Artists for the Reich

While we often think about talented artists fleeing the clutches of the Nazi regime - forced out or sickened by the strictures placed upon them - we rarely consider those artists who willingly stayed behind. This is the first comprehensive treatment of the German Art Society, a group of artists, authors and right-wing activists who actively embraced Nazism. These artists have typically been dismissed as a lunatic fringe, but the author argues that they were in fact instrumental in battling modernist art in defense of what they regarded as the German cultural tradition. Drawing on previously neglected archival material, Clinefelter reveals cultural continuities that extend from the Wilhelmine Empire, through the Weimar Republic, into the Third Reich, and elucidates how theses artists promoted Nazi culture 'from below.' Rich in detail and highly readable, Artists for the Reich provides a more nuanced understanding of German culture under Nazism.

Joan L. Clinefelter is Associate Professor of History at the University of Northern Colorado.

The German Cultural Tradition * Bettina Feistel-Rohmeder and the Origins of the German Art Society * German Art vs Weimar Culture *. The German Art Society, the Volkisch Movement and National Socialism * Artists for the Reich: 1933 * The German Art Society in the Third Reich * German and Nazi Art * Conclusion: German, Weimar and Nazi Culture