Culture and the arts played a central role in the ideology and propaganda of National Socialism from the early years of the movement until the last months of the Third Reich in 1945. Hitler and his followers believed that art and culture were expressions of race, and that Aryans alone were capable of creating true art and preserving true German culture. This volumes essays explore these and other aspects of the arts and cultural life under National Socialism, and are authored by some of the most respected authorities in the field: Alan Steinweis, Michael Kater, Eric Rentschler, Pamela Potter, Frank Trommler, and Jonathan Petropoulos. The result is a volume that offers students and interested readers a brief but focused introduction to this important aspect of the history of Nazi Germany.

Francis R. Nicosia is the Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. He has written on German Zionism and German Middle East policy during the Weimar and Nazi periods. He is author ofThe Third Reich and the Palestine Question, and co-author ofThe Columbia Guide to the Holocaust.

Preface

Introduction: The Arts in Nazi Germany: Continuity, Conformity, ChangeJonathan Huener andFrancis R. Nicosia

Chapter 1. Anti-Semitism and the Arts in Nazi Ideology and PolicyAlan E. Steinweis

Chapter 2. The Impact of American Popular Culture on German YouthMichael H. Kater

Chapter 3. The Legacy of Nazi Cinema: Triumph of the Will and Jew Süss RevisitedEric Rentschler

Chapter 4. Music in the Third Reich: The Complex Task of GermanizationPamela M. Potter

Chapter 5. A Command Performance? The Many Faces of Literature under NazismFrank Trommler

Chapter 6. The Art World in Nazi Germany: Choices, Rationalization, and JusticeJonathan Petropoulos

Appendixes

Appendix I: Letter from Wilhelm Furtwängler to Joseph Goebbels - 12 April 1933Appendix II: Law for the Establishment of a Provisional Chamber of Film - 14 July 1933Appendix III: The Reich Chamber of Culture Law - 22 September 1933Appendix IV: First Decree for the Implementation of the Law for the Reich Chamber of Culture - 1 November 1933Appendix V: Activities of the Cultural Association of German Jews (Jewish Cultural League) - April 1934Appendix VI: The German Authorities and the Cultural Association of German Jews (Jewish Cultural League) - 19 June 1934Appendix VII: Ten Principles for the Creation of German Music by Joseph Goebbels - 28 May 1938Appendix IX: From Hitlers Speech on Culture (Kulturrede) at the Nuremberg Party Congress - September 1938Appendix X: What Are People Reading? A Questionnaire in Berlin Book Stores - December 1940

Contributors Selected Bibliography Index