nazi art as propaganda
Nazi Germany regulated and controlled the art produced between 1933 and 1945 to ensure they embodied the values they wished to indoctrinate into the German people. The notion of 'volk' (people) and 'blut und boden' (soil and blood) was championed in paintings to glorify an idealized rural Germany and instill a sense of 'superiority' in the Nordic physicality. Highly veristic and asthetisized works romanticized everyday subjects and reiterated redundant stereotyped Nazi ideals of the human body and its purposes in the Reich. Paintings of Adolf Hitler valorized and his image to heroic status, even to the extent of deification, elevating him to a god-like status. By promoting Hitler as superior to the average person, the artist made Hitler a mythological being who, if followed with unconditional religious piety, would lead the Germanic race to an ideal future. The architecture, or so-called 'ideology in stone', was also a vessel for political ideology. The monumental buildings served to construct a pseudo-history to authenticate the stable, strong and righteous nature of the 'thousand year Reich'. Thus, art in the Third Reich was merely a form of propaganda that insidiously promoted the superiority of the Nordic race, the n
The 'Entartete Kunstausstellung' (Degenerate art exhibition), as the name suggests displayed all artworks that did not conform to the static naturalism, in an attempt to mock and undermine styles of modern art. Hitler is presented as a clear headed, determined leader who has the power to lead the Germanic people to a 'glorious future' of mythological greatness. Thus, a form of almost total censorship was enforced by the National Socialist Party to regulate the kinds of art produced and seen by the general German public, and therefore the opinions they formed. There is a great sense of movement in this veristic depiction of a canoe race, where so-called examples of the 'perfection' of the 'pure' blood male Aryans harmoniously working together in their respective teams. The artists themselves were labeled 'cultural vandals' and 'criminals' who did not paint realistically because they had no real skill. Again a highly romanticized image of life entwined with nature is presented to manipulate the viewer, it forces them to connect hard work to achieve a collective goal (plowing the soil ready for planting) with moral righteousness. Yet, the positive enforcement of Nazi ideology (through the production of works that embody their values) was not the only means of enforcing political hegemony. The inset windows create art fortress like, and add to the idea of an impenetrable and invulnerable building, and therefore Germany. 'Water Sports' painted by Albert Janesh in 1936 is a prime example of the way National Socialists encouraged, through the commissioning of the piece, 'collective action' and the superiority of the Germanic body. The Nazi ideals are embodied more implicitly in 'Ploughing' than 'Kalenburg Farm Family', as on a sub-conscious level the positive view of expansionist values, the farmer representing a hard working Germany, who is regulator of the land (representing European countries), acts to subtly alter personal views on the Nazi situation. Abrams, New York, 1992Golmstock, I. Paul Ludwig Troost's 'Fuhrer Building' in Munich is a prime example of the effect the building had on the German people.
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