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com 21 March 2015

CULTURE AND PROPAGANDA


IN NAZI GERMANY
Art | Architecture | Cinema

Hitler: Patron of the


Arts
Hitler viewed his role as the
judge of what was culturally
acceptable for Germany as
extremely important. In his
view, modern art, architecture
and music had done immense
damage to the German
character. Modern culture, he
claimed, was un-German, and
the result of ‘cosmopolitanism’.
This meant that German
culture had been infiltrated by
foreign influences, specifically
Jewish ideas.
Cultural Revolution
Both Hitler and the minister for propaganda and public
1930s Berlin enlightenment Joseph Goebbels believed that no aspect of
German life was exempt from politicisation. Art for arts sake
Hitler had no love for Berlin could not exist in Nazi Germany, it must have a political
and had plans to re-build it purpose. The purpose that the Nazi Party believed political
after the war. He disliked it
art should have, above all, was to instil ‘German’ ideas and
because during the 1920s it
beliefs in the population. The image above is of the sculptor
was one of the most
international of European cities
Arno Breker’s bronze statue Die Partei. It represents an
and was a magnet to Aryan image of masculinity and was from Hitler’s favourite
intellectuals, bohemians and style of architecture - neo classsicism. This was a style that
artists from around the world. was reminiscent of ancient Greece and Rome and the political
Writers like Arthur Koestler and message that went with it was that Germany was the heir to
Christopher Isherwood came these ancient classical civilisations. Arno Breker became
to Germany as did the famous extremely wealth and famous in Germany under Hitler’s
photographer Robert Capa.
patronage and the images of masculinity he created echoed
Berlin’s decadence was
the regime’s racial ideas.
famous, its nightclubs and
cabarets were seen by Hitler as
dissolute and corrupting the
Triumph of the Will
German character. Hitler believed that of all modern mediums, that film was the
most powerful and influential. He developed a strong bond

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www.explaininghistory.com 21 March 2015

with the film maker Leni Riefenstahl, who had become


fascinated by Hitler after hearing him speak. She was given
the role of filming the party’s Nuremberg Rally in 1933, a film
titled ‘Victory of Faith’. Following this she made a second,
more famous film about the Nuremberg Rallies called
‘Triumph Of The Will’. The film was considered one of the
most technically advanced of its time and used modern
techniques to show the power and mass appeal of the Nazi
Party. The effect it had on the wider German public, however,
The People’s Receiver was limited.
The Volksempfanger, or people’ Goebbels found that long, ponderous propaganda films of
receiver, was a cheap, mass
Hitler’s speeches were less popular to the general public than
produced radio that was
the normal comedies and romances that the Weimar film
subsidised by the regime
studios created. The German cinema audiences were not
• In the 1930s radios were dissimilar to their counterparts in the rest of Europe or the
sought after consumer items, USA, and tended to enjoy escapism and entertainment.
often out of the price range of Goebbels also realised that the public was becoming
working class German families. increasingly indifferent to Hitler’s speeches that were
• Radio as a means of broadcast at home and in public places. In the later 1930s,
communication was mastered instead of direct political propaganda at the cinema, action,
by the Nazi Party, even as early comedy and romance films with a political subtext were
as the two elections in 1932. produced. This shows us that the view that the Nazi Party
simply produced propaganda that the public uncritically
Degenerate Art
The Nazi painter Adolf Zeigler
was given the role by Hitler of
‘purging’ Germany of degenerate
works of art. He seized
thousands of paintings by
modern artists such as
Kandinsky and Picasso and
toured a mobile exhibition of
them across Germany. Audiences
were encouraged to view and
pour scorn on modern art. Most
ordinary Germans had limited
interest in modern art either way
and the exhibition failed to turn
the population into art critics

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www.explaininghistory.com 21 March 2015

absorbed is not quite accurate. It also shows us that the regime was very sensitive to the whims and
tastes of the public and did not take public opinion for granted.

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