THE EXPOSITIONS OF THE GREAT GERMAN ART 1937-1944 MUNICH In 1937 the Nazis inaugurated the House of German Art and organized the first exposition of Great German Art. In this year -- 1937 -- the reins were finally tightened : Hitler made it clear that the cliques of "dilettantes and art forgers" of the modern art will be liquidated ....."they have had four years' time to prove themselves," he said at the inauguration (see photo below). For the Nazis, it was the final victory of German art over modern art. It culminated in two exhibitions that would make, they thought, worldwide history : Degenerate Art and the first Great German Art Exhibition. Both "demonstrated the artistic credo" of the National Socialist movement. "We do not reject the Modernists because they are modern but because they are spiritually destructive", wrote Robert Scholz, one of the leading National Socialist art critics, in Deutsche Kultur-Wacht. The Haus der Deutschen Kunst (House of German Art) was built in a park-like setting just northeast of the Feldherrnhalle in downtown Munich on the orders of Adolf Hitler, to replace the Crystal Palace Gallery which had been destroyed by fire in 1931. It was built under the direction of Professor Paul Ludwig Troost who died before it was finished. The building was completed by his young widow, Gerdie Troost with the help of her associate Professor Leonhard Gall in 1937. The first show was a modest success. At the same time the Nazis organized the exposition of "degenerated art" (entartete kunst) which -to their great shame- was a huge success as it showed artworks that were deemed "forbidden". More than 250 artists, sculptors and painters, were exposed at the first exposition of German art. The themes and subjects of the show were strictly set out by Hitler, Goebbels and Frau Troost : * 40 percent showing landscapes, * 30 percent showing ordinary people, * 11 percent portraits of historical figures, * 10 percent showing animals * 7 percent still lifes. The exposition revealed a great number of talents to the German public and to the European public who came to Munich. But most of those exposed were already well known and famous German artists. Nazism did not create a genre nouveau but emphasized the traditional tendencies in Art.It would be a grave error indeed to judge all artists exposed between 1937 and 1944 as mediocre or bad. Most of them were not Nazis but only admitted to the exposition by the Nazis and were happy to find a place of exhibition for their works which seperated themselves from the "modernist" current. Secretly some of them however had probably deep sympathies for the Nazi program like Josef Thorak for instance. Others were more open : many artists working in the traditional vein were eager participants, finding themselves able to communicate with the masses, thereby being released from the isolation of modern art. The poet Gottfried Benn wrote these words to Klaus Mann in exile: " I declare myself for the new State, because it is my Folk that is making its way now. Who am I to exclude myself; do I know anything better? No! Within the limits of my powers I can try to guide the Folk to where I would like to see it; but if I should not succeed, still it would remain my Folk." Later in the 40s, many even praised the German soldier in combat -like Paul Matthias Padua- which is normal for a people as patriotic as the German and for a nation at war on two fronts. Furthermore it would be another mistake to think that all artists are anti-conformist, disinterested and flee the conformism of mainstream art. Because essentially Nazi inspired art was boring, conformist and unprovocative. The paintings that exalted the SS men were made during the war but on average the Nazi political message was absent. If a "fascist" leaning was present in many works of art we must not forget that European people in the 20s & 30s were massively conservative and anti-semitic. Modern art, like Socialism and Communism, was deemed to be a creation of internationalist and pacifist Jewry. Of course many paintings glorify family life virtues and women in the more traditional role of child raiser and house keeper but no artist can be qualified as "Nazi" because he supports those values, generally out of sheer ambition. It does not make them "war criminals", no more than Soviet painters were turned into doctrinaire monsters because they exalted Stalin or the achievements of Socialism. Sculptures by the German artists are generally beautiful and the strong shapes mold by artists like Breker or Karl May do not make them rabid Nazis or anti-semites either. After all Karajan himself joined the party and nobody had ever denied his genius. Is there a Nazi way to conduct an orchestra ? And after all, why La Marseillaise by Francois Rude (Paris Arc de Triomphe 1838) to the left would be less Nazi than the Genius of Victory by Adolf Wamper ? Because she raises her left arm instead of the right one ? Or because her lines are plumpier, less thin and less agressive ? Maybe but she is still inspired by victory and patriotism and the whole issue remains highly debatable. And both sculptures are beautiful and patriotically inspiring and inspired. Furthermore a lot of works of the artists exposed in 1937 and after are still today selling very well. It suffices to look at the records of auction sales on Artnet to be convinced of it : if they were that bad as Nazis artworks, they would have fallen in total oblivion sixty three years after the fall of Nazism. |
| LIST OF ARTISTS EXPOSED DURING THE 1937-1944 GREAT GERMAN ART EXHIBITIONS The list mentions the sculptor in blue colour and the painters in green. Artists both painter and sculptor are in yellow. Click on each name to get more information. |
| At the first Great German Art Exhibition, 200 sculptures were shown. However as time wore on, the numbers grew : 440 works by 237 sculptors were shown in 1940. This increasing number of sculptures was caused by the fact that sculpture seemed better able to express the National Socialist obsession with race and biology. It offered a body language people could identify with and on which they could model themselves. In that sense, sculpture was seen as an enduring faith carved in stone and eventually expressed better racist concepts and latent antisemitism. Some painters like Hans Schmidt-Wiedenbrück chose to exalt the community of men and classes at war : his paintings are on the verge of being ridiculous and exalt a patriotism of convenience. Another important factor was that art was increasingly viewed as a complement to architecture. Frequently sculpture and low reliefs were used on and in conjunction with buildings, enhancing the idea of architecture as art. As we now know Hitler was a poor painter and a better building designer. Please find below the complete list of the exposed artists in 1937 and with each artist's name (when possible) a link to more information about him/her or a link to his/her current market value according to Artnet records. |
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