Arts of the Third Reich

The official art of Hitler’s National Socialist regime remains largely unknown. Since 1945, few have seen the works; many were destroyed during World War II and most of what survived is hidden away, accesible only to scholars. Peter Adams offers a comprehensive examination, in English, of the art of Nazism. He explores the development of a traditionalist German style linked to nature and the family, and the suppression of modern art. Painting, sculpture, architecture, film, and all other art disciplines were compelled to serve the state ideology, in order to forge the people’s collective mind in the National Socialist mould. Hitler’s belief that architecture, above all, was the most forceful manifestation of absolute political power lay behind his grandiose schemes for redesigning German cities. The author’s research took him to concealed repositories in the United States and Germany. From contemporary publications, as well as the visual arts, he has selected a range of illustrations to cover the gamut of Nazi aesthetics and propaganda. First Edition. pp. 332 #140116