![]() ![]() In his desire to separate artistic wheat from chafe, “wholesome” German art and that of the Entartete Kunst (degenerate art), Hitler turned to an imagined academic neo-classical precedent, one that suited his concrete comprehension of what constituted as art. One of Hitler’s first actions upon ascending to power as chancellor in 1933 was to codify what was and was not acceptable aesthetic expression for the Aryan Völk. Hitler’s manifest obsession with social order, conformity, degeneracy, racial purity and the perfect Aryan youth might lead one to wonder what repressed desires he harbored. The classical world would be, for the National Socialists, a rich resource, one that they would adapt (and degenerate) to suit their malevolent agenda.ġ937, bronze, formerly at the Zeppelinfeld, Nuremberg ![]() Perhaps it is unsurprising that 435 years later, Hitler’s favorite sculptor, Arno Breker, also looked to ancient Greece when he presented his equally monumental Bereitschaft (Readiness). The Florentines looked to a golden past, the grandeur of the classical world, a time and place where heroic male nudes such as the Discobolus and the Farnese Herakles were the aesthetic and political manifestations of the Athenian polis. When Michaelangelo’s David was placed upon its pedestal on the 8 th of September 1504 in the public square of the Palazzo della Signoria, it was, to the Hellenic minded Florentines a testament to their aspirations and their civic pride. And please pardon typos (especially tricky German words!), still a work in progress.ĭegeneracy and the Homoeroticism of National Socialist Visual Culture ![]() The format of this site isn’t allowing indentation, pardon that. The following is one of the papers I have been working on for my English Composition 1-C class. ![]()
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