Third Reich Art in Arnhem

detail from The Four Elements (before 1937) by Adolf Ziegler

Hans Vogel challenges the narrative of the Arnhem Museum’s exhibition of Third Reich art, questioning its interpretation and highlighting the broader historical context.

The Arnhem Museum in the Netherlands deserves praise for organizing the exhibition Art in the Third Reich: Seduction and Distraction (until March 24, 2024). The mainstay of the exhibition are almost one hundred wonderful paintings, unknown to the general public and not represented in standard works on modern art, as well generally hidden from public view after 1945. The organizers of the exhibition wanted to show the interplay between politics and art in the Third Reich, more specifically how the Nazis used art as “an effective means of seducing the people with their ideology, while also providing a distraction from their criminal practices. How far did the Nazis go in controlling the art world?”