5. JankelAdler Ernst Barlach Rudolf Bauer Philipp Bauknecht Otto Baum WilliBaumeister Herbert Bayer Max Beckmann Rudolf Belling Paul Bindel Theo Brün Max Burchartz Fritz Burger-Mühlfeld Paul Camenisch Heinrich Campendonk Karl Caspar Maria Caspar-Filser Pol Cassel Marc Chagall LovisCorinth Heinrich Maria Davringhausen Walter Dexel Johannes Diesner Otto Dix PranasDomšaitis Hans Christoph Drexel Johannes Driesch Heinrich Eberhard Artists in the 1937 Munich show WassilyKandinsky Hanns Katz Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Paul Klee Cesar Klein Paul Kleinschmidt Oskar Kokoschka Otto Lange Wilhelm Lehmbruck El Lissitzky Oskar Lüthy Franz Marc Gerhard Marcks EwaldMataré Ludwig Meidner Jean Metzinger Constantin von Mitschke-Collande Laszlo Moholy-Nagy Margarethe (Marg) Moll Oskar Moll Johannes Molzahn Piet Mondrian Georg Muche Otto MuellerErich(?) Nagel Heinrich Nauen Ernst Wilhelm Nay KarelNiestrath Emil Nolde Hans Feibusch Lyonel Feininger Conrad Felixmüller Otto Freundlich XaverFuhr Ludwig Gies Werner Gilles Otto Gleichmann Rudolph Grossmann George Grosz Hans Grundig Rudolf Haizmann RaoulHausmann Guido Hebert Erich Heckel Erich Heckel Wilhelm Heckrott Jacoba van Heemskerck Hans Siebert von Heister Oswald Herzog Werner Heuser Heinrich Hoerle Karl Hofer Eugen Hoffmann Johannes Itten Alexej von Jawlensky Eric Johanson Hans JürgenKallmann Otto Pankok Max Pechstein Max Peiffer-Watenphul Hans Purrmann Max Rauh Hans Richter EmyRöder Christian Rohlfs Edwin Scharff Oskar Schlemmer Rudolf Schlichter Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Werner Scholz Lothar Schreyer Otto Schubert Kurt Schwitters LasarSegall Friedrich Skade Friedrich (Fritz) Stuckenberg Paul Thalheimer Johannes Tietz Arnold Topp Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart Karl Völker ChristophVoll William Wauer Gert Heinrich Wollheim
The expression Degenerate Art was skillfully spread by Hitler's propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, in a huge campaign aimed at the discredit of modern art. In 1937, a commission appointed by him was in charge of confiscating every work of art that was considered "subversive" from museums and personal collections - a total of 5 000 works. Most of them were German, but they also included paintings by Matisse, Picasso and even van Gogh. With this massive lot of paintings, they set up an exhibition to ridicule modern art and to try to get its visitors to feel repulsed by these artistic expressions, which, according to the organization, stained the genuine German culture. As you can guess, the name of the exhibit was Entartete.
Curiously enough, this discredit campaign had an ironic outcome. At the same time, the Nazis promoted another big exhibit, destined to show off the official art, approved by the regime. They pompously called it Grosse deutsche Kunstausstellung (Great German Art Exhibit) and lodged it at the amazing HausderKunst, in Munich. After it was over, they saw that the latter had been viewed by a little over a quarter of the number of people who attended the EntarteteKunst…
On July 19th, 1937, about 650 paintings, sculptures, drawings, etc. were shown to the public in a run-down building in Munich. The purposely disorganized and biased way the works of art were pilled up in was complemented by "pedagogical" slogans that aimed at "explaining" their meaning to the viewers: Revelation of the racial Jewish soul, Insult to German women, , Mocking of the Divine, etc. The exhibit travelled through other cities in Germany and
While this event took place, Goebbels ordered the arrest of even more works of degenerate art, that reached an estimated number of 16 000 works! After the exhibit, several works of art became part of the private collections of some of the members of the Nazi party, who were well aware of their value (Hermann Goering being one of them), while others were sent to Switzerland to be auctioned off.
While this event took place, Goebbels ordered the arrest of even more works of degenerate art, that reached an estimated number of 16 000 works! After the exhibit, several works of art became part of the private collections of some of the members of the Nazi party, who were well aware of their value (Hermann Goering being one of them), while others were sent to Switzerland to be auctioned off. That was the only way they were able to survive to this
