Nazi Culture Wars, Control of Arts: Modern Art, Music Suppressed, Degenerate Art Exhibit, Klimt Rebrand

[appalachiablue]

- Gustav Klimt and the Nazis; Vienna, Austria, city of great art. (2023, 18 mins).
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- Nazi propaganda, control of Film, Theater, Music, Radio, Journalism, Literature and the Arts.
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- The DEGENERATE ART EXHIBITION was an art exhibition organized by the Nazi Party in Munich from 19 July to 30 Nov. 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, confiscated from German museums, and was staged in counterpoint to the concurrent Great German Art Exhibition.

The day before the exhibition started, Hitler delivered a speech declaring "merciless war" on cultural disintegration, attacking "chatterboxes, dilettantes and art swindlers". Degenerate art was defined as works that "insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual and artistic skill".

One million people attended the exhibition in its first 6 weeks. Hitler's rise to power on 30 Jan. 1933 was quickly followed by actions intended to cleanse the culture of so-called degeneracy: book burnings were organized, artists and musicians were dismissed from teaching positions, and museum curators were replaced by Party members. In Sept. 1933 the Reich Culture Chamber was est., administered by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment & Propaganda. The arbiter of what was unacceptably "modern" was Hitler...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_Art_exhibition
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- MUSIC in Nazi Germany, like all cultural activities in the regime, was controlled and "co-ordinated" by various entities of the state and the Nazi Party, with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and the prominent Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg playing leading - and competing - roles. The primary concerns of these organizations was to exclude Jewish composers and musicians from publishing and performing music, and to prevent the public exhibition of music considered to be "Jewish", "anti-German", or otherwise "degenerate", while at the same time promoting the work of favored "Germanic" composers, such as Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven and Anton Bruckner. These works were believed to be positive contributions to the Volksgemeinschaft, or German folk community.

The Nazis promoted Aryan ideologies through heavy censorship and cultural control, blacklisting Jewish compositions, banning specific concert hall performances, and controlling radio content in order to promote nationalism through cultural unity. By controlling the mediums of communication the Reich Chamber of Culture was able to dictate public opinion in regards to musical culture, and reaffirm their hegemonic beliefs, promoting "Aryan" works consistent with Nazi ideology...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_in_Nazi_Germany
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"The Suppression of Art in Nazi Germany," Ed. Teach Democracy.

A few hundred yards away, the Nazis held the 2nd exhibit in a small building. In 9 rooms, they crammed nearly 700 paintings and sculptures created by German artists. On the walls, they scrawled words insulting the works. This exhibit housed what they called "Degenerate Art," art that the Nazis believed was harmful and repugnant. Modern, or avant-garde, art filled these rooms. The exhibit was meant to hold modern art up to public ridicule. The Nazis placed the 2 exhibits near each other so people could compare them. The Great German Art exhibit showed the kind of art approved of by the Nazi state. The Degenerate Art exhibit showed the kind of art that the Nazi state prohibited.

The exhibits were part of an incredible Nazi campaign to put art under control of the state.

Art in the Weimar Republic. Prior to the Nazi takeover in 1933, German art had exploded into a dizzying array of styles. Although some artists still painted in the realistic style common in the 19th century, many experimented with new forms. They followed the lead of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists who had broken away from realistic-style painting. Cubists structured their paintings along geometrical forms. Expressionists distorted forms to express inner feelings. Dadaists created abstract, fantastic works that mocked everything—even other modern artists. Berlin was challenging Paris as capital of the art world. Germany attracted such prominent artists as Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. Art magazines sprouted up everywhere debating the merits of different artists and art forms. The Bauhaus opened. This was a school of modern art and architecture that would become internationally famous. The National Gallery in Berlin opened a wing devoted to modern art, which housed major works by German painters like Max Beckmann as well as foreign artists like Pablo Picasso. All this was taking place amidst the chaos in German society.

Following its defeat in World War I, Germany seemed on the brink of collapse. Its money lost all value. In 1918 at the end of the war, a loaf of bread cost 2 German marks. By the summer of 1923, the price of single loaf of bread had risen to 4 million marks. The people responded with strikes, protests, brawls, assassinations, and open rebellions. Extremist groups plotted to seize power: Communists wanted a Soviet-style state; Nazis wanted a "pure" Germany free of Jews and Communists. The new democratically elected German government, known as the Weimar Republic, seemed unable to control the situation. The art reflected the period.

Some avant-garde artists, like Georg Grosz, took an active political stance, using their work to agitate for change. Most, however, were not overtly political. Some captured the despair of the time—painting prostitutes and other downtrodden in city settings. Others, like social realist Otto Dix, painted about the horrors of the World War. Because of its themes and styles, avant-garde art provoked controversy. Its abstract forms troubled traditionalists. They called for a return to the realistic art of the early 19th century. Right-wing nationalists thought modern art insulted German values. They looked on paintings showing the horrors of war as mocking German patriotism and militarism. The shrillest voices belonged to the Nazis. They saw modern art as degenerate and degrading—a product of an intellectual elite who had lost touch with the German people...
https://teachdemocracy.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-13-2-b-the-suppression-of-art-in-nazi-germany