Questions and Answers about Nazi Art

75 years ago, the first Great German Art Exhibition (Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung) opened at the new „House of German Art“. The show was accompanied by the infamous exhibition „Degenerate Art“ („Entartete Kunst“), which was initiated by Joseph Goebbels and on view in the Munich Hofgarten close by. For the national socialist regime no other exhibition project had a comparably programmatic and propagandistic significance as the GDK. Explicitly intended to demonstrate the achievements of the regime’s cultural politics, the sales and exhibitions mirrored both the way the „Third Reich“ conceived of art and of itself as a nation of culture and civilization. Numerous works were purchased by the national socialist elite, but also by private customers.On October 20, 2011, the database GDK Research was launched. The paper will give a short introduction to the database, explain its various sources, and deliver a succinct historiography of the art of the national socialist regime. In particular, however, this talk will highlight some pertinent questions:

What was the impact of the eight shows (1937-1944)?
How do politics and ideology relate to landscapes, genre scenes, portraits and still lives?
And where do we stand today?
Why is this research on Nazi art important and necessary?
What does the media response to tell us?

hm 2/14/12