For the Hitler patronized the exhibition “degenerate art” seized by Nazi troops of modern art. The works shown were ridiculed and disappeared. With the consequences of the “cleansing” fight of the museums until today.
It had to be quick. Not three weeks before the opening of the “Great German art exhibition” in Munich in 1937, which had declared Adolf Hitler to be a matter for the boss, should now be yet another exhibition on the legs – as a comparison to the new folk art. In a libellous Look at the so-called “degenerate art should be presented”. Including works that were not with the national socialist view of art compliant: painting and sculptures of expressionism, surrealism, Dadaism, cubism, New objectivity, of the Fauvism fell. In short: the Modern art, it should be ridiculed, pilloried, and ridiculed.
Meike Hoffmann has been researching since 2006 at the Free University of Berlin on the topic of “degenerate art”
In the whole of Germany, then works of art were collected. A seizure Commission moved office officer on 30. In June, 1937 los to “appropriate” exhibition pieces to collect in the museums. “The idea was to clean the art and so there was already some lists that were created for the museums of years,” says Meike Hoffmann, project coordinator of the research centre “degenerate art” at the Free University of Berlin. “The museums were not connected to the same NS-compliant the Director of the Museum replaced.” This lists the hardware handle Commission took in the shortness of the time now. Nevertheless, smaller institutions by the sudden request, were caught off guard. Finally, the Munich exhibition should be already on the 19. July 1937, one day after the “Great German art exhibition”.
In this knee-jerk action 650 modern paintings, graphics and sculptures from 32 German museums were confiscated, including major masters such as Wassily Kandinsky, Emil Nolde, Lyonel Feininger, Ernst Barlach and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. “There was still a certain amount of leeway. So, for instance, was checked, whether the lists were complete,” says Hoffmann. “The publication of the works of art was also depending on the respective occupation. Some local politicians, for example, the extra path, while others are calling on the respective Museum’s Director, vehemently, a specific painting.” The collection was so accomplished in a arbitrary, a certain degree of uncertainty would have prevailed, so that some of the Museum Manager in advance rush was obedience.
Turning point in the Nazi art policy
What was the Least clear that The recovery was not a short-term loan for an exhibition in Munich. Rather, it was part of a process that should clean the German art world fundamentally,””. “Many of the Museum Directors, interpreted the confiscation as a loan, for example, the insurance value,” says Meike Hoffmann, who has been conducting research since 2006 at the Free University of Berlin on the subject.
The paintings, sculptures and graphics should never return. On the contrary, The Munich exhibition “degenerate art” marked a turning point in the Nazi art policy. Starting in August 1937, the Museum’s holdings of modern art were looted almost completely. In a second, more thorough confiscation of a further 20,000 plants from around 1400 artists were confiscated, in a Berlin Depot stored, incinerated, or abroad auctions.
Hitler and propaganda Minister Goebbels visiting the 1937 Munich exhibition of “degenerate art”
But first, some works were exhibited in Munich. Thus, it was not among the visitors to misunderstandings, which were smeared on the walls in addition to come up with slogans and sneering comments. “We see around us, these are the spawn of madness, of impudence, of not könnertums and degeneration”, said the exhibition Director Adolf Ziegler at the time. He was a painter, President of the Nazi Reich chamber of the visual arts, and had driven the seizure of the unwanted works of art in person.
The Show, which was then seen in a further twelve cities, became a hit with the public: More than two million people saw the exhibition. It was the most successful Exhibition of modern art.
Many works of art lost forever
Many visitors have shared the ideology behind it. Eyewitnesses remember how the images spat on. “Some, however, are certainly gone in to the exhibition to see all of these works for the last Time,” says Ulrich Wilmes, chief curator Haus der Kunst in Munich. His house must daily deal with the legacy of the “Great German art exhibition”, which was built in 1937 specifically for this purpose. On the occasion of the 80. Year day on 19. July has been revised in the house of the art presentation to one’s own history and against “degenerate art” exhibition, displays historical photographs, film clips, and materials for architectural history.
More than 1000 works are lost: the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf
The destructive Nazi art policy is currently being thought of in the düsseldorf art Palace. 13. July opened an exhibition that reconstructed what art treasures are lost. The Display shows only a few works: Düsseldorf had it taken to Berlin and eat especially hard. More than 1000 paintings, sculptures and graphics were confiscated.
“We are showing an exhibition about a collection that is no longer there,” says Kathrin DuBois Palace from the Museum of art. It was right the bald spot. A loan from Sydney, the large-format painting “Three bathers” by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner can be shown for the first Time in Düsseldorf, but the Rest will be covered via the own meager stocks. “After 1945, could no longer be brought back. Some of it is still considered missing, such as, for example, the image of ‘The beautiful gardener’ by Max Ernst, which could still be seen in the Munich exhibition ‘degenerate art’. Much was destroyed, especially pictures of then-unknown and local artists,” says DuBois.
Cleaning up after work today
Meike Hoffmann regrets this great loss. “Young artists who were just at the beginning of their career, are now forgotten completely, other than the already well-known painter.” In principle, the German art world have not lost to the national socialist purge only quantitatively some of the most valuable paintings, the entire development of art was also marked today. “National socialism could not bind the modern art, fortunately, completely, nevertheless intensive make amends followed after 1945.” A glance, however, went back on an already outdated understanding of modern art. “Such a wrong situation arose again.”
Outlaw artists, despite of the NSDAP party book: Expressionist Emil Nolde, who painted in 1913, his “field of battle”
It was also not possible to divide the art world in Nazism, only in black or white, in the “degenerate,” and racial ideology. “Then succumb to we are also of the NS-Propaganda, even if we turn it over,” says the researcher. As the Expressionist Emil Nolde, for example, already since 1934, Nazi party member and anti-Semite, but nevertheless, on the Index.
There are numerous exhibitions, panel discussions and public debates on the occasion of the 80. Year’s day. Not least of all by the unexpected discovery of the art collection of a privileged art dealer’s Hitler, the outlaw art, Gurlitt sold against foreign exchange in a foreign country. “That was spectacular,” says Hoffmann, who also worked as a consultant in the Gurlitt case. “All of a sudden works have appeared, which we had believed long lost.”
In addition to the exhibition in Düsseldorf and the revised presentation in Munich a further Look, among other things, in the middle of persecuted arts in Solingen, Germany and an exhibition at the Gurlitt insisted in Bern to open this year. In addition, currently single tracked artists will be honored in special exhibitions, including Rudolf Belling at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin,Max Pechstein in the Bucerius art Forum in Hamburg undOtto Friendly at the Kunstmuseum Basel.