An Artist against the Third Reich: Ernst Barlach, 19331938

Book Description

The conflict between National Socialism and Ernst Barlach, one of the important sculptors of the twentieth century, is an unusual episode in the history of Hitler's efforts to rid Germany of 'international modernism.' Barlach did not passively accept the destruction of his sculptures, but protested the injustice, and continued his work. Peter Paret's discussion of Barlach's art and struggle over creative freedom, is joined to an analysis of Barlach's opponents. Hitler's rejection of modernism, often dismissed as absurd ranting, is instead interpreted as a internally consistent and politically effective critique of liberal Western culture. That some radical national socialists nevertheless advocated a 'nordic modernism' and tried to win Barlach over, indicates the cultural cross-currents running through the early years of the Third Reich. Paret's closely focused study of an artist in a time of crisis seamlessly combines the history of modern Germany and the history of modern art. Peter Paret is Mellon Professor in the Humanities Emeritus of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Spruance Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, which awarded him the Thomas Jefferson Medal and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The German government has awarded him the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit. His other works include, German Encounters with Modernism, 1840-1945 (Cambridge, 2001), Imagined Battles: Reflections of War in European Art (Univ, of NC, 1997), The Berlin Secession: Modernism and its Enemies in Imperial Germany (Harvard, 1989), and Clausewitz and the State (Oxford, 1985).

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an artist against the third reich:ernst barlach, 1933-1938.......2007-02-09

A perfect addition to the information I'm gathering on Ernst Barlach.

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A Massive Work of Scholarship with Many Nuggets of Surprise

Art As Politics in the Third Reich
Jonathan Petropoulos
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807848093
Release Date: 1999-02-10

Book Description

The political elite of Nazi Germany perceived itself as a cultural elite as well. In Art as Politics in the Third Reich, Jonathan Petropoulos explores the elite's cultural aspirations by examining both the formulation of a national aesthetic policy and the content of the private art collections held by high-ranking Nazis. He demonstrates that these leaders manipulated public policy and their own collecting patterns to articulate fundamental tenets of Nazi ideology.

Petropoulos begins by tracing the evolution of official aesthetic policy, from the purges of museum staff and academics labeled as 'undesirable' in 1933 to the confiscation of Jewish-owned artworks in the late 1930s and the organized plundering of art from occupied areas during the war. He then reconstructs the collections of a dozen prominent Nazi officials—including Hitler, Gšring, Goebbels, Himmler, Speer, and Ribbentrop—and argues that their private holdings defined their relationships to one another within the Nazi hierarchy in addition to reflecting their racist and nationalist beliefs. According to Petropoulos, art collecting offered the political elite a way to achieve legitimacy and social standing, thereby providing a common cultural language for the leaders of the Third Reich.

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A Massive Work of Scholarship with Many Nuggets of Surprise.......2000-07-07

As the author notes, this work began as a doctoral dissertion at Harvard, and that quality of research is apparent on virtually every page. It fairly bristles with little-known facts, including quite a few significant details found nowhere else in the growing body of literature on the Nazi looting machine. In its field, "Art as Politics in the Third Reich" is the greatest eye-opener since Lynn Nicholas produced the first of them, her masterful "The Rape of Europa." Though not as stylishly written as hers, it's very readable and extremely well-organized.

The Rape Of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War

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Nazi and non-Nazi German Rapacity; Planned Slav Extermination, etc.
should be on high school reading list
now see the documentary film
Museum Robbery!
Outstanding

The Rape Of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War
Lynn H. Nicholas
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0679400699
Release Date: 1994-04-12

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Every few months you'll read a newspaper story of the discovery of some long-lost art treasure hidden away in a German basement or a Russian attic: a Cranach, a Holbein, even, not long ago, a da Vinci. Such treasures ended up far from the museums and churches in which they once hung, taken as war loot by Allied and Axis soldiers alike. Thousands of important pieces have never been recovered. Lynn Nicholas offers an astonishingly good account of the wholesale ravaging of European art during World War II, of how teams of international experts have worked to recover lost masterpieces in the war's aftermath and of how governments "are still negotiating the restitution of objects held by their respective nations."

Book Description

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

The cast of characters includes Hitler and Goering, Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall--not to mention works by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. And the story told in this superbly researched and suspenseful book is that of the Third Reich's war on European culture and the Allies' desperate effort to preserve it.

From the Nazi purges of "Degenerate Art" and Goering's shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of the Mona Lisa from Paris and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy, The Rape of Europa is a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with a compelling drama.

"Nicholas knows the art world as well as any military historian knows his battlefield.... Her work deserves the widest reading."--New York Times Book Review

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Nazi and non-Nazi German Rapacity; Planned Slav Extermination, etc........2007-08-14

Nicholas traces the plunder of cultural treasures by Nazi Germany followed by the Allies' efforts to locate and return the booty. The Germans also engaged in the wanton destruction of others' cultural treasures, beginning with the very start of WWII. For instance, the German forces deliberately bombed and shelled the historical section of Warsaw (the Old Town). (p. 61)

The reader soon learns that the pillage of conquered nations was done not just by Nazi hacks, but also by German intellectuals, as in German-occupied Poland: "Even the most distinguished German scholars were not immune to the opportunities presented by a cultural scene so open to exploitation...once the country lay at their feet many of these academics felt not the slightest qualms at transferring the collections, libraries, and even research notes of their erstwhile colleagues to their own use." (p. 74).

Spectacular German thefts include that of the giant Wit Stwosz (Veit Stoss) altar of Krakow (Cracow), and the Bursztyn Komnaty (Amber Room) of the city of Pushkin. The latter is yet to resurface.

Nicholas touches on those German genocidal plans against the Slavs that were to be implemented after Germany's expected victory over Russia: "The basic policies would be the same as those applied to Poland. After conquest, areas would be cleansed, exploited, and Germanized...In these [German-appointed districts] the cleansing would again be cultural, racial, and ideological. Not only Jews and `Bolshevists' would be eliminated by immediate execution; much of the general Slavic population would be allowed to expire naturally when their food supplies were diverted to the worthier citizens of the Reich." (p. 185)

There are some distortions and omissions in this book. Nicholas repeats the myth of the Poles "arriving at" an already-abandoned Monte Cassino (p. 247) when in actuality the Poles had to overcome fierce German resistance, and to take grievous casualties, in order to take Monte Cassino. She elaborates on the Germans' burning of the libraries and archives of Naples (pp. 232-233), and the agony of the Soviet-betrayed Warsaw Uprising (p. 77), but not the magnitudes-greater destruction of Warsaw's cultural treasures. AFTER the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, the vindictive Germans burnt and blew up the still-standing architectural treasures of Warsaw. They also burned all the libraries and archives of Warsaw, causing the loss of 13 million volumes, including about 500,000 irreplaceable ones.

All in all, however, Nicholas has given the reader a good overview of this sad subject.

should be on high school reading list.......2007-06-08

Interesting and detailed. The book is very good, but the movie, which is in art houses now (June '07) is excellent and it was easier to keep track of the thievery of the Nazis, and the efforts of the excellent Monuments men who tried to sort things out and return stolen property. I knew that the Nazis confiscated art, but I had no idea that it was on such a vast scale. I recommend reading the book AND seeing the movie.

now see the documentary film.......2007-05-23

For all who like the Rape of Europa there is now a documentary of the same name which just opened in theaters in San Francisco. This is a story based on images and the film makers have done it proud with fabulous photography plus amazing period footage. Watch for this film soon nationwide in your local art theaters and eventually on TV. Its fantastic.

Museum Robbery!.......2006-02-26

This book is a must for anyone involved in art - any aspect of it!
I was overawed by the preparation which was undertaken by both the Allies and the Axis forces pror to , during, and after WWII! This was one of two books I used for a report on Stolen Art. The only reason I rated this one as four stars is that it was sometimes difficult to plough through Chapter IX (The Red Hot Rake)- the rest of the book was absolutley fascinating. I would include another book -"The Lost Museum" by Hector Feliciano. "The Lost Museum" was easier to read and equally fascinating and portrayed the removal of the art from The Louvre in such a manner that it left me breathless! Read Both!

Outstanding.......2001-12-05

This book is more than just a hum-drum listing of works that were taken, lost or destroyed in the years leading up to and including World War II. It is an intriguing and thought-provoking look at the attempted cultural occultation of not just its own nation and ideals, but of the Nazi aggression on the world. The Nazi way of condemning certain "degenerate" works, either Jewish or Impressionist for example, painfully exhibit the ultimate crushing of free thought and expression which were so vital to the Nazi regime's recipe for authoritarianism.

But the underlying Nazi menace is only a part of the suspenseful undertone in this book. The various heart-wrenching stories of the brave souls who tried to protect and salvage the many works of art (on both sides surprisingly) are what give this account a real kick. To me the accounts on the Soviet front were especially remarkable.

My only complaint is that since I am not, as I suspect the majority of the readers are not, art historians, the significance of many of these works directly mentioned is lost. I would like to have seen more pictures of the art work in question. (I have uncovered a documentary in the works based on this book which might allieviate some of this problem, but until then...)

Book Description

What was life like under the Third Reich? What went on between parents and children? What were the prevailing attitudes about sex, morality, religion? How did workers perceive the effects of the New Order in the workplace? What were the cultural currents—in art, music, science, education, drama, and on the radio?
Professor Mosse’s extensive analysis of Nazi culture—groundbreaking upon its original publication in 1966—is now offered to readers of a new generation. Selections from newspapers, novellas, plays, and diaries as well as the public pronouncements of Nazi leaders, churchmen, and professors describe National Socialism in practice and explore what it meant for the average German.
By recapturing the texture of culture and thought under the Third Reich, Mosse’s work still resonates today—as a document of everyday life in one of history’s darkest eras and as a living memory that reminds us never to forget.

Customer Reviews:

Good research source.......2007-02-18

This was a great source material book for anyone taking an intercultural college or 20th century history course.

Nazi Cinema as Enchantment: The Politics of Entertainment in the Third Reich (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture)

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Nazi Cinema as Enchantment: The Politics of Entertainment in the Third Reich (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture)
Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien
Manufacturer: Camden House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1571133348

Book Description

Hitler's regime not only terrorized its citizens; it also seduced them, offering stability, a traditional value system, a sense of belonging, and hope of a better standard of living. Nazi cinema was part of this seduction, expressing positive social fantasies and promoting the enchantment of reality, so that one would want to share in the dream at any price. This interdisciplinary study, based on exhaustive research in German archives, examines how thirteen films from five genres -- the historical musical, the foreign adventure film, the home-front film, the melodrama, and the problem film -- enchanted audiences and enacted shared stories that can tell us much about how family, community, history, the nation, and the war were imagined in Nazi Germany. MARY-ELIZABETH O'BRIEN is associate professor of German at Skidmore College.

The Language of the Third Reich : Lti - Lingua Tertii Imperii : A Philologist's Notebook

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so applicable still, in all countries
Worth every cent.
An easily-read, journalistic philology of Nazi Germany

The Language of the Third Reich : Lti - Lingua Tertii Imperii : A Philologist's Notebook
Victor Klemperer
Manufacturer: Athlone Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0485115263

Book Description

Under the Third Reich, the official language of Nazism came to be used as a political tool. The existing social culture was manipulated and subverted as the German people had their ethical values and their thoughts about politics, history and daily life recast in a new language. This Notebook, originally called LTI (Lingua Tertii Imperii)-the abbreviation itself a parody of Nazified language-was written out of Klemperer's conviction that the language of the Third Reich helped to create its culture. As Klemperer writes: "it isn't only Nazi actions that have to vanish, but also the Nazi cast of mind, the typical Nazi way of thinking, and its breeding ground: the language of Nazism." This brilliant, entertaining, profound, and ultimately saddening and horrifying book is one of the great twentieth-century studies of language and of its engagement with history.

Customer Reviews:

so applicable still, in all countries.......2007-09-04

just a note about this book. reading it will not only help you understand history of the 20th century and of Germany under the Nazi Party's sickening rule, but will inform your hearing of the news and of governmental communications today. it will make your infuriation listening to the propaganda that has infiltrated culture at almost every level a much more informed infuriation. :-)

this is an excellent, excellent book and the two other reviews accurately describe it to a potential reader.

Worth every cent........2001-08-29

...this is an extraordinary book in any number of ways, and ought to be widely read....it's a book that almost anyone could read profitably, even many times. It's complexity is quite astonishing, but it's not the sort of complexity that is off-putting. In fact, it is so well written, so well organized, that it's complexity is almost unnoticeable. Still, it is a confession as well as an indictment, autobiography as well as analysis, cooly restrained and deeply moving often in the same paragraph. It is objective while being prfoundly personal. It wears it's Jewish spectacles (a phrase from the book) very lightly indeed.... More often it is wryly funny. It is its own evidence of the degree of assimilation (and blindness to the terror that was being prepared for them) of educated Jews in Germany prior to the rise of Nazism. It further substantiates, from a different angle, Arendt's famous insights into Nazi behavior. It contains in its preface an extraordinary statement of love, which, once read, informs the entire book. It is heartbreaking without once being sentimental. Indeed, it is heartbreaking in part because it resists the sentimental....

An easily-read, journalistic philology of Nazi Germany.......2000-07-26

A professor recommended this book by Victor Klemperer to me several years ago, before his 1933-45 Tagebücher were translated into English by Martin Chalmers. At the time, my apprentice German was not equal to the work in the original language, and I read it in its French translation, ably translated by Elisabeth Guillot. I have since reread it in German, and, on publication, read this English edition. As far as I can tell, Martin Brady has done a masterful job of rendering Klemperer's informal and easily parsed style into addictably readable English. Before his career in the academy, Klemperer was a journalist, and in all of his writing, this tone prevailed.

Klemperer wrote his "LTI: Notizbuch eines Philologen" in 1945 and 1946, mostly from notes he kept in the diaries that later became the wildly successful "Ich will zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten" (I Will Bear Witness). He carried on his work despite the danger, and with an impressive amount of conscious objectivity. The work is an excellent, if impressionistic, study of the modes of Nazi language and their development in popular speech and culture. I would emphasize the _impressionism_ that colors this work, because Klemperer was only able to study a limited amount of presently accessible material; most of his work is based on the editions of newspapers, leaflets, and books that fell into his hands in Dresden during the war. He was a Jew in the Third Reich, and banned from possessing books written by "Aryan" authors. As well, over the course of the war the restrictions on Jews listening to radios, reading newspapers, and even talking in public became too great for Klemperer to realize any truly comprehensive study.

I do not wish to seem like I am condemning the man with faint praise: Klemperer wrote the first postwar study of Nazi language and linked it directly with the operation of the regime. Subsequent researchers have borne out Klemperer's thesis: the euphemisms and barbarisms in the Nazi tongue exerted a considerable influence on popular culture and personal expression. It is not necessary to go back to the Forties to find this influence - it exists today in modern German. The contemporary quibbles over such words as "ausrotten" or "endlösung" mask the considerable reformation of German that occurred during the Third Reich.

Book Description

Hitler's rise to power and his subsequent influence on world history remains a subject of fierce debate. This book focuses on the particular problems associated with the Nazi period. How did the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic contribute to Hitler's rise to power? What was the initial appeal of Nazism and how far was its growing popularity induced by the economic crisis of 1929-33? What was the nature of the Nazi regime and where did responsibility lie for the anti-Semitic policies it pursued? What role did Hitler play in bringing about the Second World War? How great was the support for and the opposition to Hitler?

The Nazi Appropriation of Shakespeare: Cultural Politics in the Third Reich

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The Nazi Appropriation of Shakespeare: Cultural Politics in the Third Reich
Rodney Symington
Manufacturer: Edwin Mellen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0773460144

Weekend in Munich: Art, Propaganda and Terror in the Third Reich

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Weekend in Munich: Art, Propaganda and Terror in the Third Reich
Robert S. Wistrich
Manufacturer: Trafalgar Square
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Most of our visual sense of the Nazi era comes to us through black and white images; photographs of book burnings, Nazi rallies, Hitler speeches; and the liquidation of the ghettoes are all somehow more compelling for their lack of color. But in 1939, an amateur film group made color movies of the pomp and ceremony that accompanied the opening of the House of German Art, Hitler's monument to the Aryan culture he was trying to create. Robert Wistrich has selected stills from the movies and provided a history of Nazi propaganda as well as comments from spectators at the ceremonies capture on film to accompany them.

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