User:Eli185/Third Reich’s Chamber of Fine Arts

The Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (Reichskunstkammer for short) was an institution in the "Third Reich" that had the task of promoting fine art that corresponded to the sentiments of the time, but also of suppressing directions that contradicted them. German art" in the sense of National Socialism was contrasted with "degenerate art". In this way, the Reichskunstkammer contributed to the Gleichschaltung of culture and society during the period of National Socialism. Only members could exhibit in the German Reich and practice art as a profession. Artists with a Jewish or Communist background were not allowed to exhibit or were excluded. If they could not leave Germany in time, they were murdered or executed in the Holocaust (Oda Schottmüller, Cato Bontjes van Beek).

Functions
The Reich Chamber of Art or Reich Chamber of Fine Arts was founded by the Ministry of Propaganda on November 1, 1933 as one of seven departments of the Reich Chamber of Culture. Its purpose, as veiledly defined by Minister of Propaganda Goebbels, was to consist of"durch Zusammenwirken der Angehörigen aller von ihr umfaßten Tätigkeitszweige unter der Führung des Reichsministers für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda die deutsche Kultur in Verantwortung für Volk und Reich zu fördern, die wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Angelegenheiten der Kulturberufe zu regeln und zwischen allen Bestrebungen der ihr angehörenden Gruppen einen Ausgleich zu bewirken."In fact, it functioned not only as a non-profit professional organization, but also as an organ of control and so-called Gleichschaltung of artists by the Nazi regime. In 2015, art historian Nina Kubowitsch came to the following conclusion based on her research into the activities of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts: "The mass of tens of thousands of artists in Germany was very heterogeneous; there were not only the persecuted and 'degenerate' artists on the one hand and the 'Nazi artists' on the other. The actual mass of artists and cultural workers in Germany lay between these two poles. Their fates must also be considered when examining the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, for they formed the actual membership base." The Chamber was not to be limited unilaterally to its function as a mere controlling body or as a mere representation of artists' interests.

To be admitted to exhibitions, membership in the Reichskunstkammer was essential. Some artists were rejected or excluded "if there were facts that the person in question did not possess the reliability and aptitude required for the exercise of his activity“.

The presidential councils of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts included Albert Speer, Hans Herbert Schweitzer, Hans Weidemann, Otto von Kursell, Franz Lenk (1933 to 1936), Richard Klein, and Hans-Peter Meister.


 * The first president from 1933 to 1936 was the architect Eugen Hönig. His successor until 1943 was Adolf Ziegler, who had been well acquainted with Hitler since 1925 and was for many years in charge of fine arts in the NSDAP. He was followed by Wilhelm Kreis from 1943 to 1945.
 * 1941 Arno Breker was named Vice president

With the Control Council Law No. 2 of October 10, 1945, the Reich Chamber of Culture and consequently also its subdivision Reich Chamber of Fine Arts was banned by the Allied Control Council and its property confiscated.

Structure
The Reich Chamber of Fine Arts was divided into the following professional associations:


 * Bund Deutscher Architekten e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Gartengestalter e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Gebrauchsgraphiker e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Maler und Graphiker e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Bildhauer e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Kopisten e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Kunsthandwerker e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Kunst- und Antiquitätenhändler e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Kunstverleger und Kunstblatthändler e. V.
 * Reichsfachschaft Deutscher Werbefachleute NSRDW e. V., Fachgruppe Gebrauchswerber
 * Bund Deutscher Kunstwissenschaftler e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Museen und Sammlungen e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Künstlervereine e. V.
 * Bund Deutscher Kunstvereine e. V.
 * Katholische Reichsgemeinschaft christlicher Kunst
 * Evangelische Reichsgemeinschaft christlicher Kunst

The Reich Chamber of Fine Arts had its headquarters in what was then Berlin W 35, Blumeshof 4-6 (today the Tiergarten district). Throughout the Reich, it was divided into 31 regional sections, which were led by so-called Landesleitungen and their "Landesleiters". The regional leaders included


 * Gerhard Langmaack (Hamburg 1934–36)
 * Werner Thiede (Hamburg 1936)
 * Hans Martin Fricke (Weser-Ems 1935–1942)
 * Heinz Lederer (Berlin 1936–1939)
 * August Kranz (Berlin 1940–1942)
 * Emil Stahl (Franken)
 * Hermann Gradl (Franken)
 * Jäger (Bayern)
 * Richard Spitz (Salzburg bis 1942)
 * Viktor Kuschel (Salzburg 1943–45)
 * Peter Grund (Düsseldorf kommissarisch 1933–1938?)
 * Klaus Reese (Düsseldorf 1939–40)
 * Max Clarenbach (Düsseldorf 1939–40)
 * Ernst August von Mandelsloh (Ober-Donau)
 * Karl Lieser (Hessen-Nassau)
 * Arnold Waldschmidt (Württemberg)
 * Leopold Blauensteiner (Wien)
 * Ernst Nepo (Tirol)
 * Karl Borromäus Berthold (Aachen-Köln 1935–1936, 1940–1941)
 * Clemens Klotz (Aachen-Köln 1942–1945)
 * Claus Hansen (Köln-Aachen 1936)
 * Walter Schacht (Niedersachsen 1935–1943?)

Impact
Like all other Reich chambers, the organization saw itself as the professional representative body of all artists belonging to it. All full-time members belonged to it, as far as they were assigned to the professional associations of the occupational groups. Membership in the Reich Chamber of Culture was mandatory for all German artists. This institution was a state authority that acted authoritatively in the sense of the Nazi dictatorship.

All previous professional organizations (including all independent artists' groups and associations) were dissolved or forcibly transferred to the Reich Chamber of Culture. Persons without proof of Aryan origin were gradually excluded. In addition, artists whose works represented system-critical content and/or "degenerate art" were excluded and banned from painting and exhibiting. The corresponding determinations were made by relevant Gaukammer committees. These usually made their decisions after field observations by party-linked art commissioners at exhibitions, in the art trade, or by private denunciation. Anonymous denunciations were the order of the day and were feared by all artists whose works did not correspond to popular taste. New admissions to the Reichskulturkammer were made exclusively on application. In 1936/37, the organizational Gleichschaltung of art under National Socialism in the sense of a "National Socialist-influenced popular culture" was largely complete. From then on, only those who were registered as members of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts received state funding, public commissions, and exhibition opportunities in the German art trade. Ultimately, the systematic withdrawal of the economic basis meant a professional ban for all unorganized artists.

In the biographies of almost all full-time artists active at the time, obligatory membership in the Reich Chamber of Culture (and its subgroups) is concealed. In fact, mere membership does not yet justify the suspicion that the artist was an active supporter and advocate of National Socialist ideas.

With the outlawing of all "folk-subverting" art movements and all artists who were in any way connected with Judaism, the professional artists as members of the Reichskunstkammer were faced with a review of the content and style of their artistic work and, if necessary, also with readjustments or new adjustments. Each had to find his own answer to this. Thus, some went into inner emigration and strove for innocuous subjects such as portraits, still lifes, landscape painting or an apolitical naturalism. A few artists continued to stand by their art and their own style of artistic expression. If their art was denounced as degenerate, they fled into exile. Others renounced German art and the organized art business and took up another profession. The German artists of Jewish origin were persecuted, had to flee or were murdered in the Holocaust..

Literature

 * Kunst im 3. Reich. Dokumente der Unterwerfung. Frankfurter Kunstverein (Steinernes Haus am Römerberg) 15. Oktober – 8. Dezember 1974. Frankfurt 1974, ISBN 3-927268-06-2.
 * Nina Kubowitsch: Die Reichskammer der bildenden Künste. Grenzsetzungen in der künstlerischen Freiheit. In: Wolfgang Ruppert (Hrsg.): Künstler im Nationalsozialismus. Die 'Deutsche Kunst', die Kunstpolitik und die Berliner Kunsthochschule. Böhlau Verlag, Köln/Weimar/Wien 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-22429-5, S. 75–96.
 * Nina Kubowitsch: Die Reichskammer der bildenden Künste. In: Wolfgang Benz, Peter Eckel, Andreas Nachama (Hrsg.): Kunst im NS-Staat. Ideologie-Ästhetik-Protagonisten. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86331-264-0, S. 49–57.
 * Ingrid Holzschuh, Sabine Plakolm-Forsthuber: Auf Linie: NS-Kunstpolitik in Wien. Die Reichskammer der bildenden Künste. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2021, ISBN 978-3-0356-2426-7.

Weblinks

 * Reichskammer der bildenden Künste, Landesleitung Berlin, Behördengeschichte und Übersicht Findbuch im Landesarchiv Berlin