Page 73 - All About History - Issue 72-18

for cut-down prices, including works by van But what of the artists whose
Gogh, Gauguin and Picasso. In the ultimate reputations were ruined by
act of hypocrisy, many degenerate works of the Degenerate Art exhibition?
art that were looted and sold by the Nazis Formerly Austria’s greatest
were acquired by the very men who sold artist, Oskar Kokoschka fled to
them, bargain-hunters on the prowl for their Czechoslovakia, then later the
next fortune. The rest ended up dispersed UK, before settling in Switzerland
across the world or tragically lost. where he died in 1980. Utterly
rui ined by his fall from grace,
nst Ludwig Kirchner killed
Ern
mself in 1938. Max Beckmann,
him
ke Kokoschka, escaped into
lik
ex ile. The once-proud Nazi
Em
mil Nolde was banned from
ev er painting again by his one-
me compatriots, so took up
tim
atercolours, a medium that
wa
dn’t smell and was therefore
did
ea
asy to hide. All degenerate
ar tists who worked in
un
niversities and art schools lost
heir positions.
th
Many of the artists who
nwillingly starred in the
un
De
egenerate Art exhibition are
oday little more than just
to
ames on paper. With careers
A letter sent from na Despite being a member of the Nazi
Ziegler to Emil Nolde, cu Party himself, Emil Nolde was deemed
ut down in their prime, we’ll
which declares that a degenerate and this Crucifixion scene
ever truly know what could
the artist’s works ne hung in the Degenerate Art exhibition
ave become of some of these
have been deemed ha
degenerate cr reative geniuses.

THE GOTTBEGNADETEN LIST

InabidtobuildNaziculture,alistofveryspecialartistswasdrawnup

In the wake of the Degenerate Art exhibition Hitler and Goebbels
were determined to see Nazi culture blossom and grow. In 1944 Sculptor Arno
a record entitled the ‘Gottbegnadeten’ list – or ‘God-gifted’ list – Breker at work
in the 1930s
was drawn up, featuring artists, musicians, actors, authors and
other creatives that were considered national treasures. Among
these prized figures were composer Richard Strauss, Nobel Prize-
winning writer Gerhart Hauptmann and actor Heinz Rühmann.
The honour meant that a letter was sent to the recipient, but
is also guaranteed that the recipient was exempt from military
mobilisation; these figures’ contributions to culture were deemed
more valuable than they could be in war.
Arno Breker was one such artist who found himself on the God-
gifted list. Championed as one of the greatest sculptors of the
Third Reich, Breker had created sculptures for the 1936 Olympic
Games, as well as creating two bronze sculptures to stand outside
the Reich Chancellery. Exempt from military service, Breker was
appointed the official sculptor of the Nazi Party and was gifted a
studio, as well as almost 50 assistants.
By the time the Third Reich crumbled, Breker’s reputation had
spread far and wide. Identified as a ‘fellow traveller’ of the Nazi
Party than necessarily a Nazi himself, Breker was fined and left
to continue his life in Düsseldorf. Over the next few decades he
was commissioned by several wealthy and powerful patrons,
including the King of Morocco. In 1985 a museum devoted to
Breker’s works opened in Nörvenich, Germany. He died in 1991
still a celebrated German artist, but many of his list-mates died © Alamy, Getty Images, TopFoto
in relative obscurity, their talent irrevocably tarnished by their
relationships with the Nazis.

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