Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A penetrating inquiry into the motives, moral dilemmas, and compromises of Walter Gropius, Emil Nolde, and other celebrated artists who chose to remain in Nazi Germany



"What are we to make of those cultural figures, many with significant international reputations, who tried to find accommodation with the Nazi regime?" Jonathan Petropoulos asks in this exploration of some of the most acute moral questions of the Third Reich. In his nuanced analysis of prominent German artists, architects, composers, film directors, painters, and writers who rejected exile, choosing instead to stay during Germany's darkest period, Petropoulos shows how individuals variously dealt with the regime's public opposition to modern art. His findings explode the myth that all modern artists were anti-Nazi and all Nazis anti-modernist.



Artists Under Hitler closely examines cases of artists who failed in their attempts to find accommodation with the Nazi regime (Walter Gropius, Paul Hindemith, Gottfried Benn, Ernst Barlach, Emil Nolde) as well as others whose desire for official acceptance was realized (Richard Strauss, Gustaf Gründgens, Leni Riefenstahl, Arno Breker, Albert Speer). Collectively these ten figures illuminate the complex cultural history of Nazi Germany, while individually they provide haunting portraits of people facing excruciating choices and grave moral questions.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. xi)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• 1 "The Summer of Art" and Beyond (p. 15)
• 1 The Fight over Modernism (p. 19)
• 2 Otto Andreas Schreiber and the Pro-Expressionist Students (p. 28)
• 3 The Continuation of Modernism in Nazi Germany (p. 49)
• 2 The Pursuit of Accommodation (p. 59)
• 4 Walter Gropius (p. 63)
• 5 Paul Hindemith (p. 88)
• 6 Gottfried Benn (p. 114)
• 7 Ernst Barlach (p. 137)
• 8 Emil Nolde (p. 154)
• 3 Accommodation Realized (p. 177)
• 9 Richard Strauss (p. 193)
• 10 Gustaf Gründgens (p. 212)
• 11 Leni Riefenstahl (p. 233)
• 12 Arno Breker (p. 261)
• 13 Albert Speer (p. 278)
• Conclusion (p. 303)
• Notes (p. 331)
• Acknowledgments (p. 389)
• Index (p. 391)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Established specialist in Nazi looted art Petropoulos's 11 biographical sketches explore an illusive "gray zone" between collaboration and complicity by artists with the Nazi regime. The author covers a broad spectrum of disciplines, including but not limited to architecture (Walter Gropius and Albert Speer), the visual arts (Otto Andreas Schreiber, Ernst Barlach, Emil Nolde, Arno Breker), film (Leni Riefenstahl), music (Paul Hindemith and Richard Strauss), and the theater (Gustav Gruendgens). In each case, ego, opportunism, and career-building accompanied a naive understanding of national socialism, a belief in a modernism/expressionism compatible with national socialism, and a uniform desire to misrepresent one's place in Nazi Germany after the war. While avoiding simplistic labeling, Weimar artists shared many of the attitudes and hopes represented by the Nazis. Hitler and his lieutenants, however, nourished and manipulated their belief in what a modern Germany could become. Postwar literature and biographies largely expunge 1933-1945. Postwar careers, however, typically flourished with virtually no regard for their collaboration with the Nazis. In his well-written and well-researched book, Petropoulos (McKenna College) employs terms that may frustrate non-specialists, and each major chapter could probably stand alone. Overall, the author succeeds in making his case. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --David A. Meier, Dickinson State University

Kirkus Book Review

Petropoulos (History/Claremont McKenna Coll.; Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany, 2006, etc.) questions the prevalent assumption that Nazis denigrated modernism and quashed evidence of avant-garde movements in the arts. Examining the careers of selected visual artists, composers, architects, a poet, an actor and, of course, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, the author argues that the cultural milieu of Nazi Germany was complex and often contradictory. Although publicly deriding modernism as degenerate, many high-ranking Nazis collected modernist works, bought from French dealers or plundered from confiscated collections. Austrian art historian Kajetan Mlhmann, "arguably the most prolific art plunderer in history," mounted many modernist exhibitions. Focusing on modernists themselves, Petropoulos questions their motives in seeking accommodation with the Nazi regime. He concludes that some, despite their artistic proclivities, were Nazi sympathizers; some misunderstood or underestimated Nazi goals; others were so egotistical that "they thought their work to be indispensable to their field"; some were simply opportunists; and some believed "that the intellectual goals of modernism and fascism were compatible." Petropoulos cites five modernists whose efforts at accommodation failed: Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius and composer Paul Hindemith, who left Germany during the war; expressionist poet Gottfried Benn, sculptor Ernst Barlach and visual artist Emil Nolde, who remained but whose careers were compromised. Among the five, Nolde was a Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite; but Barlach, who "identified with the downtrodden and marginalized," was not. Modernists who flourished were composer Richard Strauss, actor Gustaf Grundgens, sculptor Arno Breker, architect Albert Speer, and Riefenstahl, who tried mightily to revise or conceal her past after the war. She claimed that she had been "a sworn enemy of Goebbels," committed only to her art and apolitical. These ten artists, Petropoulos claims, were exemplary of many other modernists. A persuasive, nuanced and surprising picture of German culture under the Nazis. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.