Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Only Hitler's art was good art in the Third Reich
"Good" art in the Third Reich was a means of representing the type of worldview, lifestyle, mentality, and so-called physical health that Hitler and the Nazi Party demanded the German people adopt. Art stopped being a creative force because it was only allowed to express one viewpoint, and anything deviating from that was labeled "degenerate" and destroyed. This "bad" art was anything unique or innovative in style or content, in terms of not being aligned with Hitler's ideology or notion of beauty. If Hitler would not have painted it, it was deemed unacceptable. Thus art in the Third Reich ceased to be a means of personal expression and became mere political propaganda: the art that was deemed acceptable also let the people know the ideas that were deemed acceptable, and anything different was seen as an abomination. In this way, the leaders of the Third Reich treated art much the same way they treated politics/society, in that they held everything to a rigorous standard of so-called purity and uniformity. It is interesting and relevant to this point that "bad" art was so explicitly equated with bodily deformity and inferiority-- the "bad" art was burned, and the people labeled inferior were murdered, all as part of the obsessive purging process. With these parallels in mind, one can begin to see how Hitler would have thought of his regime as a work of art that he was creating, and this of course would have been labeled "good" art, which makes the entire notion of "good" art in the Third Reich seem even more perverse.
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Hitler had three main influences; Linz, antiquity, and Wagner. I agree with you that Hitler’s art is good art, and also think that “his” art was influenced by the same things that influenced his worldview. Hitler’s views of what is right—both in the world, and in art—were completely skewed by his view of purity. Thus the bad art, which included everything new and revolutionary, HAD to be destroyed, just as the Jews did in his view. Bad art gone, “bad” people gone. I thought your point was especially poignant when you said: “Thus art in the Third Reich ceased to be a means of personal expression and became mere political propaganda: the art that was deemed acceptable also let the people know the ideas that were deemed acceptable, and anything different was seen as an abomination.” Hitler was painting, through the Third Reich, his vision of a “good” Germany.
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