Cultural propaganda; Paintings...

Hitler was very interested in paintings and in 1828 Alfred Rosenberg set up the combat league for German culture, once in power Hitler began to remove any work he say was ‘degenerate’ or corrupt. To make wake for ‘healthy’ Aryan art, this portrayed the Nazi ideology and message. Others had wider artistic taste but in 1936 Hitler’s views were imposed.

Modern, abstract, reflective art that had become popular in the Weimar Republic was replaced by clear visuals that ordinary Germans could understand and could be inspired by.  Nazi art was to be clear, direct and heroic. This meant people were not drawn as real individuals but instead as heroic idealisations (the healthy peasant, the brave warrior, the productive woman for examples). All the while Hitler was portrayed as the ‘wise, imperious leader’.

example of abstract work of the time
that was seen as degenerate and disturbing.

Landscapes, revealing sources of the Volk and rural life, predominated, followed by nude women to display biological purity. Even though they were superficially realistic compared to the much hated abstract art, it didn’t reflect the real world so much as the Nazi ideology and myths.

Hitler saw that art should be of the masses; in both terms of reflecting popularity and to reach mass audiences. This therefore made this form of propaganda effective; as the state had control over what was produced and how it was spread through-out Germany. All working artists had to become members of the ‘Reich Culture Chamber’ and the state could remove licences to teach, exhibit or paint by issuing a ‘Malverbot’.

There were lots of well-attended local and national exhibitions throughout this period, in 1935 over 120 exhibitions were held in factories and in 1941 there were over 1000 art exhibitions overall.  Many paintings were reproduced full scale or for postcards, stamps, in journals or newspapers. One magazine had over 50,000 prints ran over its course.

Lehmann-Haupt said that everyone was ‘continuously exposed to some form of officially sponsored art activity’ but looking at it from an artistic viewpoint it shows how German art degenerated under the Third Reich into masses of stereotypical images. This was because many of the greatest artists had left the country. Or went into internal exile meaning they stayed in Germany but stopped working as an artist.

Art Propaganda

In 1937 two exhibitions were held in Munich (the city of art in Hitler’s eyes) one exhibition represented the regime that was considered as the best German art and the other was of what was deemed degenerate art. 

The exhibition of great German art was held in a newly built museum, the first of many of Hitler’s grand public buildings, the exhibition held had two purposes. Firstly it was an opportunity for artists to display and sell their work but more importantly an opportunity for people to see ‘true’ German art. Over 16,000 pieces were submitted, only 6,000 of which were chosen. This art was deemed to represent the healthy instincts of the master race. More than 60,000 people attended the exhibition; and was preceded a ‘day of German art’ which later became an annual pageant of 2,000 years of German history parading through Munich. 

The exhibition of degenerate art was opened a day later on the 19th July and was opened by the president of the Art chamber. The exhibition displayed 5,000 degenerate pieces labelled as the work of ‘degenerates’. They all reflected on the disruption of established values under the Weimar Republic that had been the downfall of Germany. The work displayed distorted forms, unnatural colours and unsettling subjects they included works of Emil Nolde, Max Bechmann, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso ect. Over two million people attended this exhibition and after going on a national tour the works were destroyed, sold abroad or kept by Goering. 

Hitler said; ‘its not art that creates new ages, but the ordinary life of a people that adopts new forms and accordingly often seeks a new expression…’ this was a short extract of his speech on opening the exhibition of Great German Art in 1937.