Before his fateful entry into politics, Adolf Hitler wanted to be an artist. Even to the most neutral imaginable observer, the known examples of the estimated 2,000 to 3,000 paintings and other works of art he produced in his early adulthood would hardly evidence astonishing genius. They do show a certain technical competence, especially where buildings are concerned. (Twice rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the young Hitler was advised to apply instead to the School of Architecture, a subject for which he also professed a passion.) But their lack of imagination and interest in humanity were too plain to ignore.
Could Hitler’s failure to gain entry to the art world explain anything about the cultural policy of the Nazi Party he went on to lead? Here on Open Culture, we’ve previously featured that policy’s single defining event: Die Ausstellung “Entartete Kunst,” or the Degenerate Art exhibition, staged in 1937 at the Institute of Archaeology in Munich’s Hofgarten.
Presenting 650 confiscated works of art purported to “insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual and artistic skill,” it soon became a great hit, attracting one million attendees in its first six weeks.
That may not come as much of a surprise when you consider the artists whose work was on display: Paul Klee, Georg Grosz, Otto Dix, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Marc Chagall, and even Grant Wood, to name just a few. It seems that the Nazis could come up with nothing quite so fascinating for the planned first Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung, or “Great German Art Exhibition,” whose collapse inspired Hitler’s chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels to suggest putting on a show not of the work that the Nazis approved, but of the work they didn’t.
An admirer of certain Expressionists, Goebbels displayed more cultural open-mindedness than the Führer, who practically declared a war on modern art itself. You can learn more about it from David Grubin’s documentary Degenerate Art, which is available to watch online. The Nazis confiscated more than 5,000 works of art, and even maintained files on no fewer than 16,000 that they’d labeled “degenerate,” a historic inventory that has been made available to the public. Surprisingly, their blacklist did not include the oeuvre of Gustav Klimt, which they attempted to use for their own ends. It could be that, deep down, Hitler, the failed artist, knew good art when he saw it — and that it just made him all the more resentful.
Related content:
When the Nazis Declared War on Expressionist Art (1937)
The 16,000 Artworks the Nazis Censored and Labeled “Degenerate Art”: The Complete Historic Inventory Is Now Online
How the Avant-Garde Art of Gustav Klimt Got Perversely Appropriated by the Nazis
The Nazis’ 10 Control-Freak Rules for Jazz Performers: A Strange List from World War II
How France Hid the Mona Lisa & Other Louvre Masterpieces During World War II
When German Performance Artist Ulay Stole Hitler’s Favorite Painting & Hung it in the Living Room of a Turkish Immigrant Family (1976)
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinmarshall.
