Fair'' about his past political views, he said, "I have no excuse (for) such unbelievable stupidity. ... I don't know how you expiate guilt."<ref name="Varnelis" /><ref>{{cite news|url=http://archrecord.construction.com/people/profiles/archives/0505johnsonProfile_stern.asp|title=Philip Johnson: An Essay by Robert A.M. Stern|last=Stern|first=Robert A. M.|date=May 2005|work=[[Architectural Record]]|access-date=August 12, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050507180021/http://archrecord.construction.com/people/profiles/archives/0505johnsonProfile_stern.asp|archive-date=May 7, 2005|author-link=Robert A. M. Stern}}</ref><ref name=vanityfair>{{cite news |last=Wortman |first=Marc |date=April 4, 2016 |title=Famed Architect Philip Johnson's Hidden Nazi Past |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/04/philip-johnson-nazi-architect-marc-wortman |magazine=Vanity Fair |access-date=May 15, 2018}}</ref>

In 1956, he donated a design for [[Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel]] in Port Chester, New York. Architecture professor Anat Geva observed in a paper that "all critics agree that his design of the Port Chester Synagogue can be considered as his attempt to ask for forgiveness."<ref name=":2">{{cite web|last1=Geva|first1=Anat|title=An Architect Asks For Forgiveness: Philip Johnson's Port Chester Synagogue |url=http://www.acsforum.org/symposium2014/papers/GEVA.pdf|website=Symposium of Architecture, Culture and Spirituality|publisher=ACS Forum|access-date=June 17, 2014}}</ref>

He discussed his trips to Germany and his infatuation with fascism in a 1996 interview with [[Charlie Rose]]. He said, "It was the stupidest thing I ever did, and I never forgive myself and I never can atone for it. There's nothing I can do... That's been torture to me ever since."<ref name="Rose 1996">Interview with Charlie Rose (July 8, 1996)</ref> He admitted to Rose that, while he had "difficulty" with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] because of his inability to achieve what he set out, he "worshiped the man" and "voted for him four times."<ref name="Rose 1996" /> Replying to Rose asking if he liked "strong figures", he said "Sure do. I like good architects that are strong, like [[Frank Gehry|Gehry]]."<ref name="Rose 1996" />

In 2018, [[Nikil Saval]] wrote in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' that "Johnson would later describe Hitler as 'a spellbinder'; in 1964, well after he had been forced to abjure his Nazi past, he insisted in letters that Hitler was 'better than Roosevelt.'"<ref name=":1" />

In 2020, in the wake of the [[murder of George Floyd]] and the wave of [[List of name changes due to the George Floyd protests|place name changes]] that followed, the Johnson Study Group—a group of 40 architects, designers, and educators—approached the Museum of Modern Art asking that honors given to Johnson be removed from public view, citing his "commitment to white supremacy", spread of Nazi publications, involvement with American fascist politics, and "effective segregation" of the architectural collection at the museum. "When it comes to racist urban planning policies in the 20th century and a deeply Eurocentric antiblack archive of American architecture," [[V. Mitch McEwen]] said, "MoMA under white supremacist Philip Johnson did largely create the problem. It innovated white supremacy in architecture ... where under his leadership not a single work by any Black architect or designer was included."<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 18, 2021 |orig-date=2020-11-27 |title=Letter |url=https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQBZHBg20UdYfLz69NOPqPzrkz1LY97Pcgl1Pc05tBt-rYWWP6QQMqO2-yf8KGVIY1CgNQUQYlNbO88/pub?usp=embed_facebook |access-date=March 11, 2022 |website=Google Docs |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Artists Ask MoMA to Remove Philip Johnson's Name, Citing Racist Views|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/arts/design/philip-johnson-moma.html|first=Sarah|last=Bahr|date=December 3, 2020}}</ref><ref name=Cohen>{{cite news|title=Sure, erase the names of history's racists. That won't undo their messes|first=Noam|last=Cohen|author-link=Noam Cohen|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|date=March 26, 2021|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/philip-johnson-moma-flexner-vollmer-racist/2021/03/26/a179e242-8cdc-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html}}</ref>

In a 2020 article in ''[[Elle Decor]]'' magazine, articles editor Charles Curkin asked Pritzker Prize laureate [[Balkrishna Doshi]] if the architecture world was due for a reckoning, citing the [[Museum of Modern Art]]'s chief architecture and design curatorship still being named after Johnson. Doshi replied that "Life itself is due for a reckoning, and architects must give respect to life."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Curkin |first1=Charles |title=Architect Balkrishna Doshi on the need for a reckoning in design |url=https://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/a34836752/balkrishna-doshi-architecture-reckoning/ |website=Elle Decor|date=December 2, 2020 |access-date=December 9, 2020}}</ref>

In 2020, Johnson's name was dropped from the [[Harvard University]] Philip Johnson Thesis House, which was designed by Johnson.<ref name="Hickman 2020">{{cite web |last1=Hickman |first1=Matt |title=Harvard will remove Philip Johnson's name from Cambridge home that he designed as graduate student |url=https://www.archpaper.com/2020/12/harvard-will-remove-philip-johnson-name-from-cambridge-home-he-designed/ |website=The Architect's Newspaper |date=December 8, 2020 |access-date=December 9, 2020}}</ref> [[Sarah Whiting]], dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, announced the change on December 5, 2020, citing Johnson's "widely documented white supremacist views and activities."<ref name="Hickman 2020" />