In July 1937, Adolph Hitler's Nazi party mounted an exhibition of confiscated art called, "Entartete Kunst," meaning, "Degenerate Art." It showcased and ridiculed the work of contemporary artists such as Max Beckman, Emil Nolde, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, and over 200 others. This paper is going to cover the events that led to the exhibition and the intent to show the public the insanity, atrocity, and depravity of the modern art movement, which Hitler and his party sought to stop. Artists included in the show, many of whom are now recognized as modern masters, were depicted as demented, deranged, and sub-human.
Death of Modern Art In Germany, 1937
"Our patience with all those who have not been able to fall in line
is at an end. ... What you are seeing here are the crippled products
of madness, impertinence, and lack of talent. ... I would need
several freight trains to clear our galleries of this rubbish. ...
President of the Reich Culture Chamber
On July 19, 1937, the Nazi exhibition of Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) opened in Munich, one day after the first "Great German Art Exhibition" premiered. The result of Hitler and Goebbels cleanse of all remaining modern art held in both public and private collections in the Reich, more than 650 important paintings, sculptures and prints as well as books and musical notations were exhibited in this, the most widely seen exhibition of modern art. The exhibit was designed to ridicule and degenerate creative works of Modern Art not upholding "correct" National Socialist virtues.
In the summer of 1937, Adolph Hitler created an exhibition of all the art that he personally hated. By confiscating and showcasing nearly 16,000 works of art, he sought to prove what the Nazi Party considered as "good art." Artists like Marc Chagall, Max Beckmann, Paul Klee, Kathe Kollowitz, Emil Nolde, Ernst Kirchner, Bertha Becker, Wassily Kandinsky, and Piet Mondrian were labeled "degenerates." A...