Fine arts in the Third Reich. War painting of the Third Reich (22 photos) People in the fight

September 13, 2013, 11:30

Racial theory in Nazi Germany included the cult of the biologically healthy female body, the cult of childbirth and multiplication of the nation. Thus, the very meaning of communication between a man and a woman was deprived of all romance, giving way to physiological expediency. There is an opinion that the “Aryan” standard of beauty is boring, monotonous and joyless - a muscular blond with a fixed lower jaw and a “snow queen” devoid of any piquancy.

National socialist propaganda used interest in the chastely naked human body to demonstrate the Aryan ideal of beauty and to educate a physically developed person. Marriage itself was not considered an end in itself; it served the highest task - the increase and preservation of the German nation. The personal lives of two people had to be consciously placed in the service of the state.

Antique, with its ideal perfection of forms, was chosen as the standard of beauty. The sculptors of the Third Reich - Joseph Thorach and Arno Brecker - strategically embodied the image of a superman in their monuments. Superhumans were simply obliged to be like ancient gods and goddesses.

Stills from Olympia.

Sepp Hilz. Country Venus

E. Liebermann. By the water. 1941

In a perfect body, the visual arts of National Socialism embodied the idea of ​​“blood” (nation). “Blood” in the ideology of National Socialism was directly connected with “soil” (earth). In this case, we were talking about the symbiosis of people and land, as well as their material and mystical connection. In general, the idea of ​​“blood and soil” was addressed to pagan symbols of fertility, strength and harmony, expressing nature itself in human beauty.

National Socialist art attached great importance to the theme of family, women and motherhood. In the Third Reich, this value triad merged into a single whole, where a woman was exclusively the continuer of the family, the bearer of family virtues and the keeper of the home.

As Hitler said: “German women want to be wives and mothers, they do not want to be comrades, as the Reds call for. Women have no desire to work in factories, in bureaus, in parliament. Good house, beloved husband and happy children are closer to her heart."

National Socialist fine art formed the image of a German woman exclusively as a mother and keeper of the family hearth, depicting her with children, in the circle of her family, busy with housework.

The National Socialists did not recognize any equality of rights for women in public life– they were assigned only the traditional roles of mother and friend. "Their place is in the kitchen and bedroom." After coming to power, the Nazis began to view women's desire for professional, political or academic careers as unnatural. Already in the spring of 1933, the systematic liberation of the state apparatus from the women employed in it began. Not only female employees of institutions were fired, but also married female doctors, because the Nazis declared caring for the health of the nation such a responsible task that it could not be entrusted to a woman. In 1936, married women who worked as judges or lawyers were released from office, since their husbands could support them. The number of women teachers has sharply decreased, and in girls' schools The main academic subjects were home economics and handicrafts. Already in 1934, there were only 1,500 female students left at German universities.

The regime pursued a more differentiated policy towards women employed in production and the service sector. The Nazis did not touch either the 4 million women who worked as “domestic helpers” or the large group of saleswomen whose working hours were not fully paid. On the contrary, these occupations were declared “typically feminine.” The work of girls was encouraged in every possible way. From January 1939, labor service became mandatory for all unmarried women under 25 years of age. They were mainly sent to the village or as servants to mothers with many children.

L. Shmutzler "Village girls returning from the fields"

Gender relations in the Hitlerite state were influenced by numerous public organizations. Some of them included women together with men, others were created specifically for women, girls and girls.

The most widespread and influential among them were the Union of German Girls (BDM), the Imperial Women's Youth Labor Service (Women's RAD) and the National Socialist Women's Organization (NSF). They covered a significant part of the female population of Germany: more than 3 million girls and young women were members of the BDM at the same time, 1 million young German women went through labor camps, the NSF had 6 million participants.

In accordance with the National Socialist ideology, the League of German Girls set as its task the education of strong and courageous women who would become comrades to the political soldiers of the Reich (raised in the Hitler Youth) and, having become wives and mothers, organizing their family life in accordance with the National Socialist worldview, they will raise a proud and seasoned generation. The exemplary German woman complements the German man. Their unity means the racial revival of the people. The Union of German Girls instilled racial consciousness: a real German girl should be the guardian of the purity of blood and the people and raise his sons as heroes. Since 1936, all girls of the German Reich were required to be members of the Union of German Girls. The only exceptions were girls Jewish origin and other "non-Aryans".

The standard uniform of the Union of German Girls is a dark blue skirt, a white blouse and a black tie with a leather clip. Girls were prohibited from wearing high heels and silk stockings. Rings and wristwatches were allowed as jewelry.

The worldview, norms of behavior and lifestyle acquired in Nazi organizations influenced the way of thinking and actions of many representatives of the older generation of modern Germany for a long time.

When girls turned 17, they could also be accepted into the organization "Faith and Beauty" ("Glaube und Schöncheit"), where they remained upon reaching the age of 21. Here girls were taught housekeeping and prepared for motherhood and childcare. But the most memorable event with the participation of "Glaube und Schöncheit" was the sports round dances - girls in identical white short dresses, barefoot, entered the stadium and performed simple but well-coordinated dance movements. The women of the Reich were required to be not only strong, but also feminine.

The Nazis promoted the image of a “real German woman” and a “real German girl” who does not smoke, does not wear makeup, wears white blouses and long skirts, and wears her hair in braids or in a modest bun.

Also, the authorities, in accordance with the “Blood and Soil” principle, tried to introduce “tracht” into the quality of festive clothing - that is, a dress in the national style based on the Bavarian dress.

V. Wilrich. Daughter of a Bavarian peasant. 1938

So stylized" national clothes"worn by participants in the grandiose theatrical celebrations that the Nazis loved to organize in stadiums.

Sports and group games occupied a special place. If for boys the emphasis was on strength and endurance, then gymnastic exercises for girls were designed to form grace, harmony and sense of body. Sports exercises were selected taking into account female anatomy and the future role of women.

The Union of German Girls organized camping trips, on which the girls went with full backpacks. At rest stops they lit fires, cooked food and sang songs. Night observations of the full moon with an overnight stay in a haystack were a success.

The image of the Hollywood “vamp”, which was popular in Weimar Germany, was particularly attacked by Nazi propaganda: “War paint is more appropriate for primitive black tribes, but in no case for a German woman or a German girl.” Instead, the image of “natural German female beauty” was promoted. However, it should be noted that these requirements did not apply to German actresses and movie stars.

Portrait of a woman from Tyrol

They perceived the image of the emancipated Berliner of the 20s as a threat to public morality, male dominance in society, and even the future of the Aryan race.

In many in public places Even before the war, there were posters “German women do not smoke,” smoking was prohibited in all party premises and in air-raid shelters, and Hitler planned to ban smoking altogether after the victory. At the beginning of 1941, the Imperial Association of Hairdressing Establishments adopted a directive that limited the length of women's hairstyles to 10 cm. So hairstyles from longer hair were not done in hairdressing salons and could even be shortened too much long hair, unless they were tied up in a modest bun or braided.

Christmas cover of one of the women's magazines. December 1938

The German press strongly emphasized that the outstanding successes of the magnificent actress and director Leni Riefenstahl or the famous athlete-aviator Hannah Reich are directly related to their deep belief in the ideals of National Socialism. The former actress Emma Goering and the mother of six Magda Goebbels, whose elegant toilets clearly showed German women that a true National Socialist had no need to dress in the modest uniform of the League of German Girls, were also declared role models.

Hannah Reich

Leni Riefenstahl

Magda Goebbels

Emma Goering

German women generally calmly accepted the policies being pursued towards them. The improved well-being of the population also contributed to the loyalty of German women to the new regime. This was also facilitated by the favorable demographic policy of the ruling party in support of the family. The Nazi regime was very interested in increasing the population. If a working woman got married and voluntarily left her job, she was given an interest-free loan of 600 marks. Since 1934, active promotion of the birth rate began: child and family benefits were introduced, medical care was provided to large families at preferential rates. Special schools were opened where pregnant women were prepared for future motherhood.

In any case, Germany became the only large European country in which the birth rate was constantly increasing. If in 1934 just over 1 million babies were born, then in 1939 there were already about 1.5 million children.

In 1938, the order “Mother's Cross” was established - in bronze, silver and gold. The inscription on the back of the cross read: “The child ennobles the mother.” According to the plan of the Ministry of Propaganda, women were to occupy the same place of honor among the people as front-line soldiers. Three degrees of honorary title were established - 3rd degree for 4 children, 2nd for children (silver), 1st for 8 children (gold).

Paradoxically, this anti-feminist regime contributed greatly to improving the real situation of women. It is therefore not surprising that the vast majority of women in Germany adored their Fuhrer. They were largely impressed by A. Rosenberg’s statement that “a woman’s duty is to support the lyrical aspect of life.”

German artists contributed huge contribution in all the most important areas of fine art of the twentieth century, including impressionism, expressionism, cubism and Dada. At the beginning of the twentieth century, many outstanding artists who lived in Germany found global recognition with his works. Among them were the largest representatives of the “new realism” (Die Neue Sachlichkeit) - Georg Gross, expressionist of Swiss origin Paul Klee, Russian expressionist who worked in Germany, Wassily Kandinsky.

But for Hitler, who considered himself a subtle connoisseur of art, modern tendencies in German fine art seemed meaningless and dangerous. In Mein Kampf he spoke out against the "Bolshevisation of art." Such art, he said, “is the painful result of madness.” Hitler argued that the influence of such trends was especially noticeable during the period of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, when political posters emphasized the modernist approach. All the years of his rise to power, Hitler retained a feeling of extreme hostility towards modern art, which he called “degenerate”.

Hitler's own taste for painting was limited to the heroic and realistic genres. True German art, he said, should never depict suffering, grief or pain. Artists must use colors “different from those seen in nature by the normal eye.” He himself preferred the paintings of Austrian romantics, such as Franz von Defregger, who specialized in depicting Tyrolean peasant life, as well as paintings by minor Bavarian artists who depicted happy peasants at work.

I think this painting by Franz von Defregger inspired Hitler most of all:

or maybe this one:

It was obvious to Hitler that the time would come when he would cleanse Germany of decadent art for the sake of the “true German spirit.”

As everyone well knows, Adolf Hitler himself dreamed of becoming an artist, but at the age of 18, in 1907, he failed the entrance exams to the Vienna Academy of Arts. This was a terrible blow to his painful pride, from which he never recovered, considering “these stupid professors” to be guilty of what happened.
Over the next five years, he led an almost beggarly lifestyle, doing odd jobs or selling his sketches, which rarely anyone bought.

Here is a small selection of paintings and drawings, the author of which was.

Well, he knew how to draw, but it could hardly have anything to do with art.

By a special decree of September 22, 1933, the Imperial Chamber of Culture was created, headed by the Minister of Public Education and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

The seven subchambers (fine arts, music, theater, literature, press, broadcasting and cinematography) were intended to serve as an instrument of the Gleichschaltung policy, that is, the subordination of all spheres of German life to the interests of the National Socialist regime. About 42 thousand cultural figures loyal to the Nazi regime were forcibly united into the Imperial Chamber of Fine Arts, whose directives had the force of laws, and anyone could be expelled for political unreliability.

There were a number of restrictions for artists: deprivation of the right to teach, deprivation of the right to exhibit, and, most importantly, deprivation of the right to paint. Gestapo agents raided artists' studios. Owners art salons they distributed lists of disgraced artists and works of art prohibited from sale.

Unable to work under such conditions, many of the most talented German artists found themselves in exile:
Paul Klee returned to Switzerland.
Wassily Kandinsky went to Paris and became a French subject.
Oskar Kokoschka, whose violent expressionism particularly irritated Hitler, moved to England and took British citizenship.
Back in 1932, Georg Gross, sensing where things were headed, emigrated to the United States.
Max Beckman settled in Amsterdam.
Several famous artists nevertheless decided to stay in Germany. Thus, the elderly Max Liebermann, honorary president of the Academy of Arts, remained in Berlin and died here in 1935.

All of these artists were accused by the Nazi authorities of creating anti-German art.

The first official exhibition of "degenerate art" 1918 - 1933 was held in Karlsruhe in 1933, a few months after Hitler came to power. In early 1936, Hitler ordered Nazi artists, led by Professor Adolf Ziegler, President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, to survey all major galleries and museums in Germany with the goal of removing all “decadent art.”

A member of this commission, Count von Baudisen, made it clear which type of art he preferred: “The most perfect form, the most exquisite image created in Lately in Germany, was not born at all in the artist’s workshop - it’s a steel helmet!”

The commission seized 12,890 paintings, drawings, sketches and sculptures of German and European artists, including works by Picasso, Gauguin, Cezanne and van Gogh. On March 31, 1936, these confiscated works of art were presented at a special exhibition of "degenerate art" in Munich.

Hitler at the exhibition of "degenerate art":

The effect was the opposite: huge crowds of people flocked to admire the creations rejected by Hitler.
The Great German Art Exhibition, which took place simultaneously next door and featured some 900 works approved by Hitler, attracted far less public attention.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, in March 1939, thousands of artistic paintings were burned in Berlin. However, the Fuhrer himself, or at someone’s prompting, realized that this was unprofitable. Therefore, at the end of July of the same year, on Hitler’s personal order, a number of paintings were sold at auctions in Switzerland, which made it possible to preserve them for humanity.

During the war, Hermann Goering, who also considered himself an art connoisseur, but unlike Hitler, was much more eclectic in his artistic tastes, appropriated many valuable works of art stolen during the Nazi occupation from European museums. For this purpose, a special operational “Rosenberg group” was even created, according to which alone 5,281 paintings were taken to the Third Reich, including paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Fragonard and other great masters.

Gradually Goering amassed a collection of colossal value, which he considered his personal property. Many (though not all) of the treasures looted by the Nazis were returned to their rightful owners after the end of the war.

However, let's return to the fine arts, which flourished in the Third Reich with the blessing of its Nazi leaders.

We present to your attention a small selection of paintings that corresponded to the ideals of the “Thousand Year Reich”.

Of course, this is a cult of a healthy body.

Photo: Jean Paul Grandmont At the beginning of 2014, the film “Treasure Hunters” will be released - a military detective story starring George Clooney, Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett. “Monuments men” was the name given to the members of the special forces unit, which was officially called “The Monument, Fine Arts and Archives Division of the
Federal Government: in the last years of the war, it was engaged in the search and rescue of works of art hidden by the Nazis in special hiding places. For this art-historical special forces, the war was not so much for European territories, but for European culture: the Nazis did not spare palaces and temples in the occupied territories, using them as fortifications or simply destroying them by bombing and shelling, and valuable works of art that could be taken out - works of old masters and luxury items - were hidden in secret storage facilities in Germany. Thanks to “monuments men”, for example, Michelangelo’s sculpture “Madonna of Bruges” and “Ghent Altarpiece” by Jan van Eyck were rescued from hiding places. But this is old art, the Nazis valued it; the other part of the treasures they confiscated was much less fortunate - these were works of modernist artists, who in Germany at that time were of dubious value.

Monuments men inspect Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine in 1946 before returning it to the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow

Expressionists, Cubists, Fauvists, Surrealists, Dadaists became enemies of the Reich even before the war. In 1936, works were confiscated en masse from galleries and private collections throughout Germany. avant-garde art, among which were works by Oskar Kokoschka, El Lissitzky, Otto Dix, Marc Chagall, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and other artists, such as the Bauhaus school. In 1937, an exhibition entitled “Degenerate Art” (Entartete Kunst) opened in Munich, where the works of modernist classics were accompanied by mocking signatures. All exhibited works were declared to be the fruits of the sick imagination of their authors, and, accordingly, could not be perceived as full-fledged art.

Preparation of the exhibition “Degenerate Art”

Photo: Fotobank/Getty Images

The Nazis tried to get rid of “degenerate” art as profitably as possible for themselves, acquiring in return “true” art, like Durer or Cranach - and for this they needed the help of specialists. Perhaps it was then that art historians, like doctors, had the opportunity for the first time in history
become full-fledged accomplices of war crimes. One of those involved in the selection and sale of avant-garde art for the needs of Nazism was the dealer and collector Hildebrand Gurlitt. Since it was impossible to officially sell “Jewish-Bolshevik” art - it had to be destroyed along with the authors - all transactions with it automatically received secret status. While working on the commission under the leadership of Joseph Goebbels, the enterprising Hildebrand Gurlitt, who in the 1930s organized exhibitions of modernist artists at the Zwickau Museum, collected a collection of more than one and a half thousand works outlawed by the Nazis. Perhaps the world would never have known about this collection - but in 2011, police accidentally detained 80-year-old Cornelius Gurlitt, son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, on the border of Switzerland and Germany, and then found about 1,400 paintings in his modest apartment greatest masters late XIX-beginning of the 20th century.

Photo: Monuments Men Foundation

The discovery, about which the German police were silent for two whole years, by the standards of the beginning of the 21st century, is the same as the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb for the past century. The entire history of art of the 20th century was rewritten at one moment: according to the official version, these paintings were destroyed by the Nazis; “Monuments men”, who could have made their own adjustments to this version, were not too interested in the works of modernists and preferred to risk their lives for the paintings of Titian and Rubens. Even when modern art fell into their hands, they could not always appreciate its significance: a collection of 115 paintings and 19 drawings, registered to Hildebrand Gurlitt, was discovered by British troops in Hamburg back in 1945. However, Gurlitt, who declared himself a victim of Nazism, managed to prove that the paintings were acquired by him legally, and received them back four years later. The rest of the collection, he said, was lost in the bombing of Dresden. As it turns out, Gurlitt could not be trusted in anything other than his artistic instincts.

Church in Elling, turned by the Nazis into a warehouse for confiscated works of art

Photo: Monuments Men Foundation

Photo: Monuments Men Foundation What excites most when discovering an avant-garde treasure is the feeling of discovery, forgotten even by archaeologists since the time of John Carter. But the value of the Munich find is not only that it reveals new details of the artists’ work - it adds a subjunctive mood to the existing story, which is usually contraindicated for it. Could it turn out that the case of the Gurlitt family is not isolated? What if precious - in the literal sense of the word, over the past years they have risen in price to amounts unimaginable in the 1940s - works of modernists are not waiting in the wings at all in the salt mines and abandoned quarries from where the “monuments men” retrieved the works of the old masters? Just a few days before the announcement of the Munich find, a thorough inventory carried out by the Netherlands Museum Association revealed that 139 paintings from various Dutch museums - including works by Matisse, Kandinsky, Klee and Lissitzky - had been confiscated by the Nazis from Jewish museums over the years. families. Not all works can be returned to the victims' heirs, but restitution claims almost always accompany any major discovery of pre-war art. Most of the lawsuits in recent years have been filed against the works of Gustav Klimt. His landscape "Litzlberg on Lake Attersee", confiscated in 1941 from Amalie Redlich, was returned in 2011 to her distant relative in Canada. American Maria Altman managed to regain a Klimt painting in the 2000s. Golden Adele", taken by the Nazis from her ancestors, the Bloch-Bauer family. In 2010, an American family achieved significant monetary compensation from the Leopold Foundation for Egon Schiele's painting "Portrait of Valli." Before entering Rudolf Leopold's collection, the painting was confiscated by the Nazis from Leah Bondi Yaray, a Jewish gallery owner who fled Austria after the Nazis arrived. It is difficult to imagine how many claims for restitution will come after the list of all the paintings found in Munich is made public.

Soldiers with Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, which was subsequently returned to the Karlsruhe Museum

Photo: Monuments Men Foundation

Photograph: East News/AFP According to German police, Gurlitt's collection - 1,258 unframed and 121 framed paintings - was stored in a dark, unkempt room. Among them are a previously unknown work by Chagall, paintings by Renoir, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Dix, Beckmann, Munch and many other artists, including about 300 works that were exhibited in 1937 at the exhibition “Degenerate Art”. The mystery, by the way, has not been fully revealed: it is still unknown where Cornelius Gurlitt is now and why he hid paintings of the most famous paintings in his tiny apartment for many years. dear artists XX century. From time to time he sold something (for example, in November 2011 he put up Max Beckmann’s pastel “Lion Tamer” for sale through the Cologne auction house Lempertz), but he kept his main treasures in dust and garbage, demonstrating complete indifference to their historical (and material) value.

This event will probably go down in the history books, and Hollywood screenwriters can already sit down to write new job, especially since the theme of genius and villainy in its specific refraction - the relationship of Nazism with high art- Hollywood has long fascinated: here one can recall the most famous anti-fascist archaeologist Indiana Jones, who just fought with the Third Reich for cultural heritage, only for him the most important of the arts was religious; and Peter O'Toole as a Nazi general with an equal love of impressionism and mass murder in 1967's Night of the Generals. You can start casting for the role of Hildebrand Gurlitt (who died in a car accident in '56) - however, it is possible that this story will also have its own sequel.

As is commonly believed, absolutely the entire aesthetic, political, and everyday culture of Nazi art can be easily described in just a few words. Without further ado, most people will highlight three things. Firstly, the glorification of the persistent, brave, honest, hardworking Aryan of Nordic blood, whose heart belongs entirely to the Motherland and the National Socialist German Workers' Party. He endures all disasters in silence, but rejoices at every victory of the state. He is an excellent comrade, an exemplary family man, a responsible worker who lives not for his own benefit, but for the prosperity of his country. Secondly, the identification of politics and its ideology with their art and culture, their mutual penetration. This shows state control over any work of any author who lives and creates in full accordance with the programmatic policy of the leading party. Thirdly, the opinion that every picture, every novel, every play and every piece of music was aimed only at glorifying that “man from the first point” (the real Aryan), as well as the Fuhrer, the party and the great German people with one side, or, on the contrary, to denigrate the “sold out Jews” and other non-Nordic races, to hate people who do not live for the good of the country, but for the sake of enriching their own wallet.

In general, this is a rather one-sided position, although there is some truth in it. I fully agree that the ideal person for a German of that time was precisely the Aryan described above - without a single flaw, always ready for life's difficulties, just like the fight for your homeland. In general, it was characterized by the popularization and propaganda of just such an image of a German. In literally all types of art of that time one can find examples of such ideals: monumental sculptures Josef Thorak, the healthy German women of Sepp Hiltz, the idealized athletes of Leni Riefenstahl. In addition to spreading ideas about the ideal man, the Ministry of Propaganda, led by Joseph Goebbels, worked to create the image of a “Great Power”, which consisted of glorifying the great past of the German people. In this regard, classical works were not forgotten, but, on the contrary, they tried to popularize them, turning their plots and themes into Nazi ideology and giving the flair of “glorious antiquity.” Thus, Beethoven’s 9th symphony (“Ode to Joy”) was engaged, which initially carried a rather definite pacifist spirit, laid down by Schiller’s poems.

One can also agree with the (to put it mildly) dislike of the Nazis towards Jews. Everything ugly, bad, depraved, low-grade was attributed to them. Often, management didn’t even care what worldview a person professed. Everything that did not fit the Nazi ideology was recognized as base and degenerate, and artists were considered “accomplices of the Jews.” In April 1933, the “Law on the Restoration of the Service Class” was adopted, which implied a purge creative intelligentsia from Jewish blood. In connection with such a policy, history has preserved many tragic moments for us. The famous German actor Joachim Gottschalk, along with his Jewish wife and son, committed suicide due to the pressure that the Nazi government put on them, although Gottschalk starred mainly in entertaining films and had positive reviews from Goebbels.

By the way, this is one of the few examples when the personality of the Fuhrer himself or a representative from the top leadership of the Third Reich played practically no significance. The significance of Beethoven’s 9th symphony has already been discussed above, but its choice was not accidental, because it was Hitler’s favorite piece of music. In general, the personal sympathies of the Fuhrer himself were often put at the forefront, even if they contradicted the party ideology. One could even argue that the ideology itself was tailored to Hitler's tastes. Only thanks to him we can now appreciate the work of such personalities as Leni Riefenstahl, Arno Brecker, Albert Speer, Herbert von Karajan, Carl Orff, Tsara Leander, Gottfried Benn. An illustrative case occurred with famous writer Ernst Junger. At first he sympathized with the policies of the NSDAP, but after Hitler came to power he became disillusioned with it and in every possible way refused to join the party. It even came to the point of personal insult to Goebbels, who decided to eliminate the writer he disliked. This could well have been accomplished if not for the personal intervention of the Fuhrer, who forbade touching Jünger, who glorified the image of an ideal soldier in his works.

In addition to all this, there were also positive aspects, if one can say so in relation to the Third Reich. From the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) they adopted a point regarding the accessibility of art: “The state and society are obliged to ensure that all people are close to art and artistic creativity education and its educational institutions." Hitler himself often emphasized in his speeches that art should belong to the people. By and large, this is what happened, both at the level of budgetary and cultural policy. The state allocated huge funds for the maintenance educational institutions, libraries, theaters, concert halls. Moreover, their number has even increased. The authorities paid special attention to this young look art, like cinema, since it turned out to be the most suitable mediator between the government and the people. What books were kept and what productions were staged is a completely different matter, although here too the Ministry of Industry and Industry indulged the wishes of the people. At first, the share of pro-nationalist propaganda works was significant, but by the time the war began it had sharply decreased: musical films, entertaining plays were staged in theaters, and light music was broadcast on the radio. It is quite interesting that, for example, hollywood movies They played it on screens with all their might (King Kong, 1933 was especially popular), and newsstands sold Times, Le Temps, and Basler Nachrichten magazines.

In general, to summarize, we can conclude that all the art of the Third Reich bore the imprint of inconsistency. This was due to the fact that the cultural policy of the ruling party did not adopt a single aesthetic program that would express the general postulates of Nazi “correct” art. Each leader changed and adjusted ideals to suit his personal preferences. For example, Joseph Goebbels was a fan German expressionist Emil Nolde (who, by the way, also shared National Socialist views), but after the artist was recognized as “degenerate” (not without the intervention of Alfred Rosenberg), Goebbels immediately broke contact with him, although he continued to collect his watercolors. Here are the memories Albert Speer left behind in his book: “To decorate the Goebbels house, I borrowed several watercolors by Emil Nolde from Eberhard Hanfstangl, director of the Berlin National Gallery. Goebbels and his wife admired the watercolors... until Hitler arrived and expressed his complete disapproval. The minister immediately called me: “Remove the paintings immediately, they are unacceptable!” Hitler himself admired the realist artists of the late 19th century: Karl Spitzweg, Eduard Grützner, Hans Makart. The nature of their work makes it clear what demands the Fuhrer made of modern artists. Their works had to be academic or realistic in orientation, and in no case affect those modern trends that were becoming widespread at that time. Moreover, these requirements applied not only to painting, but also to all other forms of art. Thus, a myth arose that the artistic environment of Nazi Germany fell into “academic stagnation” and a regression began within it in relation to the world process. The country was flooded with second-rate artists, masters only of technique, but not of talent, who covered their work with a veil created from Nordic images, glorification of the Fuhrer and glorification of the National Socialist ideology. In my opinion, the art of the period of the Third Reich was not marked by decline, as it might seem at first glance, but, on the contrary, by the development of new art. This is not a step back, not memories of the “great past,” but a step forward, towards new ideals and tasks set by the new state. Of course, no one denies the fact that everything “new” took inspiration from the “old,” but still, the goals of the cultural policy of Nazi Germany were already different.

Joseph Goebbels
Anyone who views German National Socialism solely on a political plane confuses the cause with one of the effects it generates. The National Socialist movement was originally something more than the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany and even the Third Reich. Even at the stage of its formation, National Socialism confidently went beyond the boundaries of ideology, politics and the state.

If the rational manifestations of National Socialism froze in granite, concrete, steel, as well as military, social and state organization, ordering the material world, then its transnational manifestations (not so obvious to an outside observer), with their powerful energy, invisibly sculpted the form and gave direction to itself the process of ordering the material world by National Socialism. The Third Reich is an empire in which the suprarational has completely subjugated the rational, dictating its goals to it and using it as an instrument.

The unique, still fascinating aesthetics of National Socialism, in which the transnational strength of this movement expressed itself, was no less powerful than the tank columns of the Wehrmacht. And that, for the first time ever world history, the artist became the head of a multi-million people, allowing art to express itself in an unexpected and even impossible form - ideology, politics and the state. In essence, the racial doctrine of National Socialism, with its ariosophical mythology, is more aesthetics in the form of ideology than a theory that is based on facts (it was not for nothing that Oswald Spengler sarcastically remarked that in Mein Kampf only the page numbers are correct) .

The “Aryan”, with its physical and spiritual-psychological perfection of the “blond beast”, placed at the forefront of the National Socialist worldview, is a product of ariosophical aesthetics, and not of politics or economics. The material objectification of the ideal image of the “Aryan”, the creation of a super-perfect socio-political, economic and military organization of the “Aryan nation”, as well as its achievement of world domination, became the main, fundamental tasks of National Socialism. And in these tasks, aesthetics manifested itself as the “will to power” of “Aryan” beauty/perfection over the ugliness/imperfection (physical, spiritual, intellectual, moral) of “non-Aryan”, “inferior peoples”. Here a compromise is impossible, just as a compromise between “beautiful” and “ugly” is impossible. Therefore, we have to admit that the entire aggressive pathos of National Socialism manifested itself as a psychological reaction to everything ugly and ugly. Naturally, in this case, the criterion of “beautiful” and “ugly” should be sought in German archetypes that carry aesthetic guidelines. That is why for National Socialism the enemy is identical to something ugly and ugly from both a physical/bodily and spiritual/moral point of view. Here, aschymophobia (from the Greek άσχημος, “ugly” and φόβος, “fear”), inherent in National Socialism, fully manifested itself - fear and intolerance towards everything ugly, ugly, imperfect from the point of view of the prevailing aesthetic stereotypes.

Therefore, we can say that National Socialism, among other things, is an aschymophobic manifestation of German aesthetics through non-artistic means.

As an aesthetic phenomenon, German National Socialism did not always need verbalized meanings, allowing people not to understand, but to feel main goal movements and paths leading to it. Thanks to this, even now, when the material power of the Third Reich has turned into dust, the aesthetics of National Socialism continues to leave an imprint on people’s consciousness, introducing its images and meanings into it.

What was art for the leaders of the Third Reich, who set themselves the task of total and radical change in the whole world?

Firstly, art was considered by National Socialism as a psycho-aesthetic means through which the government continuously activated the collective power of the German people, manifesting itself in work, creativity, self-improvement, national cohesion, self-sacrifice, etc. Being an artist, Hitler perfectly understood the power art that can influence the souls of people and transform them accordingly.

Secondly, for German National Socialism, art was an aesthetic way of creating a certain spiritual, intellectual, physical and cultural standard of the “Aryan” (German superman). All forms and manifestations of the art of the Third Reich were aimed at creating the image of the “Aryan”, whose perfection and cultivated attractiveness forced the people (especially children and adolescents) to correspond to this image. In other words, with the help of art (and not only art), the National Socialist Party of Germany consistently and methodically created a new person, as close as possible to the ideal image of an absolutely perfect German.

Thirdly, for National Socialism, art was one of the ways to visually and effectively demonstrate the power, greatness, grandeur and historical perspective of the German nation and the Third Reich. Hitler built National Socialist Germany with the expectation that even its ruins would provoke human souls reverence and awe.

An architectural demonstration of the grandeur of the German nation and the Third Reich, for example, could be the implementation of the so-called plan. "Big Ring" This ring was a series of fundamental, high-rise buildings in the form of mausoleums and temples, built around the circumference of a giant ring stretching from Norway to Africa and from Atlantic Ocean to the Soviet Union. These cyclopean structures, covering huge space, were supposed to demonstrate the scale and greatness of “German strength and order.”

Hitler more than once stated that monuments of Aryan art “ are powerful evidence of the forces of the new German phenomenon in the cultural-political field" The Fuhrer proceeded from the fact that everything created by German culture should bring awe and admiration to any person, not only now, but also thousands of years later. In this regard, he liked to repeat: “I build forever.” The ambitions of National Socialism were grandiose and were measured not by the scale of Germany and some of the next 30-50 years, but by the whole world and eternity. And art was supposed to serve these ambitions.

«... Since we think about the eternity of the Empire, - Hitler said , - (and we can count so far in the human dimension), works of art must also become eternal; they must, so to speak, satisfy not only the greatness of their concept, but also the clarity of their plan, the harmony of their relationships. These powerful works will also be a sublime vindication of the political strength of the German nation.».

On July 18, 1937, delivering a speech at the opening of the House of German Culture in Munich, Hitler stated that true art was and remains eternal, it does not follow the laws of seasonal fashion: its effectiveness comes from revelations inherent in the depths of human nature, which is inherited next generations. And those who are unable to create something eternal cannot talk about eternity, Hitler emphasized, although they strive to dim the brilliance of the giants who from the past reach out to the future in order to strike sparks of flame from our contemporaries.

He contrasted the “eternal art of National Socialism” with the momentary art of contemporary Europe, with its “moral and aesthetic decline.” As Hitler noted, today there are daub artists who are ephemeral products: yesterday they did not exist, today they are fashionable, and tomorrow they will be outdated. At the same time, he emphasized that the Jewish assertion that art is associated with a certain period is simply a godsend for such artists: their creations can be considered art of the so-called small form and content.

According to Hitler, National Socialism contrasted degenerate, subjective, unidealized, momentary, modernist art with realistic, ideological, oriented toward enduring values ​​and classical aesthetics, “German eternal art.” Art, as a manifestation of individual subjectivity, in the Third Reich was replaced by art, as a reflection of the deep archetypes of the nation, its unrealized collective impulses and spiritual foundations.

« The people are a constant in a continuous flow of phenomena - Hitler claimed. - Being constant and unchanging, it determines the nature of art, which, in turn, becomes permanent. Therefore there can be no standard from yesterday or today, modernist or non-modernist character. The determining standard should be “valuable” or “worthless”, “eternal” or “transient” creations. Therefore, speaking of German art, I believe that the only standard for it is the German people with their character and life, feelings, emotions and evolution».

If we take into account the above concept of the art of the Third Reich, its use of antiquity as an aesthetic standard seems quite natural. National Socialism in its historical perspective was guided by the political and cultural style of classical antiquity, with its depth, scale and ideal perfection of forms. This is probably why sculpture and architecture (the most expressive and lasting cultural phenomena) dominated in National Socialist art.

Speaking about art, its close connection with the people, and its influence on the people, Hitler emphasized that his era was in the stage of developing a new man. In his opinion, both men and women should be healthier and stronger, have a new sense of life and experience new joys.

A new type of man, born of labor and battle, became the main motif in the visual arts and sculpture of the Third Reich. Beautiful, purposeful, strong-willed faces, ideal proportions of naked bodies, the power of prominent muscles became the aesthetic basis of the image of the ideal Aryan, symbolizing the perfect person from the point of view of National Socialism.

The image of this new man was depicted by imperial art in continuous dynamics, in a state of supertension, in overcoming himself and circumstances, in affirming his values. This is especially clearly felt in sculptures that are capable of transforming the idea embedded in them into living, continuously emitted energy.

The new man of the Third Reich is the arbiter of destinies, leader, warrior and hero, who entered into battle with fate and the world, ready to win or die in this battle.

A special place in National Socialist art was occupied by the work of Arno Breker and Josef Thorak, whom Adolf Hitler considered brilliant sculptors capable of conveying in their works the spirit of the German nation and the idea of ​​National Socialism. It was their expressive neoclassicism that fully reflected the bubbling, archetypal energy of the German people, the power of their collective tension during the Third Reich.

A. Breker “Apollo and Daphne”

A. Breker “Banner”

J. Torak “Monument to Labor”

A. Breker “Winner”

A. Breker Berlin. New Imperial Chancellery. "The consignment". 1940

A. Breker “Call”. 1939

J. Thorak “Partnership”. 1937

In the works of Arno Breker and Joseph Thorak it is not difficult to see the plastic forms of antiquity, and its exceptional realism, absolutely objectively and symbolically reflecting the world as it is. That is why National Socialist realism repeats in its form ancient realism, differing from it only in the embeddedness in this realistic form of powerful and beautiful bodies, the “eternal ideas of National Socialism,” which were to be conveyed to the consciousness of the masses.

The image of the “Aryan” was no less clearly shaped by the paintings of the Third Reich, glorifying the physical beauty, health and strength of man. In a perfect body, the visual arts of National Socialism embodied the idea of ​​“blood” (nation). “Blood” in the ideology of National Socialism was directly connected with “soil” (earth). In this case, we were talking about the symbiosis of people and land, as well as their material and mystical connection. In general, the idea of ​​“blood and soil” was addressed to pagan symbols of fertility, strength, harmony, growth, expressing nature itself in human beauty.

R. Hayman “Fertility”. 1943

A. Janesh “Water sports”. 1936

E. Zoberber “Ebbs and flows.” 1939

E. Liebermann “On the Beach” (Near the Water). 1941

F. Keil. "Athletes" 1936

R. Klein “Bather”. 1943

F. Keil "Running". 1936

I. Zaliger “The Judgment of Paris”. 1939

Not in to a lesser extent National Socialist painting also revealed the idea of ​​“soil”. The beauty of the German land, which personified the Motherland, both of each individual German and of the German nation as a whole, in a wonderful way displayed on the canvases of landscape painters. Adolf Hitler also painted Germany, giving preference to landscapes and architecture.

A. Hitler “Mountain Lake”. 1910

A. Hitler “Village by the River.” 1910

A. Hitler “Peasant House by the Bridge.” 1910

A. Hitler “Church”. 1911

The realism of the “soil” of the future Fuhrer will become dominant in the visual arts of the Third Reich. Any type of modernism, with its often subjective refraction of the real, artistically distorting the mirror image of reality, in the formation of the image of the Motherland was unacceptable for National Socialism. Just as the presence of mentally ill people in the life of German society was unacceptable, with their subjective refraction of human normality, contrary to the aesthetic standard of the “Aryan”. Both the first and the second were mercilessly destroyed.

This is how the critic of the history of art and literature Kurt Karl Eberlein explained in 1933 the meaning of “soil” in German fine art: “ In the artist’s soul there is a certain landscape, which is formed as a result of observation and acquires a soul. German art tied to his native land and carries it in his soul, which is manifested in the depiction of paintings, animals, flowers and things even in an alien environment. If an artist speaks German, then his soul also speaks German, but if he speaks foreign language and Esperanto, then he becomes a cosmopolitan and his soul no longer says anything. The native land is the house that the German loves so much, its rooms and the mirror image of existence itself. The thought of home is always present to a German, no matter where he is and no matter what he experiences.».

V. Payner “Motherland”. 1938

Yu.P. Junghans. Rest under the willows. 1938

K.A.Flyugel “Harvest”. 1938

No less importance in the painting of the Third Reich was given to the glorification of physical labor. And this is no coincidence, since the ideology of National Socialism considered labor as one of the most important forms of consolidation of the nation and a way of manifesting it vital energy and spirit in the material world.

The Nazi Party paid special attention to the German peasantry. In the peasant, National Socialism saw the main, original custodian of German traditions, capable of defending them in the face of an urbanized, atomized city that had lost its national character and moral principles. Idealized ideas about peasant life in Nazi ideology played the role of a certain model of the German national community - the main foundation of the German nation and state. Third Reich propaganda presented rural society as "the cradle of the German race and German blood." Hitler himself was clearly fixed on the idea of ​​​​"living space" with his agrarian romance, anti-urbanism and peasant warrior, constantly expanding this living space with the help of sword and plough.

That is why, after coming to power, the Nazi Party began to implement its agrarian program on a full scale, which no other sphere of the economy knew, and the art of the Third Reich was to glorify the German peasant and his work.

A. Vissel “The Family of a Peasant from Kallenberg.” 1939

L. Shmutzler “Village girls returning from the fields”

M. Bergman “Difficult plowing on a dusty field.” 1939

G. Gunter “Rest during harvesting”

Z. Hiltz The central part of the triptych “Bavarian Trilogy”. 1941

National Socialist art devoted considerable importance to the theme of family, women and motherhood. In the Third Reich, this value triad merged into a single whole, where a woman was exclusively the continuer of the family, the bearer of family virtues and the keeper of the home. As Hitler stated: " German women want to be wives and mothers, they do not want to be comrades, as the Reds call for. Women have no desire to work in factories, bureaus, or parliament. A good home, a beloved husband and happy children are closer to her heart».

Behind the conservative family values ​​proclaimed by National Socialism there were also purely practical tasks. Germany needed soldiers and workers. There are many soldiers and workers. The continuously growing mass of the German nation was necessary for pursuing a foreign expansionist policy aimed at gradually expanding the “living space.” Hitler was extremely frank on this issue: “ our women's program boils down to one word - children" In Nuremberg, in September 1934, at the party congress, he concretized his thought: “ A man's world is the state, a man's world is his struggle, his readiness to act for the sake of the community, then perhaps one could say that a woman's world is a smaller world. After all, her world is her husband, her family, her children and her home. But where would the big world be if there were no small ones? A big world is built on small things: a man shows courage on the battlefield, while a woman asserts herself in dedication, in suffering and in work. Every child she brings into the world is her battle, a won battle for the existence of her people.».

Considering this task, National Socialist fine art formed the image of a German woman exclusively as a mother and keeper of the family hearth, depicting her with children, in the circle of a family busy with housework.

K. Dibich “Mother”

R. Heimann “Growing Family.” 1942

F. Mackensen “Feeding the Child”

The theme was also of great importance in National Socialist art political struggle, victory and triumph. Moreover, it should be noted that German painting, which reflected the stages of formation of the National Socialist movement, paid attention both to the leaders and the masses following them, and to the individual German who put on the uniform of a stormtrooper and went out onto the street in order to turn his worldview into reality. In this sense, the painting of National Socialism was not painting dedicated exclusively to the leaders and the masses (as is now commonly written about). She was also addressed to to the common man, an ordinary German who actively defends his ideas and values ​​in the ranks of the assault troops or the NSDAP. At the same time, National Socialist painting clearly demonstrated the power not of an individual, lonely hero (the plot of which is naturally inherent in the culture and art of societies with a strong individualistic orientation), but of a hero moving towards a mega-goal together with other heroes like him.
P. Hermann “Procession of November 9 in Munich.” 1941

P. Hermann “And yet we won.” 1942

And finally, another vast layer of National Socialist fine art was dedicated to the war. Perhaps this thematic direction in the painting of the Third Reich was the most natural and spiritual, since it was born not within the framework of imperial cultural programs, but on the battlefields, in blood, smoke, dust, under the watchful eye of death. Judging by the surviving paintings, sketches and drawings, the theme of war was most easy for the authors; one can say that it was written in one breath, becoming a reaction of human nature to death and the chaos of six endless war years.

German military themes are more individual and less pompous than anything else in the visual arts of the Third Reich. There is more humanity in it and there is practically no official ideology, unless you consider the theme of heroism, perseverance, self-sacrifice, friendship, and male military brotherhood as ideology. In paintings and drawings depicting war, there are practically no large-scale battle scenes of huge human masses clashing in mortal combat. There is no grandeur or pathos in them. Military themes in National Socialist fine art include portraits of soldiers and officers, as well as drawings of small groups of people whose bodies are intertwined in the expressive dynamics of a common struggle.

W. Willrich "Walter Scheunemann"

R. Rudolf “Comrades”. 1943

The amazing thing is that National Socialist art arose and took shape in an amazingly short time - 12 years, six of which Germany was at war. And this despite the fact that not all German artists accepted the National Socialist aesthetic paradigm, going into silent opposition to it.

Nevertheless, Hitler managed to achieve his goals in the field of art in such a short period of time and create a special National Socialist aesthetic that captivated the minds of millions of people. And most importantly, she had nothing to oppose to the enemies of the Third Reich. That is why, when the Allied armies entered German territory, the total bombing was complemented by the no less total destruction of everything that was in one way or another connected with the aesthetics of National Socialism. Everything that was created in the cultural sphere during the twelve years of the existence of the Third Reich was burned and exploded. But even such radical methods could not eliminate mass interest in the National Socialist aesthetic heritage, the internal energy of which still continues to fascinate the souls of people.

Andrey Vajra
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