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Hitler’s conquest of Germany and neighboring regions extended beyond military and genocidal endeavors. His vision included a complete transformation of Germania’s cultural identity, including its artistic expressions. He favored specific styles, such as the classical works of the “Old Masters” and realistic depictions of virtuous scenes, which he deemed superior.
Hitler was particularly determined to eliminate modern art, which the Reich condemned as corrupt and nonsensical. Movements like Dadaism, Impressionism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Surrealism were banned, and their artworks were removed from museums. Hitler proclaimed, “The Dadaists, Cubists, Futurists, Expressionists, and their ilk have no place in our cultural revival.”
In July 1937, more than 650 pieces were showcased at the Institute of Archaeology in Munich’s Hofgarten. The exhibition, titled Entartete Kunst (“Degenerate Art”), featured wall inscriptions such as, “Blasphemous mockery of the Divine under Centrist influence,” “A disgrace to German femininity,” and “Manifestation of the Jewish racial psyche.”
On March 20, 1939, approximately 5,000 paintings, drawings, and sculptures were incinerated in a bonfire overseen by the Berlin Fire Department. Additional artworks were destroyed in Paris in July 1942.
Fortunately, numerous museum curators and everyday individuals recognized the brutality of the Reich. Many artworks were secretly transported out of occupied territories or concealed in remote farmhouses and caves. Below are the accounts of 10 pieces of art denounced by the Nazis and the artists behind them.
10. Moon Over A Mountain Lake by Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann (shown above) specialized in exaggerated and distorted figurative art, aligning him with the Expressionist movement. Following his harrowing experiences in World War I, he delved into spiritual and political themes in his creations. Beckmann’s art gained acclaim in postwar Germany, earning him several accolades.
However, after Hitler’s ascent, Beckmann was ousted from his teaching role at the Stadel Art School in Frankfurt. Over 500 of his works were stripped from museums that year. He escaped to Amsterdam, where he remained until the war’s end before moving to the United States.
Several of Beckmann’s works were displayed in the 1937 Degenerate Art exhibition. In 2012, significant pieces of his were found in an apartment belonging to an art collector who had acquired numerous works plundered by the Nazis. While the watercolor Moon Over a Mountain Lake wasn’t among them, it was confiscated from the National Gallery in Berlin during the war and is now housed at the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich.
9. Bathers With A Turtle by Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a trailblazer of Fauvism, characterized by bold, visible brushstrokes and vibrant, unconventional colors that starkly contrasted Hitler’s ideal of acceptable art. Consequently, Matisse’s creations faced significant danger.
The Nazis were pragmatic. Instead of merely destroying art they disapproved of, they often sold it at low prices to generate foreign currency for the Reich. In 1939, during his honeymoon, Joseph Pulitzer Jr. stumbled upon one such auction in Lucerne, Switzerland. After consulting Pierre Matisse, Henri’s son, he successfully acquired the painting for just $2,400. Pulitzer described the piece as “among the most innovative works of contemporary artists of that era.”
Matisse was allowed to continue showcasing his art in Paris, provided he signed an oath affirming his “Aryan” status. He complied, expressing to his son that fleeing would feel like “abandoning” his country.
8. The Absinthe Drinker by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso’s abstract and Cubist works made him a prime target for Nazi scorn. Although Picasso stayed in Paris during the German occupation, he refrained from exhibiting his art. His renowned Guernica vividly expressed his disdain for war and the Third Reich, a sentiment the Nazis undoubtedly recognized.
However, The Absinthe Drinker was created prior to the Nazi era, during Picasso’s “Blue Period.” Also titled Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, it portrays a young artist sipping absinthe against a somber backdrop. The painting stirred controversy in 2006 when then-owner Andrew Lloyd Webber planned to auction it for charity. Descendants of its previous owner, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, argued that the artwork had been sold under Nazi coercion.
The Mendelssohn family, descendants of the renowned composer Felix Mendelssohn, have sought to reclaim numerous artworks, including pieces by Picasso and van Gogh. When Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a German Jew married to an Aryan woman, anticipated the Nazis’ seizure of Jewish property, he structured his will to ensure his wife would “pre-inherit” his vast collection, with his daughters inheriting after her death. However, after his passing, his widow sold several priceless paintings, though whether this was under Nazi pressure remains a matter of contention.
Ultimately, the dispute was resolved outside of court, with Lloyd Webber keeping ownership of the painting. In 2010, it was sold to an anonymous buyer.
7. Reclining Nude by Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt’s abstract and erotic themes made his work unacceptable to the Nazis, despite his death in 1918. Two of his drawings, both female nudes confiscated from the Kunsthalle Mannheim museum, are listed in Freie Universitat Berlin’s database. Unfortunately, their current whereabouts remain a mystery, lost to history.
The tragic story of Klimt’s work centers on a woman named Adele Bloch-Bauer. Adele and her husband, Ferdinand, were prominent figures in Vienna’s elite society. Adele modeled for two of Klimt’s portraits and possibly other works, including his iconic piece, The Kiss. After Adele’s death at 43, Ferdinand honored her memory by displaying Klimt’s art in their home. However, when the war broke out, the Jewish Bloch-Bauer was compelled to flee, leaving behind all his possessions. He passed away in exile in 1945.
Maria Altman, Ferdinand’s niece, later sought justice for her aunt and uncle. In 2006, an Austrian arbitration panel ruled that five paintings, including the two portraits of Adele, be returned to Maria. These artworks are valued at approximately $150 million. One now resides in the Neue Galerie in New York, while the other is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art.
6. Self-Portrait Dedicated To Paul Gauguin by Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh’s art drew Nazi criticism due to its Expressionist style. The swirling, distorted forms and vibrant colors were deemed too modern and, consequently, too degenerate.
Van Gogh’s self-portrait, set against a striking seafoam background, was donated to the Neue Staatsgalerie in Munich in 1919. However, by 1937–1938, it was seized by the Nazis and sold at auction in Lucerne to raise funds.
The painting was later acquired by Maurice Wertheim for a significant sum, who then donated it to the Harvard Art Museums. Like Joseph Pulitzer Jr., Wertheim believed that supporting what the Nazis despised was a worthy cause. Unlike many other works, this piece was taken from a state-owned museum, meaning it is not subject to restitution claims.
Ironically, its confiscation may have saved the painting. As World War II intensified, the Neue Staatsgalerie closed. Some artworks were moved out of Munich for safety, while others were stored in the museum’s basement. Tragically, the building was bombed, destroying many pieces. Fortunately, this van Gogh survived.
5. The War Cripples by Otto Dix
Among all the art styles Hitler despised, Dadaism likely topped the list. In Mein Kampf, he condemned the movement, asserting that Dadaism was “the degenerate excess of insane and depraved individuals.” He further declared that Dadaists “mocked national sentiment, rejected ideals of beauty and nobility, and dragged society down to their own base level of thinking.”
The Dadaists might have taken pride in this portrayal. Originating as an “anti-art” movement, Dadaism satirized capitalism and the bourgeoisie, whom many Dadaists blamed for World War I. As artist Hans Richter explained:
“Dada stood in direct opposition to everything art represented. While art embraced traditional aesthetics, Dada rejected them. If art aimed to please, Dada sought to provoke.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Otto Dix’s provocative The War Cripples has been lost to history. Though technically a painting, its style resembles a magazine collage. The artwork mocks various groups: the military for maiming soldiers, the public for their morbid curiosity about the disabled, and the wounded men for their misplaced pride in a nation that sent them to war. Featured in the Degenerate Art exhibit, the painting was likely destroyed afterward.
4. Color Order by Hans Richter
Hans Richter, another staunch Dadaist, openly opposed the Nazis. A World War I veteran left partially paralyzed, Richter believed artists had a duty to resist war and advocate for revolution. His pen-and-ink drawings criticized militaristic Germany, while his abstract paintings explored color and composition. Richter also pioneered abstract film, with Rhythmus 21 playing a pivotal role in the movement.
Naturally, his biting satire and bold use of abstract forms and colors clashed with the Reich’s cultural ideals.
Farbenordnung, or Color Order, appears to be one of Richter’s abstract color experiments. Originally housed in the Provincial Museum in Hannover, it was confiscated and displayed in the Entartete Kunst exhibit before being ultimately destroyed. Richter himself fled to the US in 1941.
3. Self-Portrait As A Soldier by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1915
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner lived a tumultuous yet impactful life. Struggling with physical and mental health issues, exacerbated by his service in World War I, he was also a founding member of “The Bridge,” a group aiming to connect traditional and modern art styles. Kirchner’s contributions made the group highly influential in the development of Expressionism.
Self-Portrait as a Soldier stands as one of Kirchner’s most significant works. The foreground depicts Kirchner in military attire, raising a severed stump where his right hand once was, his face rendered in a stylized manner. The background reveals his studio, featuring a nude model. The vibrant yet melancholic colors reflect the emotional and psychological struggles Kirchner faced during this period of his life.
In 1933, the Nazis’ rise to power condemned Kirchner’s abstract style, rendering his art unsellable. He was compelled to resign from the Prussian Academy of the Arts. By 1937, more than 600 of his works were confiscated from German museums, with at least 32 displayed in the Degenerate Art exhibit. Tragically, Kirchner ended his own life in 1938.
2. La Belle Jardiniere by Max Ernst
Max Ernst, another prominent Dadaist, faced dire circumstances when World War II erupted. Despite being a German native, he was labeled an “undesirable foreigner” in Paris. After intervention by influential friends, Ernst was freed, only to be arrested again by the Gestapo during the German invasion of Paris. With the aid of Peggy Guggenheim, a renowned art patron, he eventually escaped to America.
Ernst fearlessly addressed controversial themes in his art. One notable piece portrays the Virgin Mary spanking a young Christ, observed by three renowned painters, including Ernst, peering through a window. In La Belle Jardiniere (Creation of Eve), Ernst presents a nude Eve with a provocatively positioned dove. Behind her, a line drawing of a fruit-composed woman adds to the intrigue.
At least two of Ernst’s works were featured in the Entartete Kunst exhibit. Intriguingly, a photograph from the event captures Hitler walking past La Belle Jardiniere. Unfortunately, records of this painting vanished after the exhibit, and it may have been destroyed by the Nazis.
1. Winter Garden by Paul Klee, 1925
Paul Klee holds the unfortunate distinction of being one of the few Jewish artists during the Nazi era. Beyond this “grave offense,” Klee was a modernist whose work defied easy categorization, blending elements of Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstraction.
From 1931 to 1933, Klee taught at the Dusseldorf Academy, but his tenure ended abruptly due to a Nazi newspaper investigation. The publication falsely claimed, “He pretends to be a pure Arab, but he’s actually a Galician Jew.” The Gestapo raided his home, and Klee was dismissed from his position.
In response to these events, Klee produced Struck from the List, a painting featuring a monochromatic, abstract figure shedding tears, with a black “X” obscuring their face. Klee and his family soon fled to Switzerland. His work Winter Garden, along with hundreds of others, was confiscated from the Civic Museum of Arts and Crafts in Halle. Sadly, 17 of his pieces were displayed in Entartete Kunst, and this specific artwork was lost to destruction.
