Germany Beyond the Classroom 2019: The Art (Or Lack There of) of the National Socialist Movement Following WWI

Week7: The Rise of National Socialism
By Eric Kastelic

Art Connection:

Slight Backstory:

Simply putting it, as hyperinflation took over in Germany and the rest of Europe following the Great Depression the German People looked for and found apparent stability in the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Due to his passionate & intense speaking skills and radical ideas Adolf Hitler became the Reich Chancellor of Germany.

Affect on Art:

Image result for Wolfgang Willrich, BaÌˆuerliches Liebespaar (Rural Lovers),1940

Image result for Georg Grosz: After the Theater

Before 1933

Georg Grosz: After the Theater (1926) After 1933

Wolfgang Willrich: Rural Lovers (1940)

These two posts from our class gallery walk perfectly represent the controlling shift that took place following World War One. Before the war there was a lot of art depicting the suffering of the German people due to the country being crippled by war, a government that was destined to fail, and rampant inflation. The Nazi Party promised to help the county work their way out of despair but greatly limited the expression of the those people who worked toward display the pain and suffering around them. The Nazi party labeled art they did not approve of as Degenerate art or Entartete Kunst in German in an attempt to control the public opinion about it.

Degenerate Art:

Video Discussing the use of Art as propaganda
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/art-propaganda-nazi-degenerate-art-exhibit

During the 1930's most modern art was labeled as ‘degenerate’ by the Nazi party.
Art was purged by German museums via the government. Over 15,550 works were collected and many were destroyed. Before some were destroyed or taken they were put on display at a Degenerate Art Show that encourage the public to mock the works.

The Nazi Party Commissioned many works to highlight pure and whole sum Germans.
Image result for nazi approved art

German Art Highlighted ‘Kinder, Küche, Kirche’: (family, home and church)

The main thing that comes to mind that's differs from the original ideas of German “ Degenerate” Art and Nazi ideology is that Official Nazi art create a perfect society. This idea of social realism was popularized in Stalin’s Russia following his rise to power in 1924. These works showed rigorously optimistic pictures of Soviet life painted in a realist style. The two ideologies of Nazi Socialism and Russian Communism clash in a sense that the Nazi’s had a great hatred of Communism because they were on opposite ends of the spectrum in almost every way. Communism supported Free Markets and giving power to the people while Nazi Socialism did not.