HAA 1400 Special Topics Modern - Art in the Third Reich

(offered infrequently)

This course examines National Socialist art and the fate of Modernism under Hitler in the years between 1933 and 1945. We will explore the way in which the National Socialist regime enlisted the arts and architecture, through Party rallies, art exhibitions, building programs, and film, in enforcing its dictatorial policies on everything from the extermination of the Jews to sexuality and the war effort. We will also address the impact of the purge of Modern art under Hitler on the work of such noted Modernists as Otto Dix and Kathe Kollwitz, who chose to remain in Germany, and on the art of those who fled into exile, among them John Heartfield, George Grosz, and Max Beckmann. The final weeks of the course will consider critical issues involved in recent, and invariably controversial, attempts in museum building, sculpture, and site-specific installations to memorialize the Holocaust and examine Germany's Nazi past.