Why Hitler stole paintings - and hid in one (The Black Years: Histories of a Collection: 1933-1945)

[icymist]

Hitler hated non-traditional art so much that he confiscated thousands of works. Artists were shamed, modern pieces burned or sold for cash. A Berlin exhibition examines what Hitler did to art and why it matters.

When it opened in 1919, the Kronprinzenpalais, the modern art wing of Berlin's National Gallery, could hardly have been more cutting-edge. It seemed as if the German capital would continue to be a hotbed for contemporary works. Few could have known that its success, like the Weimar Republic itself, would be short-lived.

When Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist regime came into power in 1933, the former painter, twice rejected from Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts, pledged to do away with modern art, a genre he despised. Artists were forced to conform or flee as the Nazis spread their reign of terror over the continent.

Yet many modern artworks from this period remain, and have a story to tell. Starting Saturday (21.11.2015), over 60 works will be on display in Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof museum in the exhibition "The Black Years: Histories of a Collection: 1933-1945," while the New National Gallery, the collection's permanent home, undergoes renovations.

http://www.dw.com/en/why-hitler-stole-paintings-and-hid-in-one/a-18858421

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Very interesting.

Thanks. It wasn't something I had really heard much about in the past.