Describing how a Nazi occupied Germany affected the arts

2. The Arts in Nazi Germany

3. The Arts in Nazi Germany
"We shall discover and encourage the artists who
are able to impress upon the State of the German
people the cultural stamp of the Germanic race . . .
in their origin and in the picture which they
present they are the expressions of the soul and
the ideals of the community." (Hitler, Party Day
speech, 1935; in Adam, 1992)

5. Reichskulturkammer
(Reich Culture Chamber)

6. Reichskulturkammer
(Reich Culture Chamber)

7. Reichskulturkammer
(Reich Culture Chamber)
• Joseph Goebbels, (Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda) was put in charge of dictating the terms of
acceptable, racially pure and Nazi supportive culture.
• Separate chambers for the different arts- could only be a
member of the cultural chamber is your art was according to
the Nazi standards.
• And through these standards, the Nazis attempted to create a balance
between censorship and creativity in music to appease the German people.
This blend of art and politics led to a three-prong policy regarding musicians
and artists:
1. Loyal Nazi members who were talented musicians were guaranteed a job.
1. Loyal Nazi members who were not talented musicians were not guaranteed a job.
2. Any non-Jewish person who demonstrated a "genius" for music and was a member
of the Culture Chamber was permitted employment.

10. Nazi Music

11. Nazi Music
• Along with making such standards for
music, Hitler forbid any music that
didn’t support the Nazi ideal.

12. Nazi Music
• Along with making such standards for
music, Hitler forbid any music that
didn’t support the Nazi ideal.
• According to Hitler and Goebbels the three master
composers that represented good German music were
Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, and Anton
Bruckner.

13. Nazi Music
• Along with making such standards for
music, Hitler forbid any music that
didn’t support the Nazi ideal.
• According to Hitler and Goebbels the three master
composers that represented good German music were
Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, and Anton
Bruckner.
• Also, any other music that made it through the standards
of the Nazi regime usually carried political overtones,
another form of propaganda.

16. Banned Music

17. Banned Music
• Any Jewish composers had their music
banned,

18. Banned Music
• Any Jewish composers had their music
banned,
• Modern composers such as
Hindensmith and Schoenburg were
also belittled

19. Banned Music
• Any Jewish composers had their music
banned,
• Modern composers such as
Hindensmith and Schoenburg were
also belittled
• Also, any American music, including
swing or dance band music was
banned for being ‘Negroid’ or
‘decedent’.

21. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,

22. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:

23. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour

24. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway

25. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot

26. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Big Boy Blue (Ella Fitzgerald)

27. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Big Boy Blue (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Swing for Sale

28. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Big Boy Blue (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Swing for Sale
• Canto negro

29. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Big Boy Blue (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Swing for Sale
• Canto negro
• The Dipsey Doodle

30. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Big Boy Blue (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Swing for Sale
• Canto negro
• The Dipsey Doodle
• Peelin’ the Peach

31. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Big Boy Blue (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Swing for Sale
• Canto negro
• The Dipsey Doodle
• Peelin’ the Peach
• The Flat Foot Floogee

32. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Big Boy Blue (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Swing for Sale
• Canto negro
• The Dipsey Doodle
• Peelin’ the Peach
• The Flat Foot Floogee
• Pent up in the Penthouse

33. Following the regulation to protect musical cultural works of 29 March 1939
(German Legal Reporter #77 of 31 March 1939, Völkischer Beobachter, Full
edition Nr. 84 of 4 April 1939), the Reich Music Examination Office has
declared the following musical works as undesired and harmful. Publishing,
• Songs banned:
• Help Your Neighbour
• Your Broadway, My Broadway
• Swing Low Sweet Chariot
• Big Boy Blue (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Swing for Sale
• Canto negro
• The Dipsey Doodle
• Peelin’ the Peach
• The Flat Foot Floogee
• Pent up in the Penthouse

35. Literature

36. Literature
•Many writers and dramatists did not believe in the
limitations that the Nazis set down, 2500 leaving their
home country (either voluntarily or via force)
•Nazi’s would make a public display of book burning,
the most notable held in front of the University of Berlin,
the flames destroying many works by Thomas Mann,
Arnold Zweig and Albert Einstein.
Where they have burned books, they will in the end burn people.
(Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.)
— Heinrich Heine , Almansor (1821)

38. Accepted Literature

39. Accepted Literature
• Goebbels controlled all the publishing houses, he
set down four categories that were acceptable for
writers to base their works around:

40. Accepted Literature
• Goebbels controlled all the publishing houses, he
set down four categories that were acceptable for
writers to base their works around:
• 1. Fronterlebnis: which stressed the camaraderie and glory of war.

41. Accepted Literature
• Goebbels controlled all the publishing houses, he
set down four categories that were acceptable for
writers to base their works around:
• 1. Fronterlebnis: which stressed the camaraderie and glory of war.
• 2. Works reflecting a world view expressed by Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg
(a strongly Nazi ideologist)

42. Accepted Literature
• Goebbels controlled all the publishing houses, he
set down four categories that were acceptable for
writers to base their works around:
• 1. Fronterlebnis: which stressed the camaraderie and glory of war.
• 2. Works reflecting a world view expressed by Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg
(a strongly Nazi ideologist)
• 3. Heimatroman: a regional novel with focus on the grandness and power
that is being German.

43. Accepted Literature
• Goebbels controlled all the publishing houses, he
set down four categories that were acceptable for
writers to base their works around:
• 1. Fronterlebnis: which stressed the camaraderie and glory of war.
• 2. Works reflecting a world view expressed by Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg
(a strongly Nazi ideologist)
• 3. Heimatroman: a regional novel with focus on the grandness and power
that is being German.
• 4. Rassenkunde [ethnology]: specifically the kind of racial doctrine, that
contrasted the ‘pure’ German Nordic with the biologically defective Jews,
French, Russians, Poles, and Africans.

44. Theatre
• Theatre was also used for propaganda
purposes
• The good german plays that were popular
included works by Shakespeare,
• Gestures, costumes, and lines that
expressed opposition to the regime were
suppressed, everything was minutely
censored

46. Visual Arts

47. Visual Arts
• Officially approved art in Nazi Germany between 1933 and
1945, was a style of Romantic realism based on classical
models, with sculptures that depicted the ideal Nazi etc.

48. Visual Arts
• Officially approved art in Nazi Germany between 1933 and
1945, was a style of Romantic realism based on classical
models, with sculptures that depicted the ideal Nazi etc.
• Popular themes of Nazi art included the promotion of “blood
and soil” and the values of racial purity, militarism and
obedience. Also, themes of hard work, love of homeland as
well as “Kinder, Küche, Kirche” (children, kitchen, church)
exulting woman for their designated duties.

49. Visual Arts
• Officially approved art in Nazi Germany between 1933 and
1945, was a style of Romantic realism based on classical
models, with sculptures that depicted the ideal Nazi etc.
• Popular themes of Nazi art included the promotion of “blood
and soil” and the values of racial purity, militarism and
obedience. Also, themes of hard work, love of homeland as
well as “Kinder, Küche, Kirche” (children, kitchen, church)
exulting woman for their designated duties.
• Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung (great German art exhibition) premiered
in the House of German Art in 1937 featuring all approved artists.

51. ‘Degenerate Art’

52. ‘Degenerate Art’
• Entartung (or "degeneracy") was used to characterize any and critique any jewish or modern
art, first used by Max Nordau who tried to prove that ‘criminal behavior’ was inherent.

53. ‘Degenerate Art’
• Entartung (or "degeneracy") was used to characterize any and critique any jewish or modern
art, first used by Max Nordau who tried to prove that ‘criminal behavior’ was inherent.
• Under this premise did he explain that artists who produced any modern art were corrupt and
weak, their lack of self control being shown in their art.

54. ‘Degenerate Art’
• Entartung (or "degeneracy") was used to characterize any and critique any jewish or modern
art, first used by Max Nordau who tried to prove that ‘criminal behavior’ was inherent.
• Under this premise did he explain that artists who produced any modern art were corrupt and
weak, their lack of self control being shown in their art.
• He condemned impressionism and expressionism, as well as many artists, and the nazi regime
took hold of Nordau’s theory in order to promote anti-Semitic feelings and Aryan purity, even
in the visual arts.

55. ‘Degenerate Art’
• Entartung (or "degeneracy") was used to characterize any and critique any jewish or modern
art, first used by Max Nordau who tried to prove that ‘criminal behavior’ was inherent.
• Under this premise did he explain that artists who produced any modern art were corrupt and
weak, their lack of self control being shown in their art.
• He condemned impressionism and expressionism, as well as many artists, and the nazi regime
took hold of Nordau’s theory in order to promote anti-Semitic feelings and Aryan purity, even
in the visual arts.
• Therefore, over 5,000 works of art were purged from the german museums, including works by
Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent Van Goph

56. ‘Degenerate Art’
• Entartung (or "degeneracy") was used to characterize any and critique any jewish or modern
art, first used by Max Nordau who tried to prove that ‘criminal behavior’ was inherent.
• Under this premise did he explain that artists who produced any modern art were corrupt and
weak, their lack of self control being shown in their art.
• He condemned impressionism and expressionism, as well as many artists, and the nazi regime
took hold of Nordau’s theory in order to promote anti-Semitic feelings and Aryan purity, even
in the visual arts.
• Therefore, over 5,000 works of art were purged from the german museums, including works by
Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent Van Goph
• The Nazi’s then set up a exhibit in order to mock such pieces. Entartete Kunst ("Degenerate
Art") features 650 sculptures, paintings, and prints of Jewish artists or pieces that had been
labelled ‘degenerate’

57. ‘Degenerate Art’
• Entartung (or "degeneracy") was used to characterize any and critique any jewish or modern
art, first used by Max Nordau who tried to prove that ‘criminal behavior’ was inherent.
• Under this premise did he explain that artists who produced any modern art were corrupt and
weak, their lack of self control being shown in their art.
• He condemned impressionism and expressionism, as well as many artists, and the nazi regime
took hold of Nordau’s theory in order to promote anti-Semitic feelings and Aryan purity, even
in the visual arts.
• Therefore, over 5,000 works of art were purged from the german museums, including works by
Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent Van Goph
• The Nazi’s then set up a exhibit in order to mock such pieces. Entartete Kunst ("Degenerate
Art") features 650 sculptures, paintings, and prints of Jewish artists or pieces that had been
labelled ‘degenerate’
• This exhibit diplayed all pieces in a disorberly manner, with mocking labels accompaning each
piece.

58. ‘Degenerate Art’
• Entartung (or "degeneracy") was used to characterize any and critique any jewish or modern
art, first used by Max Nordau who tried to prove that ‘criminal behavior’ was inherent.
• Under this premise did he explain that artists who produced any modern art were corrupt and
weak, their lack of self control being shown in their art.
• He condemned impressionism and expressionism, as well as many artists, and the nazi regime
took hold of Nordau’s theory in order to promote anti-Semitic feelings and Aryan purity, even
in the visual arts.
• Therefore, over 5,000 works of art were purged from the german museums, including works by
Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent Van Goph
• The Nazi’s then set up a exhibit in order to mock such pieces. Entartete Kunst ("Degenerate
Art") features 650 sculptures, paintings, and prints of Jewish artists or pieces that had been
labelled ‘degenerate’
• This exhibit diplayed all pieces in a disorberly manner, with mocking labels accompaning each
piece.
• This exhibit also had almost three and half times more visitors then the Great German Art
Exhibit

60. Nazi Plunder

61. Nazi Plunder
• This refers to the taking of valuable throughout of Europe from 1933
to the end of the Second World War.
• This especially included works of art, including paintings, ceramics,
books and religious treasures such as Raphaelʼs Portrait of a Young
Man .
• The organization (ERR) which took these valuable seized 21,903
pieces throughout all the German occupied countries.
• Wealthy Jewish familyʼs collections were taken into Hitlerʼs
possession and were especially targeted because of their wealth.

62. Nazi Plunder
• This refers to the taking of valuable throughout of Europe from 1933
to the end of the Second World War.
• This especially included works of art, including paintings, ceramics,
books and religious treasures such as Raphaelʼs Portrait of a Young
Man .
• The organization (ERR) which took these valuable seized 21,903
pieces throughout all the German occupied countries.
• Wealthy Jewish familyʼs collections were taken into Hitlerʼs
possession and were especially targeted because of their wealth.

63. Sources
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Art_of_the_Third_Reich#Degenerate_art
• http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/arts/
musReich.htm
• http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/
gpa/banned.htm
• http://journal.utarts.com/artimg/
farrel_01.jpg
• http://www.slideshare.net/
EmilySeekings/nazi-germany-theatre
• Hitler; text book