Nazi Art
The German Nazis of the 1930’s and 1940’s had an explicitly approved form of art. Unlike the other totalitarian regimes of the era, the approved forms of art were firmly integrated into their iconography and ideology, and excluded any other art movement, including those that were popular at the time. These approved forms of art held a limited number of themes which were repeated as often as necessary, in order to portray the values the Nazis deemed relevant to their cause. These values were, of course, fundamentally nationalistic, and those themes approved by the government were meant to glorify not only the Aryan race, but specifically the German nation. The painting Out To Harvest, by Oskar Martin-Amorbach, is a typical, governmentally approved, work of Nazi art. It depicts a family of farmers going out to harvest on what seems to be a summer day in a typical German countryside. It shows three generations of that family, a young boy at about 4-5 years of age, his mother, and what appear to be his father, grandfather, and a young woman who might be his older sister or aunt. As it’s title implies they are going out to harvest, for they are carrying scythes and rakes for harvesting and a smal . . .
The message never was that it were the farmers that made the German race superior, the people of Germany were equal in that sense, but the reason farmers were held in such high regard was partially due to the fact that they were simple people. People were never specifically told that this was the way the Führer wanted them to be, but they were instead supposed to be influenced by it on an unconscious level, much in the same way anti-semitic propaganda movies were meant to affect them. Farmers were meant to be seen as a modest but proud people, being a fundamental part of the German population, or, to quote the German minister of works at the time, Richard-Walther Darré, “the raw material, and the foundation of the German race”. The German citizen was meant to look at these paintings and think: “This is how I want to be”. The reason peasantry was held in such high regard by the Nazis, was that the peasant family was seen as a self-reliant, interdependent whole based on unity, that was portrayed as a symbol of strength and comradeship. l handheld basket, presumably holding their lunch for the day. The Family This painting is not only a glorification of the German landscape, but also a glorification of the German family. Farm Life What makes this painting a typical work of Nazi art is it’s glorification of peasantry. The idea was that a German tree was supposed to be viewed as being superior to other trees, and German landscape was supposed to be more beautiful than the landscape of other countries, regardless of their actual qualities. These paintings were never used to tell people how they should be and how they should think, but the people were supposed to “read between the lines”, so to speak, and figure it out by themselves. While the people probably sensed that conformity was the way to go, the purpose of paintings, such as Out To Harvest, wasn’t to tell them how the government wanted them to be, but to influence them into wanting to be this way on their own accord, and therefore be the strong proud citizens that the Reich wanted them to be. And simple people means simple pleasures, resulting in a somewhat Schopenhauerean/ Freudian kind of happiness for them, if they were to accept those simple pleasures as good life. Hitler has been quoted as saying that the christian values upheld among the Nazis, were only there to keep the people calm and complacent, while otherwise not being necessary to Nazi rule. A large family with many healthy children was seen as a good thing, and a patriotic one at that, in Nazi Germany.
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Acceptance Essays
