created by AngelusNovus420 on 03/12/2024 at 14:48 UTC
329 upvotes, 3 top-level comments (showing 3)
The Nazis infamously held a mock exhibition of modern art they deemed *Entartete Kunst* ("degenerate art") in Munich in late 1937, which featured the likes of George Grosz, Paul Klee, and Otto Dix. I've seen a few pictures of the exhibition and I was actually surprised by how well-designed it seemed at a glance; had I not been aware that this was an anti-modern art exhibition, I would have assumed it was in fact celebrating the art it showcased! The use of framing and typography is actually fairly creative at times. I know the exhibition was organized by Adolf Ziegler, but do we know who was actually responsible for the exhibition's scenography? Do we have any evidence that might suggest the exhibition backfired on the Nazis because it failed to convince visitors that modern art was bad?
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Comment by jbdyer at 03/12/2024 at 19:09 UTC*
144 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Prior to *Entartete Kunst* (1937) there were other "negative exhibitions" where the Nazis showed art work that was *not* to be respected. One early exhibition in Dresden city hall (1933) featured Otto Dix; you can see a photograph here[1]. Otto Dix's anti-war art showing the horrors of trench warfare were considered an attack on the heroism of German soldiers. In the same year, Hermann Müller (a "doctor of psychiatry and medicine" not to be confused with the Weimar Republic politician) put together a *Schreckenskammer* (Chamber of Horrors) which contrasted professional artists with drawings of psychiatric patients and of children, which is a theme also picked by *Entartete Kunst*.
1: https://bluerenga.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/germanart.jpg
Throughout the 1930s there was pressure on the museum system to weed out "degenerate" influences although it was sometimes unclear to them what this meant (while Dadaism was clearly included, was Expressionism included also?) and 1937 was the year this fully solidified, with a pair of commissioned exhibitions: *Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung*, intended to exhibit the best of art sent in via a competition and meaning to show the glory of the Third Reich, with *Entartete Kunst* the attack by contrast. The committee organizing this was established by decree from Goebbels:
On the express authority of the Führer I hereby empower the president of the Reicbskammer der bildenden Kunste, Professor Ziegler of Munich, to select and secure for an exhibition works of German degenerate art since 1910, both painting and sculpture, which are now in collections owned by the German Reich, individual regions, or local communities. You are requested to give Prof. Ziegler your full support during his examination and selection of these works.
Director of the Reich Chamber for Culture, Adolf Ziegler, was Hitler's favorite artist and worked to establish realism as only acceptable art; the committee was seeded with critics of modernism:
Hans Schweitzer deserves a little more attention as he was the designer of the group and the one most likely to have made specific calls on layout (and the choice, for instance, to put quotes from Hitler and Goebbels throughout the exhibit). He was friends with Goebbels and illustrated his book Fight for Berlin. You can see a propaganda poster of his here[2]; he did his posters under the pen name Mjölnir ("hammer of Thor") and he did antisemitic comics (I will not link here, but one, for example, blames them for the hyperinflation after WW1).
2: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn3726
Just like the Chamber of Horrors exhibition, the exhibit had a strong emphasis on linking psychiatric disorders to modern art. Other themes included religion, vilifying women, abstraction, and antimilitarism. While there were some Jewish artists they were only a minor percentage: the exhibition was meaning to send a message to *all* artists and change the tide of German art creation as a whole, making everyone revert to only acceptable art.
Ridicule was also leveled at museums, and prices that the art was bought for were given (not adjusting for a piece being bought in 1920 looking somewhat ridiculous after hyperinflation). Again, this was an arrow at the establishment: it was established as policy that museum directors who did not follow the line were to be immediately fired.
In other words, it would be considered a success if it manipulated the art establishment as a whole. The question about if the audience "liked it" and it somehow backfired is difficult to answer, as even if we discovered a random diary entry from the 30s about the wonders seen at the Degenerate Art exhibit, there was no notable way for people to create a pro-Modernism art movement within the political structure. However, we can say it was far, far more popular than anticipated: it was originally slated to last until September, but the attendance numbers were enormous -- far larger than the "good art" exhibit of *Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung* -- causing an extension to November, indicating that people were still craving what they were forbidden. It went touring afterwards all the way until 1941.
...
Föllmer, M. (2020). *Culture in the Third Reich*. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Guenther, P. W. (1991). *Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-garde in Nazi Germany*. United States: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Grimsted, P. K. (2011). "Reconstructing the Record of Nazi Cultural Plunder." *A survey of the dispersed archives of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR)*. IISH Research Paper 47.
Mueller, G. McIsaac, P. (ed.) (2015). *Exhibiting the German Past: Museums, Film, and Musealization*. Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Wasensteiner, L. (2018). *The Twentieth Century German Art Exhibition: Answering Degenerate Art in 1930s London*. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
Comment by flotiste at 03/12/2024 at 20:11 UTC
34 upvotes, 0 direct replies
There was also the *Entartete Musik* ("degenerate Music") exhibits as well, that featured a ton of Jazz, as well as music by Jewish, Polish, and other "non-Aryan" composers. I've written about it previously, if it's of interest:
