Great German art exhibition

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House of German Art, Munich
Accompanying slip for an exhibited work of art for the Great German Art Exhibition 1939 - Franz Xaver Unterseher

The Great German Art Exhibition took place eight times from 1937 to 1944 in the specially built House of German Art in Munich . It was representative of art under National Socialism .

history

The “Great German Art Exhibition”, which extended over the ground floor, the upper floor and the two-story “Hall of Honor” in the middle of the building, was promoted as the most important cultural event in Nazi Germany . The show was conceived as a sales exhibition, artists could be represented with several works (usually up to ten works), whereby sometimes also works that were not for sale, e.g. B. Loans, were issued. During the exhibition, a selected artist was given the opportunity to present himself more comprehensively in a “special show”.

While the organizational and technical part of the exhibition preparation was incumbent on the "House of German Art (New Glass Palace)" as an institution under public law , the overall artistic management was held by a "Commissioner of the President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts " appointed by Adolf Hitler .

The duration of the exhibition was fixed in advance until 1940; the later exhibitions were announced “until further notice”. The exhibitions were open daily - including Sundays and public holidays - from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Works sold during the exhibition could be replaced by other works “that were found to be good when the works were examined”. Only the “House of German Art” acted as contractual partner for the sale. Photographing and copying of exhibited works was initially not permitted during the exhibition hours. From 1943, however, this was possible for press purposes with the prior consent of the exhibition management.

Adolf Hitler during his speech at the opening of the 1st Great German Art Exhibition in 1937

The “Great German Art Exhibition” was officially opened on July 18, 1937 together with the “House of German Art” building. In the opening speech, Hitler gave an extensive presentation of the National Socialist understanding of “German art”, which in future will be the only one that will be publicly admitted. In doing so, according to Stefan Schweizer, Hitler outlined a basic, ethnic and racist structure of historical and art-historical ideas and interpretations. With his idea that art was a direct expression of the circumstances that shaped it, he identified the art of the Weimar Republic with the political system of the time. By contrast, he saw the art he valued as legitimized by politics and at the same time legitimizing as politics. He defined the new German art stylistically and ideologically with the words: “'To be German means to be clear.' But that would mean that being German means being logical and, above all, being true. "

In contrast to this, Hitler defamed "modern art" that was "degenerate" and announced:

“From now on we will wage a relentless war of cleansing against the last elements of our cultural disintegration. But if there is one among them who still believes that he is destined for something higher, then he now has four years to prove this probation, but these four years are enough for us to come to a final judgment. But now - I want to assure you here - all the mutually supportive and thus holding cliques of gossips, amateurs and art fraudsters will be dug up and eliminated. These prehistoric prehistoric cultural stone ages and art stutterers may return to the caves of their ancestors for our sake in order to put their primitive international scribbles there. "

- Adolf Hitler : Speech at the opening of the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich, July 18, 1937.

As an example of the now ostracized art, the exhibition “Degenerate Art” began one day later in the Munich Hofgarten . The "Great German Art Exhibition" showed a total of 12,550 exhibits and was visited by around 600,000 people. Art for 13 million Reichsmarks was sold; Hitler alone bought works for 6.8 million Reichsmarks. There was little international interest.

After 1945, numerous works were no longer shown and no longer depicted. The Central Institute for Art History in Munich has made it available online since October 2011 - in cooperation with the Haus der Kunst , Munich and the German Historical Museum , Berlin - in order to facilitate a social and art history debate. In parallel to the online project, a complete directory of the artists at the Great German Art Exhibition from 1937 to 1944 was published by Neuhaus Verlag in Berlin .

Exhibiting artists (selection)

Painting and graphics

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plastic

Works bought by Hitler

The “Führer” and Reich Chancellor bought several works during the exhibition, such as the painting In the Battle of the Atlantic by the marine painter Claus Bergen from 1941, the Arbeitsmaiden, returning from the field by Leopold Schmutzler, the judgment of Paris by Ivo Saliger or the streets of Leader by Carl Theodor Protzen.

Events

  • July 18 to October 31, 1937: I. GDK. Opening speech: Adolf Hitler
  • July 10 to October 16, 1938: II. GDK: 1158 works of art; with - not yet titled as such - special show of 21 works by Werner Peiner , Kronenburg
  • July 16, 1939: At the end of the two-day event “ Day of German Art ”, the III. GDK opened. Duration: until October 15, 1939
  • July 27, 1940: The IV. GDK with 1,397 works by 752 artists was opened by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels . In mid-October 1940 the sold works were exchanged for 317 other selected works. The exhibition should be open until February 1941. Friedrich Stahl from Rome presented 35 works at the special show .
  • July 26, 1941 (duration: “until further notice”): Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels opens the V. GDK with 1,347 works by 647 artists. Raffael Schuster-Woldan from Berlin was allowed to show 27 works in a special show.
  • July 4, 1942 (duration: “until further notice”): Goebbels opened the VI. GDK with works by 680 artists with 1213 works, with a special exhibition of 22 works by Karl Leipold , Berlin.
  • June 26, 1943 (opening by Goebbels; duration: "until further notice"): VII. GDK: 660 artists with 1141 works, with a special exhibition of 35 works by Peter Philippi from Rothenburg od T.
  • July 1944 VIII. GDK (?), (Duration: “Until further notice”): Special show with 21 works by Hugo Gugg , Weimar.

Special exhibitions

  • Small collections. Painting - sculpture - graphics, May 21 to June 26, 1938
  • Special shows (see above under dates)

literature

  • Large German art exhibition (year) in the House of German Art in Munich. Official exhibition catalog. Knorr & Hirth / F. Bruckmann KG, Munich 1937–1944. (List of works of art and illustrations; illustrations were selected). In some cases, supplementary parts with a list of exchanged works appeared for the catalogs .
  • Robert Thoms: The artists of the Great German Art Exhibition Munich 1937–1944: Complete directory. Completely revised, corrected and supplemented edition. With a chronological overview of the contents of the magazine Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich. Neuhaus, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-937294-09-4 .
  • Art in the 3rd Reich - Documents of Submission. Frankfurter Kunstverein u. Working group d. Art History Institute d. University of Frankfurt on behalf of d. City of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 1980. (This paperback is based on an exhibition catalog.)
  • Sabine Brantl: House of Art, Munich. A place and its history under National Socialism. Allitera, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-86520-242-X .
  • Sabine Brantl: Great German art exhibitions. 1937-1944. In: Germany Archive (Ed.): Third Reich. Documents. Braunschweig 2010. (loose-leaf collection).
  • Stefan Schweizer: "Giving our worldview a visible expression". National Socialist historical images in the historical pageants for the " Day of German Art " 1933 to 1939. Wallstein, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0107-8 .
  • Berthold Hinz : Painting in German Fascism - Art and Counterrevolution. Hanser, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-446-11938-8 .
  • Hermann Hinkel: On the function of the image in German fascism. Anabas, Steinbach 1975, ISBN 3-87038-033-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Imdahl : How Hitler presented himself as a patron of the arts. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 16, 2017. From: faz.net, accessed on July 16, 2017.
  2. ^ "Modernism is now forbidden". Quote from: New York Times , July 25, 1937, quoted from: Georg Imdahl: How Hitler presented himself as a patron of the arts. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, July 16, 2017. From: faz.net, accessed on July 16, 2017.
  3. ↑ Stefan Schweizer: "Giving our worldview visible expression". National Socialist historical images in historical pageants. Wallstein, Göttingen 2007, pp. 142f., Cited above. P. 141.
  4. ↑ Quoted from Kathrin Engelhardt: The exhibition “Degenerate Art” in Berlin 1938. Reconstruction and analysis. In: Uwe Fleckner (Ed.): Attack on the avant-garde. Art and Art Politics in National Socialism. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, p. 95.
  5. ^ Franz Kotteder : Nazi exhibitions in the House of Art. Hitler's art henchmen. Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 24, 2011, accessed on October 10, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Julia Voss: A taboo is broken. faz.net October 17, 2011, accessed October 19, 2011.
  7. ↑ Angelika Burger: Emilie von Hallavanya. Confident self-portrait of a modern woman . In: Antonia Voit (Ed.): Off to Munich! Women artists around 1900 . Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-86497-193-8 , p. 63 .
  8. ↑ Sinnende - The Great German Art Exhibitions 1937–1944 / 45. Retrieved August 13, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Georg Imdahl: How Hitler presented himself as a patron of the arts. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, July 16, 2017. From: faz.net, accessed on July 16, 2017.