Modern Art and the Nazis

A lot of last week was spent learning about World War II. We learned all about the rise of the USSR and the fascist powers. I found the empowering of the Nazi’s to be extremely fascinating. Hitler and his regime were extremely tricky and manipulating. They basically created own of the most powerful nations by using a combination of hate and fear. Anyways, I wondered how Hitler and the Nazi’s (as well as Stalin and the Bolsheviks) would feel about art.

My predictions were that they would be extremely restricting if not completely abolishing towards art. The reason: art stems from and produces emotion, expression and knowledge. Both the Nazis and the Bolsheviks were keen on containing their nations free-mind and independence of individual citizens to a minimum. In the USSR, propaganda was a huge part of their society; art might be able to reflect some of the negative aspects of their nation and therefore would be a threat.

After researching, I learned that the Nazis did not were not hugely against art, they just had a problem with modern art. It was considered to be un-German or Jewish. The creation of modern art was not allowed and anyone who created it would be punished. The Nazis considered modern art to be degenerate art, and even had an art exhibition with that title that displayed modern art hung randomly on the walls, with humiliating names. The purpose for the exhibition was to inspire disgust in modern art to the public.

Although modern art was disallowed, art, especially classic art was encouraged. Hitler used his power to enforce the production of art, and demanded that only Greek and Roman style art be created. The reason was “[Hitler] saw Greek and Roman art as uncontaminated by Jewish influences. Modern art was [seen as] an act of aesthetic violence by the Jews against the German spirit. Such was true to Hitler even though only Liebermann, Meidner, Freundlich, and Marc Chagall, among those who made significant contributions to the German modernist movement, were Jewish. But Hitler [...] took upon himself the responsibility of deciding who, in matters of culture, thought and acted like a Jew." (Henry Grosshans)

“While modern styles of art were prohibited, the Nazis promoted paintings and sculptures that were narrowly traditional in manner and that exalted the "blood and soil" values of racial purity, militarism, and obedience. Similarly, music was expected to be tonal and free of jazz influence; films and plays were censored.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_art)