Hitler, worried about damage being wrought by Allied bombers, ordered photographers to make records of frescoes in churches, monasteries and palaces across Germany and occupied Europe. The decision, made after the German defeat at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43, suggests that even Hitler sensed that the war could no longer be won.

About 60 per cent of the photographed church art was destroyed in air raids. One of the most impressive works lost was The War, painted inside the Berlin Zeughaus (armoury) by Friedrich Geselschap, the 19th-century artist.

Other lost works include the ceiling fresco of the Dresden Hofkirche, painted by Franz Karl Palkos, and Luca Antonio Colombo’s allegorical 18thcentury fresco Fanfare of the Angels in the Thurn und Taxis Palace in Frankfurt. Since the Frankfurt palace is set to be turned into an hotel, the architects will now be able to supply a replica of Colombo’s work.

The archive is regarded as a sensation in Germany. The painstaking reconstruction of the interiors of the Dresden Frauenkirche — due to be unveiled on October 30 in the presence of the Duke of Kent — could become the norm across the country.

After the war, bombed churches were either abandoned or rebuilt according to old architectural plans. The interiors, however, remained stark or were given a modern makeover, since it was not known exactly how the original decoration looked.

About 60,000 of the Nazi slides, originally stored in cellars, were handed over to the Central Institute for Art History in Munich and the Marburg Photographic Archive. But few architects, designers or church historians knew of their existence — and time was running out. The slides had been taken on Agfacolour, an innovation of the Nazi era, and the original colour tones were fading. The archivists started to digitise the pictures, of about 480 buildings, in 2002.

The photographers were hired by the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels after the order came down from Hitler. At first, in 1943, it was a popular commission since the photographers were freed from service on the front and were well paid: 35 reichsmark for each frame, 300 for a ceiling, enough to live on for a month.

Ralf Peters, of the Central Institute of Art History, said: “The cost ran into several millions. As late as March 1945, the Propaganda Ministry was still receiving bills for the electricity costs of the photographers.”

The teams included university lecturers, art historians and chemists, and they conducted their work secretly: it would have been obvious to ordinary Germans that the Nazi leadership was expecting heavy bombardment and even defeat. Yet open expression of “defeatist sentiment” could, under Nazi law, bring the death sentence.

The release of the photographs will be particularly valuable for Wroclaw in Poland (its German name was Breslau), where art historians have been puzzling how to tackle some restoration work.

Not all of the frescoes are by famous artists. The photographs also show brightly painted wooden ceilings of village churches in former eastern Prussia, now in Russia.

These churches have long since ceased to exist. One art critic said yesterday that the photographs will help to restore personal memories of a long-lost world.

• The archive can be viewed at www.zi.fotothek.org
  
  

  BEAUTY REGAINED

  Shakespeare’s Globe

  Original theatre built in 1599 in Southwark, on the South Bank of the Thames. The American film director and producer Sam Wanamaker built a replica four centuries later, based on original drawings and pictures. It was completed in 1997

  St Andrew’s Cathedral, Kiev, Russia

  Completed in 1754 by Bartholomeo Rastrelli where St Andrew was said to have preached. In 1978 original details were restored using Rastrelli’s drawings

  The Pope Villa, Kentucky

  Designed for the US Senator John Pope in 1810 and built by Benjamin Henry Latrobe in an American neoclassical style. Restored this year after 1987 fire damage. Architects used Latrobe’s orginal plans and drawings

  St Paul’s Cathedral

  In 1958 an ornate baldacchino — a canopy — was built above the high altar. Christopher Wren’s plans and drawings from the 1670s were used

  
  
  

Times Recommends

• Putin set to bait US with nuclear aid for Tehran
• North Korea ‘uses doubles to hide death of Kim’
• Academics label Charlie Wilson too 'gung-ho'