Modern forms of art, such as cubism, expressionism, dadaism, and futurism were all labeled degenerates. Music such as jazz, rock and roll, bluegrass, and the blues were all considered very degenerate. And many pieces of literature were also forbidden. Anything that was very unusual or uncommon or anything that undermined the German culture or government was forbidden. On the contrary, they admired cliched and conforming works, and works that glorified the nation of Germany.
The artists, musicians, and writers whose works were labeled degenerate were tormented. They found many various ways to deal with their problems in Germany: some fled the country, some went into hiding, many stayed in Germany where were killed or sent to concentration camps, a few committed suicide, and some chose to stay in Germany and conform to the rules, as the Nazis wished.
"The mode of the display was deliberately detrimental to the works, and the lighting was terrible." (Paul Ortwin Rave). In the Degenerate Art show, the paintings were hung crookedly and very close together on the walls. Graffiti such as "method becomes madness" and "an insult to German womanhood" was written on the wall space surrounding the paintings. When Hitler first saw the exhibit, he was very pleased. It directly gave the message that was intended.
The fact that such an event took place is horrifying. Freedom of expression is highly valued, even though it is often taken for granted. When this freedom is taken away in a nation, it should be a clue to the citizens that something is not right in the government. But the German public did not realize this, and they fell right into Hitler's trap.
Peter Guenther saw the show when he was seventeen years old. He said that the reactions of the people viewing the exhibit were just as haunting as the exhibit itself. The viewers joked about the quality of the art and the sanity of the artists. Peter thought that the pieces were very interesting, and that the artists were practically geniuses, expressing exactly what they felt in their paintings, but he did not dare to object to the intense opinions of the other people at the exhibit-it would have been like going against the mob.
I believe that people can be so easily influenced and their minds manipulated because of the instinctual desire to want to be part of the group. If one feels like they are part of the group, they feel safe because the group will always be there for that person. Because of this need to belong, people conform more easily to the ideas that the group promotes.
Many people conformed for other reasons. Some people, such as Peter Guenther wanted to have nothing to do with the Nazi group, but they were scared that they too would be called degenerate if they didn't pretend that they hated the art. Perhaps they saw how the Nazis behaved towards the degenerates and were fearful of what might happen to them.
A few weeks ago in my drawing and painting class, we studied the Degenerate Art period. We saw a movie showing photographs of the actual exhibit, and how disgraceful it was. There were also pictures of Hitler's other exhibit of approved art. The movie showed the Degenerate Art show where it is being displayed now at the Art Institute of Chicago, where the paintings are hung correctly and the lighting is appropriate. For the assignment in art class, we had to create two pieces, one that would be approved by Hitler and one that would be called "degenerate".
After all of our pieces were finished, our teacher hung them in the lobby. The ones that would be approved by Hitler were hung in an orderly fashion, and the degenerate pieces were hung crookedly, some overlapping. They were surrounded by obnoxious graffiti on the walls, similar to what was at the original Degenerate Art show. I realized how the original degenerate artists must have felt when their art was ridiculed by millions of people. Some of the artists spent years creating what they considered to be masterpieces and invented incredible new styles of art, only to find out that the public hated it.
The fact that Hitler outlawed so many works shows that he was not very knowledgeable in the area of art. In fact, he had tried to be an artist, but he was not good enough. The art that he liked were pieces showing exactly what the artist saw, but nothing else. The degenerate pieces showed what the artists saw and what they were feeling at the time. It is physically harder to paint Hitler approved art, but it requires much more mental work to paint art that would be called degenerate. Accepted art came from the head, while degenerate art came from the soul. It is unfortunate that Hitler did not realize the true value of degenerate art.