“Degenerate Art” in Nazi Germany
In the early decades of the twentieth century, radical new art forms flourished in Germany. Expressionism, futurism, surrealism, cubism, fauvism, and the Dada movement, while different in their forms, shared a common mood of revolt against the established norms of both art and society and the authorities that supported those norms. Despite the inherently revolutionary nature of such work, state-owned German art museums collected and exhibited work by artists such as Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, Paul Klee, Käthe Kollwitz, and Emile Nolde.* In short, art was hot.
The catalog cover for the Degenerate Art exhibition. Notice that Kunst (Art) is in quotation marks. (Image from the Deutsches Historisches Museum
The Nazis were less open-minded on the subject. In the summer of 1937, the Nazi government in Germany staged two important art exhibits in Munich that were designed to teach the German people the difference between great art and what they termed “degenerate art”—anything that was modern, abstract, elitist** or created by a Jewish, socialist, communist, or otherwise class-conscious artist.
One exhibit was titled “Degenerate Art”, comprised of 740 works of modern art by 120 artists—part of more than 20,000 such works the Nazi removed from the state collections between 1937 and 1939. According to the exhibition catalog, the purpose of the show was to “reveal the philosophical, political, racial and moral goals and intentions behind this movement, and the driving forces of corruption which followed them. The works were displayed in a manner designed not only to mock them as “bad art” but to suggest that they were part of an international plot against the German people. ***
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels visiting the Degenerate Art exhibition, which was his brainchild. Image from the German Federal Archive
The other, designated the “Great German Art Exhibition, was a “model art exhibition” of works hand-picked by Hitler for the edification of the public. It was made up of works that were traditional in style, featuring beautiful landscapes, statuesque blond nudes, and idealized Germanic soldiers. By and large, the works were perfectly competent, but they weren’t particularly exciting.
People voted with their feet. In the first two weeks after the exhibitions opened, 400,000 people visited “Degenerate Art”—a record for Germany at the time. By contrast, 129,000 visited the Great German Art Exhibition in the same period. Over the total run of the two exhibitions, which toured around Germany after their opening in Munich, the gap narrowed to three-to-one in favor of “degenerate art.”
* Nolde was a member of the Nazi party, but that didn’t protect his work from Nazi attacks. More of his paintings were exhibited in the Degenerate Art exhibit than those of any other artist, and more of his paintings were confiscated from public galleries.
**A favorite term of abuse in the insult portfolio of populist politicians.
***An idea that I find hard to wrap my mind around. How could anyone consider Ernst Barlach’s breathtaking memorial to the German soldiers who died in World War I part of a plot against the German people?
World War II Map by Map
If you’ve been hanging around here on the Margins for a while, you know I have a weakness for reference books.
These days I try to exercise some self-control when it comes to adding a volume or three to my hoard.* The bookshelf dedicated to references books is close to full** and every book added requires me to make hard choices about books currently on the shelf.
Nonetheless, several weeks ago I gave in and bought a book that I’d been eyeing for months: World War II Map by Map, published by DK for the Smithsonian. I justified it for two reasons. First, I was looking for good maps of the North African campaigns of 1941 and none of the books already on my shelves had one. Second, the book I’m currently working on requires a strong grasp of WWII, even though it is not military history in the most technical sense of the term. *** But I will happily admit those were just excuses to place the order. The fact is, I am a sucker for an historical atlas, and this looked like it would be a good one.
World War II Map by Map lived up to my hopes. It is a thing of beauty—not a surprise for a volume created by DK and the Smithsonian working together. Divided into five sections, beginning with the years between the two world wars and ending with a section titled “Endgame and Aftermath”, the book uses maps to both tell the broad story of World War II and to provide a detailed focus on smaller stories within the broader arc. The book is enriched by photo essays on subjects that are not easily told by map, such as code breaking and Germany’s “V-weapons”.
In the short run, I found the two maps dealing with the North African campaigns of 1941 enormously helpful, particularly when paired infographics on the same subject from World War Infographics, another reference book I was pleased to add to my shelf. Going forward, I suspect I’ll be turning to it over and over again as I think about World War II.
Sometimes you just need to understand what’s happening on the ground.
* “Collection” suggests a more orderly and informed process of acquisition than I can claim.
**It’s too shallow to accommodate my favorite expansion technique of shelving books two-deep. Bad planning on my part.
***Personally, I think the most technical definition of military history is too narrow to teach us much about war. As the late military historian Peter Paret said at the Prtizker Military Museum and Library’s “On War” symposium several years ago, “You can’t get answers to the big questions about war by staying at the level of tactics and operations.” It was music to my ears.
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For anyone who might be interested: I’ll be speaking about Women Warriors as part of the on-line Lunch and Learn series at Norwich University, October 21, 11-12 Central Time. Here’s the registration link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8634144165090842127
Chicago Celebrates Casimir Pulaski
For my first ten or twelve or thirty years in Chicago, I was regularly taken by surprise by a local holiday. On the first Monday in March, Chicago’s administrative offices, and public libraries are closed for Pulaski Day, a holiday honoring Casimir Pulaski, the Polish nobleman who fought on the colonial side in the American Revolution and is sometimes grandiosely described as the father of the American cavalry. More than once I’ve been greeted at the door of the main library by a notice that the library was closed in celebration of Pulaski Day. It did not make me feel celebratory.
The official word is that Chicago first celebrated Pulaski Day in 1986. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across a news item in the Chicago Tribune on October 6, 1938 with the headline “Mayor Kelly Designates Oct. 11 as Pulaski Day.” * The piece was short, only two sentences. No explanation was given, other than the fact that it was the 159th anniversary of Pulaski’s death.
The piece was tucked in below a long article by Sigrid Schultz describing the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Many people believed Poland would be Hitler’s next target. Creating a holiday celebrating a Polish hero who had long been emblematic of both American and Polish freedom in this context seems to me to be a statement of solidarity, even if it was aimed at Chicago’s largely Polish population. A small thread in a larger story.
*Pulaski made the news more recently in 2019, when an exhumation of his bones (for reasons that are still unclear to me) revealed that though he identified as male, he probably had intersex characteristics. This discovery has added nuance to the discussion of remains that appear to be women warriors, and has given people who don’t want to believe in the existence of women warriors a new weapon in the discussion. But I digress.