"degenerate art" collection

The 'Entartete Kunst' exhibition was held on the second floor of a building in Munich that formerly housed the Institute of Archaeology. The venue was chosen for its accessibility and central location in the city. The exhibition space was deliberately arranged to create a chaotic and overwhelming atmosphere, with works displayed in cramped conditions and often hung close together or on the floor. Slogans were painted on the walls to defame the artists and the artworks, and the layout was designed to contrast with the orderly, classical presentation of the 'Great German Art Exhibition' held nearby. The building itself was not a dedicated museum space but a repurposed academic facility, reflecting the regime's disregard for the cultural value of the confiscated works.

The collection included over 5,000 works initially seized, with inventory lists indicating a total of 16,558 works confiscated in the second round. Notable artists represented in the exhibition included Emil Nolde (1,052 works seized), Erich Heckel (759 works), and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (639 works). The exhibition featured works by major 20th-century artists such as Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Oskar Schlemmer. The works were often displayed alongside paintings by psychotic patients to suggest a link between modern art and mental illness. The inventory also included works by Jewish artists, which were specifically highlighted in the second room of the exhibition to reinforce Nazi racial ideology.

The 'Degenerate Art' exhibition was a significant event in the history of art censorship and Nazi propaganda. It aimed to discredit modern art and promote the regime's preferred aesthetic of traditional, heroic, and racial themes. The exhibition attracted large numbers of visitors, who were subjected to defamatory text and slogans that ridiculed the artworks. After the exhibition, many of the confiscated works were auctioned in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1939 to finance the Nazi Party, while others were sold abroad or destroyed. The digital reproduction of the entire inventory, published by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2014, provides a comprehensive record of the seized works and serves as a crucial resource for understanding the extent of the Nazi campaign against modern art.

Following the exhibition, the fate of the confiscated works varied. A large amount of 'degenerate art' was auctioned in Lucerne in 1939, with the proceeds intended to finance the Nazi Party. Some works were sold abroad to foreign collectors, while others were destroyed, with reports indicating that many were burned in Berlin. A few works were saved by individuals such as Sophie and Emanuel Fohn, who exchanged them for harmless works and kept them in safe custody throughout the National Socialist era. The digital inventory published by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2014, compiled in 1941 or 1942 after the sales and disposals were completed, provides a detailed record of the works that were seized and their subsequent fate.