Art as Propoganda
While the Nazi political movement was undoubtedly among the most vile developments of the 20th century, it inspired works of art which have the ability to expose some of the best and worst that art can achieve. Because it involves such stark contrasts of good and evil, it offers excellent opportunities to discuss what aspects of art are good and bad, what art can achieve at its best and what it can destroy at its worst. Propaganda more than ever is an instrument of aggression, a new means for rendering a country defenseless in the face of an invading army. While it has been used in a halting way for centuries, within the past few years we have seen it prepare the way for Hitler to seize many countries. It is called a new instrument of aggression because development has given it an effectiveness never before experienced in the history of the world. Nazi Germany regulated and controlled the art produced between 1933 and 1945 to ensure they embodied the values they wished to indoctrinate into the German people. The notion of 'volk' (people) and 'blut und boden' (soil and blood) was championed in paintings to glorify an idealized rural Germany and instill a sense of 'superiority' in the Nordic physicality
. Many works romanticized everyday subjects and reiterated stereotypical Nazi ideals of the human body and its purposes in the Reich. Paintings of Adolf Hitler portrayed his image in a heroic manner, elevating him to a god-like status. By promoting Hitler as superior to the average person, the artist made Hitler a mythological being who, if followed with unconditional religious piety, would lead the Germanic race to an ideal future. The architecture, or so-called 'ideology in stone', was also a vessel for political ideology. The monumental buildings served to construct a pseudo-history to authenticate the stable, strong and righteous nature of the 'thousand year Reich'. Thus, art in the Third Reich was simply a form of propaganda that promoted the superiority of the Nordic race, the need for loyalty and obedience and the invulnerability of the German nation. Images of the Nordic peasant symbolized a return to a pre-industrial peaceful rural Germany. Nazi ideology is also illustrated by 'Ploughing', by Julius Paul Junghan. This is a somewhat more accomplished attempt at portraying the themes of "simple country life", muscularity, collective action, and a union between the people and the soil. This is more specifically linked to the notion of 'blood and soil'. A person who works with the land achieves a spiritual unity with it, so that they become a part of the natural world and integral to both the continuances of its fertility and yours. The oil landscape painting depicts a man reigning three sturdy workhorses with an archaic plow. The eyes are drawn from the three horses to the 'intellectual' force behind the action with sweeping converging lines, thus ploughing the land is a collective action, shared between farmer and animal, working towards a better field, or in symbolic terms, a better Germany. Again a highly romanticized image of life entwined with nature is presented to manipulate the viewer, it forces them to connect hard work to achieve a collective goal (plowing the soil ready for planting) with moral righteousness. This theme is reiterated repeatedly almost to exhaustion in such works as 'Ploughing in the Evening' by Willy Jackel, and 'The Sower' by Oskar Martin-Ambach. The Nazi ideals are embodied more implicitly in 'Ploughing' than 'Kalenburg Farm Family', as on a sub-conscious level the positive view of expansionist values, the farmer representing a hard working Germany, who is regulator of the land (representing European countries), acts to subtly alter personal views on the Nazi situation. Art in Germany during the reign of the Nazi Party certainly was a major form of propaganda. Although not as blatant as the massive Nuremberg rallies, they aided in the subliminal formation of the thoughts and actions of the German people towards the National Socialists. Paintings played on common values already present in the national psyche, such as the need to regain a relationship with the land, and conflated them with National Socialist ideology in a bid to indoctrinate and shape the views of the public. The Nazi architecture and painting induced them to believe in; the invulnerability and superiority of the Germanic race, the working as a harmonious team, and the legitimacy of the Nazi government, to justify the total controlling of a nation. Thus, Nazi art is an ideol
Some common words found in the essay are:
National Socialist, National Socialists, Paul Junghan, Third Reich, , Da Vinci's, Building' Munich, Adolf Wissel, Adolf Hitler, German Law, german people, national socialist, national socialists, national socialist party, lead germanic, hitler superior, third reich, power national, 'water sports', socialist party, collective action, sense national pride, power national socialist, national socialist ideology, lead germanic people,
Approximate Word count = 2228
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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