Arts and culture

• The Chamber of Culture

  • The Nazis set up an organisation called the Chamber of Culture
  • It was led by the loyal Nazi, Joseph Goebbels
  • All musicians, writers, artists and actors had to be members of the new organisation, and anyone who refused would not be allowed to work
  • Some people, such as Jews, were banned from joining
  • The Chamber of Culture ruled that all cultural activities, such as art, theatre, music, film and literature, all had to give the same 'message': that Nazi beliefs and ideas were correct, and everything that Hitler did was in the best interest of the country
• Cinema

  • Goebbels realised how popular cinema was and how powerful it could be
  • Nazi supporters such as Alfred Hugenberg owned film studios, so the Nazis had a direct influence on exactly which films were made
  • Goebbels himself made sure he read and approved all film scripts, and all films had to carry a pro-Nazi message
  • For example, German soldiers were always shown as heroes while Jews were portrayed as mean and nasty
  • He also made sure that a news report of Hitler's achievements was always shown before the main film
  • This gave the message of extreme patriotism, racism and, most commonly of all, antisemitism
• Music

  • Goebbels ruled that music should be German or Austrian
  • Marching music, old folk songs and classical music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner were popular
  • Some music was popular in Weimar Germany was not permitted
  • Jewish composers like Mahler and Mendelssohn were banned, and so was jazz music because it had its origins among the black people of America
• Theatre

  • Before the Nazis took over, they set up a group (Militant League for German Culture) that protested against some of the more 'modern' plays and films they didn't approve of
  • For example, Jewish writer Kurt Weill's hit musical, The Threepenny Opera, came under attack
  • Set among a group of beggars in Victorian London, the play contained lots of jazz music
  • It was banned by the Nazis as soon as they took power
  • The Nazis ruled that plays should mainly focus on German history and politics, and allowed the work of some 'older' playwrights like Goethe and Schiller to be performed
  • The Nazis also shut Germany's cabaret clubs
  • These noisy, smoky theatre bars were places where songs about sex and politics were common
• Literature

  • Goebbels created a list of banned books, which were removed from libraries and bookshops
  • They were classed as 'un-German' or were by Jewish authors
  • Not surprisingly, Mein Kampf was the best-selling book in Germany
  • Goebbels encouraged books about race, the glory of war and the brilliance of the Nazis
  • He even wrote a book himself that showcased this
  • Popular books written in Weimar Germany were banned, including Erich Remarque's anti-war novel 'All Quiet on the Western Front'
  • Around 2500 writers left Germany between 1933 and 1945, including Thomas Mann, for example, a strong critic of the Nazis who had written 'Magic Mountain', one of the best-known German novels of the time
• Art

  • In Weimar Germany during the 1920s, art tended to show everyday life and could often be classed as 'modern' or 'abstract'
  • Artists like Otto Dix and George Grosz were popular
  • Hitler hated modern art and referred to it as 'degenerate'
  • In 1936, the Nazis publicly burned 5,000 paintings they disapproved of
  • In 1937, they put on an exhibition of unacceptable art and opened another showing their officially approved paintings
  • The Nazis wanted art to be simple and clearly understandable to the general public
  • It should show healthy, heroic German figures, family scenes of happy, strong 'pure' Germans and, of course, lots of images of Hitler himself in heroic poses
• Design

  • The 'Bauhaus' movement was an important architectural and design development in Weimar Germany
  • Bauhaus architects used new technology to design simple, practical, modern buildings and objects
  • Hitler did not approve of such modern design, and closed down his movement in 1933
  • Its founder, Walter Gropius, fled Germany and remained in exile - first in England and later in America - for the next 30 years
  • Hitler had clear ideas about the design of the big, public buildings like libraries, government buildings and parade grounds
  • He favoured huge, stone structures, often copies of buildings from ancience Greece or Rome
• Sports and leisure

  • Health and physical fitness was important to Nazi culture, so success in sport was used to promote the Nazi regime
  • The Olympic Games were held in Berlin in 1936, and the Nazis used the opportunity to show the world how splendid Nazi Germany was
  • For a while, antisemitic posters and newspapers were stopped
  • The games were wildly popular and, to Hitler's delight, the German Olympic squad came top of the medals table
  • This, Hitler claimed, showed how talented and strong the German race was and how it was superior to other 'inferior' races
  • World-respected German filmmaker and Nazi-supporter Leni Riefenstahl filmed the entire games and pioneered the use of 'tracking shots' to follow an athlete's movements in slow motion
  • The Germans also used it as a chance to show the brilliance of German technology - the most advanced 'photo-finish' equipment was in use and the main stadium contained the largest stop-clock ever made