In “Culture in Nazi Germany,” historian Michael Kater examines how National Socialism used creation to consolidate its power and justify its repressive policies.s
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One July afternoon in 1937, visitors entering the Archaeological Museum in Munich were greeted by a shocking scene. The walls were covered with paintings awkwardly hung in rustic wooden frames, some barely touching the floor. Above many of them hung red signs with sarcastic inscriptions. This was the exhibition of "Degenerate Art”, one of the Third Reich’s most powerful propaganda tools to delegitimize modern art. Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, conceived this event as a strategy to consolidate his influence and displace his rivals within the Nazi regime, especially Alfred Rosenberg.
The historian analyzes things like this. Michael Kater en Culture in Nazi Germany, which addresses how National Socialism instrumentalized culture to consolidate its power and justify its repressive policies.
The political context in which this exhibition took place was complex. Adolf Hitler had consolidated its power after its rise to power in 1933 and sought to homogenize German culture under the principles of National Socialism. In Hitler's words, "Art does not belong to the individual, but to the people" ("Die Kunst gehört nicht dem Einzelnen, sondern dem Volk"). This ideal translated into an aggressive campaign against modern art, considered by the Nazis to be a Bolshevik and Jewish threat. The "Degenerate Art" exhibition included works by artists such as Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner y Paul Klee, who were branded as “complicit in moral and cultural decline.”
Adolf Ziegler, president of the Reich Chamber of Art, was responsible for selecting the works that would be included in this exhibition. The selection included pieces confiscated from museums and private collections. One of the most notable reviews during the opening was published in the Munsterischer Display, who described the works as “screams of horror captured on canvas” (“Screech of horror on canvas”). Nazi propaganda not only sought to discredit modern art, but also to justify policies of persecution against groups considered “undesirable.”
Kater points out that this exhibition also functioned as a rehearsal for the totalitarian strategies that would be common during the Third Reich. “The denigration of modern art was not merely an aesthetic issue; it was a political and cultural exercise of power.”
There was also an economic rationale behind this strategy. Many of the confiscated works were sold abroad, generating revenue that financed the regime's projects. For example, paintings by Marc Chagall y Wassily Kandinsky were auctioned at ridiculous prices in Switzerland, while others were destroyed in symbolic acts.
A significant case that illustrates Nazi cultural repression is that of the orchestra conductor Fritz Busch. After being marginalized from the German music scene, Busch accepted a commission to conduct an opera season at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1933. Unbeknownst to him, this trip had been orchestrated by Hans Hinkel, a cultural agent for the Reich, who sought to project an image of "tolerance" abroad. During his stay in Argentina, Busch was closely watched by a Nazi spy specifically assigned to monitor his activities.
In his analysis of the participation of artists under Nazism, Kater emphasizes that "the regime operated under a logic of whim and opportunism, punishing or promoting according to the political needs of the moment." This arbitrariness affected artists like Adolf Ziegler, who went from being a protégé of the regime to being censored for his work.
At the end of World War II, many German intellectuals reflected on the role of culture under Nazism. Friedrich Meinecke, a renowned historian, claimed that the Reich's "cultural collapse" was a reflection of its moral decline. In his 1946 essay, he called Nazism "a historical accident that distorted the course of German history." However, this interpretation was criticized for downplaying German society's complicity in the regime's crimes.
The story of this “cultural purge” is not only a warning about the dangers of the instrumentalization of art, but also a reminder of the resilience many artists displayed in the face of oppression. Sculptor Ernst Barlach, whose works were also exhibited as examples of “degenerate art,” wrote: “Art is the last trench of freedom.”
Finally, Kater reflects on the historical lessons this period offers: “Culture, when co-opted by authoritarian regimes, becomes a dangerous tool, capable of shaping and distorting entire realities.”
Michael H. Kater, Author of Culture in Nazi Germany, offers a detailed analysis of how National Socialism instrumentalized culture for its own purposes. Kater, a German-born Canadian historian, has written extensively on the cultural history of the Third Reich. His works include The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich e Italian Fascism and German Nazism: Comparisons and Contrasts.
Source: INFOBAE